bread and breakfast recipes

[review + recipes] V&A Introduces: Beatrix Potter by Katie Woolley and Ginnie Hsu

~ jama ~ 13 Comments

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you. Mine took me here. Where I belong.” ~ Beatrix Potter

Spring is Beatrix Potter time.

Every year as Easter rolls around, I enjoy rereading some of her Peter Rabbit tales and looking for new Potter-related books to add to my growing collection. Happily, there’s always more to learn about this remarkable woman, the world she created via her imagination, and the beautiful countryside she worked so hard to preserve for future generations.

Recently I stumbled upon a charming mini book, the latest title in the popular “V&A Introduces” series that celebrates icons in the world of art and design in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Love the pansies endpaper!

Beatrix Potter: Artist, Conservationist, Pioneer by Katie Woolley and Ginnie Hsu (Puffins Books, 2022), is a beautifully illustrated introduction to Potter’s life and accomplishments that includes original photographs and fascinating backstories to several of her most beloved tales.

Carefully curated facts are presented in twelve sections, giving readers a good sense of how unique Beatrix was as a fully self-realized creative who defied societal convention and attained financial independence:

  • Young Beatrice
  • Writing and Drawing
  • Escape to the Country
  • The Tale of Peter Rabbit
  • The Lake District
  • The Tailor of Gloucester
  • The Businesswoman
  • Hill Top Farm
  • Love & Marriage
  • The National Trust
  • Country Living
  • A Lasting Legacy

Peter Rabbit fans will enjoy learning how Beatrix became a master storyteller. As was typical for a girl from a wealthy Victorian family, she was looked after by a nanny and had lessons with a governess. She inherited a love of art from her parents, got lost in stories, and practiced drawing characters from the books she read.

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[musings + recipes] two yummy wizard of oz treats

~ jama ~ 22 Comments

“A heart is shown not by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.” — The Wizard of Oz

Oh, we’re off to see the Wizard — the wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Hello, my pretties! Let’s fly over the rainbow and spend some time with Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, adorable munchkins, a green witch, flying monkeys, ruby slippers, a yellow brick road and a dazzling Emerald City!

Alphabet Soup munchkins construct their own Emerald City.

If the enduring popularity of this beloved American fairy tale has taught us anything at all, it’s that no matter how much things may change, deep down we’ll always yearn for a place where the dreams we dare to dream really do come true. 🙂

Follow the cheddar brick road.

I’ve been on a “Wizard of Oz” kick lately — rewatched the movie and reread the book a couple of times, read several L. Frank Baum biographies, even scored two cute Wizard of Oz cookbooks — one inspired by the iconic 1939 film starring Judy Garland, the other based on Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first published in 1900 with illustrations by W.W. Denslow. It was fun to revisit this timeless classic via the lens of food, and to note how the movie differs from the book.

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[poem and recipe] orange you glad it’s friday?

~ jama ~ 24 Comments

“Orange is the happiest color.” ~ Frank Sinatra

Warm, cheerful and uplifting, the color orange combines the passion of red with the positivity of yellow. Ever vibrant, orange inspires creativity, boosts energy and stimulates the appetite.

California-based poet Lori Levy once said that poets paint in words. I love how she’s embraced her orange palette to create the vivid images in today’s delightful poem.

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“Monarch Butterfly” by Juan Bosco.
IN THE MOOD FOR ORANGE
by Lori Levy

I want to discover what's orange in the world:
to come upon a leopard lily;
flame lichen clinging to a rock.
A barn swallow's chest, a monarch's wing,
Or just a bird-of-paradise against the sky.

I could slice a mango or suck on a section
of tangerine. Make soup for lunch
with pumpkin, squash, carrots, yams.
Could settle down by a fire, copper and blue,
or by the orange glow of a glass lamp.

What I have in mind is a fat ripe sun
the scarlet of a California poppy --
and me in an ocher-orange dress,
lips painted mandarin, twirling
to the rattle of Mexican maracas

until I drop like the sun
and the world grows dark again.

~ from In the Mood for Orange (Gvanim, 2007)
“California Poppies” by Marcia Baldwin.

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“Tropical Flirtation” by Carol Collette.

Revel in it!

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[review + recipes] A Charlotte Brontë Birthday

~ jama ~ 35 Comments

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” ~ Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre, 1847).

Today we’re celebrating Charlotte Brontë’s 207th birthday with a fabulous picture book and two versions of a scrummy Yorkshire treat. 🙂

Wonder if she could ever have imagined that over a century after publishing the first book of Brontë poems, generations of readers all over the world would still be studying, sharing and marveling at all she and her sisters had written?

As enjoyable and enduring as their books are, a large part of what continues to intrigue Brontë fans is the fascinating story of their all-too-brief lives in early 19th century Yorkshire. 

In The Brontës: Children of the Moors (Franklin Watts, 2016), award winning nonfiction picture book team Mick Manning and Brita Granström present an engaging, informative, charmingly illustrated account of Brontë family milestones from their early childhood days in Haworth, to their short stints as teachers and governesses, to their accomplishments as authors and poets.

Manning and Granström’s kid friendly format consists of three components: a main text narrated by Charlotte, scenes dramatized with characters conversing in speech bubbles, and Charlotte’s sidenotes brimming with interesting bits and bobs that expand on the main text.

This approach packs a lot of information into each double page spread; Charlotte’s voice is intimate and accessible and younger readers can opt to follow the story via the pictures.

There’s also a unique spin: Mick Manning actually grew up in the village of Haworth and played a shepherd in the 1967 BBC2 “Wuthering Heights” series when he was just 8. As the book opens, he recounts how he dozed off while waiting for his turn on camera, only to have a lady “in old fashioned clothes” tell him a story he’d never forget upon awakening. 

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[poesy + receipts] Three Cups of Tea with Miss Emily

~ jama ~ 44 Comments

“If we love flowers, are we not born again every day . . .” (Emily Dickinson to Mrs. George S. Dickerman, 1886)

Happy Good Friday and Happy Passover!

We are celebrating this rejuvenating season of renewal, reflection and rebirth with our dear friend Emily Dickinson.

Ever since Spring donned her yellow bonnet and tiptoed into our woods, I’ve been immersed in Emily’s words. Rereading her poems fills me with the same wonder and elation as seeing those first daffodils pop up or the dogwoods proudly showing off their white blossoms. 

Her inimitable voice remains fresh, clever, startling, a little subversive. For someone who once wondered if her verse was “alive,” she could never have imagined that it has remained so to millions for over a century.

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene -
This whole Experiment of Green -
As if it were his own!

Although she normally shies away from company, the Belle of Amherst couldn’t resist Mr Cornelius’s invitation to stop by (he has a way with 19th century poetic geniuses). She agreed to share a few of her poems if we provided tea and treats.

We were happy to oblige, quite anxious to try several recipes from the new Emily Dickinson Cookbook: Recipes from Emily’s Table Alongside the Poems That Inspire Them (Harvard Common Press, 2022). Arlyn Osborne’s charming compendium contains 50+ recipes – several Emily recorded, dishes she and her family enjoyed, plus others typical of the New England of her time – all adapted for the modern home cook. 

Our three cups of tea represent the triad of Emily’s existence: Garden, Writing, Home and Family. We have selected YOU as our society, so put on a clean white dress or shirt, place a crown of dandelions in your hair, and ring when you’re ready for your first cup of verse and victuals.

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