Queen Victoria & Family Life

The 24th of May is Queen Victoria's birthday and last weekend was the Canadian long weekend to celebrate.

As I pulled my Union Jack pennant banner out of storage and strung it along the porch ~

I got thinking about how much influence Queen Victoria had on family life, as we know it today.  Her 64 year reign saw the emergence of the middle class and a whole new set of values.  Home and family was raised to a level of importance never before experienced by western societies.

Victoria and her beloved Albert seemed the embodiment of all the values the middle class held dear.  She was obviously and unabashedly in love with her prince. ~

A little research shows Victoria wasn't quite as enamoured of the children but the couple did spend more time with theirs than was usual with monarchs.  ~

Portraits of a relaxed and loving royal family made children lolling about on the furniture seem adorable and entirely to be desired.

How many Christmas cards we receive each year are somehow based on this image of Victoria and Albert's Christmas portrait? ~

The one that really breaks me up is this one! ~

What could be more homey than a couple and their hunting dogs?  All those dead birds lying around and that cute, little baby playing with a dead duck is beyond adorable!  I think she's making the dead duck talk to the other dead birds. "Is that blood on your tummy White Bird.  You have a boo boo.  Let me kiss it better.". Can you tell I'm laughing my fool head off?

I think I'll pay homage to Victorian style by recreating this painting next time Baby comes to visit.  Any chickens that pass on to the great coop in the sky are being frozen to use as toys!

Sorry, I just couldn't carry on with my original serious post when I saw that painting!  I'm still laughing.

Playing With The Stars & Stripes

My daughter, City Girl, has been missing her beloved Brooklyn.  Her husband has dual citizenship and can work on both sides of the border but City Girl can only be there for a few months at a time on a visitor visa. She's back home in Canada right now and pining for the city she fell in love with when she was 11 yrs. old.

City Girl calls her decorating style 70's meets Zen so I thought it would be fun to take a $1, plastic lazy Susan and give it 70's Op Art style.

Andy Warhol would have done it like this. ~

I'm going to stick the good, old red, white and blue.

Because this was plastic and kind of shiny on the top ~

and some kind of composite material on the bottom ~

I gave it a coat of primer to make sure the paint would stick.

A base coat of off white was applied before I painted on a coat of soft white.  I'm going for a hippie poster look here and most of this is done free hand. I did pencil in the funky stars to get an idea of sizes and placement.

Painting around those stars got mighty tedious.  The Union Jack and the Stars & Stripes are the nicest flags out there but they are murder to recreate!  The top got a coat of spray, acrylic sealer.  This is for the kitchen table and will need to be somewhat washable.

Here she is all done. ~

Maybe you need to be smoking some wacky tobaccy to appreciate this.  City Girl liked it and she looked perfectly straight to me.

I swear this is my last flag unless it's French. Theirs is just a bunch of stripes!

I'm sharing this with:  Funky Junks Party Junk  Clever Chicks Blog Hop  Inspire Me Monday  Transformed Tuesday  Knick Of Time Tuesday Rustic Restorations Weekend  Thrifty Things Friday  Feathered Nest Friday  A Favorite Thing  Anything Blue Friday

He's A Good Old Cat!

City Girl brought her husband and Baby with her for our Mother's Day visit this weekend.

Baby's eyes lit up when she saw old Utah taking his afternoon catnap. ~

Utah belonged to my daughter, City Girl, until she became engaged to marry someone allergic to pet hair. So, the old cat moved to the country where he has happily resided for the past six years.  We know he is over 20 yrs. old and he pretty much gets to do whatever he wants in his golden years.

One of the nicest things about this old boy is his patience with children.  Baby is fascinated with animals and City Girl doesn't want her to be nervous around them just because they can't have any in their home.

Utah lets Baby explore his tail. ~

They have a little talk to get to know each other better. ~

A little pat on the head after a talk about treating old cats gently. ~

Look each other over very carefully. ~

Mommy says he likes a tummy rub.  Very gingerly give it a try. ~

We're cool! ~

I love your kitty Mommy! ~

Next stop was the chicken coop where those cute, silver party shoes got covered in poop.  Should have stuck to the cat!

I Can't Believe They Want Jell-O!

Mrs. Patmore here, from Downton Abbey.  As head of all the cookery at The Abbey, I'm quite accustomed to preparing twelve course meals for the lords and ladies upstairs and keeping the huge staff, this place requires, fed well enough to handle the long days and hard labour every one of us downstairs puts in.

Daisy and I can turn out souffles, pheasants, wedding cakes and trifles with never a bit of your modern day appliances!  There's nothing wrong with using a little elbow grease and a whisk, let me tell you.  Idle hands are prime for the devils work, I say.

So you can imagine my horror when the craze for this latest food hit the gentry!  Nobody was interested when Peter Cooper filed his patent in 1845.  It was sold several times and still no interest.  But, this is 1923 and a slick advertising campaign and a couple of fancy, French chefs in London have made this haute cuisine.

What is the world of the upper classes coming to! ~

The dowager duchess, Lady Violet, is said to take hers in a crystal footed bowl, on a Coalport Indian Tree under plate. She won't have it dressed up with any more than a little dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of fine sugar on the rim of the bowl. ~

I'll be doing a bit more than that for Lord Grantham's dinner!  My poor pudding mould is reduced to setting powdered crystals and water. ~

Turn it out on the Waterford crystal tray, Daisy, and don't be slow about it.  Since Lady Sybil's shenanigans with the Irish chauffeur, I'm afraid Lord Grantham isn't as fond of this Irish crystal as he once was. ~

But, it is pretty with the colour reflected in the prisms and the whipped cream roses and blueberries give a bit of the good, old Union Jack colours.

I'd better up the ice delivery if I'm to include this concoction with every meal. ~ 

Those bells never stop ringing ~

and, now Danni at Silo Hill Farm has shown you all how to make your own Downton Abbey service bells, there will be no peace for Daisy and I! ~

Thank heavens they haven't invented powdered whipped cream or Daisy and I would be out of a job!

I'll be joining the other Downton Abbey fans at A Return To Loveliness.

A Country Kind Of Day

I was feeling a little more country than rock and roll today, as I was tilling the garden and planting peas.

What could be more country than some blueberry pocket pies cooling on the windowsill? ~

I wonder how many pies have sat on that sill in the 200 years this house has been here.  This is the original farmhouse for the entire county.  Those early cooks will have baked theirs in the hearth.  Did they wrap the pies in cloth to be eaten at break time? After pulling stumps and urging the horse to pull the plow through the soil, it must have been wonderful to rest a bit and pull that pie out a pocket for a pick me up.

Eventually our cooks would have looked out on the little Anglican church, built by the men in the growing community.
   

My method won't be much different from our early bakers.  The pastry is made from scratch and the blueberries came from a local, organic farm.  A little extra flour added to the berries makes the filling less runny and easier to take to the fields.  A sprinkle of sugar on top would certainly have been a luxury 200 years ago.

I needed a break from my own pioneer style work today.  I've been busy breaking up and hauling away a huge old stump.  It has finally rotted enough for me to start the next phase of the back yard reno.  I've scoured the property for rocks to begin terracing the hill beside the patio.  ~

I wouldn't mind having that good, old horse to help me with my work, right about now!  

French Style Caramelized Onions

I was reading, yet another, recipe that called for caramelized onions and said it would take 10 mins. to make them.  IT CANNOT BE DONE!  In 10 mins. you can make fried onions, delicious to be sure, but they are not caramelized.  Julia Child would be rolling over in her grave if she read that recipe!

Caramelized onions are a more delicate flavour and are the basis of authentic French onion soup.  They still taste great on a burger or Philly steak and will store for ages.  To caramelize the way Julia taught us, you are going to have to invest a little time and effort.  In fact, it's going to take 40 mins. to make these lovelies, so make extra and have them on hand!

To make a pint of onions, I need 8 cups or 2-3 lbs. of onions.  Lovin' my Perfecto scale! ~

Peel the skin from the onions and chop in strips.  Don't worry about removing the root end.  It will soften nicely in the process. I tried adding red onions this time and honestly don't think it made any difference to the final taste, so go with the cheaper cooking ones. ~

In a heavy bottom pot or frying pan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil.  Olive oil is usually used but I substituted coconut oil because I'm trying to get more of it in my diet.  On medium, heat the oil until your see a shimmer rising from the pan.  ~

Add the onions to the hot oils and give them a good stir to coat. ~

Keep stirring the onions for 10 mins.  They will become translucent and a milk will develop as the juices are released. ~

Turn the heat up to medium high and add 1/2 tsp. of salt and 1/2 tsp. of sugar.  I used brown sugar and sea salt but whatever you have will do.  It's just enough to enhance the sweetness of the natural sugars in the onions. Stir for 25 - 30 mins.~

You are dealing with fairly high heat at this point and want to keep stirring so nothing sticks.  After 15 mins. the onions will look like this. ~

At this point, caramelizing begins to happen.  The onions begin to darken and bits of caramel stick to the bottom of the pan.  If it looks like your onions are scorching, you can add tiny bits of water to the pan.

After 30 mins. of stirring, the onions will look like this. ~

We're still not done!  All kinds of delicious bits are stuck to the bottom of the pan and we want to deglaze it to get all those bits in our mixture.

Remove the onions and add liquid to the pan.  I find booze works best.  Pick your poison and have at it!  Beer or wine work great but I didn't have any on hand, so I went with a fine Ontario whisky. ~

Just keep splashing some in (the pot, not you) and stir your little heart out, scraping up the browned bits, until it's all loosened and forms a light sauce.  You are keeping the heat up at medium high here.~

Add the onions back into the deglazed pan and stir to coat.

That's it.

The good news is, these keep for ages in the fridge and freeze well.  I sterilize jars and fill them with caramelized onions.  Put the jars in a boiling water bath for 5 mins. and they will keep for six months on the shelf. Doing a large batch at fall harvest is a great way to preserve onions and have a gourmet treat.  It's a perfect base for French onion soup.  Add some chicken stock and it's done!

Julia Child would be proud of us! ~

Come on over to the party at ~ Nifty Thrifty Sunday, Creative HomeAcre Hop, Inspire Me Monday, More The Merrier Monday, Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop, Sunny Simple Sundays, Make It Pretty Monday, You're Gonna Love It Tuesday

We Have A Chicken Star!

My daughter's chicken J-Lo is the cover girl for WSPA Choose Cage-Free!

Here's J-Lo sporting the latest in fashion for the newly rescued battery farm hen! ~

Rescued hens get a new start and a new wardrobe at Cobble Hills Farm Sanctuary

While waiting for space, fresh air and sunshine to help her don a new set of feathers, J-Lo favoured a pink, flannel one piece to enhance those elegant legs and the bared shoulder was the height of style at her new rescue home.  In keeping with the trend toward more natural female figures, J-Lo eschews Spanx and lets her tummy curves show.

You can read about J-Lo's amazing (and fashion trendsetting) recovery by clicking here.

If you want to learn a little more about the reason I choose cage free eggs, check out WSPA Choose Cage-Free click here.  It's not gory or radical;  just some facts, topics of discussion and you can take the pledge to eat only cage free eggs.

I did!