“Hobnobs”

I made these last night and Paul ate about 10 of them. Then he got up this morning and ate some for breakfast. I suggested he take some up to the antique mall with him today and he refused – said he wasn’t going to share them! LOL! Super easy English biscuits that I found on the Creative Living Forums (a UK site that I found while looking for WWII living inspiration). With conversions, here is the recipe:
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup butter
1 Tbls Pure Cane Syrup (Molasses or Honey may be substituted)
1 Tbls hot water
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar and oats in a bowl and set aside. In a saucepan, gently melt butter, syrup, water and baking soda just until melted (do not boil). Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. Form into balls the size of walnuts, place on greased baking sheet (or line with waxed paper) about 2″ apart and press each down with a fork. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, let sit for a couple of minutes then use a spatula to place cookies on a rack to cool.

The original recipe is here, if you would like to set your oven to 180oc, Gas 4! 😉

 

Time for a revival: Pea soup

We had ham a few days ago, so that we could have Pea Soup today.   Documented with my new Kodak Easy Share camera. Here we go!

Two packages (one pound each) of dry split peas

One nice ham bone, from a ham or smoked picnic with good flavor (we like Smithfield Brand – the better the flavor of the ham, the better the soup)

Sort and rinse as you would dry beans, and put into a stock pot with 12 cups or so of water.  Season with thyme, a bay leaf, and a bit of black pepper. Hold off on adding salt until after it is done, as the ham is often salty.  

Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for  an hour and a half.


After the peas are soft, remove from heat, and take the hambone out. Then strain the liquid and mash the peas through a jelly strainer or cheesecloth bag to remove the pea hulls – this is a very important step, as pea hulls are not pleasant to eat!

(Also, I learned the hard way once that running it all through a blender doesn’t work, either – it just makes for even smaller pieces of unpleasantness in the soup.)

Chop the good ham remaining on the bone, and add the diced pieces back into the strained soup.

Reheat, and serve with croutons. Paul makes ours himself, but Mrs. Cubbisons would work too. This is a wonderful soup on a cold night, and even better the next day.

 

Special Day

Just in case anyone is still reading here, today is official Hug Your Cat Day.  So, stop whatever you’re doing and find a cat and hug it.  Now.  Thank you.

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Go to http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

Don’t see anything? Click and drag your cursor.

 

Making Your Own Brooms

This is fascinating: The Making of a Birch Scrubber

 

Too good not to share

I have to share this with you. The song was written and sung by Fred Neil, who is now permanently swimming with the dolphins he loved, since his ashes were put in the ocean. A pod of dolphins appeared, against all odds, on that day. The location and weather made it extremely unlikely. The filming was done by Ric O’Barry who used to be Ric O’Feldman (a name I really loved!) who works on dolphin rescue. Ric, prior to his enlightenment, trained the dolphins who were Flipper of the old TV series.

Dolphins Swim in the Wild!

 

A loss to the country, another Texan passes

We have had a great loss. Molly Ivins has succumbed to breast cancer, which silenced a voice that no other force had been able to do. I will miss her. Her humor, her accurate skewering of the mighty, her great heart, all gone now. She was much too young to go, but died as she lived, giving 100% all the way. I am so sad.

 

The Auction in Rosebud TX

This is one we will go to from time to time.  Right now, am looking through the pictures for the Feb 10th auction:

http://www.aaauction.net/pictures.htm

Speaking of LOOMS, wonder if any of our readers know anything about this little gem?

 

Long Live The Queen! Long Live The Brits!

“Helen Mirren, no doubt, deserves the Best Actress trophy for her portrayal of Elizabeth II R. ” , per Whitehall. After seeing the photo above, my first thought was to wonder if we could have Jane Tennyson… er… Helen Mirren… for Queen, or at least for Prime Minister – wouldn’t she be marvelous?!?!??! The good Anglo-Catholics use the movie as a lead in to a discussion of Rene Girard, for those interested in Social Theory. 🙂

 

Decaf Coffee Question

Paul has switched to Decaf coffee. We use a little Melita pot that makes one mug at a time – so him switching to decaf is e-a-s-y: we make a cup for him, then make a cup for me, or vice versa, even, cause we are democratic like that.

We use paper filters and this is where my question comes in. There is something about the decaf coffee that is disolving the bottom seal of the filters. At first we thought the filters were defective but, nope, it only happens with decaf grounds. Poor Paul is gonna have to buy himself one of those permanent gold filters if he is to have a cup of coffee without a quarter cup of sludge in the bottom.

Have ya’ll run into this problem, or heard of it happening to anyone else?