I ♥ My Favorite Kitchen Gadget Party!

When Lynn @ Happier Than A Pig in Mud announced her I ♥ My Favorite Kitchen Gadget Party!  recently, I knew that there was truly only one piece of my kitchen kit which qualified for this award.

Where would I be without my KitchenAid mixer?
Click here to see what other blogging chefs can't live without.
Happy Valentines Day everyone!
Please join me also in visiting Mary's Mosaic Monday

Tea Time with my Valentine.



 So glad you came to tea today, sweetheart.

I've been looking forward to seeing you all week long.

I've taken Grandma B's wedding china out of the cabinet, and polished the silver.

I baked Red Velvet Cupcakes with Buttercream frosting.

One for you and one for me,
 and one to share?

A decadent roulade.
Light as a feather sponge cake

 wrapped around fresh cream and strawberries soaked in Marsala wine
and
 dusted with the finest of sugars.

Won't you be my Valentine?

(Image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy) 

Click on the links below to join the celebration

Miz Helen's Country Cottage Full Plate Thursday,
Valentines Party @ Bargain Hunting with Laurie

Courtney for Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage
Show and Tell Friday with Cindy @ My Romantic Home
Sherry @ The Charm of Home for her brand new Home Sweet Home Party
and
The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday

A Breath of Spring.

For a few hours today we had blue skies and sunshine, a breath of spring gently wafting over the garden.
I mooched around tidying here and there, stopping to take photographs of emerging primroses,crocuses and daffodils and getting dirt under my fingernails.

Bliss!

I'm joining Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday
and Kim @ Savvy Southern Style for the very first
Wow Us Wednesdays Party

click on the links, or on the sidebar buttons,

 to see who else is sharing this week.

Hot off the press..............Quagga

I hadn't intended joining Mrs Matlock for Alphabe-Thursday but when I received a copy of my nephew Alex's latest school report today and read this comment from his science teacher :

"Alex works particularly well when completing "open ended" tasks and recently produced a fantastic presentation on the extinct "Quagga"

This very proud but ignorant {What the heck is a Quagga?} auntie had to brag about him.

This is a Quagga......................

"The Quagga was a southern subspecies of the plain zebra with withers of 1.30 meter. It differed from other zebras mainly in having been striped on the head, neck, and front portion of its body only, and having been brownish, rather than white, in its upper parts.
The name Quagga has been adopted from the Hottentot speaking indigenous people of the South African interior.
'Quagga' is an imitation of the animal's call, which it shared with the other plain zebras."

You can find out more interesting facts about Quaggas here.

Very well done Alex, Auntie Em is very proud of you!

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.

To market, to market, to buy.........?

Most Thursday mornings we drive to a nearby market town to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, we take our elderly neighbour along with us, too.
Some time ago he was informed by the "authorities" that he was too frail to drive himself and his licence was duly annulled, much to his digust!
We left in a hurry and I forgot to pick up my shopping list off the kitchen counter so had to try and recreate it in the car as we drove along.
Thank heavens I had a pretty little notepad & pen in my bag.

I don't think I could ever be described as a "girly girl" (I like to think more Wonder Woman than Barbie) but the fluffy purple feathers on the elegant strappy shoe make me smile.
Thanks KE, for this sweet Christmas stocking filler gift that brightens up your big sisters day.

This week, whilst Mr B was "parlaying" with the boucher, I meandered around the stalls to see what else might take my fancy.

Free delivery when you buy 6 chairs, today only.

I came across a woman who now and again sets up a small "Brocante" table and stopped to browse the ancient books displayed there.

I uncovered two antique, school textbooks: Le Livre de L'Ecole printed in 1890 and Lectures Faciles circa 1905.

Le Pont D'Avignon.
English schoolchildren learned this one too.

At just 2.50 euro apiece, I had to have them.

Just a few stalls further along, I found these beautiful tulips.

Back home again, one blue and white Quimper pitcher later, and voila!

Je suis une fille heureuse.

Joining in the fun this week with
Courtney for Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage
Show and Tell Friday with Cindy @ My Romantic Home
Liz @ Rose Vignettes for Fresh Cut Friday
Linda @ A LA CARTE for Junkin Finds Friday

 and
A Few Of My Favourite Things Saturday @ Bargain Hunting With Laurie.

Thank you ladies for graciously hosting these wonderful gatherings.

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