I hope you are well and enjoying your English summer. How are the fruit and veg crops coming along?

Is “pudding rice” different from the regular rice we have here? Long grain, I think its called. Wonder how rice pudding taste with wild rice? Brown rice is good and imparts a sweeter flavor to the end product than if “regular” white rice is used. Great with walnuts added in.

Coconut milk rice pudding, with maybe a hint of jasmine in it to give it that hint of India flavor to it? Or maybe use Jasmine white rice…? This is getting silly. Or maybe some Orange Flower Water or Rose Water (both available in Indian grocery stores over here). Here’s an idea for a cook book project for you, Mum, a Rice Pudding Cookbook! I actually have a cookbook that is totally devoted to meatloaf recipes. It’s a small book but has more variations than I thought possible to that ancient meatloaf theme. You could write it in your spare time! HAHAHAHA–I just cracked myself up. Hey, I’ll buy a copy or two!

Saw on a cooking show while on vacation in Canada a gentleman cooking up a Stout Chocolate Bread Pudding. Made with, probably, Guiness Stout, it looked amazing. I’ll hunt around and see if I can find the recipe if you’re interested. Served warm with whipped cream it looked super decadent. And what’s wrong, I ask myself, with a CHOCOLATE whipped cream maybe touched with Kaluha? Or Amaretto? Or…sorry to get silly again.

Off to pick some home grown Jalapeno peppers. Trying to cool off in 93 degree heat. As a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, I don’t remember it being so TROPICAL here. Amazing.

Have a great week!

*rushes off to kitchen to see if we have pudding rice*

Yeay – we do

I agree that the gloves ought to come off. After all, it’s not as though she has “dish pan hands”. But I’m not sure it would be a good thing to see her in cut-offs. After all, she IS a grandma and there aren’t too many ladies of her age who can sport that particular style. Does that poor lady ever get to just kick back and relax? She’s always got someone watching her, or taking pictures, poor thing. Glad I’m not famous! Bless her anyway.

One of the nice desserts I remember on my 1967 trip was at someone’s home after a tremendous dinner of roast beef, English style. A slice of pound cake, fresh strawberries with Devon cream and topped off with candied violets, candied mimosa flowers and fresh tips of mint. WOW. Super easy, super cool, beautiful to look at and lasted about 3 minutes! Delicious.
A nice cup of hot coffee was the finishing touch.

Re: Lord Montagu. Back in 1973 I was part of a tour of England, Austria, Belgium and France that the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club in England put on. My boyfriend at the time and his parents had a lovely vintage RR that used to belong to the Queen of Holland. Basically, I made his life miserable until he agreed to take me along on the trip! There were about 100 vintage Rolls-Royces on this tour that was to commemorate the 60th aniversary of a similar tour put on by a fellow named Radley. Basically, it established the reputation of Rolls-Royce as being a superbly engineered vehicle and not “just another pretty face”. The tour covered the 4 countries mentioned and lasted about 3 weeks. Lord Montagu was one of the sponsors and “guiding lights” of the whole project and drove his beautiful old Ghost (1903) for the entire trip. After the tour we all agreed that our favorite country was England. Same (almost) language, nicer people, better food and the natives knew how to treat vintage motor cars and their owners. Favorite place (for me) in England was the town of Lyndhurst near the New Forest. So that’s how I got to “hobnob” with His Grace. He kept his sense of humor and beautiful manners throughout the whole 3 weeks and I was very impressed. Some of the kids on the trip liked being around him as well and that was nice. A sweet, kind guy.

I fully expect that Her Majesty has experienced warmer weather. I mean, after all, her family used to own large chunks of Africa, right? But I feel bad for anyone who has to dress formally for an event that is taking place in hot and humid weather. I mean, pantyhose are bad enough as it is…and she wear gloves a lot. Perhaps someone on her staff follows her around with a small air conditoner. If so, they should be knighted after this trip, they deserve it.

Many thanks for the idea of the lemons…I hadn’t heard of that before. Sprigs of fresh rosemary, yes, but lemon…hmmmm.

ENJOY!

Trying to keep the dear Queen from melting,

PAT in PA

Hope you’re looking after Queeny! xx