Orange Marmalade

The Seville oranges are in the store so I bought some to make Orange Marmalade. I consulted one of my favourite books :

‘Beeton’s Cookery’ by Mrs Beeton herself. We used a recipe from this book last year and made delicious marmalade. This book is one of my favourite possessions. After Mrs Beeton’s death in 1861, several books based on her household management book were published. This dictionary of cookery is one of those books. I have spent hours with it. I love it’s old, smooth cover:

I love it’s matter-of-fact title. I love that it is over 140 years old.

I love the information in the book. Where else would I find out how to carve a plover, fry a cow heel and make cowslip wine? She includes Bills of Fare for dinners for 16, 12, 10, 8 and 6 persons. She provides menus for ‘plain family dinners’ . I have never tried these menus but I am very tempted. I would really like to draw your attention to page 104:

It seems that I have been doing this incorrectly as I have not been placing the box of chocolates on a glass plate. However, I have nailed the part about purchasing them at any time. As is usually the case when I pull out this book , I emerged, after two hours, much wiser but no closer to having the orange marmalade. I’ll try again later.

 

Valentine’s Day Resolved

I opened the previously mentioned package and found another package:

I opened that package and found this:

‘Mariana’ by Monica Dickens. I am about 100 pages in and find it quite enchanting. So far it’s light and funny. For instance, here is a description of the hero’s first days at her new school: ‘Those first few days at St Martin’s showed Mary why people hang themselves with a dressing-gown cord behind the bedroom door.’ Now a note on the cover. Apparently all the books published by Persephone Books have the same pale gray cover although the end papers for each title differ. Now, normally, I am a firm believer in judging a book by its cover and have discovered many great books simply because the cover art caught my eye. However, I have to say I find the elegant simplicity of the Persephone covers to be very refreshing.

The thing I neglected to mention in the previous post is that we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at our house. Other than the necessary topping up of chocolate, since by mid-February the Christmas supply is dwindling, the day passes without much acknowledgment on our part. Even the topping up of chocolate happens with or without a holiday since I am a firm believer in chocolate. I suspect, but have yet to confirm, that this package wasn’t even ordered as a Valentine’s Day gift but was ordered simply as a nice thing to do (which I think is even better). I suspect the person in London who packaged it assumed it was for Valentine’s Day and I do admit the nice wrapping, the satin ribbon and the hand-written card were a nice touch. So this leads me to wonder why I waited to open the package. Rather than reflect on my compliance I thought I would just go along with the whole crass excuse for commercialism and bake a seasonal cake:

 

Valentine’s Day Suspense

Yesterday a package arrived in the mail addressed to me. I love receiving packages particularly when they are unexpected. Upon closer inspection I saw this:

Persephone Books is my favourite bookstore I have never been to. Being in London, England it is a bit too far for me to pop into. I was very excited and flipped the package over to tear it open when I saw this:

Written in ink, by hand, by someone, presumably, in London. Being compliant by nature I did not open the package. I put it on the table. I stared at it. I wondered if perhaps somewhere in the world it was already February 14. I realized that it was not. I spent an extraordinary amount of time thinking about the person who wrote the message on the back of the package. I made note of the fact that it took six days for the package to make its way from London to my mail box in rural Ontario. I shook the package although I was pretty sure it contained a book. I held the package up to the light although I knew I could not see through the envelope. I spent time thinking that the box of Pot of Gold chocolates that I was going to give as a gift would, perhaps, not quite cut it. What I did not do was open the package.

 

A Good Book and a Pickle Update

I have just finished reading this book:

This was an enjoyable read with plenty of descriptions of scenery and weather which I think improves any book. Also lots of interesting dynamics between characters which is compelling. However, it made me want to go on a canoe trip which is probably not a good thing. Although I have canoed I am not very experienced. I confuse the bow and the stern and use the words ‘oar’ and ‘paddle’ interchangeably. I have very little upper body strength so paddling and portaging could only lead to whining and complaining. I have never held a paddle,or an oar for that matter, without hitting myself on the head with it. Oh, and I don’t have a canoe. Nevertheless, it could be fun.

Meanwhile, the pickles are coming along necely:

These cucumbers were planted about three weeks ago and, according to the package which I am sure is never wrong, will produce fruit in another thirty days. I am in the process of building some sort of trellis for them to climb. The dill is up and although it is still quite small, it has feathery, dill-like leaves. The garlic is still doing well. So far, so good.