Dayboard for Baronial Fencing Champions Event

A summer picnic on a Light Middle Eastern Theme – mid-June 2015

I wanted to explore some items in Middle Eastern cooking. I also wanted food that would not be too far outside people’s comfort zone, and I wished to fulfill the suggestion of our Baron and Baroness that the dayboard ought to be, ideally, finger food.

The dayboard was prepared to serve 100 people a light repast. About 70 attended the event and ate, I think, very well. The budget was $150. Chicken was purchased at $.79/lb. Eggs and cheese have increased in price a great deal recently. The meal was pretty close to budget – I donated some small things (some flour, sugar and butter and all the spices.) As the day was quite warm it turned out to be a really lovely meal of crisp veggies and the chicken, which I planned to heat on the grill, but the assembly (who had gathered to watch the laying of the table) thought cold would be just fine. Including His Excellency the Baron, so cold it was.I had help from Agatha Rachel Case in cutting and laying out things and help from Alys Karen Childs who chopped cheese and then grilled all the flatbreads. It was a merry work crew and I appreciated their help very much.

This is what you see on the table:

– Sekanjabin syrups with ginger and spices

– Chicken with lemon and olive oil, rubbed in salt and pepper and then baked (served cold)

– Plate of chopped herbs (cilantro, parsley, mint) for adding flavors

– Plate of two cheeses (feta and colby-jack, because I know my audience)

– Carrots cut into dinars

– Bowls of salt and black pepper

– Fresh cucumbers

– Roast garlic hummus

– More carrot dinars

– Lemon kale hummus

– Strawberries dressed with elderflower liquor

– Fresh strawberries

– Small dill pickles

– Olives stuffed with almonds

– Olives stuffed with pimentos

– ‘Adjari: The Virgins (“adult butter cookies” so named because you are to make the dough and then “form like the breasts of the virgins” and bake them.) Regular and flavored with rosewater.

– Whole cloves of roast garlic

– Badhinjan: Tangy Eggplant Stir Fry (eggplant, chopped walnuts, oil, vinegar, onion, caraway, garlic) This was the surprise favorite of the day, to my surprise. It was my “risky new thing” dish.

– Bread and whole boiled eggs

– Grilled flatbreads – flour tortillas cooked over a grill (until charred, puffed, firm, crisp, etc. They are much more delicious that way and they could be used for trenchers of a sort too.)