Showing posts with label National Food Days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Food Days. Show all posts

Saturday, 5 February 2011

Yorkshire Pudding Day for Sunday Favourites wth Chari.

On Sunday Great Britons everywhere will, hopefully, be celebrating Yorkshire Pudding Day.

Fotosearch image
To show my support for this wonderfully iconic British dish, I'm sharing a post from last year which was originally one of my Alphabe-Thursday contributions, and joining Chari for Sunday Favourites @ Happy To Design.


I should imagine that not many of my US followers know too much about the Wars of the Roses?
No, not the movie with Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner!

The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought in medieval England from 1455 to 1487 between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

The name Wars of the Roses is based on the badges used by the two sides, the red rose for the Lancastrians and the white rose for the Yorkists. Major causes of the conflict include: 1) both houses were direct descendents of king Edward III; 2) the ruling Lancastrian king, Henry VI, surrounded himself with unpopular nobles; 3) the civil unrest of much of the population; 4) the availability of many powerful lords with their own private armies; and 5) the untimely episodes of mental illness by king Henry VI.Source:http://www.warsoftheroses.com/
The end result of the Wars of the Roses was that Henry Earl of Richmond killed Richard
Of Gloucester at the Battle of Bosworth, became Henry VII and went on to found the Tudor Dynasty.
Now, (or nethin as we say in Lancashire) that was a few hundred years ago and I have to say that there is still some slight rivalry between the two counties.



However, on our recent trip back to the UK we stayed in a great little gastro pub with rooms, the New Inn, in the village of Marsden situated in the West Riding of Yorkshire, just a few miles outside of Saddleworth, where my family now reside.
It was lovely.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Marsden like this:
MARSDEN, a village and a township-chapelry in Almondbury and Huddersfield parishes, W. R. Yorkshire. The village stands on the river Colne, adjacent to the Manchester and Huddersfield canal and to the Manchester and Leeds railway, under the backbone of England, 4¾ miles E of the boundary with Lancashire, and 7¼ SW by S of Hnddersfield; is a large place; and has a station on the railway, a post office under Huddersfield, and fairs on 25 April, 10 July, and 25 Sept.
Source: A Vision Of Britain Through Time.


Although I am a born and bred Lassie from Lancashire, (that is not me in the vt! I just wanted you to hear the tune) I have to admit that there are some things that the folks over in Yorkshire have done well, and one of them is to produce Yorkshire Tea!
If you like your tea strong, this is the one for you.
Check out this fabulous website to find out all about it.

Another very special foodstuff to come out of Yorkshire and one that I think everyone knows about, is Yorkshire pudding and if I say so myself the ones that I make are Historic!
In a good way!
Helping to make Yorkshire puddings, a traditional part of the family Great British Sunday Roast when I was growing up, was a treat for a young girl and over the intervening years I have tried and tested many different recipes.
However, I always come back to Delia's classic Yorkshire pudding recipe, (well, we do share the same family name: Smith).

I'm also joining in with The Tablescapers Seasonal Sundays this week,
click here to see who else is participating.

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

February National Food Days

I recently discovered a great website where you can learn all about National Food Days celebrated in the US.
Intrigued, I googled British National Food Days and unbelievably found just one.
But, what a "one" it turned out to be, drumroll please..................
the first Sunday in February has been declared "Yorkshire Pudding Day"
Click here to go to the Recipes4us.co.uk to learn how this celebratory day came about, and please join me on Sunday to honor this wonderful iconic British dish.

Meanwhile ........in the US, February is amongst other things
 Hot Breakfast Month
and the hot breakfast of choice here at the Presbytere is poached egg on toast. Mmmmm!
I don't know if you remember the scene in the movie "Julie & Julia" but Julie had a terrible time trying to poach an egg.
It didn't help I suppose that she hadn't ever eaten an egg in her life and sort of had an "egg phobia". 
During 30+ years of married bliss I must have poached hundreds of eggs, using a variety of methods.
Taught by my mother to use one of these, it stood me in good stead for many years.
A couple of years ago I discovered these little poach pods from Lakeland but couldn't get on with them at all, the egg always seemed to stick a liitle bit, to the inside.

A friend told me that Delia's method is foolproof, click here,  and it is.

However, I found the very best way to poach an egg in the Hairy Bikers 12 days of Christmas cook book which I blogged about here in December.

For the poached eggs, pour enough water into a large deep pan so that it is two-thirds full. Bring to the boil.
Place the eggs, still in their shells, into the boiling water for 20 seconds, then remove with a slotted spoon.

Step 1

Add a splash of white wine vinegar to the pan, then swirl the water gently to create a whirlpool effect. Crack one egg into the centre of the whirlpool and poach for 2-3 minutes, or until the egg is cooked to your liking.

Step 2
Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.
Keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining eggs
Step 3, foolproof.
Do this and you won't ever worry about your poached eggs again, if only Julie had used Si & Dave's method, as shown in my photographs, she could have saved herself a lot of anguish.

Linking this post to Miz Helens Country Cottage Full Plate Thursday gathering and also Gollums Foodie Friday, you can click on the sidebar buttons too, to find mouthwatering food from around the world.

Bon Appétit

Monday, 24 January 2011

US National Food Days

Yesterday we had fun at Jo Jo's Pie Party celebrating National Pie Day.

Like many of you, before I heard about NPD from JoJo, I didn't have a clue there was such a thing.
Well, thanks to good ole' google I have discovered that in the US every day is a "National something food" day.
Just look at the partial list for the remainder of this month that I found on the States Symbols USA website.
Click here for the link to the site where you can find out which particular food item is celebrated when.

January:

National Hot Tea Month
National Oatmeal Month
National Slow Cooking Month
National Soup Month

January 23 National Pie Day

January 23 National Rhubarb Pie Day

January 24 National Peanut Butter Day

January 25 National Irish Coffee Day

January 26 National Peanut Brittle Day

January 26 National Pistachio Day

January 28 National Blueberry Pancake Day

January 29 National Cornchip Day

January 30 National Croissant Day

January 31 National Popcorn Day


I just discovered that my birthday is National Chocolate Eclair Day!
How marvellous is that?
Roll on June!

Image courtesy of  fotosearch.com
What a great theme this could be for a birthday treat, I'll definitely be baking Mr B a Hazelnut cake this year.

Image courtesy of fotosearch.com
What's your National Day??