Medieval Recipe

Fancy something different for dinner tonight? Then why not try out this Medieval recipe for Mounchelet. Put on your best doublet, pour yourself a glass of meade and tuck in to this robust culinary delight enjoyed by our ancient ancestors. Rustic and delicious!! Well it makes a change from fish and chips.

Mounchelet
2lb of boned stewing lamb/mutton
2 medium onions finely sliced
1/2 tsp each dried rosemary, thyme, marjoram
1/4 tsp each ginger, cumin, coriander
1 tbsp of chopped parsley
2 tbsp of lemon juice
salt to taste
15 fl oz chicken stock
8 fl oz white wine
2 eggs

Cut the meat into 2" cubes. Put the stock in a pan and bring to the boil. Add the meat and bring back to the boil, skim if required, then add the onions, herbs, spices, salt and wine. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook gently for about one to one and a half hours or until meat is tender. Blend together eggs and lemon juice, remove pan from heat and stir in the egg mixture, slowly to thicken it slightly, do not allow to re-boil. Serve with whole boiled potatoes and chunky diced carrot.
Serves 6

Bird Quiz

From the following clues how many birds can you name.

01 Heavenly body meets a fish
02 Decorations
03 Colourful tool
04 Expensive monogram
05 Just A Joke
06 Do this to avoid a missile
07 Breathless
08 Grumble
09 60's TV family
10 Royal angler


9-10 Excellent 7-8 Very Good 5-6 Good Below 5 Townie

Thought For The Day

If all brides are beautiful, where do ugly wives come from?

Fun And Games - Amaze Your Friends

Here is a simple trick that will amaze your friends at a party. For the trick you will need a set of dominoes, paper and a pen.

The Effect
Empty the set of dominoes onto a table face side up. Ask two friends to play all the dominoes out in a row. They can play any dominoes of their choice but they must fit i.e. one on a one, two on a two etc. However, before they start to play tell your friends you will make a prediction. Take the paper and pen and write down, without anyone else seeing, two numbers say 5 & 4. When your friends have played out all the dominoes announce that you predicted in advance which two numbers would be at each end of the row. To their amazement the two end numbers will be a 5 and a 4.
The Trick
Before emptying the dominoes onto the table remove without anyone knowing the five/four domino. No one will notice there is one domino missing. This will ensure that when all the remaining dominoes are played a 5 & 4 will appear at either end of the row. Simple when you know how! You could of course have removed any domino, say three/one, your prediction would then have been 3 & 1. Try it out it really is amazing.

Church Names and St Oswald

For some time now I have been trying to find out how churches were given their names. I have searched the internet and even contacted the library at Lincoln Cathedral, all to no avail. For example why was Blankney Church named St Oswald's and who decided that was the name it should have. I am sure there must be an organised and meaningful method of allocating names to churches but what is it and who decides. I presume that St Oswald's has always been the name of Blankney Church. The present church is said to date back to the 11th century but was rebuilt on the site of an earlier church. Was the earlier church called St Oswalds? If anyone can tell me why,or when, it was called St Oswald's please let me know. I would be very interested to find out. To take it a step further what do we know about St Oswald, probably known as Ossie to his friends. He was born in 604, the son of Ethelfrith King of Northumbria. At the age of 12 he fled to Scotland, when his father was killed by his uncle Edwin. Obviously not a nice family. Oswald eventually went to St Columba's monastery on the Scottish island of Iona. Following the death of Edwin in 633 Oswald returned to Northumbria as king. St Aiden another of St Columba's disciples was asked, by Oswald, to found a new monastery at Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumbria. From there christianity was to be spread throughout Oswald's kingdom.
At the battle of Maserfeld near Oswestry Oswald was killed by King Pendra of Mercia in 642.
Oswald's body was dismembered but his head was recovered and sent to the monastery at Lindisfarne. The monks at Lindisfarne were driven out by viking raiders in 875, they carried with them the head of Oswald. A great new monastery was established at Durham by the descendants of the Lindisfarne monks and it was there that the head of St Oswald was eventually buried. It remains there to this day. St Oswald's feast day is 5th August.