Monday morning prattle . . .

I read a little story this morning about a man whose wife asked him to pop down to the greengrocers and pick her up a head of cabbage. He was a bit perplexed about the size.

"What size?" he asked. "Oh, about as big as your head." was her reply.

Ten minutes later he was back. His wife was absolutely delighted with the cabbage he brought.

"Just right!" she enthused."However did you manage?"

"Simple." was his reply. "I just tried my hat on all of them until I found one that fitted!"

Now that dear friends is what I call using your head! How very intuitive and quite like a man, I think!



I had a lovely phone conversation with dear Lura yesterday. She was getting ready to give a talk at her church Stake's autumn Stake conference and she wanted to run it by me to see what I thought. Of course I thought it was fabulous. You can read it here, as she has posted it on her page. I think it's quite wonderful. I am so very happy that she is doing so much better. I know that it seems to her that it has taken a very long time for her to get to this point. She is now able to work in the Temple again and each day brings her one day closer to being back in full health, although I am sure she will always feel some effects from the accident. I thank the Lord daily that she was spared, she is such a dear friend of mine and I love her so very much! It was a real pleasure to be able to talk to her yesterday. There was a time when I thought I might never be able to speak to her again, so what a blessing it is that I can!

I feel a bit like I am getting the sniffles today. My throat felt a bit funny last night. There were ever so many people out of church yesterday due to illness. It is that time of year isn't it . . . the weather hasn't yet gotten cold enough to kill of any lingering germs from the summer and with the weather swinging back and forth as it does, head colds are bound to crop up. I only very rarely get ill, but when I do it is usually a whopper. I am hoping it doesn't land and settle!


(I love this pic of my mum. She was about 19 or 20 here)

I had a lovely conversation with my mum yesterday as well. As you know I call her every Sunday. I wish I could visit with her in person, but as I can't I make do with a weekly telephone call. She is always very chatty and it is always so very good to hear her voice. I do worry about her being all on her own at this stage in her life. She will be 80 on her next birthday. She was telling me yesterday how outraged she is that her bank will no longer be sending statements in the post, but are asking their customers to avail themselves of the online banking system instead. (In order to help the environment they say . . . more likely to save themselves the cost of paper, print and sending them out, I say!) My mother doesn't have a computer, nor is she likely to get one. So many things are moving to online today and most companies etc. assume that everyone is on the internet, but this is not so. There are still a lot of people who have no internet and no plans for internet. I think it quite unfair to them. There should still be an option open for those who cannot surf the www. (My mother won't even have a debit card. Yes, she is a dinosaur, lol, a very stubborn dinosaur!)



A few snaps of my family recently. I wanted to share with you here this morning. This is by no means all of my family, but just a few shots of some happy moments with a few of them. I love my family very much and am so pleased that bridges seem to have been mended recently. That is a real answer to prayer and a blessing for me. I pray that things continue to improve.

Well, I have prattled on long enough this morning about nothing, so I will end now with a wish for each of you that you have a lovely beginning to your week. I hope that the sun shines down on you and that your cup runneth over with blessings both the big and the small. I do so love you my dear sweet friends. You are a blessing to me that I count every day!



Here is something that I had not made in a while. A delicious lasagne. Todd always says that he doesn't like pasta . . . but he never seems to mind eating this. I tried one of those Linda McCartney frozen veggie ones not too long ago. (They were on special for £1) It wasn't bad, but entirely too runny for my taste. I like a lagagne with substance! One that holds up when you cut a square from it and one chock full of things. I am not fond of lasagne that is all sauce and no filling. Sorry Linda, but it just didn't cut the mustard! This one is very satisfying I have to say. I do hope you will give it a try.


*Marie’s Fantastic Lasagne*
Serves 8
Printable Recipe

This is the best lasagne! Sometimes I do cheat and use a store bought tomato sauce. You can get some very good ones these days. It’s well worth the effort of making your own though! This is a lasagne that you will find yourself thinking about long after you’ve eaten it . . . longing for yet another delicious slice.

½ pound lasagne noodles (I use fresh that I don’t need to cook first)
½ pound extra lean ground beef
½ pound spicy Italian sausage meat (over here I use spicy pork and garlic sausages, removed from their casings)
½ cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 TBS olive oil
3 pounds tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or canned tomatoes, drained)
1 ½ tsp seasoning salt
2 TBS chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 TBS chopped fresh basil
½ tsp dried oregano, crumbled
¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper
BÉCHAMEL SAUCE:
½ cup butter
4 TBS plain flour
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock
1 chicken boullion cube (optional)
1/8 tsp salt
RICOTTA FILLING:
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ pound ricotta cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp salt
CHEESES:
1 ½ cups grated Parmesan Cheese
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated
Butter to dot on top



Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion and garlic until slightly softened. Add the meats and brown them well. Add the tomatoes and spices and simmer on medium heat until the sauce is quite thick, about 30 to 40 minutes.

While the meat sauce is simmering make the béchamel. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring with a whisk for about one minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and the chicken broth. Cook, whisking, until it starts to bubble and thicken. Taste for seasoning. You may need to add the bullion cube for additional flavour. Add salt if needed.

Make the ricotta filling by whisking together all the ingredients with a fork. Set aside.

Once you have all the sauces prepared and the filling ready, pre-heat the oven to 200*C/400*F.

Spoon a bit of the meat sauce into a 13 X 9 inch baking dish. Layer on as follows: half of the lasagne noodles, half of the remaining meat sauce, ½ cup of the Béchamel sauce, ½ cup Parmesan cheese, half of the Mozzarella cheese and half the ricotta. Top with the other half of the noodles and repeat the layers once again. Dot the top with butter and bake in the pre-heated oven , uncovered for at least 30 minutes or more, until bubbly and starting to brown.

*You can make this ahead of time and chill, covered, until needed. It also freezes very well!

We like to serve this with a delicious tossed salad and some freshly made garlic bread.



Cooking in The English Kitchen today, a delicious Mushrooms on Toast, with Garlic, Pancetta and Oregano.

The Big Blue Binder . . .

I have this big blue binder that’s very precious to me. I have carried it all the way across Canada and back again. It’s even followed me here, across the Atlantic Ocean. It’s pages are tattered and splattered and careworn with love. The cover of it is starting to peel a bit from the edges now and I am going to have to do something about that. It’s more than a book, it’s a family history. It’s my Big Blue Binder of recipes that I have been collecting and treasuring now for nigh on up to forty years. It might not be worth much to the trained eye, for at first glance it is very ragged, timeworn and nondescript, but to me it is priceless.



I love to sit down and work my way through it, reading and touching each page as I go. Between it’s pages I can see myself evolving through the years as a cook, from those very first tentative baby steps, lacking in skill and knowledge, right on up to the running steps of my later, more competent, and well studied years. There’s simple basic recipes such as Cream of Potato Soup, all the way up to Tomato Onion Soup Au Gratin, and everything in between.







As a child I loved to thumb my way through my mother’s cookery books and magazines. I would drool over all the recipes and wonder what they tasted like, My mother was a very good cook, but she was a plain cook, and somewhat restricted by my father’s tastes, a man who didn’t want her to use anything to season dishes except for salt and pepper, and who had a very narrow and constricted sense of taste back then. I can remember in my teen years my mother branched out into areas such as Italian Spaghetti and Chili Con Carne . . . and my father loved them, but it took her a very long time to convince him that these dishes were actually quite tasty and worth trying out. People are amazed when they hear that I had never eaten Chinese Food until I was almost an adult, nor had I ever eaten a pizza until I was introduced to it by an old boyfriend of mine. I’ve spent the rest of my life making up for it, and those sheltered first years of my life, and the whole journey is reflected on the pages of my big blue binder.



It’s more than recipes though, because on each page is a memory. There are dishes that I tested on my growing family, and young husband all those years ago. There are recipes tried and tasted in the homes of good friends, and then laboriously copied out and taken home to try again. When I read these pages, I am taken back in my mind’s eye to a simpler day, a time when I was my children’s whole world, and I can see their little faces lined up around the table, waiting in great anticipation for whatever I had cooked them for their tea on any given night. There is Anthony’s favourite “Fly Off The Pan Pancakes“, the page all splattered with days gone by, and Doug’s "Saucy Meatballs", Eileen’s "Chicken Fried Rice", Amanda’s "Butterscotch Marshmallow Squares" and Bruce’s "Favourite Browned Meat Stew".







There are the tried and trues, recipes copied from dishes and delights tried out at the homes of friends through the years, that they so generously shared with me and allowed me to pinch and make my own. Recipes such as Mabel’s French Dressing, Mrs. McNevin’s Applesauce Cake and Leona’s Mocha Slices. Each recipe as distinct as the originator, and when I make them today, I never make them without thinking about their authors and remembering times spent with good friends, and all the love and laughter that we shared together. As my eyes scan the words, I can still hear Leona’s voice in my ear, telling me some tale in her distinctive Northern New Brunswick accent, and some of her unique phrases such as being “madder than a wet hen hauling wood.” My pieroghi recipe takes me back to the company of my good friend Esther, and I can remember a cold Albertan winter afternoon, under her tutelage, where she showed me the authentic way that Ukrainians made their pieroghis, and how much fun we had making them together. Esther had had polio as a child and so was not able to walk without the aid of crutches, but I never saw a mountain that she could not climb. Because I lived away from family for most of those years, my friends became, as they do now, family to me, and so every memory and line on those pages is indeed very precious to me.







I have recipes copied out in my grandmother’s distinctive scrawl, and with Aunt Orabel’s words . . . recipes from the cookbooks of my Aunt Thelma and Aunt Freda. I love the words, and the extra’s written in the margins . . . notes such as “Grammy always heated this” right next to the shortening measure in my grandmother’s Butterscotch Cookie recipe. When I read them I can see my grandmother leaning over the kitchen table, rolling out cookies and the twinkle in her pretty blue eyes . . . and the joy and comfort I felt in knowing that soon I’d be munching on one of them warm, tasty and fresh from the oven . . . and the love. I read the recipe for Aunt Orabel’s Matrimonial Bars, and I can smell the linoleum from her kitchen floor and hear my mother and her talking about family things, and how she always burnt her fingers when frying donuts because she had lost the feeling in the tips of them. Then there is Aunt Freda’s steak casserole, where she notes that she heats a can of gravy on the side . . . and yet another one of hers that has no title, just the ingredients and the notation that she got it from a recipe originally published in the newspaper back home, in October of 1979. An Easter never goes by when I don’t think back and remember my Aunt Thelma’s beautiful Easter breads studded with fruits and covered in delicious sugary icing. These were good cooks, family cooks . . . and these treasured recipes their legacy to me.







There are recipes clipped from out of magazines that took my fancy and that I tried and liked, new family favourites such as Chowder Casserole, Hawaiian Salad, Apple Jonathan and Sesame Beef and Broccoli. All sounding delicious and tasty. Some are quite old fashioned, some are quite modern . . . all are wonderful recipes, and in many ways a time line of cookery throughout the past forty years. I have done small cookbooks for each of my children as they got married, containing their favourites. I even did one for my Eileen when she moved out in to her first apartment. I don’t know if they use them or not, but I expect that they do turn to them from time to time. I hope that they have special memories of the dishes held therein and that they are good memories like the ones I have.







A few years back I catalogued some of the very best of the recipes into a cookbook which I self-published on Lulu Press. You can buy it here. It's very dear though, because of the colour pictures of the food. If I was writing it again I wouldn't put in the coloured photos of the food . . . and I'd probably have sold more. A download is a lot cheaper and just as good I think, maybe even better, because then you can just print and cook as you desire and eventually you would have a Big Blue Binder of your own. I do know that everyone who has ever purchased it has enjoyed it very much, which does my heart good.



As I was thinking about all of this yesterday, my eyes fell upon an old treasure that I had not made in many years, and I had a longing to make it for our supper last night. This was the old way of making macaroni and cheese. It was simple and tasty and always welcome. I’ll try to put it down so you can understand it, for it’s written only as a guideline of what to do, exact amounts having been left out . . . you know how it goes, much knowledge was taken for granted back then, it was expected that a girl would know these things by heart . . .







*Old Fashioned Escalloped Macaroni and Cheese*

Serves 4

Printable Recipe



This is not like macaroni and cheese with a super rich thick sauce, this is old fashioned in both it’s taste and it’s appearance. It is good, plain and simple, every forkful taking you back to a simpler day and time. The leftovers are very good heated up the next day, if anything it tastes even better, but a lot of the old recipes are that way . . .



½ pound of dry macaroni

1 ½ cups of whole milk

½ cup of cream

A knob of butter the size of a walnut

8 ounces of cheese, cut into ½ inch cubes

(I used a mixture of medium cheddar and red Leicester cheeses)

Salt and black pepper to taste

1 cup of soft bread crumbs

Another knob of butter, melted



Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and add the macaroni. Cook according to the package directions and then drain well. Rinse in cold water and set aside.



Pre-heat the oven to 190° C/375° F. Butter a 1 litre casserole dish and set aside.



Put the milk, cream and the first knob of butter into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer, heating only until the butter melts.



Put the macaroni into the buttered baking dish. Stir in the pieces of cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the milk mixture over all. You should just barely be able to see the milk through the top. Mix the melted butter with the soft bread crumbs and sprinkle evenly over all. Bake in the pre-heated oven until bubbly and browned and the cheese is meltingly gooey. Delicious!







Cooking in The English Kitchen this morning another old favourite. Store Cupboard Lasagne Pie

Poetry Saturday . . . A Bird Came Down

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.



And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.



He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head



Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home.



Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.
~Emily Dickenson



I just adore the poetry of Emily Dickinson. (1830 - 1886) She was an American poet, whom lived a quite reclusive life with her family in Amherst Massachusetts. Thought of as being a bit eccentric by the locals she was known for her penchant for wearing white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests, and in her later life, even leave her room . . . most of her social contacts being carried out by correspondance. Today we would call her agoraphobic or it is even possible she had an image dysmorphia disorder. (We have a friend who has a son with this and we have never seen him. He lives his life in his room and on the computer, only coming out at night and to select family members.)



A prolific poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. Upon her death, however, her sister discovered her cache of poems and the actual breadth of her work became apparent. She is considered to be a major American poet. I think it's quite interesting that a lot of successful poets really lived tragic and quite tortured lives . . .

I was busy with brush and paint again yesterday and I finished not one, but two little paintings.



"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." - emily bronte
This would make a delightful wedding or shower card, or thankyou card for someone who has been an attendant at a wedding I think.



And then this one, A Hundred Hearts. I love her apron filled to overflowing with hearts and love.

Of course both are available as prints and or cards! Just send me a message if you are interested! Thanks!

Here's one of my favourite versions of Lasagna. I love lasagna. I could eat it often. Todd, well, he's not so enamoured with it, but then, he is a staid meat and potatoes man. He tolerates it on my account once in a while! (By the way the dish washer arrived and we did our first load last night. Todd managed to successfully plumb it in himself! I was quite amazed! It did take him all afternoon and two trips to B&Q, but he got there in the end!)




*Chicken and Vegetable Lasagna*
Serves 12
Printable Recipe

A delicious lasagna which makes good use of leftover cooked chicken and some of that glut of courgettes from the garden!

For the Sauce:
1 TBS butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
2 cups courgette (zucchini)cut into half moons
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1/3 cup water
1 (14 1/2 ounce) tin of chopped tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano
1 (6 ounce) tin of tomato paste
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

10 uncooked lasgna noodles

For the filling:
2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 medium free range egg, slightly beaten
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Have ready a 13 by 9 inch buttered lasagna dish.

Cook the lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse, drain again toss with a bit of olive oil and then set aside.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat until it begins to foam. Add the onions, mushrooms and courgettes. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are crisply tender (6 to 7 minutes). Stir in all of the remaining sauce ingredients. Leave to simmer while you make the filling.

Combine all of the filling ingredients, except the mozzarella cheese, in a small bowl.

Arrange half of the noodles in the prepared baking pan. Spread with half of the filling. Spoon half of the sauce over top. Sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Layer with the remaining noodles, filling and sauce.

Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 50 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Continue baking for 5 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.



Over in The English Kitchen today, that delicious Boston Cream Pie I cooked for the missionaries!

The Simple Woman's Day book

FOR TODAY, May 24th, 2011...

Outside My Window...
The sun is shining today. We have had a bit of rain, but not a lot and not enough to drench the ground. The days are getting longer. We are now going to bed in light and waking up in light. Mind you, we are early to bedders, and are in bed between 9 and 9:30 every night!

I am thinking...
I got to speak to my eldest grandson on the telephone yesterday afternoon. It was a delight. Todd and I both enjoyed it very much. He had his pre-school graduation the other day and was full of the excitement of that. We spoke about them coming over here next summer. My daughter-in-law's sister will be on Canada's Rowing Team for the Olympics and so they are planning on coming over here and spending some time with us. Todd and I will get to play Grandparents with the kiddies while my son and his wife go down to London for the games. It will be so nice for us. I have never ever gotten to spend any great length of time with my grandchildren so it will be a real treat for sure and the thought of it makes my heart sing.

I am thankful for...
There is always much to be thankful for. Even the worst of times contain small blessings and I think that most of us, in looking back, will find that the worst of times were actually the best of times, if that makes any sense. All things have a purpose and a meaning.

From the kitchen...
Not a lot! But I do have a fridge filled with little tubs of low fat Greek Yogurt! I'm trying to be good.

I am wearing...
A blue Nightie and my slippers. I usually don't get dressed until around 9 o'clock in the morning, a bit earlier if we have something to go to. I am always back in my jammies by early evening as well, unless people are coming over. I would live in them if I could, but alas . . . I can't!

I am creating...
I am getting a special project ready for our Relief Society extra meeting next week. I sure hope that the ladies enjoy what I have planned for them!

I am going...
Not a lot on this week. It's pretty boring really. We have an appointment with the Vet for Miztie tomorrow. She is on a diet and we have to take her in to be weighed. Other than that there are no other pressing matters. We have Stake Conference this weekend at church. The RS is providing food for the Priesthood in between their session on Saturday afternoon and the Family session on Saturday night, so I have a lot to do to get ready for that. We're just doing finger food.

I am reading...




The Work and the Glory, Pillar of Light, by Gerald N Lund

Still reading and enjoying:
PILLAR OF LIGHT begins the saga of the Benjamin Steed family, who, in the fall of 1826, move from Vermont to Palmyra Township in upstate New York in search of better farmland. Almost immediately they meet a young man named Joseph Smith and are thrown into the maelstrom of controversy that swirls around him. Is he deluded farm boy or prophet of God? Does he commune with angels or consort with devils? The answers to those questions - intensely personal, bitterly divisive - will profoundly affect the lives of the Steeds and many others. From the frontiers of early America to the complexities of the last half of the twentieth century, THE WORK AND THE GLORY series chronicles the triumphs and tragedies of one family caught up in the events of the Restoration

There are nine books in the series and this is the third time I am reading them. I always really enjoy them. Gerald N Lund is a brilliant writer. If you are interested in history, and in particular the history of the LDS church, you would really enjoy these books. They are wonderfully written. I highly recommend!

But . . . I am ALSO reading:



A Course In Weight Loss, by Mirianne Williamson

It's early days yet, but I saw the book on Oprah's Favourite Things show. What can I say . . . I like Oprah and she has good taste in books.

Nobody can say it better than the author herself.



I am hoping...
That I can get all that I need to get done for Saturday without too much stressing and also that I can have everything ready for the Extra Meeting next week and that it goes well.

I am hearing...
Early morning sounds . . . the house cracking and snapping as it comes alive. The birds are chirping loudly in the back garden. The tip tapping of the computer keys, Mitzie gently snuffling here next to me on the sofa. Early morning traffic. I love the early morning. It is my favourite time of the day. It is when I am at my sharpest and do my best work and thinking. I am truly a morning person!!

Around the house...
Not a lot. There is a pile of ironing to do, of course, but there always is!!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...
A bit of work, a bit of play and everything in between! No meetings this week. Todd's got some blood tests this morning and I am going to have a cooked breakfast ready for him when he gets back. I am sure he will be starving! We may take a drive out somewhere one day if the weather is nice. I love days out like that, especially with Todd!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...



Elderflowers are in bloom just at the moment. This is the time to gather them in and make your cordials, jams and jellies. Elderflower fritters are also supposed to be good. You can infuse cream with them by warming some cream along with several blooms. Allow the cream to cool, then strain out the blooms. Chill and then whip the cream until light and fluffy. Fold in some cooked gooseberries or fresh berries for a real taste treat. We are quite fond of Elderflower Cordial ourselves. I just buy it bottled. There are some really good ones out there. It's lovely and refreshing chilled and and poured over ice on a warm summer's day!

And just as a closing thought for today . . .

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that's where I renew my springs that never dry up. ~Pearl Buck

It is a good thing to be able to enjoy one's own company I think.

And there you have it . . . my day book for this week. Don't forget to hop on over to the Simple Woman to check out the other day book entries! (Or better yet, do a simple day book entry yourself! It's not that hard and I am betting you would enjoy it!

I'm getting a bit nostalgic in the kitchen this morning with this lovely salad/dessert which goes way back to the 1970's. I can remember eating this at baby and wedding showers, and even weddings! It was very popular at the time and is really quite delish!



*Watergate Salad*
Serves 8
Printable Recipe

I think most people have eaten this at one time or another. It's great for pot luck suppers and the holiday table. We always had it for dessert, not as a salad.

1 (1 pound 4 ounce) can of crushed pineapple,
in 100% pineapple juice, drained - reserve the juice
2 small packages of instant pistachio pudding mix
1 large (16 ounce) tub of Cool Whip, thawed
2 cups of miniature marshmallows
1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Drain the pineapple, reserving the juice. Stir together half of the pineapple juice with the pudding mix until well blended. Gently fold in the Cool Whip, and then carefully stir in the pineapple, marshmallows, and pecans. Add additional juice only if needed. You want this to be moist, but not runny. Cover and refrigerate at least one hour or preferably overnight.



There is even more nostalgia for you today over in The English Kitchen. Delicious Spam Fritters!