IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The 2024 OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Guest Post: Jo Wake, Victorian Cooking


Today it's my pleasure to introduce to you another guest poster, A-Z participant Jo Wake whose blog is: JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE.  
Please sample her unique point of view: we need to slow down and cook the old-fashioned way for great results worthy of the guest we entertain.



 VICTORIAN COOKING



Through Bob Scotney of Bob’s Home for Writing, I have discovered a wonderful series of videos. Bob was primarily writing about Victorian kitchens, but I was more interested in the cooking as well as the reason for the existence of cookery books such as Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery published in 1935 which I have mentioned many times in my blog. Today when anyone makes something which requires stock, they use a can or a packet of bouillon, most home cooks these days have no idea of how the stock is made in the first place. I too have fallen into this practice, I use age as my excuse, but I suppose time constraints are the principle reason this practice has fallen out of use. The ollowing video makes me want to go back to basics, although I probably wouldn’t go so far as using a tammy cloth. This is a link to a fascinating video which is the first of a series on Victorian Kitchens: 

I found this video very exciting and will watch the whole series. My mother was just such a cook as Mrs. Mott although she never worked in the big houses nor did she ever use an old range as featured in the video (as far as I am aware). I had never heard of tammying, which looks like a lot of hard work, I thought using a sieve was bad enough. But this is what the art of cookery is all about. Not just defrosting something and shoving it in the microwave. We have lost so much of the art of producing good food and so much is done for us anyway. Because of that, we lose the pride of achievement which comes from producing a good meal as well as the ability to produce food which tastes so much better than this package stuff. Wise Geek has an article on the tammy cloth. This is why Matt and I love to entertain, it allows us to stretch our cookery skills to produce really excellent meals which we generally don’t eat every day.

I am having a day of stealing, this recipe was from Viveca’s My Guilty Pleasures and I asked her if I could use it. Very different recipe, and one I shall certainly try.




Baked Root Layer Cake, serve 6-8

350g/12oz carrots
350g/12oz parsnips
350g/12oz celeriac
30ml (2tbsp) clear honey
30ml (2tbsp) lemon juice
85g/3oz butter
fresh thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 200C/ 390F/Gas 6. Peel and coarsely grate the carrots, parsnip and celeriac, keeping each vegetable separate bowls.
2. Warm honey, lemon juice and butter on low heat until melted. Season with salt and pepper add some picked thyme leafs. Pour a third of the honey butter mixture over each vegetable and coat well.
3. Line a shallow 20cm/8in spring form cake tin with non-stick baking parchment. Spoon carrots into the tin, spread evenly and press down, repeat with parsnips and finish off with celeriac the same way.
4. Cover with buttered foil and bake for 35 min, then remove the foil and bake for a further 10 min until brown on top.
5. Leave to stand for 10 min then turn out – cut in wedges and garnish with picked thyme sprigs.

Have a great day
Labels: Baked Root Layer Cake, Tammy Cloth, Victorian Cooking

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

A-Z Challenge - Preparation is 9/10th of the Work!

Today we welcome Julie Goucher from  Anglers Rest.  A second year veteran of the A to Z Challenge she's learned a thing or two along the way and is going to share her thoughts about preparing for the A to Z Challenge or any similar event for that matter.  Since some of you have indicated that you want to plan next year in advance, perhaps Julie's suggestions can be of some help.



Whenever we start a DIY task at home my impatient self wants to get cracking and let the work commence. My husband routinely tells me that “Preparation is 9/10th of the work and I hate to admit it, but he is right!

Starting any project is difficult, but once the creative juices are flowing the rest is easy. So, were you organised for the A-Z Challenge?  Here are perhaps some tips or contemplations for next year,and I know it is a year away, but remember, preparation......

        What is the point of taking part?
        Sharing information you already know & increase awareness
        To assist you to develop your knowledge
        Meeting other bloggers and seeing what they have to say
        A combination of all three plus more

        What do you want to write about?
        New topics
        Topics of Interest
        A Mixture of topics

        Do you want to use pictures and photographs to illustrate your theme or the selected letter?

        What do you plan to do with the 26 posts you create in April 2013?
        Publish into a anthology
        Develop your alphabetical post into a longer piece of work
        Nothing, apart from sharing it with readers of your blog

1.      Look at the planner for April 2013 and see what date each letter on the alphabet falls on
                       

April 2013





Su
M
T
W
Th
F
Sa

1  - A
2 - B
3 - C
4 - D
5 - E
6 - F
7
8 - G
9 - H
10 - I
11 - J
12 - K
13 - L
14
15 - M
16 - N
17 - O
18 - P
19 - Q
20 - R
21
22 - S
23 - T
24 - U
25 - V
26 - W
27 - X
28
29 - Y
30 - Z






2.      Decide a theme or devise a plan of what topics you want to write about. Remember you don’t have to have a theme!
3.      How much data do you already know about the subject you have chosen, or do you need to do some research?
4.      Identify the gaps - typically Q, X & Z but perhaps there are others
5.      Can the gaps be covered by written word? Or can they be covered visually. Can you think outside the box? For the letter of X, I recently used a photograph of stamp. The stamp showed an aeroplane and the picture of the wingspan of the aeroplane was in the shape of an X.
6.      Can you link your theme to other World wide, National or local events?  - ANZAC Day, Easter


Between now and the end of March 2013, plan and write when you feel like it. There is not any pressure. The challenge is a fun process and half the fun is the planning your own posts. Get your creative juices flowing!

1.      Get a piece of A4 paper and mark the top with the Letter of the alphabet and the date
2.      Jot down all you know about your chosen subject making a note of gaps in the writing that you want to fill and any photographs that you need to locate, scan and perhaps tweak.
3.      When you are happy with your data, write your blog post and set as a draft post with the correct date.
4.      Aim for the beginning of March 2013 to read over the prepared posts and make amendments to those spelling mistakes and then hit publish. Your blog will then self publish at the time you specify.
5.      Make sure that word verification is turned off to make it easier for fellow participants to stop by and leave a comment.
6.      From the 1st April 2013 spend your time responding to comments left on your posts and visiting and making new blog friends.


Julie Goucher
Blog Name - Anglers Rest http://anglersrest.blogspot.com
Twitter - @juliegoucher

You might also enjoy reading Julie's Reflections post.



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Monday, May 21, 2012

the good

Artwork by Ada Z from collagepodge.com
         I plead guilty to somewhat dropping the ball on this post.  I waited until the last minute to compose this so it may not be as thorough as I had hoped.  On the other hand, if you've read even just a few of the Reflections posts you saw many of the same good points of the A to Z Challenge repeated many times.  Or you could just go back to lasts year's post of  The Positives of Blogging from A to Z and that pretty well sums up most of this year's positives.


         I'll mention some of the obvious positives in passing.  Many of you cited the benefits of improving your blogging or writing skills by posting something everyday.  There were the elements of self-discipline and creative thinking.  Sense of community and opportunity to meet new bloggers was often mentioned.   The diversity of participants and the high quality of the writing on many of the blogs were other positives that were pointed out.

        Several people told how they broke in new blog or revived on old blog with the Challenge.  For these bloggers it was a trial by fire experience that helped instill good blogging habits and add followers.   The learning experience that A to Z offers is something veterans can use to encourage new entrants in the future.

        One thing that I had neglected to mention in my previous thank yous, but was brought up in many of the Reflections posts is the addition of the Navigation Buttons offered by Marcus Clearspring.   These were tremendously popular last year and we had many requests for their return this year.  Fortunately Marcus came through again and once again the Navigation Buttons were a hit.  Thank you Marcus.

        We received a number of kudos for the responsiveness, presence, and helpfulness of this year's A to Z Team.   We thank you for your kind words and I for one will concur on this.  Thank you Team--great job!

         Hopefully, you can give us some numbers, but I've heard of a number of the April A to Z series that will be getting published in one form or another.  That A to Z is becoming a springboard for published works is great news.   Last year I heard about at least three books that came out of the Challenge.  I know of a few from this year's Challenge, but I think there will be more.   If you have a book or some published material that was born from A to Z, let us know in the comments and keep in mind that since we are accepting guest posts at the A to Z Blog we would like to hear from you if you would like to do a post about your book.

          One other thing that many of you saw as a big positive and I heartily agree is this A to Z Blog.  This has been a great forum--or as one of you said "water cooler site".    Being able to have a site devoted to A to Z news and tips leading up to and during the Challenge was a huge benefit in many ways.   There is a lot more that we can do with this site.   What are some of your suggestions about this?

         A couple of excellent Reflections posts that you might like to check out are those of Elise Fallson and Susan Kane's thecontemplativecat-- very different in presentation, but both capturing the essence of the spirit of the April Challenge and what it represents.   But by all means don't stop there.  If you haven't read any of the Reflections posts yet, you should read at least a sampling.  Over four hundred of you have left your A to Z Reflections, which is a pretty impressive statement in itself.

          Next Monday I'll be discussing some of the negative aspects that we heard from the Reflections posts and elsewhere.  Then on the following Monday I'll bring it all together with your comments from these two posts and some additional ideas I have about this year and next year.  

           That's what I've got for now.  What positives can you think of that I've left out?   Do you agree with the ones I've mentioned?    What was the biggest A to Z plus in your mind?


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