Delights of Autumn

Minature Pumpkins (Copyright Bygone Babe)

Autumn is the time to go shopping for cosy pyjamas in order to rock that Wee Willie Winkie chic and avoid putting on the heating as long as possible while we cozy up indoors. But with the mild weather still continuing shopping was furthest from my mind, and all I wanted to do was walk in the warm October sunshine, as the leaves turned and fluttered to the ground. Last weekend a friend and I were stalking the deer in Bushy Park, watching squirrels horde acorns, and avoiding the temptation to pluck the stems of unidentified mushrooms. Today, Mr BB and I went strolling through Crystal Palace Park, past the sphinxes, to find a bench to sit on to read. It was so warm in the sun that there was no compulsion to leave the view of the misty, pink tinged valley and hills of Kent and Surrey for some time.

A pot of tea for two (Copyright Bygone Babe)

Once home, with the sun steaming through the windows, it was dificult to ignore that the house needed a good going over. I enjoy those old fashioned English novels, where they always have someone in, like a matronly Mrs Pinkhurst or some such character, 'to do the rough' . With no such dear in sight, I was doing the soft and the rough. In the kitchen, a search and eradication of stray sugar granules, left over from Mr BB's incident with a bag of sugar, then led to a thorough going over of the tea and coffee cupboard. Gasping for a cup of tea, which I was determined to have as a reward after my job was finished, I was suprised to unearth the above tartan treasure, which Mr BB must have inherited from my MIL. It had been so long since I have had tea in a pot that I thought this would make my reward even more special, so I scrubbed the inside with bicarbinate of soda, fantastic for removing tannin from all tea vessels, and set the pot to warm. 

What a reward it was! Two cups from the teapot were thoroughly enjoyed while I lingered over a puzzle book. During the week, puzzles seemed to abound at work. Some were mulling over 6 across, others were stuck on soduku, with even some working the wordsearch. I decided to extend the craze into the weekend and it was a great way to relax with my tea. After trying the Number Crunchers, the Arrowwords and the Hex puzzles, I settled down to my favourite - Logic puzzles, which are stories with fragments of clues, gradually pieced together to find out which 5 people had what amount of money, where it was kept and how they earnt it, or something equally inane. I think I like them because they are most like the old fashioned murder mysteries Agatha Christie used to write (Mr Peabody did not have the hammer while he was in the library, but the person in the kitchen had the chainsaw... ) 

A final delight this Autumn day was to linger over a slow cooked dinner - after all, this is the season of stews and casseroles. While returning from our walk, Mr BB and myself had discussed dinner and concluded that it would be Beef Pie for Mr BB and Mushroom Pie for myself, with Nigella's Hasselback Potatoes and some peas. Imagine my delight when I entered our local supermarket to purchase the necessities and was able to nab a recipe card as well. So handy.

Mushroom Pie (Copyright Bygone Babe)

The Beef Pie was made with stewing beef, which required about an hour cooking, once sealed, with the carrots and baby onions, and the gravy made from stock, plain flour and tomato paste. The Mushroom Pie was made second, with several types of mushrooms, baby onions, and a gravy made in the same way as above. While the filling for the pies was simmering, and sticking to the bottom of the pans, the potatoes were roasting in the oven.

Mr BB had been pestering me to make these Hasselback Potatoes ever since he had tasted them one dinner at the home of my friend, a true Domestic Goddess who had married an American Jamie Oliver. Needless to say dinner at their place was always a treat, but I harboured no illusions tonight I would come close to their usual gorgeous fare.

After an hour of simmering and stirring, the pies were ready to ladle into mini casserole dishes and a lid of puff pastry was laid over the top. They then had another half an hour in the oven, next to the potatoes. I happened to spy one of the apples beginning to turn, so decided to use several in order to make an impromptu apple crumble, which I popped into the oven as I served the main course (I fear my greed was too great as I didn't manage to eat the crumble, and have since relegated it to the fridge for another day.)

When it came to serving the pies, we removed the lids and then scooped the inside on top of the puffed pastry so it could cool before it was devoured. The aroma from both pies was delicious. The baby onions and small, whole mushrooms in my pie had still held their shape, while the rest had combined and melted into a delcious gravy, enhanced by the sherry I had decided to splosh into it while partaking of a rather large nip. It was a large serving, enough for two, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will have another chance to do so with the leftovers. Mr BB, I noticed, did not eat all of his pie filling either, but every last one of his Hasselback potatoes had disappeared.

Beef Pie and Nigella's Hasselback Potatoes (copyright Bygone Babe)

Libraries and Lambswool

Swept up in my own austerity drive as well as a memory of the pleasures of such visits in my childhood, I went into my local library recently and became a member. The local librarian was delighted to see a new face and add another number to help justify their existence, with less people joining since books were so much cheaper (2 for 1 offers abound) and many seem to be purchasing e-readers. Such technology is, in my opinion, dreadful - I despise reading a novel from a screen as I associate that with work. While anything which encourages people to read can only be a good thing, in my opinion there can be no replacement for the ability to flick back and forward between pages, savouring the weight of the book, and best of all, feeling a sense of pride as you pass the halfway mark of a thick classic. I do hope that paperbacks and libraries do not become a thing of the past, especially with the dread of cutbacks constantly over us at the moment.

I felt so good to be there that I wondered why it had taken me so long after moving to join this library. Such a wave of greed swept over me as I walked along each row and saw the masses of books and smelt the faint scent of other homes. Such treasures! An immediate sense of calm came over me and I stalked around with care, occassionally grabbing at my prey. Books that I'd never seen, books that tantalised and promised with their covers, books that were old friends, and books that I'd heard of but half forgotten. One of the later which I snatched from an end display was Susan Hills 'Howard's End is on the Landing', which I had read a review on a couple of months ago but to this point had failed to get hold of.

It was the first from the pile that I began to read as soon as I arrived at home, only to pause after several pages to grab a notebook. I needed to write down the names of authors which I'd not read but which I felt I needed to after Susan Hill's recommendation, or to put down the names of others I too felt the urge to re-read. It was also refreshing to read that Susan Hill had the same dread of e-readers that I have, and that she adored lighter fiction, such as PG Wodehouse, as well as the denser classics, such as Dickens. It is a shame that she dismisses all of the fiction of Australia and Canada - it is her personal taste, to be respected, but there is one book I would, if I met her, urge her to read. 'A Town Like Alice' by Neville Shute (who is, if it helped, British) was a book that I had avoided myself for many years, based on reading and heartily disliking his bleak 'On the Beach' while at school, as well as a misguided impression I had gained of the book. Where this had come from, or even what it was, I could not put my finger on, but I had zero interest in reading the novel, or anything else Shute had written. It was not until one month when no fewer than 6 women, from the ages of 14 to 60, had mentioned their love of the novel, and how it was, without exception, in all of their top 5 reads, that I was compelled to pick it up, and I am so glad I did. It is now in my top 5 as well.

Another treasure which I found in the library was one which I had never heard of before - 'Ginger Beer and Cherry Cake' by Jane Brockett. What I discovered in these pages was a fantastic journey which went through a range of the stories most of us remember from childhood, and found the recipes for the meals that had benn described, from Paddington Bear's marmalade elevenses to the feasts of the Famous Five. What actually excited me most was a recipe for Anne's Linament Layer Cake (minus the actual linament) from my favourite stories growing up about Anne of Green Gables. But the whole book is a pleasure, with recipes from the most simple treats, such as 'lashings of boiled eggs' to more complicated macaroons, which had inspired the author to write the book. What I love even more is that in Jane Brockett's introduction, she discusses how in children's stories the feasts are always well deserved after a day of physical activities and adventures, which I feel is an important consideration.

Within a week I was back at the library to get more books, inspired by the above, desperate to read more. My first choice this time had to be Enid Blyton, and I have been devouring 'Five Go Down to the Sea' today, filled with fantastic adventures, walking, swimming and cycling while staying at a farm in Cornwell, and, of course, truly magnificent high teas, such as the one they have on their first night with ham, salad with lashings of hard-boiled eggs, 'an enormous tureen of new potatoes, all gleaming with melted butter, scattered with parsley...homemade salad cream', cream cheese, fruit cake, drop scones and, finally, 'cherry tart made with our own cherries, and our own cream with it'. While Enid Blyton may seriously over use her exclamation marks, she could never overdo the fantastic descriptions of such simple homemade fair which is luxurius in abundance and, now, nostalgia.

It is just the weather to go for long autumn walks and then cosy on the couch, wrapped in a lambswool cover, and continue to read my way through my library allocation.