“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”

~  Beatrix Potter (July 28, 1866 – December 22, 1943)

**BONUS RECIPE in honor of Miss Potter’s birthday:

FIERCE BAD RABBIT’S CARROT-RAISIN SALAD
(serves 4)

2 carrots
2 apples
1 rib of celery
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup mayonnaise, sour cream, or yogurt
1/4 cup chopped nuts, optional
lettuce leaves

Wash the carrots and scrape with a vegetable peeler. Place a metal grater on a piece of wax paper and grate the carrots, using the large ice-cream-cone-shaped openings of the grater. Put the grated carrots in the mixing bowl.

Wash the apples, but do not peel them. Cut them in half and then in quarters. Cut out the core, and cut the apples into small pieces.

Wash the celery and chop it. Add the celery, apples, and raisins to the carrots. Sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. Stir in mayonnaise, sour cream, or yogurt.

Serve the salad on lettuce leaves and sprinkle with nuts if you like them.

~adapted from Peter Rabbit’s Natural Foods Cookbook by Arnold Dobrin (Frederick Warne & Co., 1977).