From: braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (The Didi-Sprite)
Subject: Song of Sixpence - Part Seven
Originator: braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca
Organization: SOCS - Mcgill University, Montreal, Canada
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 19:41:38 GMT



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Danger Mouse wanders out to the field where Liralen's Birthday celebrations
are going on. He looks around in disbelief at the vast array of things that
other patrons have brought into being for the occasion.

"Good grief, you'd think it was autumn or something!" he exclaims, with a
broad smile on his face. "All this harvest stuff and so forth. Not what
I'd associate with early October at all.

"October is the reawakening month. The gale winds of August and September
have died down and the sun is busy climbing ever higher into the sky on
each successive day. The calls of parrots and other birds punctuate the
air. Tiny leaf-buds appear on the few trees which have been barren for the
past few months. Flowers are blooming and all is in readiness for the
approach of summer.

"But in this case," he stares out at the golden fields of wheat and corn,
ripe and ready for conversion into delicious goodies, "I guess I may have
been outvoted. Far be it from me <grin> to go against the grain <double
grin>."

DM glances around and steels himself.... "Fezzik!!"

"Woof! Woof!" <bound> <leap>

<crunch>

"Hey there, boy!" DM ruffles the top of the dog's shaggy head fom his now
horizontal position beneath four paws. "Ha! Stop, that tickles!"

Fezzik stops licking DM's face and bounces away to play with some more
folks. Liralen, who has extracted herself temporarily from the attentions
of the other patrons, steps over and gives DM an apologetic look as she
helps him to his feet.

"You been giving him tickling lessons, Liralen?"

At her innocent expression, DM smiles and grabs her in a huge bear-hug.
"Happy Birthday!

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason and Pegasus disappear for a moment. Then you hear their minivan
pulling up out on the edge of the field. There are a dozen long planks of
cedar on the roof rack, and the back half of the van is completely full of
wood. They hop out and unload a large pile of freshly-cut cedar firewood.
Pegasus grabs a couple grocery sacks and ducks into the kitchen with a big grin
on her face, while Jason continues his preparations outside.

Jason grabs a shovel and digs a dozen deep, narrow holes in the sandy soil,
forming a circle about ten feet across. Within that circle he digs a ten inch
deep, six inch wide curving trench, forming a circle about five feet in
diameter. He goes to the van and hauls out an ice chest full of foil-wrapped
packets, ranging from the size of your fist to about a foot long and two inches
in diameter. He places these in the trench and covers them over again. Then he
proceeds to build a seven foot diameter bonfire on top of the circular trench,
using most of the cedar firewood.

Jason lights the bonfire, then sets up a table and two saw-horses near the van.
He hauls out three more large ice chests, and a box of cooking supplies. He
gets the long cedar planks off the roof of the van, and lays them across the
saw horses. Then he reaches into the ice chests and reveals his main course
contribution to the feast. Twelve huge, freshly caught, Chinook Salmon,
weighing in at about 25 pounds apiece! He rapidly fillets each salmon, and
using some wire, attaches one fish to one end of each plank, so it lays flat,
with its tail at the end of the board. Each one gets a liberal coating of
butter, salt and other seasonings, mostly fresh ground pepper and a bit of
onion salt. 

As Jason prepares the twelve salmon, the air is filled with the fragrant aroma
of cedar smoke. As the fire burns down, Jason adds more wood, until he has a
redly glowing, seven foot diameter bed of coals. Using a metal garden hoe, he
rakes the coals into a two foot wide ring over the trench he dug earlier. Then
the planks are propped up around the fire in the outer ring of holes, leaning
in over the glowing coals and dying flames, with the fish on the upper surface
of each plank. He adds the last of the wood to the fire ring. Soon the
delectable aroma of succulent salmon being slowly roasted fills the air. To
smell it is to make the mouth water, and the stomach growl with unsated hunger.

As dinner is cooking, Thyra seeks out Phee. She has a treat for the little
girl. She approaches her in her feline/human form, wearing a formal black
velvet dress with matching black opera gloves. When she finds Phee, she
entertains her with sleight of hand magic tricks. She causes several coins to
appear and vanish. She does a routine with cups and balls, where the small cork
balls seem to pass through the metal cups. She makes several balls of sponge
travel from her hands to those of the little girl. And finally, she does a
trick with a baloon, where she passes a 14 inch long needle and three feet of
heavy thread right -through- the inflated baloon, -without- bursting it, then
pops the baloon with the same needle.

While Jason is preparing the salmon, Pegasus is busy in Mike's kitchen. There
is a clatter of pans and the whirrrr of an electric mixer. About an hour later,
she backs out of the kitchen, preceded by the heavenly smell of chocolate. She
has a three-foot across silver tray, loaded with fresh-baked brownies!

"These are my Intensely Chocolate Brownies, and they are made with a bit of
raspberry syrup. It really brings out the flavor. Try some!"

Jason notes that the salmon are just about done, and with the hoe pushes the
coals into a pile in the center of the ring. Using the hoe, he unburies the
foil wrapped packages, opening them to reveal roasted corn on the cob and baked
potatoes! He places them on the table with bowls of butter, sour cream and
other fixings, then he takes down the salmon and calls out

"Everyone grab a plate and line up for your share of the feast, with our
Birthday Girl, Liralen Li, at the head of the line.

Enjoy it everyone!"

There is also a stack of flyers on the end of the table. It reads:
--------------------------------------------------------
           Recipe for Intensely Chocolate Brownies

Source: Working Women magazine, January 1985, by Aimee Lee Ball

Notes from Pegasus: I like to use Drostes cocoa or the richest cocoa I can
find. I use real vanilla extract, not imitation. You can get the real stuff
from the Williams Sonoma mail-order catalog. It's made with real Madagascar
Bourbon!

     4 oz unsweetened chocolate
     3 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder
     1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
     3 Tablespoons raspberry syrup
     1 tablespoon vanilla extract
     4 eggs
     1/4 teaspoon salt
     2 cups sugar
     1 cup flour, sifted

1. Melt the chocolate, cocoa and butter in a small, heavy saucepan over low
heat. Off heat, stir in raspberry and vanilla flavorings.

2. In an electric mixer, beat eggs with salt until foamy. Gradually add sugar
and beat for 10 minutes, until very thick and pale yellow in color.

3. Stir chocolate mixture into batter with a spatula, till just mixed. Stir in
sifted flour, till just mixed. Pour into buttered 7 1/2 inch by 11 inch pan and
bake in a preheated oven at 375#161# for 25 minutes.

4. watch carefully for the last ten minutes of baking. If edges start to burn,
cover loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil. Let cool completely before
cutting.

PS In place of raspberry, you may substitute another fruit syrup, or a heaping
tablespoon of crushed expresso coffee powder. I like my brownies pure and
unadulterated, but you can also add 1 cup chopped nuts, raisins or chocolate
morsels.

PPS As soon as the brownies come out of the oven, I shove them, still in the
pan, into the freezer on a trivet for about 15 minutes. This is called the
fudgification process, and for some reason I can't explain, it ensures the
right consistency.

				     -- Jason, Thyra and Pegasus --

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The Mandelbear steps through an X-window and into the meadow; somehow
in his multi-dimensional travels he has managed to acquire a tray,
decorated with dried leaves, with seven large green ceramic bowls on
it.  Old coots who look closely at the tray are startled to recognize
the bottom half of a 14" 'pizza pack' 5Mb disk pack.  He is followed
by the Flowercat, temporarily in her humanoid form as Colleen, bearing
a similar tray.  "This is a tradition from Colleen's Moravian
background: seven sweets and seven sours.  Here we have:

  sweet corn relish
  sweet pickle relish
  watermelon-rind pickles
  cranberry jelly
  oil-cured Greek olives
  spiced crabapples
  spiced peaches

  cranberry/apple/orange relish
  cornichons (French mini-dill pickles)
  brine-cured Greek olives
  green olives stuffed with Jalape\~no peppers
  Kosher dill pickles
  mustard pickles
  pickled onions."

"Hey, what about the chips for us kids?" comes a shout from behind the
X-window, as a seven-year-old tomboy comes through pushing a baby in a
stroller.  The basket under the stroller contains a tray of potato
chips, with a steel bowl of dip held onto the ring magnet in the
middle.  Katy deposits the tray chips on the nearest table and
immediately starts playing with Fezzik.

The Mandelbear picks up Emerald (the baby) while Colleen goes off
toward the road to meet a truck that has just pulled up.  The truck
has "HyperSpace Express" blazoned on its side in large, four-
dimensional letters.  A small, green, impossibly-cute dragon wearing a
"Flowers by Colleen" T-shirt gets out of the passenger side; she and
Colleen start unloading dried flowers, brightly-colored fall leaves, 
and assorted evergreen branches and set to work decorating all the
picnic tables.


A patron arriving from the bar comes up to the Mandelbear carrying a
guitar case.  He says, "are you the Mandelbear?  She said to give this
to you..."  and on receiving a nod puts it down and heads in the
general direction of the beer with a bemused expression.

A grumpy soprano voice from the guitar case says, "Are you going to
get me out of this thing or not?  You weren't planning to sing Happy
Birthday to Liralen without me, were you?"  The Mandelbear sits Emmy
down on the grass (within reach of some dried leaves which she
immediately starts playing with), pulls out Snuggles, and starts
tuning up...

                                           --- Mandelbear ---

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Windsinger walks from around a bush that there really wasn't room to 
hide behind.  Heck, this is VR, he can put his gateways anywhere he 
likes!  He is also carrying a large picnic basket, from which interesting 
aromas are wafting.

  <<Hang on,>> he says, <<I'm not really the right persona to be here now 
for this.  Just a minute...>> and suddenly there is Rhodri standing there, 
beard neatly trimmed for once, straining to hold the basket up.

  "Phew, I'd forgotten how heavy this is," he says, putting the basket 
down near the other goodies.  "I was getting a headache talking about 
myself in the third person.  Besides, I wanted to do this 'in person'."

  He goes up to Liralen, and offers her a hug.  "Happy Birthday, Lady.  
It's good to have you with us again."

  Apres-hug, and smiling fit to bust, Rhodri returns to the basket.  "Didi 
said to bring along some seasonal food, so I brought along what I'm 
intending to do with the fruit and vegetables that my mother just gave 
me.  So this," he says, heaving a large foil wrapped object out of the 
basket, "is stuffed marrow -- er, squash, I think.  It's still warm, and 
it's good stuff.  I don't normally like marrow much, but this is something 
else!  And here are two apple pies.  The one on the left is the full-blown 
thing with cinnamon and raisons, the one on the right is just plain apple 
with as little extra sugar as I could get away with.  For those with 
allergies or diabetic problems."

  "Cheers!"
                                               --- Rhodri ---

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The Didi-Sprite
Montreal * Canada

braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca

Newsgroups: alt.callahans