Summer Kitchen.

A young chef from Ukraine who lives in London has been receiving a lot of attention with her new Cookbook, Mamushka.  

Her instagram pictures below of her grandmother summer kitchen remind me of summer kitchens in Saskatchewan   A Summer Kitchen; a place where canning and baking were done in the summer.  

My Mom didn't have a Summer Kitchen.  However, I remember how busy her kitchen was in the fall at harvest time, not only did she have to prepare a hot lunch for the workers on the farm, her garden was ready to be harvested and preserved for the winter.  Mason jars were readied for preserving vegetables.  Water Bath canner was used to can vegetables, fruit.  Meat and fish were also preserved this way but certainly not recommended nowadays!  

Olia describes her grandmother's summer kitchen,"a whole family's sanctuary during the hot summer months. Young couples would usually build a summer kitchen first,and live in it while they built the main house bit by bit, brick by brick...a beautiful hot climate tradition that I hear exists in other Southern countries too." 

In my reply to Olia's posting, I thanked her for the fond memories.  Summer Kitchen are so much part of rural Prairies in Canada.  All the canning and baking of Breads and summer Pies were done here!

Olia wondered if summer kitchens were a Canadian thing or brought here by the Ukrainian. 

Unfortunately a lot of pictures were not taken of buildings years ago.  But I did write two  of cousins as I remember one of my Aunt's having a summer kitchen, just outside the back door of her house. In side was a huge white wood cookstove with a bed behind it.  Her daughter did confirm my memory!

'Good morning!  Oh how I wish I still could be in that summer kitchen.  Good times! There were two rooms; one was like a dining room, the other had a cook stove and a large cupboard called a side board, now worth some cash.  I  don't know if I have any pictures inside but I do have of the out side call me lov '

My other cousin remembers her grandmother having a Summer Kitchen;


"Summer is going too fast and I havn't had time to do everything I like to do. I guess this year it has to be quality time instead of quantity time. Yes Baba had a summer kitchen . All the canning, preserving and cooking was done there especially bread. That way the house stayed some what cooler.  It was just on the other side of the fence and the size of a grain bin....probably was a grain bin. They ate there too in the summer....that way Geedo didn't worry about his mink smelling cloths. I may have an airiale photo of the farm, just have to locate it. I don't think I have a close up of it. What have you two been up to this summer?"

There is what is called Living Museums in Canada and all the living museums are listed, along with two Ukrainian museums.  It looks like summer kitchens are also in other parts of Canada.  Summer Kitchens are separate from the house and used in the summer 

 A heritage site that is well preserved is a farm close to where I grew up, it has a smoke house, ice house and summer house, a wonderful heritage garden, cooking oil press etc.. 

Although the two brothers were teachers in the village, they maintained and lived off the land without any modern facilities.  I’m talking until 1991, it certainly is a treasure. 

Recently, I have seen pictures of She Sheds which are designed and decorated for women to relaxing in!  Certainly the summer kitchens that I knew where not a place for relaxing! How times have changed. 

Limoges Chine BWD48 Bawo & Dotter : Bridal Rose

One of the first wedding gifts for my daughter is China from her dad's side. This china was passed down from her Great Grandmother to her Grandmother Mary Constance, then her Aunt Martha and now to her. 

Last night she used the china for the first time to test tasting desserts for her wedding that her friend is making for the Dessert Table. 

I have used Replacement Ltd to identify patterns of China.  The first time I used their services was on our last move. A lot of the china was broken and replaced by this company.

I understood that one was called  Bridal Veil (the china pattern from my husband's aunts, and I thought Replacement Ltd had called it that previously too.. The other one I thought was called Bridal Roses from my husband's mother who had inherited her mother's Limoges china. 

Limoges is an area of France which contained numerous independent companies that produced porcelain.   The company names are all different, but they all have “Limoges” stamped on the back.

 The manufacturer of the two patterns is Bawo & Dotter, Elite Works in Limoges France.  Replacement Ltd do not know many of the actual pattern names by this manufacturer, and likely most patterns had no name.  Therefore, Replacement Ltd assigns numbers to the patterns as they catalog them when our customer send us images for identification. The patterns are the 48^th and 114^th patterns that they have cataloged. 

My reply to the company was

Thank you so much, this is most interesting.. so my beautiful china, has a number.. sounds like convict!!

BWD48

by Bawo & Dotter

• Item#: 8720
• Manufacturer Status: Discontinued
• Pattern: BWD48 by Bawo & Dotter [BWDBWD48]
• Description: Pink Flowers, Green Leaves

High Tea Bridal Shower menu

One of the things I really like doing is planning a menu.  I love thinking about what I would serve and love doing new ideas. I still use my cookbooks but also search for ideas on the net. Most of the dishes for this shower, I was able to prepare before hand and freeze.  Not being a baker, I did do Petit Fours using a sponge cake recipe that I was very pleased with the results!  The fancy sandwiches turned out great, although certainly took longer to do! The meatballs were a hit and disappeared quickly.  Tea and coffee were served in my husband's Aunt tea server.  Along with Prosecco.     

After polishing the silver pots, trays and serving dishes, that did take a few days, resulting in most unattractive hands!
I did do a test run by setting out all my dishes to decide placement and what dessert or appetizer would look best in what dish. 

The next was to pull out all my fancy table cloths and decided where my different stations would be: appetizers, dessert and beverage. 

The best part of this planning was also sharing these photos with my friend's daughter in Toronto by messenger. One has to love technology!

The next step was to set the tables with the tablecloths and empty dishes. And ready the kitchen counter for the work station! 

In total there were 25 ladies in total, some arriving fifteen minutes early. My husband who was leaving with the dogs, remarked it was like a parade heading for our house!  Yes, it was a little hectic at that time as Nancy and I tried to wrap up the preparations for the shower!

The beautiful bride to be was delighted with the attendance and her Victorian Styled hat.

High Tea Bridal Shower 

• Drums of Heaven with sweet and sour sauce
• Lamb and Feta Meat balls with Tzatziki sauce
• Asian Chicken meatballs
• Japanese Chicken Meatballs (Tsukune)
• Zucchini Rose Mini Frittata 

Assortment of Pickles

Assortment of Sandwiches 

• Cucumber sandwiches
• Radish sandwiches
• Watermelon bread
• Smoked salmon
• Broiche  
• Bacon, Mango & Pecan Pinwheel
• Camembert, Figs, Candied Walnuts opened face Brioche 
• Pepperoni Puff Muffin with Tomato & Basil sauce

• Spicy Roasted Green Olives
• Beet slices with Goat cheese
• Salad bundles
• Foie gras & apricot
• Lady Bug Bites

Dessert

• Brownies
• Petit Fours 
• Scones with Devonshire cream & Strawberries
• Apple Roses
• Mincemeat tarts
• Rhubarb Dream Bars

Infused water

Beachcomber's Drums of Heaven

In my collection of postcards, I did find this post card which brought fond memories.

The Beachcomber Polynesian restaurant was such a great place to celebrate special events.  The first I was there was there was on a first date.  The restaurant was so dark, with a rounded blue ceiling filled with what looked like stars, one could hear running water as you were ushered by your waiter over wooden bridges to your table. The first to come to your table was a dish of what looked like egg rolls, luckily I lift the dish to see it better and smelt lemon. And quickly realizing they were rolls of washcloths to wipe one's hands.  

Thus one of the reason, I do not have pictures of this place, is that it was so dark and took a while for your eyes to get use to the lighting. 

I also took my husband there on his birthday. The place was so popular but one could not reserve spot for two,   We ended seating in their lounge sipping drinks with floating gardenia or roses.  By the time a spot opened up for us at eleven o'clock, we were no longer hungry. 

Their speciality was chicken drums of heaven served with a sweet chilli sauce.  This beautifully presented dish did in fact look like little drumsticks. 

The Beachcomber was open for 30 years between the early 1960s and 1990s.  

To my surprise, I found two recipes for the drums of heaven that were posted by the Winnipeg Free Press. The drums of heaven that I remember were more the breaded type that would have been deep fried.  For the shower, I did bake them in the oven at 375 for 30 to 45 minutes on parchment lined cookie sheet. 

With the help of my husband, I used only chicken drumstick which are a little larger than the ones used at the Polynesian restaurant as they used the wing part for the little drumsticks. 

How to make the Lollipop or drumsticks:

Holding the thin end firmly, cut the skin around the bone to release it.

Push down the bone forcing all the meat to the end.

The next step we did not do but shaped it into a ball

If you like you can pull the meat over the end, so that the skin is in side the ball.

Marinade the prepared chicken drums overnight.

Marinade:

• 1 tsp Chinese Five Spices
• Minced garlic clove
• 1 T sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon 
• parsley
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 T vegetable oil
• chopped fresh ginger root
• 1/4 c  wine
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) cornstarch

To bake the drums of heaven, the marinade was drained, then the chicken was dredged in flour, then dipped into beaten egg, then rolled into Panko crumbs. The drums were placed standing on the cookie sheet lined with parchment and baked until golden brown

A sweet and sour sauce was used for dipping. 

They can be frozen and reheated in an air fryer! Delicious. 

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Salad Bundles with Marinated Peppers

These salad bundles had incredible taste and did look lovely on a white platter.

The Salad Bundles are between the meatballs and the sandwiches on the left bottom of the picture.

These were prepared by Anna Olson for a High Tea  years ago and I had always wanted to prepare them as they do look incredible.

Red peppers were first roasted, then placed in a bowl and covered with saran wrap to let steam for about 10 minutes.  Peel the peppers and discard the seeds. Cut into 1 inch width strips.  Marinade the red peppers in minced garlic clove, Olive oil, salt and pepper and a splash of Balsamic Vinegar.  The marinaded red Peppers will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days.


Having watched the video a couple of times, the process of wrapping the bundles was not as easy as Anna made it.

For the bundles, marinaded red peppers are spooned in to a endive leaf, then bundled in a Boston Lettuce leave and tied with a chive that has been blanched in hot water.  

The Boston leaves were way too big and when wrapped one could not see the endive or red pepper.  Lucky I had Romaine Lettuce growing in my garden that were the size of the palm of my hand and worked much better. However the lettuce was difficult to fold around the endive and red peppers to get a neat bundle!  I did not get the wow factor as I did with the other dishes for the High Tea shower!

Scones with Clotted cream

Clotted cream, Devonshire cream is a must with scones at a High Tea.

In researching the recipes for Devonshire cream,  I found many recipes adding sour cream, cream cheese or Mascarpone cheese to heavy cream.  Although, I had not had clotted cream, I remember tasting thicken cream on the farm that was not sour but was very thick and sweet.   My Mom had a special house built for her to separate her cows'  milk.  The freshly milked cows' milk was poured into a large stainless steel cream separator which separated the cream from the milk using centrifugal force. 

We used this sweet thicken cream on farm grown strawberries but I can't remember what my Mom called it.  Not being satisfied with adding something to the cream to make Devonshire cream, I phoned my friend who once ran a Tea Shop in Manitoba.  Yes, you do not add anything to the cream, you just let it thicken at very low heat for many hours.

The results were just as I had remember; thick, lush and sweet!

Oh Yes, be patient! 

Tzatziki Sauce (Yogurt and Cucumber)

For this sauce, yogurt was drained in a colander overnight in the refrigerator. 

To this drained yogurt, grated cucumber, fresh ground pepper, lemon rind and juice, minced garlic and chopped fresh mint was added. The sauce was refrigerator for a couple of hours for the flavors to develop.

The sauce was plated with the lamb meatballs