Author: jama

Outlandish Fun with Bannocks and Biscuits, Parritch and Kilts (+ a holiday blog break)

~ jama ~ 35 Comments

Don your kilts and pour yourself a wee dram.  Today we’re serving up a little festive cheer à la Outlander.

Sláinte Mhath! Cheers!

While others may be channeling elves, sugarplum fairies, and red-nosed reindeer, we in the Alphabet Soup kitchen are getting our Scots on. 

Je suis prest. Et vous?

Ever since experiencing a long Scot summer binge-watching the Outlander TV series and taking a deep dive into Diana Gabaldon’s novels, all we can think about is men in kilts fascinating Scottish history time traveling between the 18th and 20th centuries.

Central characters Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) contemplate potatoes.

You can really work up an appetite falling through the stones and zipping around places like Boston, Inverness, Edinburgh, Paris, Jamaica, and North Carolina. Thank goodness for the fortifying recipes in Theresa Carle-Sanders’s Outlander Kitchen cookbooks. 

Based in Pender Island, Canada, chef and diehard Outlander fan Carle-Sanders has done a wonderful job of creating cookbooks true to the series with a blend of historical recipes adapted for modern palates, along with her own creative, period appropriate dishes that reflect two centuries and the cuisines of several different countries (no small feat!). 

Whenever whisky appears in this post, you must sip!

Suffice to say, Gabaldon’s generous bounty of culinary references in the series is a literary feast par excellence. Characters wet their whistles with ale, grog, tea, hot chocolate, brandy, wine, cider, and of course, lots and lots of whisky. 

The Fraser family at the Ridge, North Carolina.

They feast on pheasant, venison, beef, ham, oysters, hares, lamb, chickens, mussels, boar, fish, eels, and haggis, as well as Hershey bars with almonds, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruitcakes, crumblies, tatties, pasties, sausages, nightingales (!) and rolls stuffed with pigeon and truffles, to name a few.

Claire Fraser serves 20th century PBJ sandwiches to her 18th century family (via Outlander Cast).
Jamie eats his with a knife and fork (via Outlander Cast).

Whether a bowl of restorative cock-a-leekie soup cooked in a big kettle outdoors at Lallybroch, or an elaborate, multi-course supper at the Palace at Versailles, Outlander food is its own character, telling stories of people, places, history, culture and heritage. Truly sensory-rich and satisfying! 

Dining at Versailles.

So, are you up for a few poems, a nourishing breakfast, a modest afternoon tea? Relax, enjoy, and give your bagpipes a good squeeze!

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[delectable review] The Whole World Inside Nan’s Soup by Hunter Liguore and Vikki Zhang

~ jama ~ 9 Comments

A new soup book? Yes, please!

I hope you have a very big spoon, because you’ll need it to slurp up all the goodness. 🙂

The Whole World Inside Nan’s Soup by Hunter Liguore and Vikki Zhang (Yeehoo Press, 2021) takes place in a cozy kitchen, where a young girl asks her grandmother what’s inside the big metal pot she’s stirring.

“Seeds,” says Nanni, prompting the girl to ask, “How can seeds be inside the pot?”

Nanni explains that the seeds grew up to be vegetables, adding that there are also gardeners in the pot. This further arouses the girl’s curiosity; she can’t imagine how gardeners could also be inside the pot.

Winking, Nanni says, “Gardeners, with their gentle hands, planted the seeds that grew up to be vegetables and ended up inside the pot.” Of course Nanni then adds even more ingredients: “soil and rain.”

Their conversation continues in this cumulative tale fashion, as Nanni mentions how rain and sunlight helped the vegetables grow, with honeybees pollinating the flowers.

Then, of course, there are the farm workers who harvested the vegetables, as well as the delivery drivers who transported the veggies to market. They mustn’t forget roads, highways, traffic lights, bridges, waterways, or even the electricity that keeps the town running.

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“Bounty” by Robyn Sarah

~ jama ~ 35 Comments

“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” ~ Maya Angelou

BOUNTY
by Robyn Sarah

Make much of something small.
The pouring-out of tea,
a drying flower's shadow on the wall
from last week's sad bouquet.
A fact: it isn't summer any more.

Say that December sun
is pitiless, but crystalline
and strikes like a bell.
Say it plays colours like a glockenspiel.
It shows the dust as well,

the elemental sediment
your broom has missed,
and lights each grain of sugar spilled
upon the tabletop, beside
pistachio shells, peel of a clementine.

Slippers and morning papers on the floor,
and wafts of iron heat from rumbling rads,
can this be all? No, look — here comes the cat,
with one ear inside out.
Make much of something small.

~ from A Day's Grace (Porcupine's Quill, 2003)

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This contemplative gem by Canadian poet Robyn Sarah is such a lovely meditation on gratitude.

What a beautiful reminder that despite lives often overwhelmed by rush and stress (especially during the holidays), we’re all blessed with a bounty of small miracles.

Focussing on the everyday, the ordinary, what often goes unnoticed — has been my default practice for many years. I enjoyed Robyn Sarah’s vivid images and sensory details (she began with “the pouring-out of tea”)! And how beautiful is that crystalline December sun that strikes like a bell? 

Now, in the spirit of the season, make much of something adorable: “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year” by Ingrid Michaelson and Zoey Deschanel (amazing felt creations by Andrea Love, set and character design by Phoebe Wahl). Stop motion animation at its finest. The entire team did a great job with this. So charming — see if you don’t feel like hugging yourself from all the cuteness. 🙂

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Cathy Mere is hosting the Roundup at Merely Day by Day. Skip on over to check out the full menu of poetic goodness being shared around the blogosphere this week. See you next Friday for a big Outlander holiday celebration! 🙂

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*Copyright © 2021 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.

Marcella Cooper: Beauty in Simple Things

~ jama ~ 18 Comments

What could be more relaxing than sitting in your back garden with a steamy pot of tea, a good book, and a snuggly feline friend?

British artist Marcella Cooper captures the joy of simple pleasures in her lovely paintings, each an invitation to live in the moment.

photo of Marcella by Sarah Lane

Based in rural Suffolk, Marcella lives with her family in a 16th century thatched cottage. Interested in art since childhood, she had always been drawn to British flora and fauna. 

While living in a quiet village and homeschooling her two children, she was inspired by her picturesque surroundings and began to dabble in drawing and painting. She sold these early pieces to family and friends. 

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[scrumptious review] Dumpling Day by Meera Sriram and Inés de Antuñano

~ jama ~ 26 Comments

Dumplings? Did someone say dumplings?

Count me in!

In this mouthwatering story-counting book, ten ethnically diverse families make ten different kinds of dumplings for a neighborhood potluck. What could be more fun or delicious?

Dumpling party today in town!
Let's all cook and hurry down.

Meera Sriram and Inés de Antuñano invite us to step into ten busy, bustling kitchens to see samosas, apple dumplings, wu-gok, fufu balls, gyoza, bourekas, tamales, shish barak, pelmeni, and ravioli being prepared by enthusiastic and hungry adults and children. Drooling yet?

Spicy samosas point to the sky.
Didi is bringing chutney to try.

1 little dumpling on our plate now!
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