Happy Easter

I regularly get e-mails from American contacts lamenting the loss of respect for the Christian values and traditions upon which this country was built (much like England then...), but where are these people when it comes to Easter? This country is business as usual this time of year. No acknowledgement of Good Friday - school as usual for the children - nor of Easter Monday. Sunday, most people are off anyway, and if you want to go shopping, try to spend plenty of money - it's good for the economy! Shameful.

For some years I have decorated an egg or two to add to my collection of eggs to hang on some branches brought inside. Last year my cats knocked the whole thing over, and I haven't had the heart to set it up this year, although I made the effort to buy some white eggs (most of the market in eggs here is white - I never saw a brown egg growing up - but, now, most organic eggs are brown.) for a lemon curd dessert just so that I could blow and decorate the eggs. I did so beautifully yesterday, only to knock the hollow shells (all but one) onto the floor during a careless moment making dinner last night. No better than my cats.

I made hot cross buns Friday, and, having found some marzipan that didn't cost the earth at the funny grocery store mentioned in yesterday's post, had planned to make a simnel cake, but that hasn't risen to the top of the list yet, perhaps an Easter Monday activity? There will be a family dinner at a brother's house this afternoon, but this won't be without drama, as he has omitted to invite one member of the family over a petty disagreement - which he and his wife obviously don't feel is petty at all. Families - who'd have'em?

April Snows!

I woke up this morning (23 April for crying out loud) to this unwelcome sight, and the wrenching realization that I’d left my fuchsia and euphorbia outside last night. Fortunately, they have both survived and will recover the cold damage suffered. The snow had melted by 10am, and so we must think of it as nothing more than sorely needed precipitation. I prefer rain.

I’ve just been listening to a podcast of The Food Programme which always serves to add to my ambivalence about the food differences between the USA and UK.

On the one hand, I have been buying organic apples and pears for $1/lb or less since January. I have also discovered a local ‘re-store’ that stocks food that is minutes away from its sell-by date at significantly reduced prices. You never know what you will find on the shelves, but can be assured that you will find new and interesting products that you wouldn’t ordinarily buy, but they are inexpensive enough that you are happy to give it a try.

Who knows where they get this stuff (actually a brief conversation with the owner confirms that there are international brokers for this kind of food – who knew?). In any event, last week saw Lyon’s digestive biscuits – both chocolate and normal – on the shelves at .99c and $1.29 respectively, and now I have something like 20 packets of each stored in my garage. Digestive biscuits are not something we even miss that much, but it’s nice to have access to them for just a taste of home. We also found some thin rice cakes – something we miss enormously, but hadn’t otherwise been able to find, which led to an internet search of the brand and a purchase of a case from Amazon no less.

On the other hand I wanted to buy some crème fraiche yesterday only to discover that it is stocked only in the deli section for a mere $7 for 4oz!!!!. (I bought some cream and buttermilk to make my own - 8 oz for $3) Cream is not an item commonly bought in the USA. The only cream available is ‘heavy whipping cream’. No single or double. It is always ‘ultra-pasteurized’ – even the organic varieties. Sigh. Americans are so very happy to lie down and accept whatever big business sells them. This is not to say that Farmers Markets don’t exist, nor that you can’t find small producers who do produce quality food, just that they are harder to find, and that their prices are more like I use to pay in the UK, and when you convert that UK price to dollars, the number seems horrific.

The UK consumer seems to have more influence than their American counter-part. It might be because they are better informed – who knows? I do know that if I ever start spouting off about GMO foods here, people’s eyes glaze over, and they look bewildered that I should be concerned