We've got robin chicks!! YEA!!!

There are three little, messy, goofy looking chicks in the nest.....amazing that blue eggs can turn into these creatures...they look so vulnerable...the picture isn't too clear but I didn't want to bug the parents by hanging around...aren't they sweet!

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb....

Here are my neighbour's chickens enjoying our recent delightful weather....I took some of their wonderful eggs with yolks that were almost orange....

...then I picked some of the vast amount of rhubarb we have growing at the back of the house....

...then I proceeded to combine said rhubarb with varying amounts of sugar, eggs and butter in varying combinations until I came up with a recipe for rhubarb meringue tarts with rhubarb, mint (also from our garden) and lavendar sorbet...my path to this dessert was rather wobbly and treacherous and took me via some grand failures including marshmallows (which deserves it's own post!!), rhubarb and mint gelees/jellies/pate de fruits and rhubarb and mint jam/jelly which actually ended up more like candy and tasted too caramelized for my delicate tastebuds. Brits LOVE rhubarb thus my insistence on including it in this blog but rhubarb and custard is kind of boring as is rhubarb crumble....

Here are my wee tart shells which came out SO WELL especially so as I didn't use any weights to bake them 'blind' ie without a filling...they are a little thick but boy do they taste excellent..

Here is one of the tarts with it's attendant rhubarb curd which is pale orange because the yolks were so saturated in colour, I was expecting the curd to be pink and was disappointed when it turned out this colour, which is OK but NOT pink........

...and here is the finished dessert in all it's sublime glory...super creamy curd, clodlike, NO not CLODlike...cloudlike meringue and a buttery, shortbready shell with a tangy, smooth, bright sorbet....they combine in a very friendly manner I must tell you!!

Here are the recipes:

THE EASIEST SWEET TART CRUST IN THE WORLD!!! from a cooking demonstration at the Good Table in Belfast by Lindsey Schortz of 'Let Them Eat Cake"...oh do!!!

1 1/2 cups of unbleached, white flour

1/2 cup confectioner's/icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon of salt...if you use unsalted butter

1 stick/4oz plus 1 tablespoon of butter (ie 4 1/2 ozs)...I use salted and thus omit the salt mentioned previously

1 large egg yolk ( from a happy chicken)

Everything should be really cold...even keep the butter in the freezer for a while before you start.

1. Swish dry ingredients together

2. Rub (by hand as I do, the only time I like to get my hands sticky)) or blend in a food prcessor until you get a nice even sandlike texture.

3. Add the egg yolk and blend throughout

4. Gently squush together

5. Here's the great part...tear off pieces of the dough and push them into the tart pans evenly but certainly not perfectly...as I mentioned I made mine too thick but they were still excellent, next time I will make them thinner so they are more tart shelly then cookie like.

6. I put these tiny ones in the freezer for a couple of hours before I baked them off and I didn't use any weights to keep the pastry in place...I just docked/pricked the dough all over to prevent it from puffing up when baking. Then I baked these in a 375F oven for about 20 minutes until they were nicely browned and you couldn't see any of that transparent look that says they are not done yet...LOOK AT THEM....they didn't shrink or pull away from the tins...they baked up exactly how I squushed them in but just got a little thicker...amazing!!! I am a complete convert to this recipe for evermore!! No rolling, no tearing, no screaming when the dough falls apart as you try to transport it to the pan...yippeee....do try it for yourself...you'll be thrilled and it tastes like shortbread!!!

THE RHUBARB CURD:

2 cups of rhubarb cut into small pieces

4 tablespoons of sugar

4 tablespoons of water

4 teaspoons of lemon juice

Combine these four ingredients in a saucepan, preferably stainless steel, and boil together at med-high until rhubarb goes completely mushy...let it cool quite a bit then liquidize in a blender or food processor (if you blend when it is hot it could blow the top off the blender and burn you...I have had this happen before so be cautious and let it cool!!)

4 egg yolks

12 tablespoons sugar

4 ozs butter...again I use salted, if you use unsalted add a pinch of salt

Whisk the yolks and sugar together in the top part of a double boiler with simmering water in the bottom pan. Add the cooled rhubarb and the butter in pieces and stir, stir, stir until it is all combined and starts to thicken...it should already be quite thick because of the blended rhubarb...but let it thicken up some more. Cool completely and again it will thicken some more...this curd tastes infinitely better when it is cold so don't judge the flavour or texture if you taste it when it is warm...when cold it is creamy, a bit caramelly and quite tangy at the end...YUMMY!!!...you can use it for a multitude of things...especially on hot, buttered toast with a spot of tea!!!

THE MERINGUE:

For these little tarts I only did a small amount of meringue..you can double this for a whole pie

2 egg whites...from those happy chickens

4 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence

1. Whisk egg whites until they hold stiff peaks but are not dry (what does that really mean?)

2. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and whisk well after each addition

3. Add teaspoon of vanilla and blend

4. When you have reached a stiff and very smooth state of meringueness transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe away to your hearts content until you have beauteous tarts.

5. Either pop into a 350F oven and watch like an eagle until the required state of toastiness has occured...approximately 10 minutes, or use one of those mini creme brulee torches and brown the meringue that way...et voila!

THE RHUBARB SORBET: Couldn't be simpler

2 cups of rhubarb

1 cup of sugar

5 big sprigs of mint

1 tablespoon of lavendar flowers in a tea ball

1. Put rhubarb, lavendar flowers, mint and sugar in a pan and add enough water just to cover the rhubarb.

2. Cook until totally mushy and the sugar is melted.

4. Retrieve tea ball and mint sprigs.

3. Let rhubarb cool and blend.

4. Pop into ice cream machine and follow manufacturers instructions...because rhubarb has a lot of pectin it has a sort of jelliness to it naturally and I think this helps it make a really full bodied and smooth sorbet...quite tangy with a hint of mint and lavendar!!!

Assemble as seen in bottom photo above and consume!!!...I'm off for another right now!

Awwwww...look what I found!

We have a live Christmas tree near our house, his name is Nigel...a Robin couple have decided to make a lovely home in Nigel's branches...the nest is so beautifully constructed but it worries me that it is actually lower than my eye level, I don't think our cat, Harry, will be able to make it up to the nest as the needles are REALLY sharp but we do have racoons about and they can be mean......there are two bright blue eggs in there.....

...and here is Mum or Dad keeping those little eggs warm...as you can plainly see there are the Christmas lights too! I'm hoping to be able to get pics when the chicks are 'born' but I also don't want to frighten the parents getting too close with my camera. Good luck Robins!!

Tussocks of violets, blueberry flowers and more daffs!!

Up on blueberry hill right now are the loveliest tussocks of violets sprinkled all over the landscape in and around the burgeoning blueberries, whose flowers can you can see here
Another tussock....sadly these violets don't have any discernible smell..otherwise wouldn't it be lovely to make something with them, and I do like the idea of some sublime dish made with both the violets and blueberries together, some pale lavendar coloured, delicate confection...OH MY!!

A view from atop blueberry hill looking towards Seasport, Maine

These are the most magnificent daffodils I have ever seen...they are regal, robust and redolent with a heady scent like magnolias or orange blossoms...they are very tall and withstand heavy rain, and they come in late in the season after the other, more ordinary daffs, have gone by. They are called Acropolis if you have the desire to head out this autumn and plant them in vast swaths!!

Mystical golden beauty abounds!!

"The Silent Arrival of Memory"

Isn't this truly amazing?, and it ISN'T Photoshopped. That really is a golden ball floating, at average eye level, above a mystical temple in a land far, far away....
This is a detail photograph of James' latest obelisk sculpture, which can be seen below in it's full and awesome glory. It is part of a series of "story" sculptures that he has been working on for the last two years. Using the technology of microchips, electromagnets and rare earth magnets he has floated this golden sphere above the 24 carat gold leafed main body of the sarcophagus/small temple below.
The obelisk base has subtle relief surface sculpture and a stairway leading to a mysterious entrance beautifully painted in a chalk blue that fades towards the top of the column. James says that he likes to imply mystery in these sculptures, relying on the observer to imagine themselves into this mystical world.
IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT TO BEHOLD and I feel so honoured to be able to gaze in wonder at this everyday and share it with you through my blog!

Lilac scented daffodils, magnolias and rhubarb!

Doesn't this daff look like a pinwheel? I thought I had discovered a new form of daffodil but after doing some research online I found out this is an old-fashioned daffodowndilly (the olde englishe name) and I am disappointed to find that I shan't be having a daffodil named after me after all! What is truly wonderful about this particular daff is that it smells very much like a lilac...it's really lovely!!
Another pic of the daff with one of it's 'ordinary' friends!

...and look at this....a Magnolia blossom...too beautiful to believe...and this smells fabulous too!!

...and the rhubarb is beginning, I LOVE rhubarb and am already planning what I shall make for the blog with this tart and delightful vegetable!! Rhubarb lemonade, rhubarb sorbet, rhubarb and custard, rhubarb crumble...rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb. Yum, yum, yum!!!

Pink meringues, rain and kittens

Look at these beautiful little puffs of perfect pale pinkness, what could they be for??? Actually they are the beginning of a new illustration project I am setting myself which shall be revealed when I am finished probably in about 10 days time. Yesterday began rainy and gloomy but then the weather brightened and I thought I would go ahead and make my little pink meringues.....but I was wrong, the weather went down the tubes and up the spout and I ended up with crinkly, uneven and sticky meringues that won't work for their intended purpose...so it is indeed true, not that I didn't believe it, that you can't make meringues in rainy weather
Here are the crinkly baked meringues, craggy finish and all. I will have to wait until the projected tropical weather weekend we are now looking forward to to make the meringues again.
Harry is considering whether he should check out the meringues or not.....

...curiosity got the better of him!!

Let's bakes a Simnel Cake for Easter!

Lucie came over to help me bake my first Easter Simnel Cake but was so competent and enthusiastic she ended up doing all the work whilst I gave out the orders and drank gallons of tea...cruel me!!
Here is Lucie's perfect cake glazed with apricot preserves ready for the eleven 'apostles' waiting in the background to be set in place.
...and here is the final result...a marzipan layer on the top of the cake and eleven balls of marzipan with toasted almonds affixed to their summits.....in the background is the list of baking classes and circled in red are the ones Lucie and I are looking forward to at the Good Table
A close up of the beautiful Simnel cake...in case you are wondering why the marzipan isn't the usual luminous yellow, it is because it is homemade with the whole almond and not skinned almonds as used commercially...thought I'd hang on to a few extra vitamins and minerals wherever I could!

SIMNEL CAKE
This is a traditional Easter Cake eaten in Britain. I'm not sure how often these days but certainly it was very popular in the past. Apparently this cake was originally associated with British 'Mothering Sunday', which is the fourth Sunday in Lent and is also known as 'Refreshment Sunday' (a day when the fasting of Lent could be relaxed somewhat). In Medieval times it was the Sunday on which one returned to the 'Mother' Church or Cathedral to worship. By the mid-seventeeth century it was more closely linked with the family and every child living away from home, including servants and apprentices, would return bearing gifts and food. Many girls would bake a Simnel cake for this special day of family feasting. Why it has become more associated now with Easter is unclear but what is clear is that the eleven, sometimes twelve, balls on the top of the cake are representative of the apostles...eleven being the number if you don't think Judas deserves a place.
Here is the recipe for a 6" round cake, for an 8" please double the recipe: Taken from 'The Festive Food of England' by Henrietta Green

INGREDIENTS:

Almond Paste/Marzipan:

12oz confectioner's sugar/icing sugar

12oz ground almonds (with skins or without)

3 large egg yolks (not recommended in areas where salmonella is a problem or for anyone in ill health...if this is the case I would purchase the marzipan)

1 teaspoons of lemon juice

1 teaspoon of orange flower water (this may be hard to find but it is worth the effort)

1 teaspoon almond extract

Cake:

3 1/2 ozs unbleached flour

1 oz rice flour

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon mixed spices (I used, yes you guessed it!, nutmeg with cardomon and allspice together)

pinch of baking powder

4 oz butter

4 oz soft brown sugar

2 eggs seperated and whites whisked to stiff peaks

1/2 oz ground almonds

1 tablespoon dark rum (you can leave this out if you want)

zest of one lemon, preferably organic

4oz currants

4 oz sultanas (white plump raisins)

2 oz candied orange and or lemon peel

2 tablespoons apricot jam

The night before I baked this cake I soaked the dried fruit in tea...I like doing this to plump the fruit and give it a sophisticated flavour but it is not necessary to do this step.

TO MAKE ALMOND PASTE/MARZIPAN:

1. Sift confectioner's/icing sugar into a bowl, add the almonds and mix around.

2. Lightly beat egg yolks, orange flower water, lemon juice and almond extract.

3. Add liquid to dry ingredients and knead to a smooth paste.

I had to work a little with this to get it non-crumbly...adding a bit more liquid and kneading quite a lot, but I did eventually get there! Maybe my ground almonds with the skins is drier than without?

TO MAKE THE CAKE:

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare your cake pan, butter it first, then cut a disc of parchment to fit into the bottom of the pan, butter the parchment and then flour the pan.

2. Sift flours into a bowl with baking powder, spices and salt.

3. Cream butter and sugar together 'til light and fluffy.

4. Beat eggs into butter and sugar one at a time and cream well.

5. Add almonds, rum and lemon zest and mix well.

6. Fold about one third of the dry ingredients into the butter mix.

7. Gently fold in the egg whites, alternating with the rest of the flour and the dried fruit.

8. Make eleven or twelve small balls with the marzipan, then cut remainder of it into two pieces. Roll out each piece to fit the diameter of your cake pan.

9. Spoon half the cake batter into the prepared pan, lay one of the discs of marzipan onto this and gently pat down, then spoon in the rest of the cake batter and smooth flat.

10. Bake your beauteous little cake in the oven...for my 6" I baked it for one hour and then put a buttered parchment disc on the top to prevent it browning too much and baked it for about another 25 minutes (The recipe says for the larger size to bake for 2 hours before you put on the parchment)

11. Take your cake out and let it cool on a rack.

12. Warm some apricot jam in a pan and glaze the top of the cake.

13. Lay the other disc of marzipan on top of the cake and pat down, add your 'apostles' with more of the apricot jam et voila!!!!

I CAN'T WAIT TO HAVE A PIECE: Lucie and I have decided to be as pure as the driven snow and eat the cake tomorrow on the day it was intended for....

WHAT'S MADE OF ALMOND PASTE AND SWINGS FROM CAKE TO CAKE??

TARZIPAN!!!

Thank you LEA for the birthday funds to procure the ingredients for this lovely cake...James and I will have a piece for you on Easter Sunday!!

Hot Cross Buns...one a penny, two a penny....

Hot Cross Buns are very traditional in Britain for Good Friday. They are a humble, subtle little bun...not very exciting, not very unusual but they are consumed in great quantities around this time of year. The cross commemorates the cruxificion of Jesus. Hot Cross Buns actually baked on Good Friday...unlike mine which were baked yesterday in preparation for today's posting....are believed to never go mouldy and may be hung from kitchen ceilings to ward off evil.....but then they are not so tasty!

THE RECIPE

taken from "The Festive Food of England" by Henrietta Green

1/2 oz dried yeast

1/4 cup soft light brown sugar

3/4 whole milk warmed to 80F

4 cups unbleached flour

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons mixed spice (I did 1 teaspoon of my beloved nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon allspice)

1/4 cup of butter (as usual I use salted)

2 eggs beaten

1/2 cup of currants

scraps of pastry if you have them (I didn't)

MAKE SURE ALL INGREDIENTS ARE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE!

1.Sprinkle the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar onto 2/3 cup of warmed milk, whisk together and wait about 15 minutes until nice and frothy.

2. Sift the flour, spices into a large bowl and add remaining sugar and pinch of salt.

3. Add the creamed yeast, the remaining milk and whisked eggs and mix together.

4. Knead into a soft dough, scatter the currants over the dough and knead again 'til evenly distributed. Cover and leave for 1 hour in a warm place 'til almost doubled.

5. Have ready two lightly buttered muffin tins.

6. Knock down the dough and knead for a couple minutes more.

7. Make a small ball of dough big enough to fill each space about 2/3rds full...repeat to fill all the muffin spaces.

8. Leave to rise again in a warm place for another 15 minutes,

9. Brush the buns with a glaze..either whisked egg white or in my case a sugary concoction of hazlenut simple syrup..yum, yum.

10. If you have spare pastry cut it into thin strips and lay over the buns in a cross, if you don't just slash the top of the buns deeply in a cross.

11. Bake in a 425F oven for about 15-20 minutes until nicely browned.

You can eat these buns hot or cold, with or without butter, with or without jam...but definitely with a steaming cup of tea!!! I kept them overnight in a cookie/biscuit tin and when I opened the tin this morning the smell was delicious.

"Hot cross buns, Hot cross buns,

One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns.

If you don't like them give them to your sons,

If your sons don't like them give them to your daughters,

But if you have none of these little elves,

Then you must eat them all yourselves"

Now, here's two questions , no three, about this little ditty:

1. How come the sons get first dibs?

2. Does this even rhyme?

3. This is not good advertising for Hot Cross Buns as it implies nobody will like them...so who made it up?...a baker who couldn't sell them?

HAPPY BAKING!!!

We're sugaring down in Maine!

It's one of those scuddy cloudy, sun and brighty March days here in Maine and we are collecting our maple sap.......
...in possibly the smallest sap buckets known to man...everyone else uses 5 gallon buckets...not me, they just aren't cute enough!
The sap has been flowing intermittently as the temps have been up and down the last few days but today it is flowing like a raging torrent...well not quite, more of a constant trickle, but certainly better than yesterday when it was freezing coming out of the tap!! I am awestruck at how much water you have to boil out of the sap...the ratio is about 43:1 so I am going to have to collect 43 gallons of sap to end up with 1 gallon of maple sugar, no wonder the divine stuff is so expensive. I am aiming more realistically for a pint, and then I will consider myself lucky!!

Here is Eleanor wondering when she gets to taste the sap which you can see frozen into a doughnut shape...yum, maple doughnuts...that sounds good to me. Alas, I don't have a recipe for today but I did just see a delicious looking one on David Lebovitz's blog so hop on over there for Giovanna's Maple Creams.

I would show you a picture of the actual sugaring down on our trusty old wood burning stove but I have to admit I am too embarrassed at it's current state of dirt and rustiness after a hard winter of constant burning day and night. I am delighted to be able to do the sugaring down on the stove which we are still using to warm the house so I am killing two birds with one stone...apparently this is not such a bright idea as there is the possibility of my coating the entire house with sugar sap but so far it hasn't been a problem and honestly you saw the size of my buckets....we will be lucky if we end up with 4 fluid ounces of that delicious golden liquid, nectar of the Gods. When I have completed the process I will post a Brit recipe which uses maple sugar but I haven't decided on one yet.

HAPPY MAINE MAPLE SUNDAY!

Melting moments...please!!!

In a desperate attempt to help the mounds of dirty snow dissipate I decided to make one of my favourite cookies which just happen to be called MELTING Moments, also known as Viennese Swirls (does everything in England have more than one name I ask??) These sublime little cookies/biscuits really, honestly do just wisp away in your mouth, it is quite extradorinary how they do it, AND they are very simple to make.

MELTING MOMENTS: From 'Irish Traditional Food' by Theodora FitzGibbon

10oz butter (as always I like mine salted)

2oz icing sugar/confectioner's sugar

8oz sifted all purpose flour

2oz cornflour/cornstarch (same thing on different sides of the pond:))

(for equivalent US measurements check out Sue Palletts link in my web/blogroll in the right hand column aways down from the masthead...thanks!!)

Lashings of vanilla buttercream...or any flavour really, almond would be good, anything flavoured with almond is good in my book.

1. Cream the butter and sugar 'til very light

2. Sift both flours together and add gradually mixing well after each addition.

3. Either pipe the dough as I did in the pictures above (other wise you can't call them Viennese SWIRLS)...or if you don't do the piping thing drop small spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet.

4. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350F until 'set' and very slightly browned.

5. Cool on a baking rack and then snadwick, or even, sandwich together with your lashings of buttercream.

6. Eat and melt!!!

Happy Baking and melting...Patricia

Spring is coming...it is HONEST!!!

Spring simply must be coming because I am now the proud owner of this little pink chick...and chick's are born in spring right???...or at least near Easter because chick's are associated with Easter...anyways I bought the chick from the same place (Left Bank Books, Searsport) I purchased these lovely little boxes of Italian candy/sweets....aren't they adorable, look - the pink one says "Fairy Wood Fragrance", doesn't get any better than that!! The chick decided on his own about the red ball.....
...and then there's this sign....the very tiny tips of daffodils, I just spotted them this morning and I am thrilled...this winter may really, in fact, END!!!
Then there's this sign...the shadow can only mean one thing...SUNSHINE! ...and thank goodness temperatures above 32F/oC, the snow is melting...I am so happy!!!...anyone who has made it through this winter in Maine knows exactly how I feel...congrats to all of us if we haven't been institutionalized!!