Here he is in the Vatican. We had a fabulous trip, but it was hotter than hell, even in Vatican City!!
Home and family
Happy Birthday to the love of my life!
23 years ago today this little guy was born, marking one of the happiest days of my life. Happy Birthday JDDB! Love you to the moon and back!
Oh, go on…be a kid again!
Your body will thank you!
Spring sunset, the view from my window
I love anything beautiful and especially when I don’t have to get off the couch to look at it! Not that I’m lazy or anything!!
Last night this was the view out my window about 7 pm. Pink, yellow, blue and black.
Rhubarb fool
I should have posted this yesterday. But, it isn’t an April fool’s joke, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
Many years ago my mother and I went to England. I had art historical research to conduct and she had a daughter to keep company and London and surrounding areas were the perfect place for both of our activities.
I won’t say that we loved all the food we encountered on our trip. Far from it! Grilled tomatoes and baked beans for breakfast seemed weird, but not nearly as strange as some of the meats we encountered.
High tea at Liberty was a huge success, as was high tea at Harrod’s. I mean, what’s not to love? Pour the clotted cream on anything and I will eat it all up! Maybe even on grilled tomatoes. Well, maybe not tomatoes. But anything else.
But while I have a generalized happy memory of all the dainty sandwiches and biscuits served at high tea, there is only one dessert, or pudding, that I have never forgotten. What made it more memorable was that I found it in a church basement cafeteria, somewhere in London.
My mom and I were visiting this particular church in order to see the 19th century neoclassical sculpture in the nave and when we were done it was lunch time and we were hungry. We realized there was a cafeteria in the basement and made our way there.
I don’t remember what we had for lunch, but I do remember encountering something called rhubarb fool in the pudding section of the cafeteria buffet. I had never heard of a fool, but I could tell it was made with cream and I was sold.
One bite of that rich combination of tart rhubarb compote mixed with whipped English cream and I was in heaven. I’ve never looked back.
Enjoyed with a shortbread biscuit, life is never sweeter!
Here’s a recipe and a link. The internet is full of rhubarb (and other fruit) fool information.
Serves 4
450g rhubarb, roughly chopped
5 tbsp golden caster sugar
300ml double cream
100ml Greek yoghurt
Small bunch of mint, leaves only
1. Put the rhubarb in a pan with 4 tbsp sugar and heat gently, covered, until tender. Uncover, turn up the heat slightly, and allow some of the juice to evaporate. Taste for sweetness, adding more sugar if necessary, then drain the rhubarb, reserving the juice. Allow to cool.
2. Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, then stir in the yoghurt. Fold in the cooled rhubarb, and chill for at least an hour.
3. Serve in glasses with the reserved juice to pour over the top, and a few mint leaves on each portion.
Is fool the finest British summer dessert, both for ease and sheer, simple delight, and if so, what’s your favourite flavour? And what else do you like to do with rhubarb over the summer, now that crumble season’s finally on its way out?
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/apr/12/how-to-make-perfect-rhubarb-fool
Boy bait
You just never know, do you?
When looking for a good recipe for something to go along nicely for breakfast with my Lady Gray tea, I stumbled upon boy bait.
And I must admit I had never heard of! Boy bait?! I absolutely love the name and now I know I must bake a pan of this crazily-named cake.
According to tradition, the year is 1954 and a 15 year old girl entered a Pillsbury Bake-Off competition. She submitted a blueberry coffee cake recipe, which took second place in her age division. When asked about the name of her creation, she said that teen-aged boys found her coffee cake habit forming, so she named it boy bait.
Update April Fool’s Day 2016: from this source comes the recipe and more of the story behind boy bait:
http://www.barefootkitchenwitch.com/the_barefoot_kitchen_witc/2009/07/blueberry-boybait.html
I found it in Christopher Kimball’s The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, which I seem to be turning to a lot lately. I’ve used a couple jam recipes now, and I figured there would be a tempting blueberry (non-jam) recipe somewhere in the pages as well.
Blueberry Boy-Bait does not disappoint. Not only is the cake good, but so is the little story behind the name. Mr. Kimball writes:
“This is my all-time favorite recipe name. It comes from Renny Powell, a teenager from Chicago, who submitted this recipe in 1954 to the Pillsbury $100,000 Recipe & Baking Contest (now known as the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest) and won second prize in the junior division. This is a very light one-layer cake with blueberries and a simple crumble topping. Ms. Powell evidently found it useful in attracting members of the opposite sex and, based on my testing, I would have to agree that it’s pretty good bait. I made a few changes from the original, including reducing the sugar level (recipes from the 1950s are usually too sweet), cutting back on the amount of topping, and increasing the volume of blueberries. We now use this recipe at the farmhouse, so that when neighbors stop by for a cup of coffee we have something to serve with it.”
Isn’t that delightful? You really have to make it now, don’t you?
Okay, here’s the recipe:
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) cold butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, washed, drained, and blotted with paper towels (or frozen blueberries that have been thoroughly thawed and drained)
You can also Google boy bait pudding recipes and find many on the web. Or, you can watch this Youtube video and be inspired.
Be careful, though, you might be swarmed by boys!
Springtime in the Rockies
Poor little lilac buds! Hang in there. Warmer weather is coming!
1920s British beach huts
OMG! Who knew?!!
Having never lived on the British coastline, I had no idea that these so-called huts even existed. Built in the 1920s, these darling little buildings make an appearance on that tv obsession I currently have, The Great Interior Design Challenge, on BBC Two.
You can watch the episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/dn0OtnufTC0
Aren’t they sweet?
So, here are some of the interiors. I want one.
Want to join me?
Here’s a little more into on the place they inhabit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canford_Cliffs
This is considered to be Britain’s best beach hut:
Read about it here: http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/13609885.Mersea_Island___s_Betty_is_Britain___s_best_beach_hut/
Daylight savings is sprung and so am I!
Can spring be far behind?
I’ve spent the last few weeks, since before Valentine’s Day actually, designing flowers for a local florist. Now that spring is more or less officially here, I’m sprung from my little part-time job playing with nature’s bounty.
Here are some recent spring blossoms I’ve been arranging. Love spring flowers!
It was fun for a while, but now its time to work in my garden helping nature produce even more. Ah, spring! I love ya!
Let’s cook! A frittata for a snowy day.
Asparagus, pancetta, green olives, cheeses, baked potato, onion, eggs/cream mixture. Cook on stovetop for 5 minutes and then in oven for 15 @ 350 degrees. Yum.
Good hot or room temp or even cold. Also good between slices of ciabatta as a sandwich with arugula.
get back, lauretta! 
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