They Feast On Medieval Fare
O yea, my friends, let the tale be tolde of Lady Lisa Nunlist, a merchant’s wife of olde. She dressed in a tunic, on her head wore a snood. She drank out of pewter, was a connoisseur of food.
Lady Lisa threw a feast with roast chicken and whole pig. For my Lady’s faire friends, no hall was too big. There were mulled wines and cheese, meat pies and ale. It was a grand affaire all those noble did hail.
Such is the song the troubadour sings about Lisa, a 20th century teacher with her mind in merry medieval England.
Lisa slipped into the Middle Ages several years ago as she researched medieval food for a feast in her sixth grade classroom.
“I couldn’t stop,” she says, her eyes the size of quarters. “I’m a glutton.”
The things she learned fascinated her. Lords and ladies ate marzipan castles and rice dyed green and blue. They wanted one end of a roast chicken attached to the other end of a roast pig and served to their appreciative guests.
They sang bawdy love songs. A salt cellar divided the nobility from the peasantry. They bathed rarely and smelled, but cleaned their hands in bowls of rose water and with cloth napkins.
When the American Association of University Women group she belongs to in Coeur d’Alene decided to hold a medieval feast last year, Lisa insisted on authenticity.
“Nothing from the New World,” she says flatly.
That meant no potatoes, squash, chocolate or tomatoes. Pewter mugs are expensive, so she didn’t insist.
Feast night brought out daring diners in tunics and tights for the parade of roast meat, pies and autumn roots - parsnips, carrots, turnips. They ate off bread plates and wooden platters and sliced the “upper crust” from the bread for the nobility. They laughed at the tumbling jesters.
“I felt a sense of the historic,” Lisa says, her eyes glowing. “I know I was in Coeur d’Alene, but I was there.”
They came 50 strong to the faire lady’s feast, and took knife and spoon to the succulent beast. Harps and lutes soothed their ears and candles lit the meal. For lovely Lady Lisa, it couldn’t have been more real.
The AAUW will repeat the medieval feast at 6 p.m., Nov. 4, at the Lake City Senior Center. Tickets are $25 per person and must be reserved by Wednesday . Call 667-3361.
Haunted house
My calls for scary tales reminded Coeur d’Alene’s Carla McCaffery of a frightening fall night in Davenport, Wash. Her husband was hunting. Her children were in bed. Her old house rambled around her like the House of Seven Gables.
The sound of rustling told her something was outside. Carla hardly breathed for 15 minutes, sure it was a killer. Then the scraping started, and she turned out her lights and crept to the front window.
A peek out showed weird tracks in the snow. Carla threw open the window and found herself face to face with the biggest elk she’d ever seen.
She screamed in surprise, but the elk didn’t move. It had been scraping its antlers on a tree near her house.
“My husband had said the house was haunted,” she says. “That night, I believed him.”
Through the generations
The Coeur d’Alene Art Association knows wine loosens the change in many people’s pockets. So the artists will gather their best efforts and a wide selection of wine 5-7 p.m. today to raise money for scholarships for Coeur d’Alene and Lake City high schools.
Pianist Pearl Harwood and singer Russ Marwin will supply music to drink to. The association even chose a classy place for the affair: The Coeur d’ Alene Spokesman-Review building. Tickets are $5 at the door.
Blazing trail
Even in pouring rain, Whitepine Scenic Hwy. 3 from Rose Lake to St. Maries is fall splendor Idaho-style. Treat yourself. What’s your favorite fall drive? Map it out for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; fax to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.
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