Funeral Blues, Quilts and Clocks, No Bowling. MRI.

On his recent blog, Bob Scotney had an audio of the poem Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden which was used in Four Weddings and a Funeral. I found that to be the most moving scene in the whole movie. I made sure to have a copy of the poem it impressed me so much, but Bob has gone one further and has the audio. Not sure who is reciting, but it is very well done although I liked the movie version.

I think I’ve mentioned before that when I lived in the UK 37 years ago, quilts were not a biggie, on my horizon anyway. To me at that time, quilting was something done by thrifty housewives taking patches from all kinds of remnants of cloth and making a quilt from it. So when I first arrived in Canada, I was astounded to see they were a really big thing here. In the farmer’s markets you see them for sale at pretty high prices, people have quilting bees and some stores specialise in them and I can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen quilts being raffled. I have also seen TV programmes about special quilts and so on. All very surprising to me. I forgot to mention quilting competitions. They really do fetch a lot of money, but then the quilters put a lot of effort into them. What made me thing of this was something I saw on Grandfather Clocks which, wen I was in the UK, was something some people had and most of us didn’t, but I had no particular desire to own one and didn’t know of anyone busting to acquire one. Nothing that special. Once again, in North America, they are extremely popular. I don’t know how people put up with the chimes. As you will gather, I have never had any particular desire to own either of these items.

What a fiasco, I am actually writing this on Friday. We headed out to the bowling alley, and got held up in traffic. In the first place there was lots of it around and in the second place there was a bus broken down on the main street. We got to the alley 10 minutes before our game to discover the door locked. Headed back to the car and someone called that the door was now unlocked so we went inside and waited. Absolutely no-one else turned up. According to the young man running the place today the door somehow locked itself. We think the few other bowlers who were due probably found the door closed and went back home. Oh well - when we come back from vacation!!! We drove home through more thick traffic. I have never seen traffic round here so bad, might be because it’s a holiday weekend, but don’t see why.

Tonight we are finally going to eat the skirt steak I bought a week or two back. Will let you know how it is on Monday. Just as well to have some cold meat left over as Matt has an MRI at 4:55 p.m. on Sunday which they say may well take a couple of hours. He even has to take his own CD.

The picture of this recipe caught my eye a few days ago, and I decided to share it because it looks so delicious. How many people, these days, would make the effort for this cake, I don’t know, but anyway, here it is. It reminds me of the cakes my mother used to make for me when I was a very little girl although probably not with strawberries.

Strawberry Birthday Cake

Source: Cooking.com

Active Time: 40 Minutes

Total Time: 3 Hours 15 Minutes
10 servings

This classic cake is perfect for a birthday - just team with strawberry ice cream. For fancier occasions, such as bridal showers or even a small wedding, decorate with colored marzipan.
INGREDIENTS

For the Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

6 large egg whites, beaten to blend

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

For Filling and Decorating:

4 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream

1 cup strawberry preserves

2 pounds strawberries, hulled, sliced

1 pound strawberries, hulled

1 1/2 pounds marzipan (optional)

DIRECTIONS

FOR THE CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper; butter paper. Dust pans with flour. Combine first 4 ingredients in bowl of electric stand mixer. Add butter and mix with whisk attachment until mixture resembles moist crumbs. Add milk, egg whites and extracts. Mix until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing evenly. Bake until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

DO-AHEAD TIP: Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap well with plastic and store at room temperature.

FOR THE FILLING:
Using long serrated knife, cut each cake layer evenly into 2 layers. Using electric mixer, beat 2 1/2 cups cream in large bowl until firm peaks form. Place 1 cake layer on platter or cake plate. Spread cake with 1/3 cup strawberry preserves. Arrange strawberry slices evenly over preserves. Spread enough cream over strawberries to cover (about 3/4 cup). Repeat layering cake, preserves, strawberries and cream two times; top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining whipped cream over top and sides of cake.

FOR THE DECORATING:
Using electric mixer, beat remaining 2 cups cream in large bowl until firm peaks form. Place whole strawberries over top of cake, points up, leaving 1 1/2-inch border. Using pastry bag fitted with large star tip, pipe cream up sides of cake in vertical lines. Frost top border of cake with remaining whipped cream. Refrigerate until whipped cream is set, about 2 hours.

DO-AHEAD TIP: Can be made up to 6 hours ahead.

ALTERNATIVE MARZIPAN DECORATION: Instead of decorating the cake with piped whipped cream and whole strawberries, roll out half of marzipan between 2 sheets of parchment paper into thin (about 1/8-inch thick) round. Using 9-inch round cake pan as template, cut out 9-inch round from marzipan. Set round aside.

Knead scraps into remaining marzipan, then roll out between sheets of parchment into 14 by 10-inch rectangle. Cut rectangle into two 5-inch wide strips. Place 1 strip carefully against side of cake, pressing gently to adhere. Place remaining strip on opposite side of cake, covering side of cake with marzipan. Place round on top of cake. Press down edges.

Gather marzipan scraps. Color with green and red food coloring if desired. Decorate with hand-molded berries and vines.

DO-AHEAD TIP: Marzipan covered cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate

Have a great weekend

Bowling, Shopping, Markets and Quilts.

Yesterday was our last bowling for summer league, next week we get lunch and then some fun bowling games and that's it until September. We were toying with the idea of bowling the odd game or two for the rest of the summer, but as I have strained the joint of my thumb, due to bowling, I thought I would give it a rest until we start league bowling again. Pity because its not bad exercise and we both enjoy it although Matt swears he doesn't if he isn't bowling well. Lately I have been bowling two pretty good games and then a pretty lousy third game. Its incredible how one can do that, just completely go to pieces and bowl as though you'd never done so before. Upper left is a picture of where we have been bowling this year. Today on Good Morning America they had a segment on grocery shopping because of the way prices are rising so fast. Apparently you can get some very good deals from Amazon.com and if you spend more than $29 you can get free delivery as well as saving gas/petrol. I don't know if this works with other country's Amazons though. Secondly they said the wholesale stores like Costco and Sam's had excellent prices but of course most things have to be bought in bulk and you may not have the storage space or a large family to use up fresh food quickly. Plus you may have to drive a fair distance to your local one. We certainly do for our nearest Costco. You can also shop online at Costco. Finally your local supermarket for the fresh items you need which you should buy in the quantities you can use before anything spoils. This brings me back to Debbie Meyer Green Bags which help preserve your vegetables and work really well. I mentioned them in a previous blog and I think they are a great investment. I have been using them for months now. Her website Debbie Meyer Brand Products lists other bags which I have not tried. A lot depends on your requirements, we use a lot of fresh vegetables so find the green bags helpful. We don't use a lot of cheese although we do end up throwing some out now and again, maybe I should investigate. Breads and muffins we keep in the freezer until we want to use them - 20 seconds in the microwave freshens most breads - so I don't need bags for that and sliced meats we buy enough for the week and use it up. Not much of this information applies outside North America; they did suggest clipping coupons and being sure to use them. You have to beware of coupon scams too though. What will they scam next I wonder. Never, but never, pay for discount coupons, they are probably a scam anyway. A lot of coupons can be found online; I would imagine that this would apply to any western country, not just North America. I don't know if the big warehouses exist in Europe or not. Another hot topic these days is shopping "close to home" in other words making sure things are grown and produced within 100 miles of you. This would mean you should make use of your local markets, we have several flourishing markets in our area, one of the most well know being St. Jacob's Farmers' Market in, would you believe, St. Jacobs. At this time of the year they open at least a couple of times a week and are very popular for fresh produce as well as other grocery items in the meat and cheese areas. Quite a few of the stalls are manned by Mennonites who are very prominent in the local farming communities. They also sell clothing at the market. Here's a picture to prove it. Something also sold in the market and which are very popular in North America are quilts. Quilting to me, originating in the British Isles, was something people did with bits of old rags to make covers for their beds when they didn't have a lot of money. In this area it is a very big art form and quilts can sell for a lot of money. Many raffles are held with quilts as prizes and there are even quilt museums. I was talking to a Dutch friend the other day and we found we both feel the same lack of interest probably due to our European heritage. I thought of this when I was looking for pictures of the market because I found pictures of quilts for sale there - if you have that kind of money. I know in our apartment building they have a raffle for a quilt every year for some charity or other. Here is a recipe from my cooking group which I must admit is another one I haven't tried although it sounds good. It is called old clothes because the meat is shredded like tattered rags. Ropa Vieja (Old Clothes) Cuisine: Cuban Servings: 6 Ingredients: 2 1/2 lbs flank steak, cut in strips 5 tablespoons oil 2 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic or 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 large onion, diced 1 green pepper, diced 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce 1 cup water 6 ounces sofrito sauce (recipe follows) Sofrito The secret to a good sofrito is to let it simmer a while so all the tastes meld. 21 cherry tomatoes, chopped 2 green peppers, chopped 2 large onions, chopped 8 to 10 garlic cloves, chopped 1 or 2 bay leaves touch of ground cumin touch of dried oregano 3/4 cup Sherry, or to taste 4 Tbsp olive oil Salt to taste (optional) Instructions: Heat 3 tbsp. oil in skillet on medium, brown meat on all sides. Remove from skillet, add remaining oil to skillet, stir in garlic, onion and green pepper and cook until translucent. Stir in black pepper, browned meat, tomato sauce, water and sofrito. Simmer until meat is tender and shreds easily, about 1 hour. Serve on top of rice. Sofrito Sautee tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, bay leaves, cumin and oregano in oil slowly until all vegetables are limp. Add Sherry and let simmer. If you add the salt, taste beforehand as you might not need it at all. Have a great day.