Show and Tell Friday: Wedgwood

OK, OK, I am awake and I do know it's Saturday morning here in Oz but I figure I can still do my bit for Friday's Show and Tell because for Kelli - who hosts it - it is still Friday in Texas, USA. And as Knox City Queen of the Hard Rubbish, Miss Eagle has to say that Kelli's curbside baker's stand is a find. Would love to find one on a curb in my neighbourhood.

This beautiful Wedgwood fruit bowl has been in my possession for more than three decades.

As a young mum living in Toowoomba, Queensland, I used to haunt auction sales.

One auctioneer held regular sales in his own rooms.

There, behind his counter, and along a wall would be "The Sundries".

The Sundries were magic boxes full of heaven knows what.

They could be filled with useful odds and sods

or you might, as I did in this case, find buried treasure.

Then once having found the treasure you would hold your breath and hope that no-one else discovered or wanted your buried treasure.

On this day, no-one had discovered and/or wanted what I treasured.

I paid $2 for my box.

I think there were other useful things in the box but they have faded away in my memory.

This, for someone who did not have much money to spend, was an affordable wonder.

Herself has been styling corners again and this corner includes the fruit bowl full of ornamental glittered pears.

Martha, the Glitter Fairy, and Table Talk

For those of you who are fans of the Glitter Fairy - she will be on Martha this afternoon at 4pm on Foxtel in Australia. GF talked about it on a post on Wednesday - yesterday Australian time. Now Miss Eagle knows that Martha comes to Australia 24 hours after the USA - but she only knows this with her head and not her heart. Now she believes. Miss E read about it on the GF and she has now seen the promo this morning on Martha's 10am show on Foxtel. The way it works in Australia is that the latest Martha is shown at 4pm AEST on the How To channel.

Martha's most recent program had as special guest Whoopi Goldberg. Whoopi has published a children's book titled Whoopi's Big Book of Manners. The purpose of the book is to teach children manners - the pleases, the thank yous, the excuse mes, - that are missing from modern life.

At question time from the audience, a guest got up and asked Martha a question about blackberries in restaurants - and she was not talking about fruit. Well, the polite and evenly spoken Martha had a spray about people watching television in restaurants and similar behaviour.

What about - said Martha - conversation, what about the food. Martha said that this was the sort of thing Whoopi was talking about in her book. Martha said one day she might do a program about America to-day. Perhaps she could organise an international program series - UK To-day and Australia To-day as an instance.

As you know, dear Reader, this topic of tabling is rather dear to Miss E's heart. Our lack of understanding of food and the culture surrounding it is working its way outwards, like ripples in a pond, into civil society - with wide ramifications.

Please, dear Reader, do your bit: a lovingly and skilfully prepared meal, a nicely set table, discussion about interesting doings of the day - sans television and computers. Go for it!

A blogging friendship comes to lunch at The Trad Pad

Miss Eagle has never tried to get a decent self portrait.

Imperfect though this shot in the mirror is, Miss E thinks it is the best of the bunch.

Yester, Val came to lunch at The Trad Pad. It was a wonderful time of conversation, handmade books, and food.

The food was simple but appropriate for a chilly, welcome-rainy day. The slow cooker has come out of the bottom cupboard this week as the weather has achieved a certain bite to the breeze and, officially, winter has arrived to-day. It was pressed into service for the first course. On the menu was a thick vegetable broth and, to satisfy the sweet tooth, Polenta Orage Syrup Cake served with cream.

The vegetable (with everything in it) broth came complete with the kluskies from Vicious Ange's Kluski Soup. The cake came from Billington's site.

POLENTA ORANGE SYRUP CAKE

Ingredients - Cake

• 3 eggs
• 110g/4oz Caster sugar
• 110g/4oz butter - melted and cooled
• Juice of half an orange
• 225g/8oz polenta
• 1 dessertspoon baking powder
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Ingredients - Syrup

• 2 oranges
• Juice of half a lemon
• 140g/5oz Caster sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius/325 degrees fahrenheit.
• Line a 20cm/8inch round cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and mousse-like.
• Beat in the melted and cooled butter and orange juice.
• Add polenta and baking powder, followed by the orange zest, salt and vanilla, beating well.
• Pour into prepared tin.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden.
• Test with a skewer. Skewer should come out clean if the cake is done.

While the cake is cooking make the syrup: put all the ingredients into a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved completely. Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.

• Remove cake from the oven and make holes in it with a skewer.
• Pour over the hot syrup
• Leave to cool
• Turn out onto a serving plate
• Serve with creme fraiche or whipped cream

THE CONVERSATION

Food is best when accompanied by good and lively conversation and the food was well accompanied. Val is marvellous company. As well as a former librarian at the Goethe Institute, her background is in German language and lit. studied in the mythological sixties at that great mythological institution, University of California at Berkeley. Pardon, Miss Eagle. She is a child of the sixties and Berkeley was a place one read about with amazement - at a time when merely sitting in a park in conservative Toowoomba to protest the Vietnam war was enough to bring down on one's head the epithet of "Communist!".

Val, as does Miss Eagle, an abiding interest in track travel - tram or train. Miss Eagle dates her interest since childhood. When she holidayed with Nana O'Carroll there favourite pastime was to get on a train or tram in the centre of Brisbane and ride to the terminus and back again. So perhaps there might be a shared adventure in the future. To give some impetus to adventure planning, no matter if it is suburban, is this wonderful mural of a train taken by Miss Eagle last year in Broken Hill.

And there were Val's handmade books which she brought to show. Beautiful! Inspiring! And Miss Eagle was given a teensy-weensy beautiful one! Thank you, Val.

Then we finished up with a visit to Craft Fair where Val purchased nothing but Miss Eagle found these papers irresistible. A sale on at the moment!

All in all, a beautiful blogging buddy day.

Susie, chai and the green bean

Miss Eagle wants to show her favourite tipple. It is a tea-based chai that comes from Cafe Green Bean in Belgrave. There is chai that is a mix of herbs and spices but no tea. It is made by boiling/infusing in milk. This could be done with tea-based chai too but Miss E, dear Reader, prefers just to make it like tea - by putting the leaves, herbs and spices in a teapot and pouring over boiling water. Miss E then drinks it without additives - no milk, lemon, no sweetener. Miss E delights in the fragrance so much so that, when drinking the chai, it is as if one is drinking the fragrance too.

The cup and saucer is one of a set of six Susie Cooper "black fruit" coffee cans inherited from my aunt.

The family that tables together.......

Throughout history, humans have tabled together to break bread.

The simple ritual of the shared meal reunites us with our families and brings balance to our lives.

These words are taken from the review of Art Smith's book, Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family. Art is Oprah's personal chef.

Counterbalance this with the views of Australian educationists that more children than ever are present at school with language difficulties. And what do they think is to blame:

"Families aren't sitting around the dinner table any more every night talking about what's happened during the day and engaging with the children," Ms Trimper said.
"Children are sitting in front of televisions more and computers playing computer games. It's dinner in front of the television, video games after dinner, or parents both working and time poor — all those issues have to impact on children."

Back in 2005, Miss Eagle recalls hearing or reading that Kathy Letts, that well-known expatriate Australian, had rid her London house of the dining room table so that the room could become a home theatre. Miss E was horrified. Letts was reported as saying that, if the family wanted to eat together, they went out to eat. More horror!

What about privacy - what if something unforeseen invaded mealtime: argument and debate, outrageous laughter and hysteria, practical jokes. All of these Miss E knows can arise at family meal time and a good thing too. But what happens in a restaurant or some public eating place: a child’s terror of having to behave?

The failure to table together as a family shows no respect: no respect for the food, where it came from, the person who prepared it. It shows no respect for ourselves and what connects us to life and to each other. And now the kids are paying the price at that most basic form of human connection, language.

In Britain, there is now a movement called Back to the Table - because Mealtime is Realtime they say. There are some big names swinging behind the campaign - including celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay.

Miss Eagle would love to hear from you, dear Reader, on this subject: your projects involving food and kids; kids recipes; fun meal time stories etc. If you want to email me to include your contributions as a post complete with pictures, all the better. If you really have something to say about families, food, and connection you might also like to guest on Food from Oz. Please email me.

Lets put fun, families, and people into meals. Let's get rid of the pit stop mentality where food is just a refuelling of whatever is handy. Let's take time to think about our food, how it is produced, where it comes from. Then let's take time with its preparation. And above all, let's take time for one another.