I’ve told you about my wonderful weekend in Asheville, but what I’ve left out is the feast that came before.  See, while most people choose to celebrate their birthdays by having other people cook for them and give them presents, I chose to celebrate my birthday by roasting 6 chickens.  Crazy?  Probably.  Delicious?  Undoutably.

My birthday falls on October 12th, the date formerly known as Columbus Day.  I always took offense to Columbus Day because not only was Columbus not the first person to “discover” America, but he wasn’t even the first white male to “discover” America.  That honor goes either to a group of mysteriously dissapearing Irish Monks or to Leif Erikson.  As the historical evidence is more strongly in his favor we choose to celebrate Leif Erikson on my birthday.

To celebrate Leif Erikson we have a feast.  We eat Roast Chickens, we serve fresh autumn fruits, we drink mead, and we do it all without the aid of utensils.   This, we assume, is how the actual Vikings did it: bare handed eating.

Because it was my birthday and because I enjoy taking on way too many cooking tasks (especially on days when I should be relaxing and enjoying myself) I decided to deviate from the original formula and add two soups to the menu.   A French Onion Soup and an Italian Egg Drop Soup.  They seemed rustic enough to fit with the theme, plus they were delicious, so I didn’t really care.

You should try it yourself.  We figure that Leif Erikson is so under celebrated that we need to have many Leif Erikson Days each year to help him catch up with Christopher Columbus.  Any old day just buy a chicken, roast it up, serve some fresh fruit, and drink some mead.  It’s fantastic.