Last week half the state’s fruit was killed by frost. today the north wind is blowing from the hot centre and it’s 30 degrees C – that’s about 86F.
I should be sipping warm java, the beans from some exotic country run by a not-so-benevolent dictator. Instead I’m sitting here with a bottle of Autocrat (if you’ve worked with me don’t laugh) coffee syrup.
Mixed with milk it is the official drink of Rhode Island, the home of Lydia and The Perfect Pantry who sent me my Blogging By Mail package. All this was marshalled by the fabulous Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness.
And as usual the Australian Customs rifled through my package.
I immediately obey Lydia’s orders and make a cooling Coffee cabinet. Two scoops of coffee ice cream I add 1/4 cup – a few good squirts in reality – to a glass of milk and whizz it all up.
It does the drink.
Lydia wishes Happy Breakfast. There should be a pile of lemon- current Johnnycake biscotti in the above picture. Being busy, I’ve been rising early and eating these biscotti instead of making breakfast.
Apparently, they are called Johnnycake in honour of the local Rhode island cornmeal used to make actual Johnnycakes, a thin pancake.
My package includes a packet of Kenyon’s Johnny Cake white cornmeal. The packet says that these cakes probably date back to 1886.
I’ll leave my actual baking of the biscotti version to another post, perhaps this weekend.
This morning I dug into the Moosup farm seedless blackberry preserve smearing it over our toasted sourdough each morning. Spring has arrived.
Also I received a copy of The Providence and Rhode island Cookbook. What I didn’t realise that was that RI had a mix of Italians, French and Portuguese, which reflects in it’s food culture.
This book is stuffed full of exotic chowders and more lobsters, clams and quahogs (a kind of clam) than you could point a gold bar at.
i can only say that lobster must be very cheap and plentiful. We eat corned beef hash at home. In RI they make hash with lobster.
As for my own effort, I have definitely reinforcing Australian clichés for Ellon at barbie2be. She seemed particularly impressed by the kind of people who drink cans of rum and coke down here. Well she laughed like a drain, apparently.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s fun watching these packages arrive at their destinations and reading about the recipients responses, I think every Aussie participating in this sent Vegemite in some shape or form
Ellie, it is fun but I’m boring. Everytime I’ve sen vegemite. I need to use my imagination and actually cook something. Dis youparticipate. I was looking on your blog and couldn’t see a parcel?
I did participate this time round, but was daft and forgot to photograph the items in my package – but my recipient photographed them for me
http://jumboempanadas.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-very-own-australia-day.html
I’m still waiting for my other partner to put my package in the post
Ed, so glad everything made it to you in one piece! And if the Customs folks snuck a biscotti or two out of the package, I hope they enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed sending it to you.
I sent a couple of packages over to Canada for a friend (the first time was went she had six ribs cracked when her boyfriend gave her too big a hug.) It was fun to do, but the postage is a killer. These days I just use the Simply Australian website as it is easier (already passed customs also.)
I may try that Tim. Thank for the tip.