Journal installment #13

Excerpts from an English Journal,
Part 13

Sunday, March 22: We had another nice leisurely breakfast and Richard has even done a load of laundry and hung it outside to dry. (He says I will probably take all this sunshine with me when I leave on Thursday and he wants to take advantage of it while it lasts.) Now we’re we headed to church. It’s a short stroll but we’re not planning much else today, just relaxing a little and letting him catch up with a few chores.

We’re back from a most uplifting Mothering Sunday service. Mothering Sunday, always the fourth Sunday of Lent, is a time when children pay respect to their Mothers. The church provided fresh spring flowers and cards for all the children to come forward and claim and present to their mothers as part of the service. Afterwards, ushers/attendants stood at the door as the congregation filed out and gave a flower and a card to the ladies who didn’t have children at church that day. Very pretty and very sweet.

Speaking of sweet, Mothering Sunday is sometimes known as Simnel Day after the tradition of baking Simnel cakes to mark the occasion. Simnel cakes, now associated with Easter, were originally made to celebrate Mothering Sunday, thus the nickname. It’s a fruitcake with a flat layer of marzipan placed over the top and decorated with eleven marzipan balls representing the 12 apostles minus Judas. (Except for the apostle adornments, it sounds a lot like the birthday Celebration Fruitcake we had earlier.)

We walked back with Roy again and stopped in for a glass of ginger wine with him and Josie. Apparently this is a tradition for Richard and Roy as Josie does not attend services regularly. Roy leaves for church earlier but they usually walk back together and visit for a little while before separating. They’re very good neighbors and look after each other’s property when one of them is out of town. They’re a nice couple and I’m going to miss them.

We decided to have fruit and sandwiches for lunch. I introduced Richard to egg and cheese sandwiches. He was game enough to taste my sandwich even though he settled for ham and eggs with a slice of bread. I don’t think he’s gotten over my eating jam on cheese toast yet but I’m still shocked at some people using catsup on cheese toast too!

I volunteered to clean the kitchen while he watered his plants. Birthday week is officially over so I also picked up the birthday cards out of the den. There were 37 of them plus a letter from Buckingham Palace addressing him as an OAP (old age pensioner), a joke from his brother-in-law. Only a few duplicates in the bunch.

Mid-afternoon: Richard is outside washing the car. He said he would bring in the laundry later. It’s so nice to see a man who doesn’t mind doing “woman’s work.” The sun keeps darting in and out but it’s quite pleasant here in the conservatory. If not for a chilly wind blowing, I might even think I was in Georgia. Right now, I’m just taking it easy, making notes in my journal and sipping a Piňa Colada.

Evening: We didn’t do much today and neither of us was particularly hungry so we decided on a light supper tonight. I made a salad and we had some fresh multi-seeded bread with butter. Doesn’t sound like too much but I suppose the Lambrusko and birthday cake we had later negated the healthy salad. I also tried Squash, a/k/a High Juice tonight. I had the pink grapefruit flavor and really liked it. A pleasant surprise. Well, to me anyway.

Monday, March 23: My new RL jeans felt a bit tight when I zipped them this morning. With all this rich food, it scared me for a minute before I remembered they were washed in warm water rather than the recommended cold and apparently had shrunken a little. What a relief! (They did return to normal after wearing them a little while.)

It’s cloudy this morning, a bit reflective of my mood today. I’m feeling a little sad that I have to leave this lovely place in just three days. I’m amazed at how quickly the time has flown since I arrived. So hard to believe it’s been nearly three weeks already! We have some shopping to do today. I told Kevan that we would prepare dinner for him tomorrow evening. It won’t be nearly as delicious as the meal he cooked but hopefully will be good. I’ve found this stove to be quite intimidating and I’m also not accustomed to cooking with gas either so we shall see.

Late afternoon: We’ve had a busy day even though we’ve stayed home for most of it. After breakfast (more Squash for me), we went to Town Centre and stopped in at Marks & Spenser (no crescent rolls there either) and visited a couple of bookstores where we picked us some maps and a few things for my family. From there, we went to Sainsburys to complete our grocery shopping. We got stuff to make a meatloaf and broccoli casserole along with a few other items.
Back home, I made baked chicken again and prepared a salad while Richard cooked some very good new potatoes to go with it. After lunch, I put the meat loaf together and put it in the frig. Also did prep work for the casserole so we won’t have so much to do tomorrow.

I cleaned the kitchen while Richard washed the floor and ran the vacuum cleaner. Now he’s about to start ironing but I think I’ll just sit here a while and listen to Norah Jones and watch him work. We did have a treat between chores and I think he’s still in shock that I actually drank milk instead of a diet soda. He had a triple chocolate brownie with his glass of milk while I opted for the less sweet fruitcake.

I felt a little guilty watching him work so I dusted the tables in the lounge while he took the kitchen rubbish out to the wheelie bin and swept the driveway.

Evening: We had leftover chicken, fruit and cake for dinner. (I might actually pick us some healthy eating habits if I stayed here long enough.) Also watched the DVD “Love Actually.” It was a good movie even if it did jump around a bit. All-in-all, it was a very pleasant and much-needed relaxing day.

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This Simnel Cake recipe sounds a lot like the fruitcake Richard had for his birthday. I’m not sure of those ingredients but it was much better than the American fruitcakes I’ve had and the marzipan sheet of icing draped over it really brought the flavors together nicely.

Simnel Cake

110g/4oz butter

110g/4oz soft brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

150g/5oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1/4 t. each ground nutmeg and cinnamon
350g/12oz mixed raisins, currants and sultanas

55g/2oz chopped mixed peel of 1/2 lemon, grated rind only1-2 T. apricot jam

1 egg, beaten for glazing

For the almond paste: (Marzipan)

125g/4oz caster sugar

125g/4oz ground almonds

1 egg, beaten

1/2 t. almond essence (extract)

To make the almond paste: place the sugar and ground almonds in a bowl. Add enough beaten egg to give a fairly soft consistency. Add the almond essence and knead for a minute until the paste is smooth and pliable. Roll out a third of the almond paste to make a circle 18cm/7in in diameter and reserve the remainder for topping of the cake. (You can halve the recipe and omit the decorative balls for the top if desired.)

Preheat oven to 140C/275F. To make the cake: cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs until well incorporated and then sift in the flour, salt and spice (if using) a little at a time. Finally, add dried fruit, peel and grated lemon rind and mix into the mixture well.

Put half the mixture in a greased and lined 18cm/7-in. cake tin. Smooth the top and cover with the circle of almond paste. Add the rest of the cake mixture and smooth the top leaving a slight dip in the center to allow for the cake rising. Bake in the preheated oven for 1-1/2 hours. Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool.

When you are ready to decorate the cake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Brush the top of the cooled cake with the apricot jam. Divide the remainder of the almond paste into two equal parts. Roll out a circle to cover the top of the cake with one half and form 11 small balls with the other half. Place the circle of paste on the jam and set the balls round the edge. Brush the top with a little beaten egg. Return the cake to the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or long enough for the almond paste to brown. Enjoy!

Apple Dumplings by Mark

1 medium-sized cooking apple, cored, peeled and cut into 8 wedges
1 pkg. crescent rolls, 8 to a pack
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. water
1 c. white sugar
1/2 c. light brown sugar
Cinnamon Sugar

Wrap apple wedges triangularly in crescent rolls and seal edges. (I usually use Gala apples.) Lay dumplings in the bottom of a baking dish, seam-side down and sprinkle brown sugar between them. Heat butter, water, and sugar until butter is melted. Pour over dumplings and sprinkle dumplings liberally with cinnamon sugar.

Bake @ 350° for 30 minutes, or until browned. Serve plain or warm with ice cream or whipped cream. The result is easy and excellent apple dumplings in a great caramel sauce. NOTE: If you want to double this recipe, double apples and crescent rolls and use 1-1/2 times the other ingredients.

These were the apple dumplings I wanted to serve Richard’s family but could never find the crescent rolls I needed to prepare them. The recipe came from my friends Mark and Debra Ballard of Macon and are tried and true. I’ve never had a bad review in the many, many times I’ve served them.

Cinnamon Sugar

1/4 c. granulated sugar
4 t. ground cinnamon

Combine well and store in an airtight container. Put in a sprinkler container if you have one for more even distribution over desserts, French toast etc. Quantities can easily be doubled or tripled but a little of this goes a long way.

Sinful 4-layer Brownies

Cookie Layer
18 oz. Oreo cookies, crushed finely
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1 c. melted butter
Chocolate Layer;
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
3/4 c. heavy cream
1-1/2 T. confectioner's sugar
5 T. Kahlua
White Chocolate Layer:
6 oz. white chocolate
6 T. heavy cream
1-1/2 T. confectioner's sugar
Ganache
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
3/4 c. heavy cream

COOKIE LAYER: Combine crushed Oreos, pecans, and melted butter and press evenly into 8x12 pan. (I put Oreos and pecans into a food processor and pulse together.)
CHOCOLATE LAYER: Put chocolate, heavy cream, sugar, and Kahlua in top of a double boiler. Melt together, spread over cookie layer and let cool.
WHITE CHOCOLATE LAYER: Put white chocolate, cream, and sugar in top of a double boiler. Melt together, spread evenly over chocolate layer and cool in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
GANACHE: Melt chocolate, cream, and butter in top of a double boiler. Spread evenly over white chocolate layer. Refrigerate until cooled completely, overnight if possible, and cut into 1-in. squares. If these are to be out of the refrigerator very long, it is better to secure the squares with toothpicks to keep them from sliding apart if they get a little too warm.
NOTE: These are not the same brownies as Richard ate but have been a family favorite a long time and were always welcomed at library functions.