Food, glorious food!

Is it worth the waiting for?
If we live 'til eighty four
All we ever get is gru...el!
Ev'ry day we say our prayer --
Will they change the bill of fare?
Still we get the same old gru...el!
There is not a cust, not a crumb can we find,
Can we beg, can we borrow, or cadge,
But there's nothing to stop us from getting a thrill
When we all close our eyes and imag...ine
Food, glorious food!
Hot sausage and mustard!
While we're in the mood --
Cold jelly and custard!
Pease pudding and saveloys!
What next is the question?
Rich gentlemen have it, boys --
In-di-gestion!
Food, glorious food!
We're anxious to try it.
Three banquets a day --
Our favourite diet!
Just picture a great big steak --
Fried, roasted or stewed.
Oh, food,
Wonderful food,
Marvellous food,
Glorous food.
Food, glorious food!
What is there more handsome?
Gulped, swallowed or chewed --
Still worth a kin's ransom.
What is it we dream about?
What brings on a sigh?
Piled peaches and cream , about
Six feet high!
Food, glorious food!
Eat right through the menu.
Just loosen your belt
Two inches and then you
Work up a new appetite.
In this interlude --
The food,
Once again, food
Fabulous food,
Glorious food.
Food, glorious food!
Don't care what it looks like --
Burned!
Underdone!
Crude!
Don't care what the cook's like.
Just thinking of growing fat --
Our senses go reeling
One moment of knowing that
Full-up feeling!
Food, glorious food!
What wouldn't we give for
That extra bit more --
That's all that we live for
Why should we be fated to
Do nothing but brood
On food,
Magical food,
Wonderful food,
Marvellous food,
Fabulous food

* * * * *

When the BBEST team did a challenge last month we were asked to list our favourite seasonal foods on our Member’s Board; the words from Oliver sprung to mind!  Well, we might not be little ‘Olivers’ but one thing this great team has in common….. the love of food, glorious food!

I often used to close my postings by describing my menu for dinner.  Unfortunately, due to heavier commitments this has not appeared lately.  However, this does not mean we do not eat in my household!  Far from it, we still love our food.

In fact, the other day, I decided to make some sausage rolls.  The idea of this recipe and the way I shall present it came from another team member by the name of Joon.  Now, if you know Joon you will know her name is synonymous with every type of recycling.  Check out her shops on Etsy, joonbeam.etsy.com, joonE.etsy.com, flyinghousewife.etsy.com Now, in her blog she details her recipes with pictures which makes it so easy to follow. So, I thought I would take a leave from her – thank you Joon!

Homemade Sausage Rolls!

All I used for this dish was a pack of puff pastry which was ready to roll, a pack of sausage meat, an apple (grated), harrissa seasoning (used in Moroccan dishes with couscous to add a little hot spice), tomato concentrate and a mix of herbs.

The joy of this recipe is that it changes every time you make it!  Just add what you have in your kitchen cabinet and fridge and… create!  Here you will see the bowl in which I have mixed all these ingredients.

Next!

Now to collect the ingredients to make the pastry. You can make puff pastry from scratch but these days what with time constraints, ease of use etc etc we like to make life as easy as possible.

So, open the packet of puff pastry, flour your kitchen surface, roll the pastry into manageable rectangles of roughly 4” x 6”. Take a teaspoon of meat mixture and make a ‘sausage’ to place in the middle of this rectangle.  Sometimes, you can add a little more or a little less.  Then, take your egg which you will have beaten, a pastry brush and smear/paint the edges of your pastry rectangle.  Pack a parcel of your sausage meat and make sure your edges are well sealed.  You will see what happens when you don’t do that in the last picture!

All ready to roll, or cook in the oven at 180C for about 25 – 30 minutes.

Oooooh, the anticipation and the yummy smells that start to emanate from the oven as they start to cook!!!!!

 

The moment of truth!

See what I mean about not sealing the edges properly?  Doesn’t detract from the taste at all.  Mind you don’t burn yourself as these are sizzling hot!

Oh yes, I forgot to say, I got around 12 sausage rolls out of this batch but it will vary according to how large/small you make them.  And, the beauty is that you can freeze them at this stage and just heat them up for 10 - 15 minutes in your oven when you need them!

Bon apetit!

Food, glorious food!  We BBESTers know how to celebrate this!  Often you will find some of our super talented team will be listing something related to food on Etsy such as …

Vintage Golden Shred Marmalade by

Herons Treasures

This image is one that I grew up with in UK but is now no longer PC to create.  A shame as the fellow used to make a lovely, comforting toy doll for kiddies – quite apart from delicious marmalade to be eaten on hot buttered toast!

 

To make us feel a little more chaste about eating healthily what about this image?

 

Juicy Watermelon by Artsy Clay

What tastes better in the summertime than a slice of sweet juicy watermelon?

Well you can dream, can’t you?

 

If you can’t eat these delights, you can certainly taste them when you slide these on your lips!  Yummy Lip Butters by AJ’s Country Cottage’s Shop

Packed with lots of great ingredients such as cocoa butter, shea butter, and soy, these yummy lip balms give your lips just a hint of glossy shine without all the calories!

A great favourite and often a hot topic for BBESTers is that of ‘chocolate’! Here is a delightful image from the Neighbourhood Girl Series by Six Sisters

Chocolate by Six Sisters

A wonderful ACEO hand painted showing one of our favourite comfort foods.

There!  I have said the magic word, ‘chocolate’!!  All feels so much better, it always is such a comfort too.

 

 

And so, my friends, I hope you enjoyed the culinary journey.  Remember to visit to find out more about us and see what is on the menu now!

Breakfast on Saturday night

This past Saturday, as my husband and I prepared our evening meal, a “breakfast-like supper” consisting of fried eggs, bacon and toast, I began thinking about how common it is for our friends and family members to eat a morning meal at the end of the day. When I was growing up, my father peeled potatoes for crisp potato pancakes on Saturday nights, or he mixed a batch of batter and ladled it into our waffle iron. My husband reports that in his family, it was not unusual to have similar meals on weekend nights. In many family-style restaurants, in fact, breakfast or brunch (a combination of breakfast and lunch items served a la carte) is available all day, particularly on weekends. Is this an American custom? I’m really not sure. Ken Albala, in Food in Early Modern Europe, says that the word breakfast comes from the Latin word disjejunare, which means to un-fast. This word became disnare in the Romance languages, or disner in Olde French—eventually dinner in English. “Thus,” says Albala, “the word dinner actually means breakfast.”

Stoneware Batter / Omelet Bowl / Pancake Mixing Bowl
by fehustoneware

I do know that dining traditions—and the times that people eat—differ according to geography, culture, occupation and economic conditions. An exchange student I knew in high school, for example, spent a year in Finland, where she learned to eat six meals a day. When my husband and I lived in southern California, it was commonplace for employers to hire a catering truck to bring in a mid-morning snack that consisted of sugary donuts and over-sized blueberry muffins, hot dogs and chili dogs, and almost anything you could heat in a tortilla: tacos, tamales, burritos,  enchiladas. Farmers and ranchers usually labor for hours outdoors, right after the sun rises, before they sit down to breakfast, and those on a tight budget often take advantage of what the land produces plentifully: grain-based foods.

8.24 ... FooD TrUcK LoVe ... Upcycled Magnets
by joonbeam

In the United States, breakfast traditions have evolved over time. For example, early pioneers followed the lead of Native Americans who grew corn, cooking many corn-based products. These included breads prepared with various methods, such as corn pone pan-fried in oil, griddle-fried Johnnycakes, and ashcakes that were wrapped in cabbage leaves and cooked in the ashes of a campfire. Hoecakes were cooked on yes! the side of a hoe, and corn dodgers were mixed from cornmeal, water, buttermilk and baking powder. It is likely that today’s buttermilk pancakes and tortillas grew out of these early practices.

ACEO Children of the Corn
by VanFleetStreetDesign

In addition to enjoying a broad range of corn-based breads, American settlers’ eating habits were heavily influenced by European dining traditions. Colonists of the late 1600s, for example, ate a simple continental breakfast of bread or porridge, accompanied by beer. By the early 1800s, the continental breakfast included a selection of breads and butter, cold meats, coffee and tea. During the Victorian Age (mid-1800s to 1900), Americans—particularly the middle class—had more income, so breakfasts became wide-ranging affairs with many different foods. These included hot cereal, fish, sausages, meat pies, breads with marmalade, butter and jam, bacon and eggs, fruit and vegetables—not too unlike an American brunch, but perhaps heavier in the meat department. Some typical menu items included broiled mackerel, poached eggs with asparagus tips, lamb chops, muffins, and cheese-and-crackers, served with beverages such as orange juice and coffee.

 Fish Pendant too

by HeronsTreasures

Large Glass Coffee Mugs Hand Painted Black and White
by GlitznGlass

The breakfast cereals of the modern day were not common until the 19th century, when Victorians ate oatmeal. Unlike today’s instant oatmeal, however, they cooked it to death. They soaked the hulled oats overnight in water, then boiled it for four to twenty-four hours. Will Keith Kellogg, a Seventh-Day Adventist, created Toasted Corn Flakes as the result of this tendency to cook oats so thoroughly. He accidentally cooked oats too long; when they dried, they became flakes. But decades before Kellogg’s Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company was founded, the Quaker Oats company registered its cereal as a trademark, and in 1875 began selling oats in boxes. “Quick oats” arrived in 1922, instant oatmeal in 1966, and flavored oatmeal by the 1970s, when many of the younger Boomers were in high school.

Fire King Serving Bowl with Wheat Pattern
by sweetrice

But what about the donuts and pastries that also characterize many American breakfasts? When German, Dutch, and Scandinavian immigrants came to the United States, they brought their coffee cake recipes with them. These original cakes were not the sugary concoctions with which most of us are familiar, but bread-like baked goods. Over time, however, they changed. In the kitchens of northern European immigrants, coffee cakes became donuts and pastries filled with sugared fruit, cheese, yogurt and other creamy fillings, accompanied by a cup of coffee and a bit of friendly chat known as a Kaffeeklatsch. According to Evan Jones in his book, American Food: The Gastronomic Story, “. . . . The term coffee klatch became part of the language, and its original meaning—a moment that combined gossip with coffee drinking—was changed to define the American version of England’s tea, a midmorning or midafternoon gathering at which to imbibe and ingest . . . .”

Vintage 1979 Wilton Oval Cake Pans Set of Two with Insert
by bythewayside

I’m still not sure how breakfast has evolved into an evening meal, but Regina Charboneau, who writes for the The Atlantic Food Channel, suggests that breakfasts for dinner “may have been borne of lean times, maybe after the Civil War or during the Great Depression.” She explains that during the Great Depression of the 1930s, many people from the Deep South were already accustomed to doing without because boll weevils had destroyed their cotton crops. To ease the economic burden this put on families, people stretched their budgets by preparing breakfast for dinner. Whether or not the same reasoning applies today, breakfast for dinner appears to be a common practice—and a tasty one.

Art of the Heart Utensil Holder
by JillsTreasureChest

For more information about breakfast history, visit the following Web sites:

• Breakfast for Dinner, by Regina Charboneau
  
• History of Breakfast In America, by Chris Kimball
  
• The Food Timeline, by Lynne Olver

© 2009 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved. Please note that the images in this post are owned by the artists and may not be used without permission. Simultaneously published at http://sparklines.blogspot.com.

Yes I know it is 3 November but in UK we celebrate Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night on 5 November

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

The picture is of the 'Gunpowder Plot' conspirators

Guy Fawkes & the Gunpowder Plot ....
The words of "Remember Remember" refer to Guy Fawkes with origins in 17th century English history. On the 5 November 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder. Guy Fawkes was subsequently tried as a traitor with his co-conspirators for plotting against the government. He was tried by Judge Popham who came to London from his country manor. Fawkes was sentenced to death and the form of the execution was one of the most horrendous ever practiced (hung ,drawn and quartered) which reflected the serious nature of the crime of treason.

The Tradition begins...
The following year in 1606 it became an annual custom for the King and Parliament to commission a sermon to commemorate the event. A genteman by the name of Lancelot Andrewes delivered the first of many Gunpowder Plot Sermons. This practice, together with the nursery rhyme, ensured that this crime would never be forgotten! Hence the words " Remember , remember the 5th of November" The poem is sometimes referred to as 'Please to remember the fifth of November'. It serves as a warning to each new generation that treason will never be forgotten. In England the 5th of November is still commemorated each year with fireworks and bonfires culminating with the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes (the guy). The 'guys' are made by children by filling old clothes with crumpled newspapers to look like a man. Tradition allows British children to display their 'guys' to passers-by and asking for " A penny for the guy".

******

In the evening as we all gather around the bonfire having placed the 'guy' on the top, favourite foods are on offer such as burgers, hot dogs, jacket potatoes, baked beans. Often the night will be cold so soup would be a very welcome warmer! Or, later partake of some hot chili, bangers and mash, whilst taking off your winter coats indoors. Children might enjoy toasted marsh mallows or toffee apples. As for a drink, a hot punch or mulled wine for the adults and punch made of hot apple juice for the children would be very welcome!

Smaller children might hold sparklers whilst fireworks would be organised by adults for a showing at the end of the evening's entertainment.

Here are some ideas from some of my BBEST friends to remind us of autumn and impending winter as we huddle around the bonfire to keep warm.

Aceo Original Painting Carmel Apple Autumn Treat Quest by

Backroomtreasures

As the moon rises in the sky you might well encounter a scene such as this collage by

Vanfleetstreetdesign

Take a Hike....(Original Collage)

As we stand around, the wind is starting to whip around us; even a few snow flurries could be forecast!

As shown in

Art Quilt Autumn Flurries by

Artmixter

When the festivities are over and the little ones have left to go to their homes and so to bed all that remains is for the adults to round off the evening with a nice mellow glass of wine using these beautifully hand painted ......

Autumn Leaves Wine Glasses by

Glitz n Glass

And so the dying embers from the huge bonfires around the country smoke and splutter their last sounds before collapsing into the scorched soil underneath; next year it all starts again as the children make their 'guys' and look forward to bonfire night!