When you're done with that book, the one I'm reading might interest you. It's the first in a trilogy about Henry II and Eleanor of Aqu. Caled "When Christ and his saints slept" by Sharon Penman. It starts off with the war between Maude and Stephen and is very historically accurate. No orange carrots yet, although she did make one slip up with a long stemmed rose. No such thing of course in the 12thC.

Can you make pasta without a pasta machine. I'd like to try but don't know how.

I'm surprised Clovis doesn't have scurvy. Have you checked his teeth?