Hangin' Out at Home

There is no end to what trouble you can get into at home. The windy, wintry days of February and March are perfect for staying out of the cold and browsing the web. For example, given that we will be spending a week on the west coast with Ed's three sons, one step-daughter, spouses and me we will be cooking most of the time if not every evening meal. For that reason I had begun to bookmark grilling and salad recipes, especially those that include seafood from the northwest.

But now I have a whole new project. As the collection and notes expand and references will likely be needed what's the best way to export these menus and recipes to the coast?
Check out Hewlitt-Packard's "Creative Studio for Home."
http://www.hp.com/hho/hp_create/themes_otherthemes_food_cooking.html

For free, for a simple download to the page and some effort to cut and paste, you can find recipe cards, heirloom cookbook pages, food gift tags and jar labels and even a fancy, weekly food journal form. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/acProject?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&extcat=invitationsstationery&extsubcat=specialcollections&extproject=weeklyfoodjournal&ref=themes_otherthemes_food_cooking
So now the idea strikes me that organizing a collection of summer salads and simple meals for nine people, plus a birthday dinner for DH, and pasting all into a cookbook or card collection with a memento of the vacation would be a PERFECT gift to give everyone. Dates, recipes, pictures, DH in past decades and ultimately the planned menus and dishes we intend to serve.

OK, I know this is over the top. Likely family will tell me it's not worth the trouble. Sister will advise me to keep it simple. But - - How many more family reunions will we have?

Hopefully lots, but since DH is turning 75 that seems unlikely to be a big number. Plus I can utilize my photoshop skills and insert some family pictures. Shown here is the Green Papaya Salad created for Gourmet Magazine [really miss Gourmet, don't you?] with a color photo.

Creating a page header, list of ingredients and directions could be combined with photos of other family dinners, birthday cakes and toasts over the years.



GREEN PAPAYA SALAD

Gourmet, 1995
Yield: Serves 4

Green papaya salad in all its regional variations - often flavored with pork, beef, or shrimp (as below)-is hugely popular throughout Southeast Asia. The dish is made from unripe Southeast Asian papayas, which have firm white flesh and white seeds. The current popularity of Vietnamese and Thai food in the United States has increased these papayas' availability, although it is still generally limited to Asian markets. Such papayas can grow to the size of cantaloupes or larger and range in shape from oval to round. Look for rock-hard dark green fruit without a trace of pink or yellow blush. If you don't see any, ask (some shopkeepers do not display them).
Those who can't find the right kind of papaya might skip the salad or substitute seedless (European) cucumbers despite the repetition with the main course. Those who can find Southeast Asian green papayas will be treated to a salad that our food editors found irresistible.


Ingredients
• 1/4 pound small shrimp (about 9), shelled

For dressing
• 1 large garlic clove, forced through a garlic press
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce (preferably nuoc mam)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 small thin fresh red or green Asian chili (1 to 2 inches long) or serrano chili, or to taste, seeded and chopped fine (wear rubber gloves)
• 3/4 pound green papaya, peeled, seeded, and coarsely shredded, preferably in a food processor (about 3 cups)
• 1 carrot, shredded fine
• 1/3 cup fresh coriander leaves, washed well and spun dry
• 2 tablespoons roasted peanuts, crushed

Preparation
In a small saucepan of boiling salted water cook shrimp 45 seconds to 1 minute, or until cooked through. In a colander drain shrimp and rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Halve shrimp horizontally and devein.

Make dressing
In a large bowl whisk together dressing ingredients until sugar is dissolved.
Add shrimp, papaya, carrot, and coriander to dressing, tossing well. Salad may be made 2 hours ahead and chilled, covered. Bring salad to room temperature before serving.
Serve salad sprinkled with peanuts.


* * * * * * * * * *
Reading on the Kindle has been temporarily been halted. I was searching for Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire but remembered that I might have a hardcopy. In fact I have one hardcover purchased at a used book sale years ago AND a paperback (new), that I cannot remember buying (?). At any rate I am still working through Georgiana (see notes).

Finished Victoria at Home by M. De laNoy. Enjoyed the social aspects of court life behind the scenes but as with most historical non-fiction there were lots and lots of diary entries with overlapping accounts. The depth of research is unparalleled but the redundant details got to be….redundant. Now I am ready to see the movie, Young Victoria.



Back to the 18th century -

Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.
Georgiana Spencer was, in a sense, an 18th-century It Girl. She came from one of England's richest and most landed families (the late Princess Diana was a Spencer too) and married into another. She was beautiful, sensitive, and extravagant--drugs, drink, high-profile love affairs, and even gambling counted among her favorite leisure-time activities. Nonetheless, she quickly moved from a world dominated by social parties to one focused on political parties. The duchess was an intimate of ministers and princes, and she canvassed assiduously for the Whig cause, most famously in the Westminster election of 1784.

By turns she was caricatured and fawned on by the press, and she provided the inspiration for the character of Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's famous play The School for Scandal. But her weaknesses marked the last part of her life. By 1784, for one, Georgiana owed "many, many, many thousands," and her creditors dogged her until her death. See:

http://www.amazon.com/Georgiana-Duchess-Devonshire-Amanda-Foreman/dp/0375753834/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265587140&sr=1-1

Did I ever mention that I once had tea with the [11th] Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth in the summer of 1993? The Attingham Summer Study class was invited after a tour of the estate and lunching (in the stables). That Duchess (Deborah), is the youngest and last living of the six Mitford sisters. Known to her family as "Debo", Deborah Mitford married Lord Andrew Cavendish, younger son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, in 1941. She was then known as Lady Andrew Cavendish. When Cavendish's older brother, William, Marquess of Hartington, was killed in combat in 1944 [his widow was Kathleen Agnes “Kit” Kennedy (older sister of JFK), who was killed in 1948], Cavendish became heir to the dukedom, and Deborah became the Marchioness of Hartington.

When the 10th Duke died in 1950, Lord Andrew Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington became the 11th Duke of Devonshire and Deborah the Duchess of Devonshire. Her son is now the 12th Duke of Devonshire.
Still with me?
In the family drawing room at Chatsworth is a John Singer Sargent (one time studio-mate of J. M. Whistler), painting of ‘The Acheson Sisters,’ (see below, right), (Ladies Alexandra, Mary and Theo Acheson).
The Ladies Alexandra, Mary and Theodosia Acheson were the three daughters of the fourth Earl of Gosford. They married respectively The Hon. Frederic William Stanley, The Hon. Robert Arthur Ward and The Hon. Alexander George Codogan.
The history of how the present portrait came to be commissioned is not known; it may be assumed however that the picture was painted at the request of the grandmother of the three girls, Louisa, Duchess of Devonshire, who was previously married to the Seventh Duke of Manchester, their grandfather.

Maybe, just maybe after that my interest in 19th century royalty will be sated, for a little while...BBF