Yep, this a fatty post*. With all this lockdown business, lots of people have been pigging out on cake exercising their baking skills and I am no exception. I finally decided that it was time to attempt my sister’s baked cheesecake. We all have our specialities when it comes to family gatherings and this is one of hers. In our family, recipes tend to be vague and proportion-based, and always open to experimentation, which is how we like it. My sister maintains that her cheesecake comes out different every time, and why not! 

*the fat referred to here is in the cheese, not around my midriff…well, mostly. 

(more…)

Welcome to the Spring Equinox Tarot Blog Hop. We were offered two themes for this Hop and I chose the second, which involves cookery for this blog post. Before I expound on this, here are the navigation links for my neighbours and the master list:

PREVIOUS BLOG| MASTER LIST| NEXT BLOG

(more…)

Welcome to the Autumn Equinox Tarot Blog Hop, in which our wrangler has given us the theme “Tarot Characters and Sacred Cooking” and asked us to choose a character and try to find out what they would cook at Harvest Tide. Before we continue to foodie loveliness, here are the navigation links for this Hop:

PREVIOUS BLOG | MASTER LIST | NEXT BLOG

(more…)

Welcome to the Autumn edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. The theme this time is “Foodies Guide to the Tarot” and the brief is to take your readers on a gastronomy tour of the Tarot. How could I resist? Before I attempt to tickle you tastebuds, however, I must provide you with the navigation links to my neighbours and the master list:

PREVIOUS BLOG | MASTER LIST | NEXT BLOG

(more…)

If you are following my progress on the Historic Food and Feasting course, you’ll know that I am now up to Week 4 on this blog. We’ve looked at the sort of foods eaten during the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and George I, the latter including the introduction and rise of chocolate. This week is the turn of George III. Yes, the mad one 🙂

(more…)

I know you’ve been waiting in breathless, drooling anticipation for this post about…chocolate!

As part of the Historic Food and Feasting course, we covered the arrival and subsequent popularity of chocolate, imported to Britain from the newly opened up New World in the early 18th century. We are not talking about the bars of confectionary that we think of as chocolate today, however. Until the 19th century, chocolate was drunk, much like tea and coffee. Indeed, there are many similarities with coffee in particular, insofar as it is made from ground roasted beans.

(more…)

Thus, racing through Week 2, we come to Week 3 covering the early Georgians, specifically George I and focusing heavily on sweet things and…chocolate. Don’t get too excited just yet – I’m saving my experiments with that for the next post 😀

Britain’s love affair with sugar was well-established by this time. From the early luxury of Persian imports in Henry VIII’s day, through Elizabeth I’s reign when sugar became much more readily available and therefore cheaper via Europe (pre-EU). By George I’s day, the New World had been opened up and sugar was being grown and imported from there, further increasing availability and blackening the nation’s teeth.

(more…)

After a busy few weeks, I’ve been playing catch up on my Historic Food and Feasting course. Last week, I wrote up my efforts at making Tarte Owt Lent from Week 1. This week will be a bit of a veritable treat of recipes from weeks 1 and 2, with week 3 hot on their heels.

(more…)

Kenilworth Castle

A while ago I mentioned that I had signed up for a short course on Historic Food and that began a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I’ve been off trading at Kenilworth Castle and then the Chalke Valley History Festival, respectively, for the last two weekends and frantically trying to finish my Victorian outfit for the latter in between the two.  I promised you an update once I’d started and here it is.

(more…)

As you may know, I have something of an interest in historic food. I’ve made dishes from Richard II’s cook’s book A Forme of Cury, early editions of Mrs Beeton’s Household Management, recipes from the two World Wars, Medieval Poland, and a whole host of others across several centuries. Some I have taken from copies of the original texts, others have been aided by the research of the likes of  Clarissa Dickson Wright, Dorothy Hartley and a whole host of historians throughout the ages, professional and amateur. You’ll find some of my efforts on the virtual pages of this very blog.

(more…)