Meditations on Mincemeat

[3fgburner]

2015's supply of mincemeat pie filling is in the crocks. I've had boil-overs in years past, so I split this batch into both pots. The usual meat content is 3-4 pounds of 70-30 hamburger, because it's damn near impossible to find suet any more, and it needs the fat content. Well, I scored some suet a while back, and it's been sitting in the freezer awaiting this day.  Freed from the need for 70/30 burger, I got a wild hair up. This year's batch only owes its fat content to beef. The rest of it is 3 pounds of ground bison.  Yes. I'm making pie filling out of BUFFALO.  There's an old SCA filk that I can't remember, but has the line in it, "There's raisins in the main dish, and meat in the dessert..." Yep.

Herein the reflection / meditation:  I am surrounded by artistic people. I've never thought of myself, as an artist, though. I have a bunch of skills, but have never felt particularly touchy-feely-expressive about it. Last year's Temple project for Frostburn was a departure for me. I needed to get something out of my head, and for a Burner that frequently expresses itself in Temples.  Others get a vision of a structure, and its beauty. I began with the purpose: Build a structure where people can scribble their mental / emotional / spiritual baggage on the walls, or in a couple of blank notebooks, and then torch it.  From Purpose, I went to Design and Practice. In other words, I engineered it.

This coming February, at Frostburn, we will be in a new venue. One of the hazards is that there's no access to a heated, or heatable, building wherein to park those who might need to be saved from the cold.  I have the beginnings of such a set-up. The issue is insulation and heating. A couple of suggestions from friends, put me on the path. Between now and then, my sewing machine is coming out.  I'll be doing insulated walls for my EZ-Up.  It occurred to me as I was slicing apples, that this too is Art, in its own way.

To go where I have not been, to make what I have not made, to apply skill to problems, to tweak and adjust a design to suit myself: This is my Art. I don't know that I'd actually call myself an Artist(tm).  But things like mincemeat, chili cook-offs, and Ranger/Medic HQs are, I guess, creative.

Comments

[welshwmn3]

Being able to cook without the book is an art. There are many who can only ever cook from a book, and they make very yummy food. But what they do isn't art.

What you do with food is art.

And as far as the Temple last year and what you are doing with the EZ Up this year, well ... I've seen some very artistic buildings that were engineered. So yes, that can be art as well.