My family and I live in Ontario, Canada and we have no family near us. We moved here from the US because I took a call to a church in Aylmer, ON, one of the congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This year, we were invited to join a friend of ours for Christmas. He is a canon of the Anglican Church of Canada and will be retiring in early 2014. So he bought a house in our town. Due to events that don't concern us here, he found himself -a single man- without a family to have Christmas dinner with, so he invited us. Beth agreed to make the appetiser and the dessert. She asked Nick "Should we dress for dinner?" and he responded "YES!!" Since we're all reenactors, this meant really "dress for dinner."
Beth provided the appetiser, which was a Salmongundy, a tray of finger foods, including cold chicken, pickles, pickled vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, sliced apples, olives, and sugared nuts. Nick added smoked oysters and Camembert cheese. Beth also made pumpkin and apple pies for dessert and Nick added a brandy-soaked Christmas cake.
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| The dessert and appetiser table |
The fish course was creamed shrimp followed by a pea soup from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello cookbook
The main meal was superb - Beef Wellington, roast turkey breast, mashed potatoes with cheese, mashed turnips, curried sweet potatoes, bread stuffing, and cooked carrots.
I don't think I've ever been so full in my life.
Now we did dress for dinner.
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| Nick makes his list. He wore a banyan with cap. |
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| Here's the whole outfit in front of Nick's fireplace. |
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| The fish course - creamed shrimp over pastry |
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| Katie cuts apples. |
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| The whole table |
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| A skeptical Katie and a sargent-y Rob |
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From left - John, Beth, Nick, Katie, and Rob
Beth made her gown and my coat for the occasion. Katie had made her dress a while back.
Rob wore sergeant's regalia just for the sake of fancy. |
All of us are members of the King's Company of Historical Reenactors. For the War of 1812, we usually portray the 17th US regular infantry, although Nick has British gear as well and both Rob and Katie intend to to a First Nations/Lenni Lenape portrayal for this season. We also do WWI portrayals for education days and hope to do American War of Independence militia before long.
