Category Archives: pleasures

Culinary Adventures #112: Living Like the Gentry

10 August 2024 Keith

N often comments that our Victorian (and earlier) ancestors, who were all ordinary working people like fishermen and labourers, would look at us and say we live like the gentry. This is probably true when you consider both their monetary means and the variety of foods available.

We’ve been married 45 years next month, and we have always made sure to eat well. Not so well in the early years when money was more of an issue – but never predicated on the supply of fast food and ready meals. Now when we have more means, let’s be honest and say that yes we do eat well, even when the food is utilitarian. When Covid hit 4½ years ago and we were all under house arrest, we agreed that we should continue to eat as well as we could. Not just because food is essential for life, but because, for us, it is one of life’s pleasures and can provide some relief from the mundane. [I wonder why they’re the size they are? – Ed] Eating interestingly is not so easy now due to N’s medical situation, but we continue to do our best with good and varied ingredients.

All this was brought home to me last evening, having created, eaten and thoroughly enjoyed our evening meal. What was so special? Well I did prawns in a cream & tomato sauce with lemon & chilli; followed by alcoholic summer fruit salad & cream. As N said, and I had to agree, it really was restaurant quality.

This is how it went …

Prawns in Cream & Tomato Sauce with Lemon & Chilli

Serves: 2 generously
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

You will want:

130g dried pasta (of your choice)
250g frozen prawns
4-5 soft tomatoes, chopped
an onion, chopped (actually I used a couple of round salad onions & some spring onions)
4 cloves garlic, chopped small or crushed
Juice and zest of 2 lemons (1 will do if it is large & juicy)
a small chilli, chopped fine, seeds removed (I used a freshly picked hot lemon yellow chilli)
a big bunch of parsley, stems removed, roughly chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp thick double cream
Black pepper
Olive oil

And this is what you do:

Have everything prepared and ready, and get the pasta on to cook.
While the pasta cooks, sauté the onion, garlic & chilli in a some olive oil until translucent (about 5 minutes).
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they’re beginning to break down.
Now add the prawns and once they’ve thawed and are cooking add the lemon and parsley, with a good grind of black pepper. Continue cooking until all is hot and the juice is beginning to reduce.
Add the tomato paste and stir to combine.
Drain the pasta and add it to the prawn mix, stirring to combine.
Finally remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream.
Serve immediately in warmed pasta dishes, with some grated parmesan and a glass or several of good white wine.

We followed this with …

Alcoholic Summer Fruit Salad

I prepared this before starting on the prawns & pasta, so it had some time to chill.

Serves: 2 generously
Preparation: 10 minutes + chilling

You will want:
At least 3 different summer fruits. Choose from strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blackberries, blackcurrants, plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, greengages, gooseberries – depending on your fancy and what’s available.

I used:

2 nectarines
small punnet of raspberries
5 Victoria plums
1 tsp sugar
25-50ml peach schnapps (or other liqueur of your choice)
thick double cream, to serve

And this is what I did:

Stone the nectarines and plums, cut into slices and place in a bowl.
Add the raspberries.
Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit, followed by the peach schnapps.
Mix, cover and place in the fridge until needed.
Serve with thick double cream.

Sorry, no photos as we enjoyed it too much!

photography, pleasures, ramblings

Roses (2)

13 June 2023 Keith

Having written a couple of days ago about our roses, they were the ones in the back garden. What I omitted was the wow display in the front.

Like the back, our front garden is allowed a certain degree of licence. Amongst the understorey there are some Apothecary’s Rose. Officially it is Rosa gallica officinalis. It’s a very old rose – Peter Beales says it dates to before 1200 – with large, semi-double, fuchsia-coloured flowers and a pure Old Rose scent; very free-flowering, creating a mass of colour. It mostly just grows as a mass of single stems, which creep and sucker their way around.

Apothecary’s Rose (*Rosa gallica officinalis*) from our garden

We were given a couple of off-shoots many, many years ago, and it is now rampant around the front garden. It is currently a mass of saucer-sized, shocking fuchsia-pink blooms. Sadly it has only a short season and will pretty much be over by the end of the month, but it is stunning for a few weeks.

photography, pleasures, ramblings

Roses

8 June 2023 Keith

Where there’s an image, you can click it for a bigger view.

I walked round the garden this afternoon and it is absolutely awash with roses. I’ve never seen such a profuse display.

Our Lady Hillingdon, once it took off 20 years ago, is always prolific and provides flush after flush of apricot coloured roses from May until Christmas &ndash’ There are usually a couple of blooms out in Christmas Day.

The Buff Beauty did nothing for many years until we moved it under the birch tree, since when it’s gone berserk. It’s now 3-4 metres up the tree and hanging over providing swags of pale creamy yellow flowers.

One swag of *Buff Beauty*; about 1.5-2m long

There are dog rose suckers growing from the Buff Beauty too. They’re smothered in flowers – small, single pale pink roses – right to the top of the birch tree (higher than the house) and as much sideways. There are great weeping branches of it over our neighbour’s garden!

The old roses down near the pond are also going well rambling up the trees. One is the pink Anne Boleyn; another slow starter.

And the two climbers rambling up the supports where the apple tree was taken out are also doing well after a couple of poor years. Lots of pink-blushed white roses. One is Albrighton Rambler (see Unblogged May); although this is a newly developed rose it is of the old Bourbon style but sadly not very scented.

*Albrighton Rambler*, which fades to off-white very quickly in the warmth

There’s a standard rose down by the pond which is a hoot. For a standard it is vigorous with branches extending a good 2-3m (because we let it when it went native, rather than bother trying to prune it). It is clearly grafted at standard height (so about 1.5m) but the graft has thrown off at least two different colours of tightly double roses – some a dark purply-pink, others almost white. Heaven knows what’s been done to it, but it’s very “Alice in Wonderland”.

There are a few other roses yet to come. The small Maiden’s Blush is now out and it’s being nurtured from being neglected in a pot for some years; if the other roses are anything to go by it’ll take off in a couple of years. And there’s a pink rose also down under the birch tree which is usually also prolific. That was sold as a patio rose (so miniature) but is another that has grown naturally into a 1.5m round bush. Once it starts it usually just flowers non-stop through to the autumn – although it had an off year last year, maybe as it got cut back too hard away from the path.

If you walk down past the birch tree to the pond, especially on a nice sunny day like today, the garden is just a heady haze of rose scent, and a visual haze of roses. I have never seen them so abundant.

Moral. If you want great displays of roses, leave them alone. Don’t prune them into silly little bushes, but let them climb and ramble – after all that’s what roses do naturally.

personal, pleasures

Orchids

26 March 2023 Keith

I like orchids, especially the Phalaenopsis and Dendrobium species, and over the years I’ve bought a fair few, including several for my mother (who’s been dead now for almost 8 years) although probably not far into double figures. Growers have bred a huge range of flower colours, and those flowers last for weeks – anything up to 8 weeks – so although the flowering plants sold in supermarkets etc. aren’t cheap, you do get value for money.

Striped Orchid
The flower is actually somewhat darker than in this image
[Click the image for a larger view]

But why does everyone think that these orchids are difficult to grow and have to be thrown out when they’ve finished flowering? If you follow a few simple rules they actually aren’t difficult. And they’ll come back into flower, usually once a year, although you’ll probably never get the magnificent flower spikes the growers can with specialised heating and lighting. I wrote about my rules for keeping orchids some years ago. (My rules say to stake the flower spike, but frankly I never bother these days, but allow them to arch gracefully as they will.)

Small Orchid
[Click the image for a larger view]

You won’t manage to keep every orchid going and some will resist flowering again. However I still have four which have just come back into flower, and yesterday I took the opportunity to try photographing them – I don’t find them easy; they need a dark background to show well, and there’s always extra flowers your don’t want in the frame. These images are the result.

Pure White Orchid
[Click the image for a larger view]

The small purple stripy orchid above is indeed a small cultivar. It is one I bought for my mother, so maybe 10 years ago, and every year it produces this lovely spray of half-size flowers. The others are “full size” with large flowers around 9cm across; they’re all some years old and mostly produce only a couple of flowers.

Purple Splotchy Orchidd — Purple Splotchy Orchid
[Click the image for a larger view]

These are all Phalaenopsis orchids. By contrast I’ve never managed to get my one Dendrobium back into flower; but I keep it going in the hope it might one day it might forget itself and put up a new flower spike.

personal, photography, pleasures

Happy Christmas

24 December 2022 Keith 2 Comments

Happy, Healthy & Peaceful Christmas

and a

Calm & Successful New Year

to all our family, friends and followers

*Letterbox Flowers*; photograph by Keith Marshall, 2022
Click the image for a larger view

natural history, pleasures

Butterfly Day

14 July 2022 Keith

It’s a bit cooler today, so more congenial to sitting in the garden. There are so few butterflies around these days; when I was a kid the place was awash with them.

But for these days it was a good butterfly day with …

Speckled Wood
We usually have one around in mid-summer;
they like our dappled shady glades.

Hedge Brown
We more opften have Meadow Browns, which are very similar,
but note the two white dots in the eye marking on the
underside of the forewing, plus spots and marking
on hindwing which are together definitive.

and also several “cabbage” whites – mostly Large White I think – and at least one Comma. None of these latter would sit still long enough to be photographed.

Sadly as yet this year no Small Tortoiseshell (they were everywhere when I was young), Peacock, Red Admiral or Painted Lady.

And I’m still on the lookout for a Hummingbird Hawk Moth (which we have had here) or indeed any of the other large hawk moths.

food+drink, pleasures

Culinary Adventures #87. Long Jubilee Holiday Weekend

6 June 2022 Keith

So that’s the end of a a long Jubilee holiday weekend (plus Monday) on which we did little except eat like the gentry (as I’m sure our great-great-grandfathers would say).

Thursday
All-in-One Duck, Fennel & Asparagus Salad with Croutons
Raspberries & Cream
Ionos Greek White Wine

Friday

Crab, Tomato & Mushroom about to meet its Pasta

Crab with Tomato, Mushroom and Spaghetti
Strawberries & Cream
Champagne; Domaine Tariquet “Le Légendaire” Armagnac

Saturday
Tangy Stir-fry Pork with Pepper, Asparagus & Noodles
Deconstructed Ealing Mess: Strawberries & Almond Croissant Pieces with Cream
Domaine Maby Tavel Rosé 2020

Sunday
All-in-One Chicken Tikka, Asparagus & Tomato Salad with Croutons
Large, long, gin & tonic

Monday
Thick Rump Steaks, Chips & Asparagus
Summer Pudding & Cream
Champagne; Armagnac (as above)

Main courses (except Sunday) done by me; puddings and Sunday main by N.

And now we return to sausage & mash, and fish finger sandwiches. ☺☺

amusements, pleasures

Amusements of the Year, 2021

31 December 2021 Keith

Here’s my usual round-up of things which have amused me during the year. Unsurprisingly this has not been a vintage year for amusement.

(Most of the images etc. are clickable to display larger views or source information.)

Product
There are three contenders this year, but the winner has to be these Danish Wine Gums (left below) and Salt Liquorice Pastilles (yeuch!).

The runners-up were this Ziplock Bag Thong with Goldfish Crackers …

… and a new (I think) product Waitrose Christmas Chicken Wing Lollipops …

Headline

I think this year’s winner has to be:

Motorist fined after CCTV confuses his number plate with woman’s T-shirt

But it was a close contest with these four runners-up very close behind the winner. (All are from the Guardian.)

Ohio man charged with stealing 58ft pedestrian bridge

Monkeys thought to have escaped private collection on loose in Cincinnati

Old Irish goats return to County Dublin to protect hills from wildfires

Camels enhanced with Botox barred from Saudi beauty contest

Twat of the Year

Leaving aside the whole Tory party in Westminster … the only serious contender for “Twat of the Year” has to be this disreputable scumbag:

I may not be the snappiest of dressers but I’d be mortified to leave home looking this scruffy. I wonder if they found the hole in the hedge before the sheep escaped?

Book Title

Oh dear, there really is only one serious contender this year:

Is Superman Circumcised? by Ray Schwartz

Auction Item

Two superlative auction items stood out for me this year. First, from our local auction house, was this unprepossessing item:

It was described in the catalogue as:
A late 19th century Swiss Black Forest wooden musical coat hook, carved as an anthropomorphic dog with glass eyes, and with gun and powder flask bearing the Swiss cross, with chamois horn feet, fitted with a musical movement with 6cm cylinder numbered 12 223, with applied circular metal label inscribed “C. Spiess Schloss Laufen Patent 16870” and remains of paper label, 39 cm high

As a wonderfully desirable alternative eBay were offering …

Vintage empty tall RAT BAIT TIN … RACUMIN.
Size 8 1/2 inches tall, cardboard tube with tin top and bottom.
Made in WALTHAM CROSS, HERTS.

Not surprisingly it didn’t sell.

Nominative Determinism

Nominative determinism is where people end up in jobs which suit their name. There are many examples but these stood out this year:

Will Welfare, Public Health Incident Director, UKHSA
Marcus Scriven, journalist
Prof. Roger Kneebone, a surgeon
Superintendent James Pigg, of the Metropolitan Police

Organisation Name

The prize for the “Organisation Name of the Year” must go to the Old Irish Goat Society which you’ll recall was also implicated in one of our “Headlines of the Year”.

Animal

Every year we seem to encounter strange, new (to us) animals. This year we’ve met:

Occupation

Just one winner here this year:

Paper Folder – “People are amazed I fold paper for a living, then they see it”.

Sport

Top of the tree in this category is something I would never have thought of, let alone considered a sport.

Decorative Camel Grooming.

Apparently it can take years to create the art on a single camel.

Epigram

Two, almost priceless, epigrams popped up this year.

The first is from the Irish Goats again:

Goat herding is a timeless profession

And secondly from Emma Beddington who was caught describing our expected Christmas excesses as:

mulled Dickensian jollity

I couldn’t disagree with either of those descriptions.

Marketing Slogan

Earlier in the year we came across a brilliant piece of the advertisers’ art; I can’t call it “marketing bollox” as it is but a simple slogan for Fox’s biscuits:

More yum per crumb

It seems they’ve been using this slogan for quite a few years; I’d just not noticed, but that doesn’t make it any less good!

Word

Our “word of the Year” (which could equally well be “Food of the Year”) comes courtesy of @WhoresofYore on Twitter. It is:

Piss-Quick
Described as (19thC) A hot gin-based drink drunk from a jar, in the morning to warm yourself. Piss-quick contained a mixture of gin, marmalade and hot water.

Folk Custom

Thanks to two modern artists we’ve discovered a folk custom which was previously not known to us. Called Hat’s On, Tits Out and it appears to happen in random places (and often unannounced) most summers. The artists have even provided us a couple of illustrations.

First from tilloodesigns on Instagram:

hat's on, tits out