The Bay of Naples, home of fabulous pastries and desserts

Elegant Neapolitans or The Soda Cracker Dessert

.....the dessert de celebre in this pastoral valley half a world away from Naples where Neapolitans were first concocted by the Little Nuns of the convento Trentatre on the Via Pisanelli.

Via Pisenalli

Is there to be a wedding?

A fancy tea?

An evening dessert party?

Nothing deters the ladies who cater for charity in the Similkameen from providing this exquisite dessert that never palls and is always welcomed.

Sometimes making the Soda Cracker dessert is a group effort, but Thursday morning in my humble kitchen and with humble ingredients I set about making a nine by thirteen glass* (important) pan of this delicious concoction for a Saturday wedding reception.

I assembled the soda crackers, the quart of milk, two large packages of instant pudding mix and a large tub of Cool Whip.

I put on a pot of homemade soup to warm while Charles hung for fifteen minutes before lunch (this is another story altogether only mentioned here in reference to time!!)

Here we go!

I combined the quart of milk and the two large packages of vanilla instant pudding, whisking them together for two minutes until the mixture is of pudding like consistency.

I gave the container of Cool Whip a little stir to add some air and fluffiness.

Then I began the assembly, covering the bottom of the glass* pan with rows of unsalted soda crackers.

I eyed the pudding mix, dividing it in three and spread one third of it over the crackers, followed by one third of the tub of Cool Whip.  The I started again with soda crackers, pudding and cool whip, three times in all.

I covered the pan with Saran Wrap and slid it into the fridge where it has been sitting for forty-eight hours and magically morphing into the most delectable Neapolitan dessert - all ready to be cut into squares, topped with a fruit sauce and served on fine china with sterling silver dessert forks or paper plates and plastic spoons - depending upon the occasion.

It goes without saying that this dessert has unending possibilities.

Would you like lemon with a raspberry sauce, chocolate with blackberries or cherries, vanilla with an almond peach sauce, or a lovely apricot?

Soda crackers have magical qualities, - they get sweeter as you chew them and over a two day period in the fridge  become a fine Italian pastry - amazing!

I finished my magic-making just as Charles came for lunch - speedy alchemy....

Skywatch Friday

August 27th, 2010

August skies in the Similkameen

For more exciting skies from all around the world visit Skywatch and enjoy the efforts of the people who maintain this wonderful meme and those who take part in it.

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is F

F is for Figs, Fig trees and Fig Newtons, among other amazing things

A large Fig tree at Moreton Bay near Brisbane

and the figs that grow on it

Fig Newtons are more ancient than you might think.  It was probably the early Egyptians 'who invented the fig roll in its early form as a confection of preserved figs wrapped in a flour-based dough' and traded by traveling sailors and explorers.

Fig rolls were the ideal answer for early physicians who believed that most illnesses were related to digestion problems and recommended a daily intake of biscuits and fruit.

Charles M. Roser was the modern cookie maker who boosted the Fig Newton to its place of glory.

James Henry Mitchell invented a machine in 1891 that worked like a funnel within a funnel;  the inside funnel supplied jam, while the outside funnel pumped out the dough, producing an endless length of filled cookie that was then cut into smaller pieces.

Eventually Nabisco came into the picture and the fig rolls were trademarked as "Fig Newtons"

If you yearn to make your own Fig Newtons here is a handy recipe!

Make the dough by combining 3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt. 3/4 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon with 1 1/2 sticks of butter cut into pieces.  Whisk together 3 eggs and add to the dough.
Refrigerate for a couple of hours while you make the filling.  Well, it won't take you a couple of hours to make the filling, but fit it in sometime while the dough is resting.....

Combine in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until all the liquid is absorbed and the mixture is thick, stirring occasionally while cooking..... 2 cups of chopped figs, 1 cup of orange juice, 1 cup of apple juice, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 4 tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp of orange peal.  Let the filling cool slightly then puree until smooth, and refrigerate.

Now, when you are ready to bake, heat the oven to 375F and make an egg wash by whisking an egg with 2 tsp of water.

Divide the dough into 3 equal parts and on a lightly floured surface roll out each portion into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick (one piece at a time)  Cut the dough lengthwise into strips about 2 1/2 inches wide.  Paint around the edges of each strip with egg wash and spoon the fig filling down the centre of the strip, then fold the dough over to enclose the filling.  Place the tubes, seam side down on a greased cookie sheet - or on parchment paper (much easier) and press down lightly to flatten.

Brush the newtons with the egg wash and bake until light golden brown (about 15 minutes).  When they are cool cut with a sharp knife into appropriate lengths, depending upon whether they are destined for the lunch box or a fancy tea.....

If you want to learn more about the letter F click here to go to ABC Wednesday, with thanks to those who maintain this informative and entertaining meme.

Skywatch Friday

August 20th, 2010

An August Sunrise in the Similkameen

For more beautiful skies from around the world visit Skywatch Friday and enjoy.

The answers to What?

What Delights Me?

At this very moment a book I picked up at the local outreach shop (the Bargain Centre where I put in hours).

A Treasure of Terms & Literary Quotations for Readers & Writers.

The Describer's Dictionary by David Grambs.

I don't plan to write a review but I have to say that what appeals to me most about the book is the accompanying descriptive passages from a diverse number of writers from

novelists to naturalists and other non-fiction writers.

I adore descriptive writing - a good paragraph which paints an evocative literary image

 gives me quite as much pleasure as a well done portrait or landscape.

I open the book at random and find these words from Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

"Then, as the midday sun withdraws from the gulf the shadow of the mountains the clouds begin to roll out of the lower valleys.  They swathe in sombre tatters the naked crags of precipices above the wooded slopes, hide the peaks, smoke in stormy trails across the snows of Higuerota.  The Cordillera is gone from you as if it had dissolved itself into great piles of grey and black vapours that travel out slowly to seaward and vanish into thin air all along the front before the blazing heat of the day."

Marvelous, - just like opening a box of candy and having it filled with all your favourites!

What Lightens my Heart?

News that my sister will finally be able to leave the Intensive Care Unit where she has been since the 4th of June after a serious heart operation, and that the depression which has oppressed her for all this time has finally lifted and she is once again enthusiastic about living, ready to regain her strengthen and take up her ties to those who love her.  I am impatient for her move to a Ward where the Internet is one of the perks, and we can once again enjoy the marvels of modern communication, - two old ladies sending instant messages up and over the Rocky Mountains!!

What is it that Dismays me?

I am currently reading Chris Hedges 'Empire of Illusion' and this I am accomplishing in fits and snatches.  A snatch is about all I can stand before I have a fit of despair at the picture he paints of the state of affairs in the United States of America.  A regular Jeremiah, and I am hoping the glass is not as empty as he makes out..

I am sorry you cannot click to look inside!  It is his sub-title that drew me to the book - 'The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle'.  It is a concept I am quite in agreement with.  I shudder at Facebook and Twitter and at the minimal use of actual words in the communications they host.  To say nothing of adjectives or adverbs or any other kind of civilized and entertaining epistles.

And when you consider the Triumph of Spectacle, alas, his examples are all too blatant and pernicious.

Hedges describes a certain meanness that feeds the Celebrity Ego, and a diminishing of generosity and civility throughout society.

I sigh, and put the book aside, horrified that what he says may be true - to the extent that he says it is!

Here is the little dog, enquiring about a walk in the dusk, and so we will put cares aside and go out into the coolness of the evening and the sweet scented path through the garden, and all will be well......all will be well.

ABC Wednesday

The enchanting letter this week is E

E is for Enchantment

If we can keep the wonder and enchantment of childhood with us all our long life through, what a wonderful  antidote to cynicism it is!  Wordsworth's concept of 'trailing clouds of glory' is pure enchantment.....

It is the dim haze of mystery that lends Enchantment to the pursuit.  Antoine Rivario

Rosetti

...and life's Enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim

Lord Byron

the Enchanted kingdoms of childhood

........and the Enchantment of Gardens

the Enchanted Garden

Waterhouse

the Enchantment of Music

'music's pure algebra of Enchantment' Conrad Potter Aiken

The Lady of Shallot  

Waterhouse   

and the Enchantment of story and myth and poetry

A Song of Enchantment

A song of Enchantment I sang me there,

in a green-green wood, by waters fair,

Just as the words came up to me

I sang it under the wild wood tree.

Widdershins turned I, singing it low,

Watching the wild birds come and go'

No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen

Under the thick-thatched branches green.

Twilight came; silence came;

The plant of Evening's silver flame;

By darkening paths I wandered through

Thickets trembling with drops of dew.

But the music is lost and the words are gone

Of the song I sang as I sat along,

Ages and Ages have fallen on me -

On the wood and the pool and the elder tree.

Walter de la Mare

For more enchanting E's visit ABC Wednesday. with thanks to all who maintain this Extraordinary meme

A bedtime treat

Caspar and Miss Callie and I go out for a last stroll down the driveway and are enchanted, as always, by the delicate fragrance of the night-scented stock.  A wispy and insignificant little flower by day, planted in a pot surrounded by sweet-peas and sweet alyssum close to the doorway, - at night its magical perfume keeps us lingering in the still night air.

The Garden by Moonlight

Amy Lowell

A black cat among roses,
Phlox, lilac-misted under a first-quarter moon,
The sweet smells of heliotrope and night-scented stock.
The garden is very still,
It is dazed with moonlight,
Contented with perfume,
Dreaming the opium dreams of its folded poppies.
Firefly lights open and vanish
High as the tip buds of the golden glow
Low as the sweet alyssum flowers at my feet.
Moon-shimmer on leaves and trellises,
Moon-spikes shafting through the snowball bush.
Only the little faces of the ladies' delight are alert and staring,
Only the cat, padding between the roses,
Shakes a branch and breaks the chequered pattern
As water is broken by the falling of a leaf.
Then you come,
And you are quiet like the garden,
And white like the alyssum flowers,
And beautiful as the silent sparks of the fireflies.
Ah, Beloved, do you see those orange lilies?
They knew my mother,
But who belonging to me will they know
When I am gone. 

Skywatch Friday

August 13th, 2010

Similkameen Skies

Monday's mid-morning summer skies.  Lots of ethereal creatures romping around up there for our entertainment at coffee time.

For more skies from around the world visit Skywatch Friday and be prepared to be awed and amazed.

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is D

D is for Duck

And here is The Duck Song for your enjoyment.

When you have finished listening duck over to ABC Wednesday to see what other Delightful D's you can find.

Sunday

As we venture further into August dawn comes later each morning.  As I scoop Caspar up from the couch for his early morning walk night is slipping away and the waning moon  is a lovely golden sliver in the eastern sky.

This morning I open up the house to the morning coolness, turn on the coffee, have a quick shower and enjoy a few moments quietness before the day begins.

Charles wakens, we have a leisurely breakfast and a small discussion about the vagaries of the night that has passed and the day that is to come, - I play the hymns that have been chosen for this morning's service one last time, and soon we are dressed and off to Church.

I put up the numbers of the hymns, sit down at the organ and flip the switch to ON.

Alas, alas!!  A great complaint from the organ - such screeching and howling about the lack of lubricating oil that makes things run smoothly in its innards.   Can I reboot it?  I try without success.  Will I have to play the piano which is keyed too high for comfortable singing and has no resonance to speak of....

I am assured as I play some Prelude music that the miserable mewling from the organ is not as loud in the body of the church as it is up close, and we continue with the service.  I play the opening hymn with a bit of style and the congregation sings lustily.  Before the readings I flip the switch to OFF, - better to listen to Isaiah without the grumblings from the instrument.....

When I turn it back on for the Gradual hymn all is quiet and peaceful - something has evidently soothed the organ's sufferings.  We finish the service, visit over coffee, and drop in at the store for some milk on our way home.  I come out with $84.00's worth of groceries.......

Ashley, Chris and Saskatoon (our granddaughter, her fiance and their lovely dog) come to have tea, bearing a plate of goodies and good news about their future if all turns out as well as they hope it will.

Callie, the cat, spurns Saskatoon's advances and goes to sleep in my closet.  Caspar doesn't let anything disturb his afternoon nap.

We have a bite of supper, watch a little TV, I knit a bit and then I take some pictures of the evening sky.

Another precious ordinary day.....

This and That

The week has passed in a haze of smoke, some days more dense than others as the wind shifts.

On Wednesday morning the day dawned clear and bright, but soon there were thunderclouds forming to the north and evening brought a great crashing and lightning show that stole away all power from the valley for three hours.

We hunted up the candles and the LED lights and sat out on the deck in the candlelight, watching the sheet lightning and listening to the complaints of the thunder, rumbling off in the distance.  Just as we went to bed the power came back on, so I was able to have my pre-sleep read by lamplight.   I have a Seven Day book from the library, - Joanna Trollope's 'The Other Family'.  I am enjoying it in snatches and have put away 'Surprised by Hope' by N.T. Wright, a book that requires a little more thought and mindful reading.

There are a couple of fires in neighbouring valleys, and occasionally we hear the helicopters and the water bombers, but seldom see them through the smoke.

The days pass quickly and when I realize we are a week into August I am needled into picking up my knitting to resume the sock marathon.   The sock stash grows and then diminishes when birthdays arrive and it is so handy to parcel up a pair of handknit footwear.  It is a project for which my enthusiasm also grows and diminishes, and I hid it all away during the heat of July, but now I have cast on again!

I was also seduced into playing the piano every day when Charles remarked that he hadn't heard any Scott Joplin in a long while and I thought 'Yes - we are missing that joy from our lives' so now I have made room for some practising  in the morning as he gets ready to go out and do the things he really feels must be done!!!
This week involving the tractor!!!

Was he always this disciplined about accomplishing something important every day?  Surely I remember the wonderful cool mornings we went golfing, and the Saturdays we spent at yard sales, and fishing, and bridge games......well, we can't golf any more, and we don't need anything to tempt us at yard sales, and the friends we played bridge with have all been lost to either death or dementia, so I guess these accomplishments are a good compensation.  And they do contribute to our togetherness as I don my Go-fer Hat.

Yesterday a friend needed some help sorting out medications so Charles came with me and we went on a little camera oriented drive, around the back benches and through the ranching meadows.

In the evening I went out to take a picture of a cloud that had caught Charles' eye, and ended up strolling through the garden, noting how it is changing from a summer garden with all its lovely Monet colours into the shades of fall.

I am off to pick some white phlox and Prairie Princess roses for the altar tomorrow.

and to take some coffee to the man on the lawn tractor....

Skywatch Friday

August 6th, 2010

Similkameen Skies

A tender sunrise from long ago

Sunrise on the first of August

And at noon, as the smoke started to drift in from neighbouring wildfires.

For more sky pictures from around the world click here to visit

Skywatch Friday.