Tea 'n Toast 'n stuff....



The moor I see...

 It's morning and already I'm thinkin' about dinner. What to make, what to defrost, what to remember to defrost, what not to repeat for the third time in as many days.

The loud, rolling boil of the kettle sets my thoughts right-side up again and reminds me I haven't even had my first cup of tea of the day.  Dinner is hours away and with a wee bit 'o sleep still in my eyes I'm off to steep the tea and fire up the toaster.
Soundtrack anyone?

http://youtu.be/UyyDQvJO1E4 

Pound Cake French Toast

 French toast is the culinary breakfast frickin' bomb in my house. It's bread, it's egg, it's a shot of vanilla, it's warm syrup and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

It's toast but so much more than toast. It's so many variations on one glorious theme.  Quality Foods used to have the best French loaf for the job but these last few years it's really a crapshoot as to whether they hit the specific fluff factor the perfect French loaf requires for the perfect French Toast.

No matter. I'm not afraid to experiment when it comes to breakfast and sure as hell ain't afraid to shop around. The Old Country Market has a Best Ever White loaf that plumps up nicely post-egg dip, and they have Sourdough French hybrid that has a pretty tasty twang to it as well.  I make this stellar Eggnog Pound Cake at Christmas and last year I tried it out on the skillet and it was outta sight.  Especially as I added chocolate chips to the cake so the French Toasted version blew the doors off any leftover Wunderbread version.

Just remember if you use a pound cake for French Toast make sure you slice it not too thick and not too thin. And don't let it sit in the eggwash mixture or you'll get goop....just a one-two dippity-dip and get it on a hot pan before it turns to a soggy, sorry sight.

The better butter....

 


Raisin Bread from the Cumberland Bakery with a generous slather of black market Cookie Butter. 

If you toast it.....they will come.

Luck of the Irish Pie


 Tea, toast, French toast and the morning sun.  And I've just remembered the leftover Donegal Pie in the fridge.  Leftovers.  That'll certainly do for a weekday meal alongside chopped veggies and warmed brown beans. 

A layer of herbed, mashed potato followed by a layer of sliced, hard-boiled eggs and chopped rashers of bacon folllowed by the rest of the mashed taters then covered up with a thick, buttery pastry crust. 

About 35 minutes in a 350 F oven, cover it with foil after ten minutes or it'll be as dry as tinder, and serve with HP Sauce or a sinful brown gravy.

....now off into the day 'til dinner:)

Daughters and Suns



From where I sit...

From where I sit the weather is fine. Cool, damp on the ground from weeks of coastal rain, branches torn from trees following new year wind storms, the moisture permanently in the air here hanging differently with the arrival of a March sun.

From where I sit the armrests are crowded, covered with rocks from the driveway's edge, first-stage Inukshuk-style leavings showing whoever comes upon them that people were here. Little people in this case. Each rock placed there by a 3 year old and a 6 year old for no other reason than because........it was fun.

From where I sit fun is relative. Relative to the amount of fresh, indigenous, outside air being pushed through your lungs and pumped into your heart. Start 'em young on the good stuff.....be it the back forty, the back four or the back window......crank open the latch and breathe in the wind blowin' through, the sun shining in, the rain pounding down, the fog rolling in, the snow falling softly or whirling crazily.  Get addicted to a daily dose of fresh air no matter the weather.

Seein' it in the sun to be so... 

Sunshine and a garden hose. Kinda like buckets and shovels, perfectly sharpened pencils and connect-the-dots, an untouched sheet of bubble wrap. You can't steer clear of it, see no need to ignore the impulse to uncoil a few feet of its snakey-green shape, choose from the tuthree favorites; jet, cone, shower.....before hittin' pay dirt with 'mist' and see the rays of the sun shining through a Bigleaf maple tree.

The camera misses the rainbows the kids discover they can make, I miss that perfect parenting magazine feature  shot of giggly, euphoric children dancing in the grass with nature. One garden hose between two kids is no hands-free, one eye on a screen. kinda mama bear task. So the rainbows are seen yet captured only in my memory where they will hover precariously I the shadow of  the shots I DID get.

The rainbow seen in the sun to be so.

Hauled away day....

My little girl plays in the rocks with her brother's Tonka truck....actually that truck is her big, BIG brother's truck so that makes that thing almost 20 years old.....and I hear her making noises to match the play. No vroom-vroom-vroom like her brothers before her but just as cute.

"Now YOU go here....and you go HERE",she tells each rock placed into the truck bucket from the wicker basket she's used to collect them.
Those rocks have feelings I guess and the truck's movements need no soundtrack apparently. It's all about dialogue with this girl. I respect that and wonder if I should be concerned she's not playing with her dollhouse or pretty pink plastic pony. The gender specific thought process tarnishing what should be simple joy at her act of merely playing.

The sun shines on her little quarry and it occurs to me there's no rock quarry Foreman Barbie. What up with THAT? Although Barbie would seriously need to think about bulking up some. In her current form she might snap like a twig with what the average kick-ass girl would put her through  in the backyard.

Sunshine,garden hoses, rocks, Barbie and Tonka trucks.
From where I sit all seems well.

A Funky Find from the Bookshelf



Precious Bane by Mary Webb (1924)



Love spinnings and Sin eaters

Mary Gladys Webb published "Precious Bane" in 1924 and even though she died three years later this is my  posthumous shout out to her for doing so. Seriously... by page 13 when Prue introduces Mister Beguildy, a funky old dude considered 'a preached against man'  I was done for.

"Once I asked him where the future was that he could see it so plain. And he said 'It lies with the past, child, at the back of Time.' "  

  And oh what a magical past we're taken to in this book. 

Born in 1881 in the English countryside of Shropshire Mary Webb began writing shortly after she married a teacher in 1912.  Her writings didn't have her and  Henry rollin' in dough even after she  was eventually published for the first time in 1916 but she stuck with it in between walking nine miles to town in the wee hours to sell flowers at market.

 She wrote from her love and knowledge of countryside customs, superstitions, and some of the coolest dialect ever written.  At first slightly tough to get your mouth around the dialogue in this book is stellar.  At the very least it's mighty fun to try and read aloud such fabulous words like "Dunna drink while she's by. It'll p'ison yer innards".

 It's that magical slant that finds  me deep into Book 2 of 'Precious Bane' and keepin' me fixed there with my dog-eared paperback copy on my person, or in  my purse, where ever I go.  Give me ten minutes in the car with one kid snoozin' in her car seat and the other just getting ready for the 3 o'clock bell and I'm in Prue's world. Losin' a few minutes of my day in this story is the best therapy I know.

 Loaned to me by a co-worker a few months ago it's only in the last few weeks I've given myself the time to get into the literary groove of 16 year old Prue Sarn and her beloved Kester Woodseaves. High five to my friend Joy for passing this fabulous book on:)

Born in a time and place when curses and consumption claimed so many young Prue, born with a hare-lip  accepted as bad luck befallen to a mother  crossing paths with a hare with Prue still in her belly, sees her future as one not including a husband or family.  A hot lookin' fella by name of Kester, whom she meets at a love spinning, changes all that and rightfully so.  Prue rocks......as a main character she's up there with Jane Eyre.

I found myself rootin' for Prue straight from the get-go and cheering on Kester as he shoots down advances from the prettiest and bitchiest women in the countryside.  Easily seeing past their petticoats to the dimwits they are Kester urges Prue out from the the shadows where she keeps her face and intelligence hidden.  Their relationship up-ends Prue's entire family, headed up by her intense brother Gideon and ever-worrying mother, and sets in motion a battle for the riches and social standing Gideon demands Prue to work toward.

Borrow it, find it a garage sale, discover it on your great Aunt's dusty attic bookshelf, unearth it from some dark corner of the local library.......even if you have to start it over and over just to get the hang of Mary Webb's writing style.....do yourself a favour and have a go at "Precious Bane".

Settle in and treat yourself to Mary Webb's musings......even if it's just to find out what the hell a love spinning or a sin eater is:)


9 out of 10 on my Sue's Funky Literary Finds list.....