Beatrix Potter Easter Week: The Wrap-Up

 

I've loved all the Novel Bakers' projects, but for some reason, Beatrix Potter Easter Week was my favorite. Beatrix's early, sheltered years helped shape her art, preparing her for grand adventures that would not arrive until she was middle-aged. She took up gardening late in life, and, in reading her letters, it's clear that she drew inspiration and comfort from the land.

 

In her final years, when her eyesight was failing, she painted less and less, but she did not define herself as an author in absolute terms: writing was her profession, something she did every day, not an all-encompassing description. She loved the creative process and was successful beyond all imagining, but she drew a line between vocation and avocation. When artists fail to do this, they may plunge down a rabbit hole, losing the best part of themselves.

 

As I read about Miss Potter and her life, it seemed clear that she did not allow herself to be changed by fame and fortune--fleeting things that have the power to diminish, rather than to fill one's cup.

 

Deep in her heart, Beatrix was a wife, farmer, gardener, cook. She removed herself from the rat race--and wrote about rats! She protected her privacy as much as possible and chose her friends wisely. When all was said and done, Beatrix knew how to recognize the lasting value of simple pleasures. 

 

This applies to every profession: medicine, the law, teaching, writing, blogging.

Do what you love because you love it and for no other reason.

As I prepared for Beatrix Potter Week, I felt like a girl again, humming to myself as I cooked. I couldn't wait to visit Jain and Mary each day; I always came home inspired and joyful. Even Bandwidth got into the spirit and cooked a few dishes.

 Many of you shared Beatrix-related memories and pointed me in the direction of additional reading material, along with the charming film, Miss Potter, which I hadn't seen. 

Thanks so much for your stories and tidbits.

 

Here is one final recipe from Beatrix Potter's Country Cooking. It was prepared by

Bandy, and he made a few adjustments.

Cornish Buttered And Creamed Lobster

(Bandwidth's Easy Version)

"The Potter family used to leave London for two or three weeks in April to stay in seaside hotels in Lyme Regis, Minehead, Illfracombe, Tiegnmouth, Sidmouth, or Falmouth. In 1892, they spent their Easter holiday in Falmouth and Beatrix wrote at length in her journal about Cornwall."

-- from Beatrix Potter's Country Cooking
 

'The Cornish natives} are naive and unspoiled to an amusing degree. Very friendly, kindly, cheerful, healthy--long lived and the numerous old people very merry, which speaks well for a race.'

-- from Beatrix Potter's letters

The recipe called for the lobster to be presented in scrubbed, baked shells), but Bandwidth decided to make little lobster tarts.

What You Need:

3 cooked lobsters (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb each) or equivalent fresh lobster meat

fresh lemon juice

3/4 c butter

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon prepared English mustard

1/2 cup crème fraîche

Salt and pepper

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Lemon slices (garnish)

Sprigs of fresh dill or fennel (garnish)

Frozen pastry shells

Cook pastry shells according to the instructions on the box.

Prepare lobster meat and sprinkle with lemon juice; and set aside. Into a saucepan, add 1/4 c butter and melt. Add breadcrumbs and cook until brown. Remove from stove and set aside.

Melt the rest of the butter in a large pot. Add mustard and lobster. Heat the brandy in a metal ladle; ignite and pour (it will be flaming) onto the lobster meat. After the flames extinguish, remove pan from heat and set aside.

In yet another pan, add cream, salt, and peppers. Over a medium flame, reduce liquid. Aim for a thick sauce.

Remove the brandied lobster (a large slotted spoon will work best) and place equal amounts in the pastry shells. Spoon cream mixture over the lobster. Top with browned breadcrumbs. Bake in a 375 degree oven until breadcrumbs are nicely browned. Garnish with herbs and lemon slices, if desired.

(When I was transferring the tarts to a tray, I dropped most of them...here are the survivors.)

The Novel Bakers' Beatrix Potter Easter Week has come to an end. I hope you have found a recipe or two along the way. Before you go, be sure to see the goodies that  Jain (...a quiet life) and  Mary (Home Is Where the Boat Is) have cooked and created this week. Take a visit to Mary's lakeside potting shed...Jain's English greenhouse ... and you'll also find recipes galore. 

Links to our recipes can be found on the Beatrix Potter Week board at Pinterest.

Thanks for sharing your time with us this week. Hope to see you on the next Novel Baker adventure.

I'm sharing this post at these linky parties:
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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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Jemima's Savoury Picnic Omelette

Beatrix Potter Week continues today with a recipe, along with a closer look at the woman who created the world's most famous lagomorph: Peter Rabbit. 

When Beatrix Potter was sixty years old, her books were international bestsellers. An American magazine invited her to write a short biography for her many fans, and Beatrix described herself as an artist/farmer/lawyer's wife who lived in the Lake District. In a private note to the editor, she added:

"I don't think anybody requires to know more about me." 

Eighty nine years later, her fans would beg to differ.

Beatrix's private life has been gleaned through letters, interviews, and her body of work. We know that she was a sickly, lonely, creative child. She grew up in London and summered in the country with her family. Her mother was loving but overbearing. 

On Beatrix's thirtieth birthday, she was still living at home, suffering through her mother's matchmaking. Beatrix was having none of it. She wanted to draw, write, and tend to her animals, real and imaginary. 

One summer her family leased a house in the hilly, northern Lake Country. The garden overlooked the water, which was always changing and provided endless inspiration to Beatrix. She was smitten with everything, from the moors to wild mushrooms.
The holiday ended, and Beatrix's parents herded her back to London, where she began to sell illustrated cards.

A decade later, professional success and an unbearable sorrow would dovetail into the perfect storm, bringing her back to the Lake District. She bought Hill Top Farm and orchestrated the renovation from afar, as her mother deemed it "unseemly" for a woman to live alone. However, she turned Beatrix loose now and then, allowing her famous daughter to visit her "country home."

Once, Beatrix arrived at Hill Top and discovered that the contractor had created a huge, hideous front lawn. (Possibly he'd assumed that a city slicker like Miss Potter would want to play croquet.)

It would cost a small fortune to correct the error, so Beatrix planted potatoes. 

Speaking of potatoes . . . I made a potato-leek omelette and

scorched it a bit. Still, it was delicious. How can you go wrong when a recipe calls for sauteed potatoes, onions, peas, leeks, peppers--and six large eggs?

The preface to the recipe* is utterly charming:

"In The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, gullible Jemima is delighted when the silver-tongued, foxy gentleman, Beatrix's favourite villain, invites the duck to a private dinner party.

 'Not even the mention of sage and onions made her suspicious.' She really believes 'the gentleman with sandy whiskers wants her to fetch herbs from the farm garden to make a savoury omelette." 

The author of Beatrix Potter Country Cooking, Sara Paston-Williams, added her notes to the recipe:

"This particular savoury omelette is delicious for a picnic. If you are eating it as part of a meal, the quantity will serve 6; for a main dish, count on 3 servings."

What You Need:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large potato, peeled and diced (I parboiled the potato to reduce cooking time)

1 small leek, finely chopped

6 tablespoons cooked green peas, fresh or frozen

1 large red bell pepper, deseeded and finely chopped

6 tablespoons (1/2 cup) chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

6 large eggs

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

...

Over a medium flame, heat the oil. Add the potato and cook for about 10 minutes or until browned. Add the onions and sautee. Add the leek and pepper. Cook 6 to 8 minutes. Add the peas.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Add parsley and cheese. Pour the mixture over the potato-leek-onion dice. Cook over a medium flame for about 5 minutes. Stir at least twice to distribute the egg mixture. Do not burn the omelette (as I did). Remove the pan from the flame and run under the broiler. Cook until the eggs puff up and turn golden. Serve warm. If you're taking the omelette to a picnic, wrap and refrigerate.

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.


You can find Monday's recipe for Cucumber-Strawberry Salad HERE.

Recommended Reading:
Beatrix Potter: At Home in the Lake District by Susan Denyer
Beatrix Potter's Country Cooking by Sara Paston-Williams
Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life by Marta McDowell





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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).


I'm participating in the following parties:
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Inspire Me Tuesday
Wow Us Wednesdays
Seasonal Sundays

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