Celebrating the moments of joy in a journey of making and creating
“Ladies a Plate” is a very antipodean phrase that was tagged to the bottom of many invites. I can remember it on the school notice announcing the annual end of year production. It's code for “make that signature dish of finger food you want people to reminisce about at your funeral”. This book of full of those recipes, and each dish has it's own little introduction and photo. It's a social history of your Nana's tea parties. You might have guessed, I'm a bit of a china floozy, and this book is full of luscious china that your grandmother might have owned. Some would say that owning 5 different tea sets is going over board. I would say that it is being prepared. Ms Johnson looks to be well prepared indeed with different china in almost every picture.
As for cookbook envy, the recipes are a culmination of testing endless variations in community cookbooks. We used to save these book from second hand shops, take them home and admire the old fashioned recipes. Each recipe is credited with it's source. Never did I dream that someone would test and compare them all for me and let me know which was best, without omitting that Elizabeth Messenger's variation in 1957 was pretty good too. You'd also be pleased to know that Mrs S Dunphy, of the Chocolate Caramel Fingers recipe fame, still cooks for the Tokoroa Hospital Cafeteria.
Each time I catch a glimpse of a new piece of embroidered linen in the photos, I just want to whisk it home to line my glory box. Then again, it is wonderful to see it out in the light of day getting used on almost every page.
We've been testing the recipes too. You have to be quick around here. My dearest was able to whip up some afghans before I'd even decided what to bake. Then, as I stocked the pantry to make bumble bees, the coconut disappeared into a batch of coconut whispers. I finally got to test my hand at the chocolate caramel fingers. The recipe is great, you can get a sneak peak at the recipe over here. I wasn't fast enough with the camera either. I missed the coconut whispers and chocolate caramel fingers but I did catch an afghan disappearing.
Little e agrees, the recipes are very good.
My stash of 1930's prints began innocently enough with these two. They appealed to my joint weaknesses for crockery and fabric. I hadn't bought myself to do a count up until yesterday. It appears that there are now about 50 different prints, of various sizes, just begging to be used up.
The colours and prints in this particular quilt remind me of summer shorty pajamas, cool and breezy. If only there were a little more of that today. It has been sweltering hot here, and not cooling down until well into the evening.
e have just returned home from a family trip to Auckland and further afield. We drove 780 km and made it home in time for tea. The trip was helped by a unexpectedly early start on the road and my mother's offer to cook us dinner when we got home. We caught up with lots of friends, though not those with babies, due to us all getting colds. I think that's a holiday thing.
I managed to get to the Calico Christmas Quilt Show and was very restrained in my shopping. I'll post more on that when I get he photos sorted.
My Father-In-Law was married in Whangarei on Saturday (the reason for the trip). It was a nice relaxed event celebrated with friends and family. Little e had a great time and it was very hard to drag her away at her bedtime.
The trip home was an event in itself. We had packed the car the night before. When Little E woke, inconsolable at 12 am there were no bottles or cups handy in the hotel room and she just wanted to go out the door. She got louder and louder, and we already knew that walls were thin. There was nothing for it, really, and so after an hour of tears we hit the road just after 1am to drive home. I wouldn't recommend that trip unplanned but we did get a headstart on the road before she woke again.
One of my earliest memories involving her, was one Christmas when my brother announced that he needed to go to the “loo”. My great aunt was having none of this and my mother was told off for letting us use such coarse language. I still don't know what word she expected us to use. Water closet, maybe? Certainly not that American euphemism, bathroom when really you mean toilet.
She continued to up hold the english language in every way when I was in my teens. There are many words that you read a number of time before hearing them said. Opulent is one of them. My attempts at o-pew-lent were brushed aside with “It's op-ulent, Dear”.
Then there are words that changed in meaning over her life time. Once she told me of a wonderful evening she had had, lamenting that she couldn't just say gay anymore.
When I turned over these plates to check the mark, something my great aunt taught us all, I had to chuckle and I thought of her. The pattern certainly wouldn't be called “Gay Fantasy” today. I love the pattern, so airy with the leaf stencils, and definitely light hearted. My Great Aunt would be proud.
Double Chocolate Mocha Brownie (thanks to an old NZ H&G magazine)
125g butter (melted)
60g cocoa powder
250g caster sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1T coffee liqueur (or 1 t instant coffee in 1 T hot water)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
50g flour (no, this is not a typo)
½ t baking powder
125g chocolate chips
Heat oven to 150 Celsius.
Grease and line 20 cm x 30 cm slice tin.
Mix butter and cocoa.
Stir in caster sugar, vanilla and liqueur.
Add eggs and mix.
Sift over flour and baking powder.
Fold into mixture with chocolate chips.
Pour into tin and bake for approx 40 minutes (check at about 30 min).
One of my passions is china. Some would call it a weakness. Upon seeing laden china cabinets I occasionally have to admit it is a vice. Another vice of mine would have to be fabric and so to combine the two is sublime.
When a friend asked me to make some tea cosies for her store I jumped at the challenge. After pouring over the fabric combinations and thinking about what went with my china this emerged:
Taking a break so to speak and reminding me of the Spanish proverb “How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest afterward”.
I have been busy sewing this week, working on a quilt of dress blocks. While it is not yet finished, I will just mention it in passing, say at this stage it could be more blue than the pink it started as and save the unveiling for later.
