Marmalade is a sweet fruit spread used atop crumpets (English muffins to us), muffins, and toast.  Unlike jams and jellies, it incorporates finely (or not so finely, depending on one’s taste) shredded citrus peel into its sticky goodness.

I love marmalade- anyone who relishes a bitter note would enjoy it.  My favourite flavor is orange, but it can be made of any fruit of  the citrus variety.  My sad and only attempt to make homemade orange marmalade was MANY years ago, in which  I neglected to remove the seeds from the oranges prior to grinding,  rendering it  thusly inedible.  If you are interested in trying your hand at marmalade making,  you may wish to visit this site that I found:

http://www.steamingpot.com/homemade-orange-marmalade/

One of the classic British tea time treats is a Ginger Biscuit.  In America we call them Ginger Snaps- they are very hard, and therefore perfect for dunking but I cannot picture Miss Marple doing so.

Perhaps another English treat, Maids of Honour would be more appropriate- a delicate biscuit with jam, cream, and sherry baked in.

 

I personally love Shortbread.  Anyone who loves butter would love these melt in your mouth buttery wedges.  Once, as a girl I was making recipes for cookies that I had not made before and that did not have an accompanying picture.  When I followed the directions, I was left with what looked like an unbaked pastry crust and wondered what I had made.  I cut the “Pastry” into wedges per directions and baked it – I still remember how good it tasted.  It was not fancy like sugar cookies, but it was so tender and buttery.  What a memory!

 

Tea made properly must steep in its hot water for a period of  time- depending on the strength one wishes their tea to be.  Personally, I like a strong tea as I take mine sweet and milky.

While the tea is brewing, some of the heat is lost.  If desiring the tea to be hot for pouring, a tea cozy is commonly used to insulate the tea pot.  This can be knitted or quilted and looks to be a sort of “hat” or “bag” for the tea pot.

I have found the perfect cozy for Miss Marple- as she is always busy with her knitting and has beautiful china blue eyes (Joan Hickson).

In A Pocketful of Rye,  Miss Marple is invited to stay at Yew Tree Lodge to help solve some murders.  I wondered what a Yew was and investigated- and found that it is a common shrub of which I have multiple specimens in my own garden! We call it Taxus.

Yews are evergreen and produce berries (which are poisonous to people- and therefore it is the means of one of the murders in the story).   It was put into the marmalade.

Today, I invited a friend to tea.   I have started my annual Christmas cookie baking, and we sampled 3 different kinds with our PG Tips.

My recipes are family recipes handed down to me – I think they taste better with memories and stories baked in.  I baked 3 kinds today- white and chocolate pinwheels, Russian tea cakes, and Chewy Noels.  The pinwheels and tea cakes are fancy looking and the Noels will be after their coating of white sugar and green icing spelling “Noel” are piped on.

Tomorrow I will be baking chocolate pixies and my son’s favorite candy cane cookies.

Miss Marple was a fan of plain and serviceable tea towels.  In the book At Bertram’s Hotel, Miss Marple comments on her purchase of tea towels-“definitely NOT covered with radishes or baby lambs!!” she boasts.

My dish towels were recently in need of replacement, so  I chose flat woven (as opposed to terry cloth) white cloths with a blue woven stripe- both modest and appealing.

I find hand washing my dishes much more enjoyable with a nice baker’s dozen of these good towels neatly stacked near by.

This must have been one of the towels that made Miss Marple shudder so!

When reading or watching Miss Marple, I have always paid special attention to clothing and accessories worn that reflect the time and setting.   Her wool skirts, cotton stockings, blouses, cardigans and tweed jackets, gloves, hat, shoes, jewelry, hairstyle- I notice them all.

This week, I have placed an order by catalouge (the on-line variety) for a wool skirt, black cotton tights and a wool hat.  I do not intend to dress as an elderly woman,(although I have been mistaken for one!) but to incorporate little Marple-isms into my wardrobe.

Next I will order for myself violet essence – an old fashioned scent that Miss Marple might have worn when she was younger.

At luncheon today (soup, bread, and sausages), I noticed a lot of birdy activity in my garden.  A whirlwind of Sparrows and Dark Eyed Juncos descended upon my feeders and as I gazed curiously out the dining room window, I saw the reason.  Yesterday’s wind and rain had tumbled a feeder out of its tree and had strewn its contents in a wide swath and triggered the current “fly-in”.

 

 

Even my Blue Jay and Woodpecker visited as well as many households of squirrels.  The Woodpecker spent a little more time than usual in the lilac bush pecking at the branches.

An hour or two later, I heard a terrific rat a tat tat sound coming from quite close- I thought to myself, that Woodpecker sounds like he’s pecking on my house.  I was a little excited, I must admit.  But the excitement did not last long, alas, a neighbor was merely repairing a fence.

In Britain, there is no Thanksgiving Day holiday, such as in the United States.  Instead, there are harvest festivals and celebrations.  

Until the 1950’s, turkey was a luxury in the UK.   Miss Marple’s character was set in the immediate post-WWII England, so I can say with confidence that whatever harvest festival was celebrated in her village of Saint Mary Mead, did not include a turkey.

Miss Marple was never married,  but she did have nephews who adored her and no doubt invited her to spend holidays with them but since a Harvest festival was not the equivalent of the US Thanksgiving holiday,  she might have had a special little dinner in her own home, perhaps with a widowed friend.

Partridge would definitely be on the menu, roasted with parsnip and carrot and flavoured with sage and bacon.  Any partridge left uneaten would be made into a game pie to be eaten the next day.

I am sure that Miss Marple would secretly give me a little nod and twinkle in her eyes about the title, but she would never laugh out loud, I’m sure.

Cooking small meals does not come natural to me, and I am gradually learning to do so.  Miss Marple would have had tasty little meals simply prepared and most likely very fresh- perhaps marketing in her village frequently (for sales and freshness, I am sure.)

Our dinner tonight on this stormy grey day is a filet of Atlantic salmon (a nice rosy hue), brown rice with sauteed onion, and sweet butternut squash.  A cup of tea with honey and a biscuit (cookie to Americans) by the heater with a good book is how I plan to spend my evening.