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April, May and June are all about rebirth. So why not give new life to a tired piece of furniture? Andrea Ford of Restyle Studio offers DIY workshops on re-upholstering everything from ottomans to chairs to headboards. I have at least three items I need to work on. I have a feeling Andrea and I might be seeing a lot of each other over the next few months.
Raising chickens in the backyard probably isn’t the top item on your to-do list. But that doesn’t mean a quaint little book about how to do so isn’t a terrific read.
In municipalities that allow small-scale residential farming of chickens, the slim copy of Minnie Rose Lovgreen’s Recipe for Raising Chickens that recently crossed my desk will have definite educational value. But for the average cityslicker, it will be Lovgreen’s oddly compelling, down-to-earth voice that’s the real appeal of this book —without a doubt the most delightful and engaging piece of writing I’ve read in a very long time.
Lovgreen probably never thought of herself as a fascinating person. But consider her life story. Born in 1888 in England, Lovgreen was the eighth of nineteen children. In 1912, she and her brother decided to set off for Canada on a ship called the Titanic. But Lovgreen got bored waiting for the ship to be sail-ready, and hopped instead onboard another Montreal-bound ship. Those details alone were enough to make me place my order for Lovgreen’s other book, As Far As I Can Remember; Minnie Rose’s Story, also available at Trillium Press.
By 1920, Lovgreen had made her way to Washington State, where she met and married Danish-born Leo Lovgreen. They worked together for 30 years, creating a 170-acre dairy farm, where Lovgreen also learned all about rising chickens. After some 60 years, she decided to collect her wisdom in a simple, hand-lettered 31-page booklet, which was illustrated by Elizabeth Hutchison Zwick.
If you do want to raise chickens the old-fashioned way, this is probably an excellent primer. If not, it’s full of wonderful insights from Lovgreen, and delightful gems of wisdom, such as:
You’re much better off with a broody hen, even if you have to borrow one.
One or two white eggs in a box bring out the value of the brown ones… they look real pretty.
If two roosters get fighting hard, the only way I can do (sic) is to take a board and slap one of them in the face.
A quick read, this is the perfect book for the cottage — as bedside reading or, in a comfy chair in the shade. But while it’s tempting to characterize it as charming anachronism, it’s worth remembering that Lovgreen lived in a time and place when connections to the land, and to the food chain that sustains us, were much stronger and more visible.
Lovgreen and her husband probably got just about everything they needed to survive from the land, or the local community. When I compare that with the fact that my husband, who’s an elementary school teacher, regularly encounters kids who don’t realize that apples come from a tree, I worry about what we’ve lost by becoming increasingly removed from the realities of food production. Makes you wonder about the nature of our progress, doesn’t it?
And if you read and enjoy this book, you must look for a copy of Betty MacDonald’s The Egg and I, about a young newlywed— also in Washington State — who finds out that her husband has plans to start a chicken farm. The book was made into a sweet and funny little movie of the same name, released in 1947, and starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.
This week's Hot Home column is all about healthy eating, and I promised to share a few recipes, including ones I used to test the new NutriCook pressure cooker from T-Fal (which I loved, by the way). So here goes:
Bread pudding, from T-Fal
I used the new NutriCook pressure cooker from T-Fal for this, but it would work with a variety of steaming methods.
What you need
3 slices thick egg bread, cubed
½ cup frozen cranberries
3 eggs, beaten
¾ cup 2 per cent milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
What you do
Spray four ramekins with non-stick spray
Combine eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla
Mix in bread cubes and cranberries
Divide between ramekins and cover each with a piece of tin foil
Steam as directed according to your steamer
For a savoury alternative, substitute coconut milk for plain milk and stir in ¼ cup of PC’s Blue Menu Pad Thai cooking sauce. Add toasted walnuts or pinenuts instead of cranberries. You can also try using an artisanal bread, ½ grated parmesan , roasted walnuts and freshly ground thyme.
I think that homemade soups are a fast and easy shortcut to healthier eating, as you control all the ingredients. Spring may not yet have sprung quite yet, but as soon as it does, try this creamy asparagus soup recipe by Anna Olson used with permission from Home Hardware BTW, pressure cookers are fantastic for making soups, as well.
What you need
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup onion, diced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
2 cups chicken stock
5 cups fresh asparagus, diced
I tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons dry vermouth
Salt and pepper
3 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
What you do
Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Sauté the onion until translucent, about five minutes
Sift in the flour, and stir with a wooden spoon. Cook for four minutes
Add ½ cup milk and stir vigorously to create a paste. Switch to a whisk and add the milk, one cup at a time, whisking constantly
Whisk in chicken stock. Stir in the asparagus, thyme, and bay lead. Simmer uncovered for ten minutes, or until asparagus is tender
Remove the bat leaf and stir in vermouth. Season to taste
Serve soup with crumbled goat cheese and chopped chives
If you want more healthy eating tips, go to the website for Dieticans Canada.
There's nothing nicer than a beautiful bed at the end of a long day. Feast your tired eyes on these. A lovely selection from Au Lit Fine Linens, The Bay, Pottery Barn, Cilque, Bouclair and Beddingtons.
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