Quarter Days: A Festive Menu
September 28, 2018 by Alina K. Field in category Quarter Days by Alina K. Field tagged as A Lady's Assistant, Festive Menus, Historical Cookbooks, MichaelmasA Michaelmas Menu
A quarter of the year has passed since my last post, and I am back to talk again about Michaelmas!
In my post last year, Michaelmas Goose, I mentioned that September 29th, Michaelmas, was apparently a traditional feasting holiday.
This year, I cordially invite you to celebrate the holiday with me.
In my family tradition, holiday feasts are eating extravaganzas, and so I present our Bill of Fare: a family meal in two courses, the first one of eleven dishes, the second of fifteen, including a lovely green Michaelmas goose as the crowning dish. You will not go home hungry!
First Course
- Turbot
- Forced Cucumbers
- Harrico of Lamb Steaks
- Cauliflower
- Very Small Ham
- French Pie
- Chickens
- Beans
- Beef Olives
- French Beans
- Haunch of Venison
Second Course
- Pigeons, Stewed
- Cray Fish in Jelly
- Crocant
- Potted Wheat Ears
- Raspberry Cream
- Pippins Stewed, set in Custard
- Artichoke Bottoms fricasseed
- Syllabubs and Jellies
- Stewed Pease and Lettuce
- Brandy Fruit in Glasses
- Pistachia Cream
- Potted Leveret
- Melon in Flummery
- Smelts in Jelly
- Green Goose
The Lady’s Assistant
I owe this excellent menu to the 1787 edition of Mrs. Charlotte Mason’s The Lady’s Assistant:
There are many books of RECEIPTS, but I have never met with one that contained any instructions for Regulating a Table.–The great inconvenience I experienced, on commencing mistress of a family, from the want of such assistance, has since prompted me to attempt a set of bills of fare, which I flatter myself will be of great use to ladies in general…It is certain, that a woman never appears to greater advantage than at the head of a Well-Regulated Table…
Mrs. Mason was a “Professed Housekeeper, who had Upwards of Thirty Years Experience in Families of the First Fashion”.
Choosing your Goose
The author provides not just menus and recipes, but also, in an age when food was much more likely to be locally sourced, advice choosing a goose to cook:
The bill and feet of a young goose will be yellow, and there will be but few hairs upon them; if old, they will be red: if it is fresh, the feet will be limber; if stale, they will be stiff and dry. Green geese are in season from May or June, till they are three months old: they should be scalded. A stubble goose is good till it is five or six months old, and should be picked dry. The same rules will do for wild geese, with regard to their being old or young.
Cooking your Goose
A green goose will not take more than three quarters of an hour at the fire. Unless it is particularly liked, it is not usual to put any thing into it but a little pepper and salt, a little gravy in the dish, and some in a boat. There must be green sauce in another boat, made as follows:–About half a pint of veal broth, the juice of an orange or lemon boiled up for six or seven minutes, then put in some juice of sorrel, enough to make it green, and just boil it up; stir it all the time for fear it should curdle, which it is apt to do, and it ought to be very smooth.
Gouty Gourmands at Dinner, Thomas Rowlandson
Are you scratching your head over some of these dishes? The Lady’s Assistant provides explanations and receipts…er, recipes.
I confess, I had to look up many of them, and I’m not at all sure where I’ll find a leveret to serve, much less a potted one! Any suggestions?
Have a wonderful autumn, and if I don’t see you at my dinner party, I will meet you here again on December 28th!
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Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh … Mary Stewart on Kindle!
September 27, 2018 by A Slice of Orange in category Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo tagged as Kindle, Mary Stewart, Touch Not the Cat
Guys! Mary Stewart books are now available on Kindle – and many of them at very inexpensive prices! If you don’t know Mary Stewart, she wrote books that are gothic-like romances sprinkled with some magic elements and some suspense, set in (her) present day of the nineteen fifties, sixties and seventies. I have been reading her books in paperback since I was a kid, but now that I have time to read only when I am in my car and my Kindle reads aloud to me, I am overjoyed to be able to enjoy her books!!!!! This week, I reread one of my all-time
favorite books: Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart on Kindle.
In this book, Bryony Ashley, who is living abroad, wakes suddenly one night, receiving a telepathic message from her Lover – a boy and then a man she has been secretly communicating with telepathically her whole life – but she doesn’t know who he is – she just knows that they grew up together and have known each other all their lives. He tells her that her father is dying. Her father’s questionable car accident leaves Bryony an orpahn disinherited from her family’s large, crumbling estate back home in England. Bryony returns to Ashley Court to settle estate matters and hopefully discover the identity of her Lover. But when she gets home, the comfortable and familiar are laced with secrets and danger ….
Enjoy this and so many Mary Stewart books on Kindle at beautifully affordable prices!
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Introducing Poet’s Day by Neetu
September 26, 2018 by Neetu Malik in category Poet's Day by Neetu Malik tagged as Neetu, Poet's Day, poetry, words
Poet’s Day
A Slice of Orange is delighted to welcome poet, Neetu to our rotation of authors.
Neetu’s poetry is an expression of life’s rhythms and the beat of the human spirit. She draws upon diverse multicultural experiences and observations across three continents in which she has lived. She has contributed to The Australia Times Poetry Magazine, October Hill Magazine, Prachya Review, among others. Her poems have appeared in The Poetic Bond Anthology V and VI published by Willowdown Books, UK, NY Literary Magazine’s Tears Anthology and Poetic Imagination Anthology (Canada).
Neetu lives in Pennsylvania, USA and will be publishing a poem on the 26th of each month here on A Slice of Orange. Her column will be titled Poet’s Day.
Enjoy!
A Clock Stops
In the shapeless hours
of an endless night
the old clock
stops ticking
I hear it chime once
a labored groan, only half-shrill
I do not need to look
at its brass pendulum
to know it is still
all I know this time
unlike all other times is
its motion cannot
be restored.
© Neetu Malik
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TO WRITE OR NOT TO WRITE BY VERONICA JORGE
September 22, 2018 by Veronica Jorge in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as To Write or Not To Write, Veronica Jorge
Some things, I find, are too precious to be shared. Like a priceless jewel, they are best kept secreted away; handled and admired in private.
A vivid memory surfaces. September: first week of school. The teacher’s voice, like chalk streaking across a blackboard, screeching the assignment, Write an essay titled, My Summer Vacation.
I picture myself staple-gunned to the board. My whole self, exposed.
Ignoring the homework was not an option. Okay, it was, but the consequence was an ‘F.’ Not a good way to start the school year. So I used my imagination and wrote about a make-believe trip. In other words…I lied. Shhhh!
My summer vacation included friendships, family outings, shared moments and experiences; some too happy, or too sad to put into words. But it was mostly about all of the places I went within myself that made me grow and go back to school just a little bit older and wiser.
I cannot express how I felt sitting out on the fire-escape staring up at the night sky and dreaming of worlds beyond the stars, in spite of the car hor
ns and fire engines whizzing by. Sometimes my elder brother would join me and point out various constellations; he knew all of their names. Or he’d tell me tales from Greek mythology, like The Wings of Icarus. I knew there was a lesson in that one; follow your parent’s advice.
And why would I want to tell anyone what it was like to go to the Hayden Planetarium with my brother, or share a secret and a hero sandwich with a new friend, or quietly walk shoulder to shoulder with my best friend while eating a Mister Softy ice-cream cone?
Reveal my treasures in an essay?
To a stranger?
For a grade?
I don’t think so!
Which brings me back to the topic of writing, or not. That is the question; though the fact that I ask it seems to provide the answer, “Not.”
I am most content when writing just for myself, or for a small circle of intimate friends. The coffee, sweets, and conversations we share last a life-time and deepen our relationships.
That is the reader and the audience I cherish most.
See you next time on October 22nd.
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September Featured Author: Rebecca Forster
September 21, 2018 by Rebecca Forster in category Featured Author, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Finn O'Brien Thrillers, Josie Bates Thrillers, Rebecca Forster, September Author of the Month
Featuring Rebecca Forster. September Author of the Month
Rebecca Forster started writing novels on a crazy dare.
Now she is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of 29 books which the CBS Legal Correspondent calls, “Perfect. . .impossible to put down.”
After earning her MBA, Forster spent 14 years as a marketing executive before taking the leap from a corporate to a creative career. A fulltime author, speaker and teacher, Rebecca focuses on legal and political thrillers, but is known for bringing an uncommon sense of character and compassion to her work. Her Witness Series, featuring attorney Josie Bates, has resided on the Amazon bestseller lists for over three years in both the U.S. and U.K. and is a featured series at Audible.com. Before Her Eyes, a cross genre thriller, captured the winning votes for Reviewers Choice for Best Mystery.
Rebecca teaches the craft of writing and the cultivation of creativity at programs that have included the acclaimed UCLA Writers Program and as a guest speaker at legal associations, writer’s conferences, women’s symposiums and philanthropic groups across the U.S. She has made repeat appearances at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and volunteers at Southern California middle schools to bring the excitement of writing into the classroom. Appointed to the Patient/Family Advisory Board at Torrance Memorial Hospital, Rebecca advocates for closer relations between patients, families and medical staff to improve care.
Rebecca lives in Southern California. She is married to a prominent Los Angeles Superior Court judge and is the mother of two grown sons. Travel is a passion and when she is not writing you can find her on a tennis court, in front of a sewing machine or on the couch with a book in her hand.
I don’t think the adventure is over yet – and I know that there are still a zillion books to be written – so I hope you’ll check back for updates. Better yet, drop me note. I would love to hear from you.
Below are just some of her books in print.
