The Dilapidated Food Tent

[ysabeau]

All around you are the sights, sounds.... and what is the delicious smell?

You wander around the Carnivale, following that aroma that makes your mouth water. Tents and Rides galore, Acrobats and Jugglers to Adore...

You feel yourself being pulled to a large tent that has a steady stream of carnivale go-ers moving in an out. So many of them have plates or cartons or even sticks of something mysterious. But the smell draws you in and your feet move on their own.

Stepping inside, you find that there is a beautiful arrangement of feasts on vasts tables stretching farther than the tent logically had space for. But in the center in the back, your eyes are drawn to the shadowy cloaked figured, who sits on a splendent chair. Shadows flicker and dance around his feet and you can barely see the twisted smirk from under the cowl.

"Welcome, to my Tent. Where delights of all kind can be consumed and offered. Are you here to offer your own food?"

You take a step forward and glance around, realizing that the shadows were reaching out to the food, bringing it back to the mysterious cloaked figure. You watched in fascination and maybe horror as the shadows raised the offered food to the cloak figure, whose jaw cracked open impossibly wide and sunk further and further down his chest. He had sharp teeth but it was an eerie sight of his gaping maw consuming the offering as if he was a black pit. The moment the food disappear, just jaw snapped shut with a loud click and you could see a shimmering appear around him. There was a rush of energy and stacks of gold and other jewels appear around him. He just chuckled at your expression.

"Those who donate to the Tent are those who get blessed with luck and fortune."

He leans forward, his arms crossed over his knees to get a better look at you.

"So are you here for an offering or are you here to sample the treats?"



Welcome to the Dilapidated Food Tent!

Here, you can share your experiences of eating or cooking food to share with your companions and with the Carnivale. For those that share pictures and their experiences you will receive a ticket for participation. For those that are so inclined to bake or cook and offering for the Food Tent, should you post your picture of the goods you made yourself and the recipe, you will receive two tickets for participating.

Please note that this is for recipes and shared experiences.

Shared experiences are welcome for all foods, store bought or made. This is about connecting with your companions.

Recipes must be shared with a picture of your finished product to count - no posting random recipes and images from others they will not count. You must put your love and work into sharing with the mysterious cloaked figure to be rewarded with tickets... but also you may find some luck for doing so.

You can use a hosting site with the

Code: Select all

[img="URL"][/img]

or you can use the attachments option available to attach to your picture.

Food must be carnviale, circus, or nightmare related (like halloween).
Everything must be done during the Carnivale start (April 1st) to Carnivale end (June 12th). Please don't submit old pictures and recipes.
Tickets will count per entry.

[Lycana]

I posted this in the wrong spot, but I made rootbeer floats today and shared them with my companions. One to two scoops of vanilla ice cream in a tall cup with a can of root beer of your choice (we used A&W because it was on sale but my favorite is Barqs). I not only made a tiny rootbeer float for my companions which can be seen on their altar in the below picture, but shared the experience with each of my carnival companions through transvocation.

I decided to transvocate the experience of drinking a root beer floating with each of my carnival companions one by one. Although this isn't strictly a carnival food, it is something that you can find and enjoy at a carnival so I think it counts.

Ryn my ring master tasted more of the foam and the bite of the rootbeer, these are what the experience focused on for him and what he seemed to enjoy the most through me.

With Ro, my jest there was more of a taste of how the root beer flavor married with the creame in a blended taste and the bubble of the carbonation that he seemed to enjoy. It was the sweetness of it together.

With Ever, my illusionist, it tasted darker and muskier and colder as he noticeably savored it. He didn't expressly get as much enjoyment as the other two did but found it satisfactory.

With Jenga, my lord of the freakshow, he very much enjoyed it, picking up the hint of bitterness within the rootbeer and the sweet from the ice cream. He would have happily drank the rest with me but left some for Zel.

With Zel, my contortionist, it tasted more sour and seemed to find the taste curious and mildly repelling in a way that he also find enjoyable and a hint of a marshmallow flavor which kind of surprised me. It declared it as passable over all but not his favorite lol.

[wraithey]

Eating with Companions:

Since we were driving errands, I figured it was a good opportunity to share some food with my companions as a thank you for spending a few hours with me. I decided on a burger place to try since it was near my last stop. I choose a chili cheese burger for myself and my husband gets an avocado swiss. Unfortunately, my companions will not have access to that unless they wanna hover near him and sniff up a storm.

I’ve only tried transvocating twice. Once I won’t really count because I was trying to see if I could get my companion to translocate hard enough to push me out of my body. Didn’t work.

All that to say, trying to transvocate and eat at the same time took a lot of concentration. I only got a few bites in for my Gladiator to share. The experience taught me he likes jalapenos. While I was thinking about leaving them off next time I ate this burger he was in the back of my brain going MMMMM. Sorry, my darling but if you want more spicy you’re gonna have to figure out how to inhabit my husband’s body.

The jalapenos tasted a little more tangy while trying to share with him. Unfortunately, I think I need to practice more in order to share with more than one companion at a time.

[Lycana]

Carnival Food: Elephant Ears with cinammon sugar and strawberries

Ryn: Liked the sweet glazed strawberries but found the dough somewhat unpalatable. the outside crisp and the inside slightly chewy, it tasted like good fried bread to me but he didn't care much for it and would have just eaten all the strawberries if it was just him.

Jenga: Liked the overall taste of the fry bread. He enjoyed the strawberries as well but was particularly fond of the bread which he said would be better with meat rather than sweet in his opinion lol. But still approved of the sugaryness of it Eating it with him I barely noticed the chewiness of the inside of the dough whereas it stood out starkly with Ryn.

Ever: Very much liked the whole desert, especially the bits that were soaked the most with glaze and slight spongy from it, and the crisper parts that the oil cooked darker and harder he found particularly pleasing. The most pleasing actually.

Ro: grabbed a piece and wrapped a strawberry around it before popping it into my mouth. He moaned with pleasure but felt that the dough wasn't thin enough to do it true justice (which it may have not been since it was the first one I cooked and therefore more or less the experiment piece while my kids got the thinner, crisper ones). He felt thinner would make it less chews and more a delight for the senses having less bread in ratio to the fruit. But still enjoyed it

Zel: he went immediately for the strawberries but they didn't taste as sweet and somewhat flatter. He made a slightly dismissive sound over them and felt that it could have been better meledy of fruits topping it. Perhaps he is right, a mixed fruit like at the fair with a thicker sauce would have been tasty. He didn't care for the fry bread, however. It tasted almost flavorless through him with the exception of the sugar encrusting it. He didn't overall care for it much. But it wasn't terrible he says lol.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
Fairground Elephant Ears
1-1/2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
6 tablespoons butter, shortening or margarine
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose/plain flour
Sufficient vegetable oil for frying, roughly 1 quart
Cinnamon sugar, to taste

Steps:
1. Warm 1-1/2 cups of milk on medium heat in a saucepan. You don't want the milk to bubble or scald, so simply warm it up slightly before adding the rest of the ingredients.

2.Add the sugar, salt, and shortening/butter and mix until everything is dissolved together. Mix in 2 tablespoons (29.6 ml) of sugar, 6 of your shortening/butter, and 1 teaspoon of sugar with the milk. You want one smooth, consistent liquid. Once there are no chunks of shortening left, take it off the heat.
You can melt the shortening faster if you chop the butter/shortening into small pieces before adding it.

3. Set the mixture aside to cool until it is warm, not hot. You want it to be warm to the touch, but not hot. It should be roughly 110℉. This promotes yeast growth without killing it. When in doubt, remember that if it is too hot for you, it is too hot for the yeast. Similarly, if you wouldn't enjoy a nice warm bath in it, neither will the yeast.

4. Add the 2 tablespoons of active yeast and let it set for 10-15 minutes. The top will be foaming and frothing as the yeast grow and produce carbon dioxide. If you have no bubbles or frothing than your yeast has died, and you'll have to start over.

5.Slowly add the 4 cups of flour and stir into a dough. A cup at a time, add the flour and mix the batter with a dough hook, wooden spoon, or your hands until it is a nice, firm dough ball.
Knead the dough until it is a smooth, spongy consistency. Kneading may seem complex, but it is simply a way of mixing the ingredients and toughening up the dough for cooking. Take the dough ball and pull one side up, folding it onto the top of the dough ball, and then push down into the fold with the heel of your hand. Turn the dough a quarter turn either direction, pull up another side, press with your hand, and repeat. You should knead for 2-3 minutes.
When done, your dough should be spongy but consistent, holding its shape without being too tough to press.

6. Cover the dough and let it rise for 30 minutes. Put the dough in a metal, nonstick bowl. Use a damp cloth or a piece of plastic wrap to cover the top and put the dough in a warm, dry place for 30 minutes. This allows the yeast to do their job. When you are done, the dough should be roughly twice as big as normal.
If you cannot cook the dough in 30 minutes, you can place it in the refrigerator to rise instead, where it will take roughly 2 hours.


6.

[Lycana]

7. section and roll each ball out to a quarter inch thickness

[Lycana]

[Bluemoonrabbit]

I had so many different recipes to pick, but I decided on cinnamon sugar pretzel balls! These were so good and I could not stop eating them, even before I sugared them

I added some of my own hints and preferences below with the original recipe

This recipe came from https://handletheheat.com/cinnamon-sugar-pretzel-bites/

For the pretzels:
▢1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast
▢3 tablespoons (25 grams) brown sugar
▢1 1/2 cups warm water (about 110°F)
▢1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
▢3/4 teaspoon fine salt
▢4 1/4 cups (540 grams) all-purpose flour
For baking soda bath:
▢3 cups water
▢1/4 cup baking soda
For the cinnamon sugar coating:
▢4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter, melted
▢3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
▢3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions
Make the dough:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine all of the dough ingredients. Mix on low speed until combined.
Increase speed to medium and knead for 7 to 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and smooth and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl or your hands, adding a little more flour if needed.
Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until about doubled in size, about 1 hour. I sprayed the dough with a light coat of cooking spray and ran it in the machine one last time, as it was still a bit sticky. I also sprayed the wrap too before wrapping it up.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Spray with nonstick cooking spray or grease with butter. I did not preheat my oven until after my dough was finished rising. I also put my wrapped dough in my banneton and covered it with the linen cover. It definitely rose quickly this way.

Shape the pretzels:
Remove the dough to a clean work surface. Divide into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece against the counter or between your palms into about a 20-inch long log. Keep the remaining pieces covered. Only add flour to your work surface or dough if absolutely necessary.
Using a bench cutter, cut about thirteen 1 1/2-inch pieces from each log. Be sure to not cut these too big, they will puff up in the oven! Place on the two greased parchment-lined baking sheets. Important note, I ended up having to use a third tray here, so plan accordingly!

Prepare the baking soda bath:
Bring the water to a boil (I like to use an electric kettle). Carefully pour the water into a large bowl (I use the bowl the dough rose in) and add in the baking soda. Stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve. I ended up just putting the baking soda in the same pot I boiled water in, no need to make more a mess in my opinion and dig out another bowl.
Dunk the pretzels bites in the baking soda solution, starting with the ones you shaped first, for no more than thirty seconds, before gently removing with a slotted spoon back to the greased and lined baking sheets, spacing them out at least half an inch apart.

Bake the pretzels:
Bake both trays at 400°F for about 12 to 15 minutes, alternating the trays halfway through the baking time for even baking, until golden brown to your preference. I baked mine at 12 minutes, I did experiment and didn't see a difference with 11 minutes as I was curious if 12 was too long. But 12 was perfect in my oven.
Let cool for 5 minutes before peeling away from the parchment paper. I ended up cooling off the pretzels in my banneton with the liner. It helped keep the mess down with multiple trays going in and out before I put them in the big red bowl.

Coat with cinnamon sugar:
Place the cooked pretzels in a large sealable container. Toss with the melted butter. Add the cinnamon and sugar and toss to combine.