Happy Beautiful Earth Day One and All!!

Some recent beautiful creations by Mother Earth!!

Jam Roly Poly in honour of St. George's Day April 23rd

Here is my Jam Roly Poly in all it's stodgy glory basking in a pool of duck egg custard (eggs courtesy of my friends Jay and Gail...thank you!), 'stodgy' being the British word for stick-to-your-ribs, heavy, filling comfort food that is usually very high in the carb department...this one fits the bill big time!! St. George would be very proud!!
St. George is the Patron Saint of England, April 23rd is his feast day and is also the day Shakespeare's birthday is officially celebrated too...pretty heady stuff if you ask me!!

And now for the Roly Poly...nursery food of the highest order and one of those war time type puddings where the merry wives of England attempted to make something delicious out of almost nothing!!
THE RECIPE:
4 oz unbleached white flour
2oz shredded suet (hard to find sometimes I found mine at Farmers Fare you could try substituting butter but it will be different...how I couldn't tell...a bit more greasy I think)
2 tablespoons sugar
Good pinch of salt
4-6 tablespoons cold water
3 big tablespoons of warmed JAM.....preferably strawberry or raspberry to be traditional but I used blueberry because I live in Maine
A little milk for brushing
One lonely little egg whisked also for brushing
METHOD:
1. Rub the shredded suet into the flour along with the sugar and salt.
2. Add water spoon by spoon until the dough sticks together but is not sticky.
3. Turn dough onto a floured board and roll out to about 4" by 8" rectangle.
4. Spread chosen jam over dough but keep 3/4" clear of all the edges.
5. Fold over long edges and press lightly down...the object is to prevent the jam escaping when you roll the roly poly up...see pic below...

6. Brush milk on to turned over edges and start to gingerly roll up the poly as below being careful to seal the edges as you go but not squeeze the jam out either.7. Here's how your poly should look...like a great big sausage roll...no jam escaping here!!...seal well you don't want get that roll soggy!! Sprinkle with sugar and wrap up in a layer of parchment and then a layer of aluminium foil

8. Now put the wrapped sausagey thing into the top of a steamer and steam the living daylights out of it for about 1 1/2 hours...thus..

9. This is unusual but I took the roly poly out of it's wrapping, sprinkled it with more sugar and then baked it in a 400F oven for about 15 minutes to dry and crisp the exterior...as below. And there you have your Jam Roly Poly...not the most exciting of desserts, sorry puddings, not the most elegant...a humble little pud that is oh so very traditional...I had it for pudding at school!!

CUSTARD SAUCE, ANLANN CUSTAIRD
from "Irish Traditional Food" by Theodora FitzGibbon, a goodly trusty cookbook
1 heaped tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 duck egg and 1 duck egg yolk whisked together, large regular eggs work just as well
10 fl oz/ 1 1/4 cups whole milk

1. Beat together the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and sugar in a bowl.
2. Have another double boiler on the go.
3. Heat the milk to almost boiling in the top part of the double boiler but on the stove top to make it go faster.
4. Stir a little of the hot milk into the egg mix and then a bit more to temper the temperature.
5. Then put the top part of the double boiler back over the bottom and the boiling water and whisk the egg and milk mix into the rest of the milk
6. Do not leave the custard alone now until it is finished or it will curdle whilst you are not looking and you will have to start again. SO stir and stir and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to thicken and coats the back of the spoon as in the picture below...you take the spoon out of the custard, turn the spoon over, run your finger through the custard and if the line doesn't fill back in it is ready, don't let it cook too long or get too hot as the eggs will start to turn into scrambled eggs and the sauce will be grainy.....take off the heat immediately and continue to stir.

THE TRUE DRAGON

St George was out walking
He met a dragon on a hill,
It was wise and wonderful
Too glorious to kill

It slept amongst the wild thyme
Where the oxlips and violets grow
Its skin was a luminous fire
That made the English landscape glow

Its tears were England’s crystal rivers
Its breath the mist on England’s moors
Its larder was England’s orchards,
Its house was without doors

St George was in awe of it
It was a thing apart
He hid the sleeping dragon
Inside every English heart

So on this day let’s celebrate
England’s valleys full of light,
The green fire of the landscape
Lakes shivering with delight

Let’s celebrate St George’s Day,
The dragon in repose;
The brilliant lark ascending,
The yew, the oak, the rose

© Brian Patten 2008
Brian Patten, a poet from Liverpool, was commissioned by English Heritage to write this poem to revive the waning interest in celebrating St. George's Day...thanks Brian!
On St. George's Day you are supposed to wear a red rose in your lapel in remembrance.
Happy St. George's Day everyone!!

Happy Easter one and all!!!

The Easter Bunny says "Happy Easter to you and yours, have a fun day and don't eat too much chocolate or you'll have tummy ache later today""

Our Easter Bunny had three beautiful golden eggs, like the one above, which were given out at the First Farmers Fare EGG stravaganza to the lucky children who won their category of Egg Hunt. James made them especially for the occasion...thanks James!!

Sedgemoor Easter "Cakes"

CAKES??? Quoi?? Don't know why these are called cakes because they are made like biscuits/cookies and they end up like such!! They are good though, and I can't wait to dunk one in a steaming hot cup of tea.....James said they taste like Christmas in a cookie, which may be because the recipe is the old English standby of various, sundry and seemingly unending combinations of flour, sugar, better, eggs, dried fruit and candied peel. I searched high and low for a more elaborate Easter recipe to do but honestly the only other one I came up with that is traditionally British is Simnel Cake which I did last year...(you can do a search up in the left hand corner for this, I tried to do a link here but it didn't work)....it was LOVELY though and again a combination of the heretofore mentioned ingredients....make them both I say!!! Cookie cakes and a cake!!
Here's todays easy and quick recipe:
"Sedgemoor Easter Cakes" from a recipe in "Good Things in England" by Florence White...a great compendium of wonderful old English recipes...recently republished and available through Persephone Books

White flour 8ozs/2 cups
Butter (salted for me please) 4ozs/1 stick
Fine sugar 4ozs/1/2 cup
4ozs/1/2 cup plus a little more currants/raisins/white raisins/sultanas...whatever you prefer...I prefer sultanas because they are juicier
2ozs candied peel...I made my own and did orange and Meyer lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
(I personally am not that keen on mixed spice and cinnamon so I put in 1 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, my fave!)
1 egg whisked
2 tablespoons of brandy (I didn't have brandy on hand so I used maple syrup so I wasn't missing out on this amount of liquid)
1. Rub the butter into the flour
2 Add sugar, dried fruit, candied peel and spices..and gently mix in
3. Add brandy, or in my case maple syrup!, to the egg, mix and then mix into the dry ingredients.
4. The mix/dough is very sticky so blend as well as you can and then just tip it all onto a well floured board and gently squush together until it is ready to roll out...I actually didn't even use a rolling pin...I just used the flat of my hand and pushed it into the shape I needed...a 1/2" deep round.
5. Cut out circles of about 3" diameter...you should get about 5 or 6...transfer to a cookie sheet.
6. The recipe says bake in a moderate oven which I translated to 325F for about 25 minutes...I actually turned mine over when I could see they were getting quite brown on the bottom and were not done on the top...and I think I overbaked them a little, which I have a tendency to with cookies/biscuits, follow your intuition...they should be nicely golden brown.
7. Ta dah!! Let them cool and munch away!!

The 'cakes' before and after...

The first daffodil.....right on cue!!! Well done little flower and welcome!!

More daffs on the way and some lovely bright crocus...hello!!

And a picture of what we call the enchanted forest next to the house...plenty of daffs here...hooray!!

I'll be with you again on Sunday...just to say "Hi"

Easter SUGAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!!!!!! My dear friend Arabelle, pillow maker to the stars, has sent me enough Easter sweets to sink the Titanic and I couldn't possibly be happier...what a treasure trove of good old fashioned sweeties from Blighty....as each delight was removed from the cardboard box a swelling of oohs and ahhs reached piercing heights and now all I have to do is sit on my hands until Sunday when I can eat to my hearts content, I have forsaken sugar for Lent and Sunday is THE day....sugar coma here I come...not to mention I'll be baking my socks off on Saturday for of course I will also need CAKE!!!!! Come visit me in the hospital!!

Her Majesty is THRILLED, "Thumbs up Patricia!!", I am supporting British sweetdom and the potential for more bad teeth although sadly Cadbury's was just recently sold to a US candy company and what does that mean for the corner sweet shop of yore??

Sappy Saturday is almost here!!

Dear Readers....although I won't be making a divine dessert for Sappy Saturday I have in it's stead organized a little feastival of mapleness at Farmers Fare in Rockport, where I am now the cyber content personage and help in things eventful of the food variety!! What fun!! and how lucky am I??
Here is the description for tomorrows jollities:

Come celebrate this year's maple season by sampling an array of maple flavored delights this Saturday March 27th from noon to 2:30pm at Farmers Fare, Rockport, Maine.

Rob of the Moonlight Maple Company in Mount Vernon will be serving samples of his maple products. Along with Rob's delicious treats there will be Maple BBQ Pulled Pork and Maple Pecan Upsidedown Cake, Maple Crumb Muffins, Maple Custard Pie and Maple Bread Pudding to be sampled and sold in the cafe. To improve an already fabulous day Gelato Fiasco will also be sampling some gelati made with maple syrup as a key ingredient and Great Salt Bay Seasoning will be joining us again to sample their wonderful Smoked Maple Seasoning. Samples of Swallowtail Farms Maple Kefir and Yoghourt and Tropical Maine's sauce will also be available...YUM!!!!!!! How much more SAPPY can you get??

The next day, Sunday March 28th, is Maine Maple Sunday when you can visit sugar houses around the state to see how maple syrup is made.
NB: Because I have copied and pasted some text into here it is all over the place and I don't seem to be able to make it consistent..my apologies!!

A poem for Saint Patrick's Day

"AMHAIRGHIN"
anonymous

I am the wind which breathes upon the sea
I am the wave of the ocean.
I am the murmur of the billows.
I am the ox of the seven combats.
I am the vulture upon the rocks.
I am a beam of the Sun.
I am the fairest of plants.
I am a wild boar in valour.
I am a salmon in the water.
I am a lake in the plain.
I am a word of science.
I am a point of a lance in battle.
I am the God who created in the head the fire.
Who is it who throws light into the meeting in the mountain?
Who announces the ages of the Moon?
Who teaches the place where couches the Sun?

This is the oldest known Irish poem, of Medieval date, and I am dedicating it to my dear departed Mum and Dad who were born in Galway City, and all my rellies far and wide.

My St. Patrick's Day recipe: "Apple and Oatmeal Cake - Ciste ull agus mhin choirce"

St. Patrick's Day is coming up pretty sharpish and here is my recipe for this year made from good old Kate's Butter from Old Orchard Beach, Swan's Honey and local Granny Smith apples.
The recipe is called:

 "Apple and Oatmeal Cake - Ciste ull agus mhin choirce"

from Irish Traditional Food by Theodora FitzGibbon
It's actually more like a slice that is quite granola-ey with apple in the middle. It is not very sweet but quite wholesome and chewy.

INGREDIENTS:
2lbs of Granny Smith, or any tart, firm apple, peeled, cored and sliced

15 ozs medium oatmeal (not instant)

6 heaped tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

8 heaped tablespoons raisins

6 ozs, 1 and 1/2 sticks salted butter, preferably Kate's

3 heaped tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons of honey

grated rind of 1 lemon

2 large eggs beaten

Lashings of cream to pour over the finished product!!

 DIRECTIONS:
1. Simmer the apples with the 6 heaped tbspoons sugar and cinnamon until they are very soft, you may have to add a little water to get them mushy...I did.

2. Add in the raisins and leave the mixture to cool.

3. Melt butter, brown sugar and honey in a small pan.

4. Combine the oatmeal with the lemon zest.

5. Pour the honey butter mix over the oatmeal and lemon and mix well.

6. Add the beaten eggs to the oatmeal mix and again mix well.

7. Divide the oatmeal mix into 3 portions.

8. Press one third of the oaty mix into a 9"cake tin with a removable base, then spread half the apple mix over this, then a second layer of oat mix, then another layer of apple, and finish with the last of the oat mix.

8. Ta dah...it's ready to go in the oven...Lucie and I made 2 different sizes of 'cake', we followed the recipe in the book and added half again but with the amount we had we could only do 2 layers of oat and one of apple, see Lucie with our efforts below and her cute little St. Pat's green wristband... so I am giving you the quantities for 3 oat and 2 apple in a 9" diameter springform pan.

9. Bake in a pre heated 375F oven for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown as below....

Below is a picture from the side nice and close so you can see the layers...yum!!

James poured some maple syrup over his...which I have already boiled down from the sap I have been collecting for the last week or so, see my little sap buckets below,...you could also pour some Golden Syrup over and maybe some nice heavy/double creammmmmmmm...

HAPPY ST. PATRICIA'S, sorry, ST. PATRICK'S DAY...don't drink any green beer for heavens sake!!!! When I was little my Mum's relatives in Ireland always used to send over little boxes with water soaked cotton wool and sweet little bunches of shamrock!! How lovely!!

This blogpost is part of the Saint Patrick's Day bloghop at Butterceam Bakehouse

You can purchase my Saint Patrick's Day design, which celebrates the great friendship between the US and Eire, at my CafePress shop HERE

I'm so excited!!! I have a new toy....

Just a small post dear friends to say how excited I am that James has procured for us a wondrous refurbished large format printer which is archival and wonderful and OOOOH la la divine......this means that I can now offer my work as prints on nice watercolour paper, nice and big and non-fading (within reason of course), I do so like to hang on to my originals, I have such a hard time parting with them and now I have another avenue to explore where I don't have to say "Au revoir" to my creations. I didn't think a printer of this caliber would ever be within my reach but people the prices are dropping like lead pickles from the sky and yea!! for that!! If you have an interest in any image you have seen here on my sugary blog as an archival print do drop a line by clicking on "View my complete profile" in the right hand column under my profile pic where there is a link to my e-mail....wish me luck, I'll be printing late into the night...and of course now I have to rescan a lot of work at higher rezes in order to enlarge the original image as a print....but no complaints from me.....I have a 'new' printer!!

A stalwart pumpkin and a list of fun food holidays!!

Hasn't my Hallowe'en pumpkin been a brave little guy...he's been outdoors now since before Hallowe'en and been rained, sleeted, iced and snowed upon since then...if you look inside he's actually desiccated and quite fascinating...good on ya Jack!!

I was doing some research for Farmers Fare (where I am now the cyber content personage) on food holidays for us to co-ordinate with special food events at the market and look what I found...this is just a part of the list I discovered and I have edited it to the kind of things I like, especially desserts. I'll be doing some posts here on the blog to co-ordinate with some of these fun days and will let you know what's happening at Farmers Fare on the days they are celebrating too!!

JANUARY
National Soup Month
Jan 23rd National Pie Day

FEBRUARY
National Sweet Potato Month
Feb 16th Shrove/Pancake/Fat Tuesday
Feb. 26th National Pistachio Day

MARCH
March 14th UK Mothering Sunday
March 17th St. Patrick’s Day...nothing green please unless it is spinach!!
March 19th National Poultry Day
March 25th Waffle Day
March 27th Maple Syrup Saturday...I am organizing an event at Farmers Fare for this one called "Farmers Fare gets Sappy", here is a link to their events page for more info on what we will be doing that day!!
March 28th Something on a Stick Day...yea for that one!!!/Also Maine Maple Sunday when the Sugaring Shacks around the state are open for visits.

APRIL
April 4th Easter Sunday
April 14th National Pecan Day
April 19th Garlic Day
April 23rd St. George's Day
April 25th National Zucchini Bread Day

MAY
National Egg Month
National Salad Month
May 4th National Candied Orange Peel day...an odd day to choose for this I think...shouldn't it be nearer Thankies and Christmas?? Maybe this is when oranges are harvested...anyone know?
May 9th Mothers Day US
May 31st National Macaroon Day

JUNE
National Iced Tea Month
National Dairy Month
National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month
June 5th National Doughnut Day...yea!!!
June 17th Eat your vegetables day
June 20th Father’s Day
June 22nd National Chocolate Eclair Day!!

JULY
National Ice Cream Month...Gelato Fiasco where are you??
July 1st Creative Ice Cream Flavour day
July 2nd National Ice Cream sandwich day
July 18th National Ice Cream Day...is this the only thing Americans eat in July???, oh no wait the 18th is also Caviar Day!!!
July 30th National Cheesecake Day

AUGUST
Peach month!!
August 1st Blueberry, blaeberry, whortleberry, hurt, whimberry , fraughn or hurtleberry Sunday...mostly in Ireland
Aug 2nd National Ice Cream Sandwich Day
Aug 19th Potato Day....big Maine one!!!
Aug 30th National Toasted Marshmallow Day

SEPTEMBER
All American breakfast month
National Chicken Month
National Honey Month
National Mushroom Month
Sept 14th National Cream Filled Doughnut Day...I like this one!!

OCTOBER (Great Maine Apple day is in Oct but I can’t find the date yet!!)
National Pizza Month
National Pasta Month
Vegetarian Awareness Month
October 1st World Vegetarian Day
October 9th Mouldy cheese day...I like this one too...Stilton YUM!!!!!
Oct 31st Halloween

NOVEMBER (Stir Up Sunday is in Nov but not sure of that date yet....when you make your Xmas puddings!!)
National Pepper Month
Nov 3rd Sandwich Day
Nov 5th Guy Fawkes Night in Blighty
Nov 13th National Indian Pudding Day
Nov 25th Thankies

DECEMBER
Dec 5th National Sacher Torte Day
Dec 9th National Pastry Day
Dec 15th National Lemon cupcake day (why just lemon I ask??)
Dec 21st National Hamburger Day
Dec 24th Christmas Eve...Trieze Desserts in France
Dec 25th Crimbly!!!
.........and my personal favourite and the one I just can’t wait for
Dec 30th National Bicarbonate of Soda Day!!!!!’

If anyone has any fun food holidays to add please let me know, especially from other parts of the world.....thanks!!! and Happy Cooking of every kind!!

Pink, red, butter, sugar........CAKE!!

HONESTLY...is this corny enough for you? For those of you in Blighty these are Valentine Candy Corns...in case you don't get the oh so subtle joke there!!

Lucie and I decided for Valentine's Day we would decorate some cupcakes..above are our Valentine's sugary accoutrements!!

and the essential buckets o'buttercream...yes that is chocolate buttercream...I do like chocolate in that instance...and also in chocolate mousse so long as it is not too dark, I am a milk chocolate person, I know it isn't trendy or hip to be so but I have accepted that fact about myself and now I feel I can move forward with my head held high!! Tee hee

Voila...my pink and brown cupcakes...ah yes that is a chocolate truffle, homemade of course, atop one of the cupcakes pink icing...and a chocolate buttercream rose, which, even though I say it myself, I am quite pleased with...buttercream roses are not so easy to do as the Youtube videos I have viewed for technique portray!!

...and here is Lucie's Plate O"Cupcakes...aren't they lovely!!! Well done Lucie!!
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!

Coeur a la Creme, or in my case Petit Montagne a la Creme, with Lemon Curd!!

Yes, I know I should have little heart shaped molds for this BUT I didn't have any on hand, I did, however, have little flat topped mountain shaped ones so that's what I used! There are two parts to this recipe...the creme part which takes overnight and the curd part which takes about 40 minutes total, so start the day before in order to have it all right 'on the day'

PS The type is all over the place today on this posting and will not behave so forgive me for my inconsistency in typefaces!

CREME RECIPE:

6 ozs cottage cheese

4 ozs cream cheese

¼ cup either sour cream or crème fraiche (I used sour cream)

4 tablespoons of confectioners/icing sugar…more or less depending on your sweet tooth, the recipe I worked from said 1 tablespoon for twice the ingredients but that was way too subtle for moi!!

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

1. In an electric blender, yes I gave in to technology on this one, blend the cottage cheese, cream cheese…you know what, everything above…until super smooth.

2. Find yourself a ceramic mold with holes in the bottom…I don’t know where mine came from but I just happen to have 2 on hand, you can also use small clay plant pots that haven’t been used before and give them a good soapy washing and a good rinse or, if you are very fancy, you can buy the special Coeur a la crème molds which are little ceramic hearts, hence the Coeur part, with holes in the bottom.

3. Cut some squares of cheesecloth (some people use paper towels for this but I prefer cheesecloth which you can actually buy at the supermarket if you look hard enough..try to get the tightest weave you can, not too open)…usually you use two per mold layered one on top of the other, then wet them and wring them out thoroughly, this helps the liquid to drain more easily, if you use dry cloth sometimes it won’t drain at all. Line the inside of the molds with the cloth.

4. Pour the cream mixture into the lined molds until nice and full then tap the molds hard on a smooth surface to help any air bubbles rise to the top and pop away.

5. Put the filled molds on a cooling rack or similar over a plate so the whey can drain away nicely and pop in the fridge overnight.

The Lemon Curd Recipe:

3 egg yolks lightly beaten

½ cup sugar

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ stick/2oz butter (yes I used salted, I like that kind of taste!!)

1. Put a pan of water on to simmer, you’re going to be using a double boiler to make the curd.

2. In another non-reactive pan or glass bowl mix together all the ingredients EXCEPT the butter and then put bowl or pan over the simmering water and stir, stir, stir until the mixture thickens slightly…the sauce can be a little runny when ‘set’…you don’t want it quite so hard as the usual curd…

3. Take curd off the heat and stir in the butter until all melted then allow the curd to cool….you can make this the day before or just before you are ready to unmold the crème.

To assemble:

1. Pour a goodly amount of the curd into the bottom of your chosen crème vessel.

2. Very gently tip a crème out of the mold and very gingerly remove the cheesecloth.

3. Pop the crème into the pool of curd…add a rose geranium leaf for adornment or a strawberry, or a raspberry or whatever you would like…a chocolate truffle…go crazy.

This is a very subtle dessert, the crème is very cremey and just slightly sweet but combined with the tangy bright curd it makes a lovely treat for Valentine’s Day especially so if you can get your hands on some Coeur molds…kind of helps if the dessert is heart shaped!!