The Blue Willow Journal

Provincial Wisdom

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 ~

 

 

 

Swedish Visiting Cake

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!