May Breakfasts are a Rhode Island tradition. Churches, fire stations and community groups hold them each year all over the state.
Our local one in town is held at the "red church" either right on May 1st or as close to that date as possible.
It was cold and wet this morning but the food and coffee warmed us right up:
scrambled eggs
bacon and sausage
pancakes
hash browns
blueberry coffee cake
fruit and juice
coffee
I spent last July in Waterside, New Brunswick, Canada, at my parents' summer place bought back in 1966. Waterside is right on the Bay of Fundy and has a population of 100.
If you are living or staying in Waterside one of your nearby go-to villages is Hillsborough, population 1,962. The bank is there. You can go to great auctions at the Hillsborough Kiwanis Club, you've got several restaurants to choose from and there's even a museum. It's a happening place.
Last year the New Brunswick Women's Institute was celebrating its 100th Anniversary and in honor of this milestone the Hillsborough branch published a cookbook. Of course I bought one. Besides some winning recipes, I noticed that sprinkled throughout the cookbook were tidbits of New Brunswick wisdom on life, weather, gardening and cleaning.
Here are some of the best:
~ Enjoy the pleasures of gardening or don't bother doing one ~
~ Use ketchup to clean silverware ~
~ Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning ~
~ Always have something to do, something to get up for each morning ~
~ Grass stains: use molasses, let stand, then wash ~
~ Keep digging at your garden and keep it
loose between plantings ~
~ Mackerel sky: not long wet and not long dry ~
~ To remove pen stains on clothing or crayon marks
on the wall, take the outside of a cucumber
and slowly use it to erase the stains ~
~ Follow the Canadian food hints and keep active
in your personal life ~
~ Put vinegar on rags to keep deer out of the garden ~
~ Blueberry stains: soak in milk ~
~ If you are retired, adopt hobbies with up and going activities. Avoid sitting down and too much napping as it is not good ~
~ To deodorize shoes, place sheets of Bounce in them overnight ~
I am always on the look-out for terrific things to bake and this fills the bill. This recipe is incredibly easy, requires no mixer and turns out perfectly every time. I found it in two places almost at the same time and one of the sources called it "Swedish Visiting Cake". The reason? Because you can have this recipe baking in the oven between the time you see your visitors at your gate and they are knocking on your door!
Swedish Visiting Cake
325 degree oven Butter a 9x13 inch baking pan
Mix the following ingredients together thoroughly:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
4 large room temperature eggs
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 teaspoons almond extract
Spread this batter in the pan evenly.
Sprinkle about 1/3 cup sliced almonds over the batter and then sprinkle about 1 tablespoon sugar over the almonds.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the cake tests done with a toothpick and is golden brown around the edges. Cool, and cut into cake-sized squares or into bar-sized treats (about 24 of these). Swedish Visiting Cake is perfect with tea or coffee, it freezes well and I doubt anyone you serve it to will have tasted it before!
Today is final preparations for Hurricane Irene, which is due tomorrow here in Rhode Island. When I was going down the list of what needs to be done I suddenly realized I had not "taken in" my hydrangeas for the coming year and if I did not take them in today they would be unusable once the hurricane arrived.
When I say "taking in my hydrangeas" I'm talking about preserving the semi-dried blooms for use in the house from now until next summer.
Here's what I do:
I wait until late August when the blooms are fading and drying on the bush. My hydrangeas are bright blue during their blooming season. At the end of the summer they are many different colors - lovely faded colors like purple, light blue, lilac, even some tinges of green - and the trick is that you want to have them retain these beautiful colors while completely drying.
When I cut a stem off the bush I remove all the leaves and also shake the bloom head to rid it of any insects camped inside.
I've been doing two large bouquets for the house, for one I use a frog for the other I don't.
Fill the containers you want to use about 3/4 full of water. Arrange your hydrangeas and then display them and DO NOTHING ELSE. Let the water evaporate over time - DO NOT refill with water.
I find hydrangeas preserved this way retain their gorgeous colors from the day you picked them, they dry completely and they stay this way until the next August! Pretty amazing.
This arrangement is done with a frog in the bottom of a large silverplate bowl:
This one I just stick the stems in and arrange without a frog:
I am spending July in New Brunswick, the large Maritime Province just over the US border. In an earlier post I talked about how Grand Manan Island, which is part of New Brunswick, goes unnoticed by Americans, even Americans who live very close to it. The entire province of New Brunswick suffers the same fate.
I guess I can understand this - looking at these photographs, why would anyone want to come here?
My sister Beth has been visiting for the holidays and we both love to cook and bake. We just whipped up a batch of delicious, unusual jam. Probably nobody you know has tasted this before so this is a delightful gift to give special people. It has a gorgeous, clear-red appearance and it is very easy to make.
Here it is:
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
1 (12 oz) bag fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup water
Scrape vanilla seeds from pod into a heavy saucepan. Add pod and remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 20 minutes.
Jam will thicken as it cools.
Puree jam in a food mill set over a bowl, discarding skins and pod.
Pour into sterilized jars and seal. Makes 2 cups.
More amazing scores on the flea market front.........
A set of Villeroy and Boch china in the "Anjou" pattern:
and four perfect plates in Booth's "Real Old Willow " pattern:
It is unbelievable what turns up at the flea market we go to almost every Sunday from April to November. This Sunday will probably be the last one until the spring....good thing because I will soon need a barn all to myself for all the treasures I have found!
Recently I did a workshop for pre-service and classroom teachers. Our main activity that day was trying out the new table-top map kits from National Geographic. These are the smaller version of the huge tile maps NGS intoduced a few years ago, some of which needed a gymnasium wall to display their full glory. All of these tile maps are now called Nat Geo Mapmaker Kits, and are available in the large wall version or the new table-top version. What is great about the small maps is that they require photocopying only eight pages (tiles) while the big maps could be 120 to 180 tiles in size.
Here are some teachers working with the Water Planet and World Political map kits:
The detail on these maps is superb and the possibilities are endless for grades 3 to 12. Check them out on the National Geographic website. You'll find them under "Geography Awareness Week" in the LEARN ABOUT FRESHWATER section.
Every year, here in Rhode Island, when Geography Awareness Week is on the horizon, the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance (RIGEA) tries to come up with something motivating and fun to involve kids and adults in the year’s theme. One year we had a cooking contest, another time we held a dinner with the menu coordinating with the GAW theme. This year we decided to focus on the creative arts, so in October we announced a “Rhody Freshwater and YOU” contest. Entrants were asked to create something which represented a form of Rhode Island freshwater and then explain what that particular freshwater meant to them.
We were excited to receive quite a few entries, and although the contest was open to any Rhode Islander, all the entries came from either elementary or middle school students. The elementary students sent in projects which seemed to emphasize freshwater conservation, while the middle school students reflected more on specific rivers or lakes or ponds that had provided them with fond memories.
We are pleased to see so many Rhode Island kids learning about freshwater and growing up to be careful consumers of this limited resource.
Here are the winners and their projects:
1st Prize:
Miranda Peloquin “Memories of My Lake” V. J. Gallagher Middle School , Smithfield, RI
Honorable Mention:
Joshua Hersey “Water, Water…..Boy I Wish I Had Some” Winsor Hill Elementary School, Johnston, RI
Madalyn Moore “Ahhh! Refeshing” Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School, Johnston, RI
Ashley Shilko “Stump Pond” V. J. Gallagher Middle School, Smithfield, RI
Alison Izzi “The Brook in My Backyard” V. J. Gallagher Middle School, Smithfield, RI
Here is Miranda’s prize-winning entry, a great poem superimposed over an artistic background. Included in her comments about what this lake meant to her is the following: ”I have so many memories here it’s way too many to count but I know one thing is that I love this lake and all the people who enjoy it. I would love for other people to come enjoy this lake just like I do”.
The honorable mention winners made conservation posters, created artwork and poetry:
Ashley writes: “The sparkling of the water as the sunlight shines, Is the most beautiful thing, I could watch it all the time”.
Alison says: In everyone else’s view it is just a brook, but I look at the small stream of water in my backyard as a part of my home”.
Madalyn reminds us on her poster to “save water while you can, don’t waste it”.
And Joshua includes information about estuaries (of particular importance here in Rhode Island because we live on Narragansett Bay, a huge estuary) in his entry.
In examining who entered this Geography Awareness Week contest, something interesting is afoot here. And something that should not surprise any of us. All the children who entered are students who work with educators who are active in promoting geography education.
The V. J. Gallagher Middle School kids have Cathy Pleau (cpleau@smithfield-ps.org), as their assistant principal. Cathy and I were roommates back in 1993 when we trained for two weeks during the summer to become Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance Teacher Consultants. Cathy has conducted countless geography initiatives and events for kids, parents and colleagues over the years and is presently a member of our alliance strategic planning team.
The Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School winner is the student of Deb Ramm (rid21594@ride.ri.net), another long-time Rhode Island Geography Alliance teacher consultant. She, too, has spent her career infusing her classroom days with connections to geography. She told me this year her 4th grade class will focus on water all year. Her kids will be testing pond water quality and studying watersheds, pollution tolerant animals and water treatment. She’s also planning on an Electronic Field Trip with the National Park Service during this year’s water study.
Rayna Ciano (rid26156@ride.ri.net), teaches at Winsor Hill Elementary School, where another winner goes to school. I see Rayna at almost every event RIGEA puts on, and she always comes up afterward to talk, sign up for something or ask questions. In September at our annual Kick-Off meeting for the year I was telling the audience about a terrific Japanese international friendship project involving an ambassador doll traveling around the world, stopping to stay with hosts three weeks at a time. Rayna not only had signed up for the program but she had her Japanese ambassador doll with her to so she could take photographs with the little fellow and our members.
The effort these educators put in every day is working to produce geographically literate people here in Rhode Island. And that is exactly what is supposed to be happening.
Congratulations to all our winners!
