Chit Chat (Watermill, Quince, Books, Betrayal, Art and a Pudding)

Small fragments of my week.   

Lots more rain fell this week making the surrounding fields very muddy and under several inches of water in some places.    The water levels at the mill illustrate this quite well.     The mill race has flooded as has the stream to the right, they have joined to become one large pond.

The bountiful quince harvest of autumn allowed me to experiment in how best to use the fruit.   I made lots of quince marmalade, jelly, quince brandy, quince vinegar, cakes and stewed quince, then I froze the rest.     Just a spoonful of quince marmalade/jelly added to a bowl of Greek yogurt makes a delicious desert.    The brandy I gave away as Christmas gifts, along with small bottles of my quince vinegar.

Best of all was the quince vinegar.     I made several pints of that last autumn, as a trial.    I wish I had made it by the gallon.   It is perfect on winter salads.   I have used up all my supplies now, dash it all!    

I hope the quince trees produce lots of fruit again this year.   I will make some marmalade, etc, however, most of the fruit will go towards making plenty of quince vinegar.

Books have been an important source of  interest and entertainment, useful as my back has been going into spasms.   

Old cookery books, plus the autobiography of an old cook,  Florence White, author of 'Good Things in England' 'Flowers as Food' and 'Good English Food'.   She spent many years researching and gathering almost forgotten regional recipes.  Florence didn't marry but she did live on the Continent for several years, spent quite a while in India, worked as a Cook, Social Worker, Broadcaster and Journalist.   In her later years she relied upon what she could earn as a journalist augmented by a small allowance from her brother and sister.   

She mentions that her work was sometimes plagiarised, as in the case where she made a mistake in the quantities required for a regional speciality.  About a year later she found it published elsewhere, with exactly the same quantities and method (word for word) under a fellow cook's name.    Several times she mentions having been betrayed by women who took her idea (for Good Things in England) and were able to get sponsorship, present the idea in a slightly different format, and made quite a lot of money from it.

Meanwhile, Florence struggled on, working when she was well enough, paying for research, travelling and getting recipes from all over the country, as funds allowed.   It took her many years of careful work and she finally got her book published in May 1932, I believe.

Intrigued, I set out to try and identify who this cook may have been.   It took a while, but I think I found her.   That little task kept me well and truly occupied for many an hour.     There were several candidates and luckily I already possess copies of their books.  Florence was too discreet to name her, so I won't point the finger either.

One dark evening someone tapped at the patio door, it turned out to be my granddaughter, she had done a picture for me.  Crayons on canvas.   A family portrait.  I'll leave you to guess which one I am, the white hair and the huge boots may give it away.  Apparently, my hair is always spikey on one side, I hadn't noticed!!

The following night the same happened and I was presented with another picture.

Yesterday afternoon she gave me this one... Granny and Grandpa with Toby. 

I also have a folder of some stories which she wrote and then printed out for me.  Add to this the large number of letters she has written and I can truthfully say that she has not been idle during this last year with all the time away from school.   Handwriting, vocabulary, and composition have definitely improved, and she is enjoying her artwork.   All this on top of her school work.  

Enough of the doting Gran.

One more thing I have made with Quince - a Quince Pudding.

A sponge pudding, steamed on top of the log burner for one and a half hours.   Quince marmalade was stirred into mixture and a good spoonful or three were put into the bottom of the basin before the mixture was poured in.

A special and indulgent treat on a cold winter's day.

And now I need to go off and stretch out my back again.

Have a good week.

Elaine

My Kitchen in October

Designed for practicality, not looks.   I like to have my most frequently used kitchen tools handy!

My excitement over my potential quince harvest was somewhat tempered by the surprising contempt in which these golden globes are held by so many people.

We planted two quince trees last year, one lost all the fruit very early on, the other one has gone on to produce three dozen beautiful fruits.

I had hoped that they would have a few more days of sunshine to help ripen them, but the weather has other ideas, about a quarter of my crop has fallen, due to the high winds.    Four more fell while I was typing these few lines, so I have been out and picked the lot, rather than risk having them all bruised.  I have thirty-two of them left, some are huge, others quite small. 

People complain that they are rock hard and difficult to peel and cut, but I found them surprisingly easy to prepare for cooking, so far so good!   I put two of the smaller ones into an apple crumble, grated, and then mixed in with the apple.     Wonderful.   The fruit took on a pretty pink colour and the flavour was greatly enhanced.   Success!

There are lots of recipes I intend to try out, but next I wanted to try out a savoury dish, stuffed quince.   It was simply quince cored and cut in half, then baked for twenty minutes.     Make some patties out of finely chopped onion, mince, spices/herbs/seasonings to your taste.   Put one on each quince half, then bake for another 25 minutes.     I made a fresh tomato sauce to go with it, but gravy would do, then served it with brown rice and buttered kale.

I would normally insert a photograph, but my phone is refusing to let me share any pictures at the moment..

It was delicious - and no, I didn't use real mince, I used a vegetarian substitute, because that is my choice.   Meat eaters could use lamb, beef, goat, camel, whatever animal you fancy!

So far, so good.   They are delicious, sweet or savoury.   Each and every one will be used in the kitchen.

Fresh bread for Friday, crusty, chewy and delicious.  A quick and easy no-knead loaf fresh out of the oven.

Yet another photograph which I can't share, even though it let me send it to instagram.   Hey ho!

There are gremlins at work.

Ha, I have found a way round it - here is a cropped screen shot from IG.

The new cooker is working well, so is the double ended wood burner stove at the other end of the kitchen.     It has been a mild autumn so far, so we haven't had to have the heating on, but I must admit that just every once in a while I have found myself backing up towards the cooker, to warm my back (!)  in the way that I used to do for the Rayburn - only to realise that it is no longer there.

Old habits die hard.

Tomorrow I plan to bake a quince cake.    I also need to help my grandchildren to make a large salt dough sheaf of corn, they have to decorate a church windowsill for harvest festival.     That should be quite fun.     I have gathered some bits and pieces which may help them, some hessian, a couple of baskets, some lovely long leek seed heads (to give height to their display) a couple of home grown pumpkins for colour, the wheat sheaf we can make, plus anything else they think may do the job nicely, the church mice could be enjoying themselves for a night or two!

Much of my time is still being spent on making the fairies, why oh why didn't I just make a few each month throughout the year?   

I love it really, personal dresser to fairies, what is not to like?

The cats love it, especially old Sparky.   She steals any glittery trims or ribbons she can get a hold of and the wooden balls which I use for heads are whisked away for a great game of football.   Toby watches with amazement as she whizzes them all around the conservatory floor, he glances at me, then back at her and presumably wonders how she can get away with it.

I need to head off to try to sort out my mobile phone problems.    Enjoy your weekend.