In the Garden with Peter Rabbit Plus a Recipe: Cornish Hens with Orange Marmalade Glaze

Beatrix Potter gave the world its most famous make-believe vegetable garden: Mr. McGregor's. 

Late in life, Potter discovered the joy of digging in real dirt after she purchased Hill Top Farm (and other properties) in the Lake District. Though she'd been raised to be a proper Victorian lady, she shocked herself when she began to pilfer plants. Her mischief was reminiscent of Peter Rabbit's antics in McGregor's garden. The city mouse was becoming a country mouse. And she loved every moment.

Was life imitating art?

Her garden provided vegetables for her larder and fodder for her books.

 "Timmy Willie was a little country mouse" who crawled into a vegetable hamper, gobbled up some peas, then crawled into a pod and fell asleep. It was the beginning of a great adventure.

Peter Rabbit "climbed upon a wheelbarrow, and peeped over. The first thing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing onions." Since McGregor had a bit of a reputation for eating trespassers, Peter "got down ver quietly off the wheelbarrow, and started running as fast as he could go." 

What's in its pocketses, Peter Rabbit?

This week the Novel Bakers are in the kitchen with Beatrix Potter's Country Cooking.

If you leaf through the index of most British cookbooks, you'll find a large section devoted to fish, poultry, and game.  Beatrix Potter's Country Cooking is no exception. Since I live in a petting zoo, complete with ducks, chickens, geese, and peafowl, I skipped over the recipes that focused on feathered darlings. But woman cannot live on salads and eggs (at least this woman can't). 

I saw a photograph of roast pheasant with rowan jelly, and like most of the recipes in the book, it came with a little introduction: 

"Beatrix Potter and Willie Heelis were married in the autumn of 1913 in Kensington, London; the honeymoon was spent at Sawrey. Willie was a keen sportsman and therw was nothing he liked better than a good day's shooting...Beatrix did not share Willie's interest in field sports, though she must have enjoyed eating the game shot by her husband."

I could substitute Cornish hens for the pheasant...but where would I find rowan jelly? My mother told me to use orange marmalade. It added a golden "bark" to the hens, and the taste was ambrosial.

Cornish Hens with Orange Marmalade 

 Cornish hens 

lemon wedges -- 1 for each hen

1/2 lemon

fresh parsley

fresh thyme

butter (room temperature) 

salt and pepper

orange marmalade -- 1 heaping tablespoon per hen

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare the hens: rinse them under cold water and drain on paper towels. Place a lemon wedge, butter, and herbs into the cavity of each bird. Salt and pepper. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over each hen. Into a baking dish, add the birds and bake 1 hour. During the last 15 minutes of cooking, brush marmalade over the hens. Remove from the oven when the skin is golden and crisp.

Visit  Jain (...a quiet life) and  Mary (Home Is Where the Boat Is) for

springtime magic--recipes, tablescaping, and more.  You're invited to follow our adventures during Beatrix Potter Week on Pinterest.

Thanks for visiting!

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The Novel Bakers Present Beatrix Potter Week

The Novel Bakers present 

Beatrix Potter Week.

At Home with Beatrix Potter
It's almost Easter, a time when porcelain bunnies appear on mantels. I myself have a modest collection of figurines, including Peter Rabbit.

I also collect books about Beatrix Potter, the literary genius behind Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.

Beatrix Potter grew up sketching the world outside of her nursery window in London. She led a structured, somewhat isolated existence (very common with upper class Victorian children) and learned to entertain herself. However, each summer, art and imagination ignited when her family traveled around the UK. In the Lake District, Beatrix honed her keen interest in nature, and she painted pictures of animals, insects, and flowers.

At Home with Beatrix Potter
By the turn of the century, Beatrice had become a skilled artist. Peter Rabbit came into existence when she mailed "picture letters" to a friend's chronically ill son. Around this time, children's picture books had become popular, and Beatrice decided to write about Peter's adventures. But The Tales of Peter Rabbit was rejected by numerous publishers, and Beatrix decided to privately print the book. The charming stories were accompanied by gorgeous, lifelike pen-and-ink illustrations, and the copies sold briskly. A publishing company presented her with a contract.
The rest is history.

All these years later, the Peter Rabbit series is still in print--and books are written about Beatrix's garden, home, and the stories behind her famous tales. I'm constantly discovering new titles. When Jain told me about Country Cooking, I bought it (and Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life) immediately.

I could cook meals all year from this book--and I might. Many recipes are accompanied by anecdotes: 

Cucumber and Strawberry Salad

When Beatrix Potter first bought Hill Top, her farm in the Lakeland village of Near Sawrey, she discovered the house was overrun with rats. She wrote to Millie Warne, of the publishing family, about her battle with the vermin. 'The rats have come back in great force, two big ones were trapped in the shed here, raising babies in the cucumber frame.'

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers was based upon the imaginary adventures of a pair of Hill Top rats.

Cucumber and Strawberry Salad
2 American Cucumbers
12 oz large strawberries
Salt and freshly milled pepper
pinch of caster sugar
3 tablespoons dry white whine
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
A few borage flowers for garnish
(I added mint, too)

Peel cucumbers. Cap berries and slice thickly.
Arrange berries and cucumbers in alternating circles.
Season with salt, pepper, sugar. Spoon the wine over the salad
and sprinkle with tarragon.  Chill. Before serving,
garnish with a few blue borage flowers. (I used pansies.)

Serves: 6

Visit  Jain (...a quiet life) and  Mary (Home Is Where the Boat Is) for

springtime magic--recipes, tablescaping, and more.  You're invited to follow our adventures during Beatrix Potter Week on Pinterest.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

The Novel Bakers will return Tuesday.

Favorites from my Bookshelf: 
Beatrix Potter: At Home in the Lake District by Susan Denyer, Frances-Lincoln Limited, London.
Beatrix Potter's Country Cooking by Sara Paston-Williams; photography by Ian O'Leary, F. Warne and Company (Beatrice's original publisher).


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