A Selection of Images

Here are a selection of images from the last couple of weeks at one museum:

October 23rd mixed media collage workshop for local seniors

October 30th hearth cooking program for intergenerational after-school program

November 1st scavenger hunt brainstorming & morning coffee

Early 18th Century Cooking

Heating up milk to make cheese with a class of seventh graders this morning.  I love that this is a fairly normal morning for me.  And that I smelled like a campfire for the rest of the day.

Natural Heating

I worked on Saturday at one of my museums, doing a public event for our annual holiday festival.  The plan was to read some Christmas stories (The Night Before Christmas, the final chapter of A Christmas Carol, and Snōshoo the Christmas Bunny, which was written by one of our volunteers) by the fire in our 1710 house.  After that, I had some simple Christmas crafts (paper chains, paper snowflakes, and cranberry/popcorn garlands) and a scavenger hunt set up back at the museum.

We ended up getting around seven kids and a few adults, but everyone came at different times, so I never did read the stories.  Instead, I hung out over at the house for a couple of hours, tended the fire, and talked with the visitors who did come over.  I may have also nibbled a few of the gingerbread men in the photo above.  :)

I know our weekend manager was disappointed that more kids didn't come, but I left out the crafts and scavenger hunt for later kid visitors to do.  The museum was open seven more hours after I left around 1pm, so I'm sure we got some who enjoyed those activities.  And as for my part, as I said to my mother via text, "I'm hanging by the fire now.  No visitors.  But hanging by the fire in a 1710 house.  So  :)."

May I Present . . . Baked Apples!

Even though they sort of look like doughnuts. :)

These are surprisingly easy to make over the open hearth, which I did a few weeks ago. I took two Macintosh apples, cored them, and filled the cores with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter. Then, after the fire had given me some lovely coals to work with, I put the dish with the apples into the Dutch oven, added coals below and above, and let them bake for about an hour. Perfection!

More Hearth Cooking!

A couple of weeks ago, on a whim, I made cheese during my hearth cooking shift. A colleague had mentioned how to make it and wrote down the ingredients, so I had a go. And, surprisingly, it turned out pretty well.

The ingredients: whole milk, salt, lemon juice, and herbs from the kitchen garden. The equipment: kettle, fire, wooden spoon, and cheesecloth.

After adding the lemon juice to the warmed milk, it curdles. Then after letting it sit for awhile, I poured the already-separating mix through a cheesecloth.

The whey drained through into the bowl and the cheese stayed on top.

I took the cheese home and after letting it drain in the refrigerator for a day or so, seasoned it with the above herbs: sage, dill, and chive. Yum!

What I did at work last week

This, right here, people, is one of the reasons why I do what I do. Last week, I learned how to make Indian slapjacks on an open hearth at Strawbery Banke! I took some photos, so you can follow along at home.

Here we have the mixin's: equal parts wheat flour and corn meal (where the "Indian" in the title comes from, as that was the 18th century nickname for corn meal), two eggs, a cup & a half of milk, and a pinch or so of salt. We also have my Dunkin' Donuts coffee, poured into that brown ceramic mug to look more "period."

The mixin's, all mixed up. The consistency is something like pancake batter.

First slapjack on the "spider," a frying pan with legs so you can place burning coals underneath it. Actually, I think this is the third or fourth slapjack - the first one didn't look nearly this good!

And the finished product. These slapjacks were a bit bigger than the normal size, but on the whole, I was pretty happy with my first hearth cooking experiment! Stay tuned for more. :)