Second verse, same as the first

Edited to add: I started writing this on Thursday, and it is now Monday. So I apologize in advance if this is a little scatter-shot.

Instead of going back to work and school today yesterday at the end of the week, we had a snow day, and I've spent some time this afternoon over the past couple of day trying (and failing) to read through Liber Cure Cocorum, looking specifically for peas, onions, leeks, and mushrooms -- and not getting much done. (Edited to add: it's taken me three days to write this post, mainly because the snow days have made me very lazy.)

Also, I've been having an interesting discussion on my Facebook about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of serving a pork product in both courses. I'm currently wondering if I can sub pre-cooked beef roasts for the ham, but I need to research the availablity of these further. Worse case we'll pre-cook some meat to then prepare into something (probably a beef or chicken dish) on site, but once New England reopens I need to make some calls about pricing.

I'm very interested in the egg stew on this page (search for number 81). It's a protein without being a meat, as is green broth of eggs and cheese (also known as green eggs and ham).

This is the old standby "Funges" (Mushrooms and Leeks).  I find it interesting that both the mushroom tart recipies I can lay my hands on are from Italy. First tart (really a pie with cheese). Second tart (similar yet a little different. Again with cheese.) I would like to serve these pies, but I think they're too southern and too late for what we're doing here.

On the topic of peas:  I would like to serve Green peas with bacon, but am keenly aware that a) this is yet more pork, and b) it makes the dish not at all vegetarian, which peas really should be here. On the other hand, my runner up dish of peas has eggs in it, so we might have to go to plan C (with veggie broth instead of beef). Or the old standby, heathen peas.

There are not a ton of dishes featuring barley, largely because barley was considered a food for invalids. However (in the absence of small beers and the like) I like serving barley water (suitably labeled, so I don't accidentally gluten anyone), despite the fact that it was actually for invalids as well. (I actually use an Alton Brown recipe.) It's tasty and has a certain flavorful body that I think compliments food well. However, to make barley water, you have to cook the barley, and it seems a shame to cook it and not use it. Frumenty is the classic barley dish (and is typically suggested to be served with venison), but I love the flavor of this barley pottage with cinnamon sugar.

Joutes are really just boiled herbs (page has links to a number of versions) and were pretty common. Here's a modern redaction of Joutes made with almond milk. Served with (or over) bread. I really want this to be a sweet onion dish, but the "herbs" seem pretty loose - I'm wondering if I could add in sweet onions to the other "herbes" and make it work. 

Another option is Lange Wortes de pesoun, which is peas (dried, boiled), onions, AND wortes, which solves several problems all at once. Oyle Soppys is another interesting onion dish, and one that comes in several different versions.

So, things I have to do this week: 
- Make some calls about sausage prices and also for possible roast beefs or other large meats to serve instead of ham.
- Test cook lange wortes de pesoun and oyle sppys, and probably the egg stew cited above.
- Finish writing about the third course, which is easy, but needs to be done.
- Find the notebook that has the source for the parsnip fritters in it, to a) find the source and b) see if it's scalable for the feast (I don't think it is).
- Based on the results of the test cooking, set the three dishes for the second course that are not a meat and a barley dish.

If anyone is interested in doing a test cook of any of the dishes above (or any from the first course, although most of those I've cooked before) let me know.