Twirly skirts are simply one of life’s finest things, aren’t they? And pockets? An absolute necessity of course. Where else would you put all those rocks picked up off the driveway…
The etsy shop is now open! The twirly skirt and the dress from the last post are listed there. You are welcome to take a peak: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HoneybeeHomeDesigns
This pretty little thing (the dress) is going up in my Etsy shop in the next few days… Made one for Mary’s birthday coming up, then decided it was the perfect choice to launch the shop, so I made another one with pockets. The pattern is my own, the sweetness is all Mary…
My crafty girl sewing her stuffed monster… almost all by herself!
One of our new favorite Jane Yolen books…
Mama-made dresses for Baby Mary’s 1st Birthday!
We had a wonderful visit from Omo last week–what an unlimited supply of patience that Omo has! She must have told a million stories while she was here!
Omo brought the sweetest little friends with her… Little Bee loved gluing these little critters together, and then of course we had to make a little forest for them to live in… Closest thing we’ll get to Autumn leaves around here… We really should paint all those tree trunks brown, but sometimes our projects only make it half way… Learning to live with that 🙂
Little Bee was so happy to have gathered the perfect things for our Autumn mobile…
We had a delicious meal of sausages and caramelized pears Omo Bee’s last night with us, but what to do with the leftover sausages? Toad in a Hole, of course! With a name like that, how can you not love it? A traditional English meal of browned sausages baked in the middle of a Yorkshire pudding. The sausages (the toads) peek out of their holes (the pudding). We love Yorkshire pudding around here, as well as its sweet counterpart, Dutch Baby (or German pancake), but I’d never done Toad in a Hole before. It was delicious! My inspiration came from the always-scrumptious Figs, Bay & Wine.
My most recent embroidery project… Must admit that my eyes hurt with this one… but I loved doing it. I love the precision it requires, and the neat effect… I think it will become a clothespin bag.
And finally, on my needles: a scarf for Little Bee… Must finish this in time for our Indiana trip in December, when she might actually need a scarf. Of course, it doesn’t help that I keep getting distracted by other, more interesting projects… We visited a nearby yarn shop I recently discovered, and I found this pretty, soft yarn in such a nice marbled color for a Tiny Tea Leaves sweater for Little Bee. You may be thinking: Hello, Florida… another sweater? really? But I just couldn’t resist casting on… Maybe I’ll finish this one in time for Indiana too… Inspiration for this one came from, who else? SouleMama, of course, and the sweater she made for the lovely Miss Adelaide…
Hope you are enjoying the wonderful days Autumn brings…
Things returned to normal here briefly, with some post-goose yumminess… I have a whole jar of delicious goose fat in the fridge, just waiting to be used for roasting potatoes:
I know, it doesn’t look very appetizing, but believe me, it’s delicious. In England they just spread it on toast!
What I spread on toast instead, was a little goose liver pâté, possibly one of the yummiest things I’ve ever made.
Recipe:
Sauté one small shallot, 2-3 min, in ½ to 1 tbs butter, medium heat. Add goose liver (1 smallish one), brown on both sides 2-3 min. Put livers and shallots in food processor, with 1-2 additional tbs butter. Add a sprinkle of salt and a few sprigs of thyme. Pour a splash of sherry in the pan and reduce 1 min. Add to food processor. Purée until smooth. Serve immediately on toast or crackers or refrigerate until chilled. Mmmmm.
My little ballerina enjoying the day after our Michaelmas celebration:
And then the excitement of family in town–Papa Greg and Nanny!
The ibises appreciated it too, I’m sure… Stay tuned for some lovely pictures of the Morikami Gardens in Boca Raton, where we took my in-laws. Little Bee is very sad that they are gone now. The only thing consoling her is that Omo (my mom) is arriving in a few days for a visit!
Our celebrations always seem to revolve around food, and our first Michaelmas was no exception… But first, a few photos of our harvest and dragon decorations:
Little Bee went out and picked this little posy for her Mama–so sweet!
And what to do with all those dragon paintings she’s been making? A dragon garland, of course!
I finished making these apple stamped napkins just in time!
And now, on to the important stuff–the food!
We started off the day with St. Michael’s Bannock. The recipe I found online was completely wrong, so I had to improvise, but luckily it turned out great anyway. Especially delicious slathered with butter and fig jam.
The making of the dragon bread… almonds for spikes and pumpkin seeds for green scales…
It turned out beautifully! And very tasty! I used my own recipe, which I’ll share next time.
Our little St. George and St. Michael, slaying the dragon! Cutting off his head and tail… very gruesome, but they loved it, of course!
The goose! I ended up dry brining it, since I didn’t have anything big enough for a liquid brine…
A yummy gravy from the neck and giblets… Delicious! I hate to let anything go to waste… I have the goose liver in the fridge, just waiting for me to make a little pâté, and I saved a whole jar of the goose fat–goose fat makes the best roasted potatoes…
Roasted carrots, onions, and apples, with just a drizzel of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt…
And finally, dessert:
Tarte tatin with fresh fruit (I know, we’re missing the blackberries…) and chantilly cream… Mmmmm…. Thank you Vanessa for all your contributions and help–couldn’t have done it without you!!!
Today was a flurry of activity getting ready for our Michaelmas celebration tomorrow…
We decorated the house, inside and out:
Made these last year around this time…
These autumn trees are a project Little Bee and I did last year, tracing our hand prints onto fabric I fused with iron-on adhesive, then having fun with finger paints!
While Little Bee worked on the latest in her series of dragon/knight/castle paintings…
Mama Bee worked in the kitchen… Made the pâte brisée (pastry dough) for tomorrow’s scrumptious tarte tatin (apple tart)…
…made our favorite potato-leek soup…
… and peeled and chopped carrots and apples for a roasted vegetable side tomorrow, to accompany the GOOSE! I’m so excited about our goose! Both the goose and the carrots have fascinating folk traditions and lore associated with them and with Michaelmas. Michaelmas was one of the traditional quarter days in England, on which people settled their accounts, paid their rent, etc. By Michaelmas, the geese that had been hatched in the spring were ready for market, so many a farmer paid his rent to the landlord with a fattened goose, among other things. Ergo, the traditional Michaelmas goose!
The carrots have an interesting tradition too. On the Sunday before Michaelmas in the Hebrides, the women and girls would go and harvest wild carrots, digging triangular holes (symbolizing St. Michael’s shield), with a three-pronged mattock (a digging tool symbolizing St. Michael’s trident). They would tie the carrots in bunches with triple red thread and give them to visitors. A traditional rhyme associated with the gathering of the carrots went like this:
Cleft, fruitful, fruitful, fruitful
Joy of carrots surpassing upon me
Michael the brave endowing me
Bride* the fair be aiding me.
(Bride was a shortened form of Bridget, i.e. St. Bridget)
More details of our Michaelmas celebration coming up tomorrow or Sunday. Do you have any fun/yummy plans for Michaelmas?
We had a nice, relaxing day at home together, Little Bee and I, and still ended up getting so much done! Don’t know how that happened…
We munched on our scrumptious rosemary pain au levain…
This is my starter… it’s going on five months now, and it’s so yummy and sour! Every time I bake white bread, which is far less often than I bake brown, I throw in my starter with the other ingredients. After its final rise, I grab a handful of the dough, put it in a clean jar, and let it sit near the stove a few days. Then it goes in the fridge, awaiting the next time I bake French-style white bread! Not only does it add depth and flavor, it also keeps the bread from going stale too quickly. Wonderful!
While Mama Bee (a.k.a. St. George) planted still more seeds (this time, Malabar spinach, sage, parsley, morning glories, and more okra) and transplanted thyme and tomatoes, Little Bee painted St. George’s castle for him. She carried on an almost continuous conversation with St. George the entire time we were out there. Then she dug in the dirt some. Wow, was it hot out there today! Approaching 90 degrees… Oh, Florida…
We admired our suncatcher-heart kites, which we started last week…
… and we arranged, rearranged, and played with our latest batch of dragon crafts that Little Bee made with that crafty, crafty mama, Vanessa! She just keeps coming up with the most creative ideas!
We roasted some butternut squash to use later—mmm… the house smelled so good!
And then we baked one of my favorite Autumn go-to recipes: butternut squash tea cake with pecans. It came out of the oven just in time for our afternoon snack–with which I drank tea, of course 🙂 But then, I drink tea pretty much all day long…
And finally, with a little help from Daddy Bee and a swimming pool excursion, I finished Little Bee’s February Girl Sweater (from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitters’ Almanac). Yay!! My first sweater!! And look how nice it turned out! Careful and savvy knitters out there will notice that she has it on inside out… But even inside out, it looks so pretty! And she likes it! (Deep sigh of relief). I love that almost her whole outfit here is Mama-made. She’s still not too keen on wearing the twirly skirt (pictured), but I’ve taken most of her other skirts out of commission (they were getting a bit too short), so she doesn’t have many options left. More twirly skirts are definitely in the works–maybe if I have her pick the fabrics, she’ll want to wear them!
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