Povey Prattle

Until a few days ago I had never heard of the traditional and fairly ancient Anglo/Scottish dessert called POSSET.  (Shakespeare mentions it in Macbeth). My good pal Rick P. put me on to posset, so I made some today. I hope that you like my elegant ramekins! 'Tis truly delicious. That has nothing to do with my culinary skills -- it's all in the recipe. There are many variants, but this is how I made it (using U.S.A. measurements) I brought three cups of heavy whipping cream, and one cup of confectioners sugar  to a very slow boil.  At boiling point I added the juice of three lemons (and a bit of lemon zest), then stirred the mixture well. Next I put in all into a large glass jug, then cooled it before pouring it into my  er·satz ramekins. These I placed in the fridge to cool and coagulate for five hours. Not bad?    Maybe. Very good?  yes indeed!

  The Mount, Lenox, MA. Thank you Tanya G for reminding me of this cultural treasure in beautiful Berkshire County  (Western Mass), where I lived, loved and worked for sixteen years The Mount is a turn-of-the-century home, designed and built by Edith Wharton in 1902. A National Historic Landmark, today The Mount is a cultural center that celebrates the intellectual, artistic  and humanitarian legacy of Edith Wharton.

        In my waning years I eat my main meal at mid-day. Yesterday (12th June), and today (13th  June)  I had the same thing. Duck breast, with mushrooms (shiitake, oyster and "baby bella"), and Fava Beans. Oh so good! (When I ordered my favourite Morbier cheese from Laubry's Fine Foods I saw that they also offered Duck breast and Fava Beans. I could have resisted (! ). but I did not, so I ordered them too!) Fava Beans  -  what are they? Some of you may have grown up knowing them as Broad Beans . I did, and I like them. They are hard to come by in this neck of the woods.  Yoder's Market on Bahia St in Sarasota has them from time to time but they are often in pods which show signs of age, and usually have only two or three beans in each pod. The "Laubry's" Fava Beans are sans pod. The outer tough skin on each bean has been removed, and they are fully cooked - they simply   to be heated  -  which I did by stea...

My favourite cheese is Morbier, from France. Read about it here http://www.fromages-france.com/en/cheeses/morbier/ It looks like this: You can see the charcoal ash line. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I used to be able to buy Morbier at Whole Foods Market.  They ceased to carry it, telling me that the (American) Food and Drug Administration had banned its import on the grounds that it is made from raw milk. Be that as it may I found a Fine Foods Company in Miami, FL which (despite what the FDA says) is able to import the real thing!  Oh joy. Oh bliss. https://laubry.com I had a sumptuous lunch today (Duck Breast with Fava (Broad) Beans from Laubrys ) and heirloom mushrooms .  More about my good lunch tomorrow. Having feasted well today at mid-day I enjoyed a simple evening meal Toasted bread with Morbier Cheese and "Compari" brand tomatoes. May I say " yum"? Indeed I will ...

Via my brother Dave

I recently posted a photo' of my brother and sister in law to mark their 40th wedding anniversary. It was taken in 2014 when we were on a cruise from Bristol U.K. to Norway  (lovely small ship, only 600 passengers). That took me back into memory land 'Twas then that we saw the Queen Mary 2 in the harbour at Bergen. Seeing it made me determined to make a crossing on the QM2 from Southampton to New York, which I did in 2017. (The photo' I took is lodged in my Flikr album from which I have been unable to copy it -  so the above in a stock photo' via Google images)