 Fancy a slice of Miss Windsor's Celebration Cake? Hello, darlings!
Eat cake, sip champagne, and be merry! Come and join the revelry, as I crank up the volume to "Happy Birthday" by America's very own soul/pop/R&B/funk/jazz sensation - the one and only Stevie Wonder! One, two, three - now altogether, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday” – Oh, what a classic! “So, what’s all the fuss about?” I hear you squawk? Well, obviously it's Miss Windsor's birthday today and to mark such a joyous occasion, one has recreated an age-old recipe from one's trusty, 1906 edition of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management – with a bit of a Miss Windsor twist, of course!
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 Miss Windsor's Wartime Meatless Farmhouse Pie! Hello, darlings!
Happy British Pie Week! I say, my dear fellows, in the spirit of British Pie Week Miss Windsor’s been having an absolute blast reviving age-old recipes from the past! So, just in the nick of time before this wonderful week comes to an end, one wished to "Spitfire" back to the British wartime days and recreate something frightfully healthful and wholesome – a dish Grandmother Josie would’ve certainly approved of! May I present the rather delectable and exceedingly homely Miss Windsor's Wartime Meatless Farmhouse Pie - How splendid! You see, I stumbled upon two terribly toothsome and similar pie recipes in my copy of Recipes of the 1940’s by Irene Veal. Therefore, my version is a fusion of both, just minus the meat! And evidently, darlings, you’ll soon discover that the operative word for British Pie Week in the Miss Windsor household is VEAL!  Ready to be covered in suet pastry - Mrs Beeton's Veal & Ham Pie! Hello, darlings!
Happy British Pie Week! By Jove! Miss Windsor has certainly surpassed herself today! You see, in the spirit of British Pie Week, and my passionate quest in "Bringing food history alive", I recreated Mrs Beeton’s Veal & Ham Pie. Oh, and whilst searching for something frightfully unusual, yet awfully hearty and traditional which one could recreate for British Pie Week, thankfully, one stumbled upon Mrs Beeton’s Veal & Ham Pie recipe - in my 1906 edition of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management - first published in 1861. Darlings, now you’re forbidden to turn your nose up to this glorious dish, which I must admit, is of an acquired taste; yet delightfully delicious (believe me, I was extremely surprised by how mouth-watering tasty this recipe turned out to be!) British, suet crust, meat-based pie created with an unusual concoction of ingredients such as sliced veal fillet or cushion, chunky bacon bits, hard-boiled eggs, a sprinkling of seasoning, followed by a "gill" (translation: 140ml or 5 US fl oz.) of beef stock – and nout more!  Mrs Simkins British Hasty Pudding! Hello, there!
Simple, more-ish and comforting, you can’t get much more homely than this traditional British pudding that travelled over to America with the Pilgrim Fathers (or Forefathers, as they were first known). Originally from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire the pilgrims set sail for America in 1620 hoping to recreate their favourite foods when they got there. As it turned out, the pudding needed a bit of a makeover: wheat flour was scarce so early settlers used cornmeal or ‘Indian corn’ instead and topped it off with a splash of newly discovered maple syrup. Hasty pudding, sometimes known as Indian pudding is now regarded as an American classic whereas the English version has inexplicably fallen out of favour. It’s is well worth a revival: try both, equally delicious, versions and see what you think. |