Since yesterday was a bank holiday in Ireland and many of my snapchat friends over there were feeling down today, I thought a treat was in order!  So I took them along with me on a visit to the famous London biscuit bakery Biscuiteers.  It was an all day affair doing what I love doing best:  Making people happy and making desserts!  Cookies, icing, sugar and fun are the best way to brighten up anyone’s day.  And with Halloween coming up in a few days, this was just the thing to get in the festive mood!

Though you can find the Biscuiteers Cookies for sale online and even at U.K. stores such as Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Harrods and The Conran Shop, it is far more pleasurable to go into one of their own boutiques.  They have two branches, one in Notting Hill and one on Northcote Road.  With the charmingly elegant black and white decor the colorful cookies stand out that bit more.  And there are loads of baking equipment essentials such as cookie cutters on sale for foodie enthusiasts like me.  When you pay for a class you get a 10% off discount on items purchased on the day you attend. Whoo hoo!

However, the best part of going to the boutiques is the amazing customer service.  There is such a lovely warmth about the staff and it is particularly evident when there are classes or impromptu icing cafe sessions happening.  The staff goes above and beyond to assist and instruct eager cookie decorators.  This really helps to calm the nerves, especially for those that are a bit on the perfectionist side, expecting to perfectly ice a cookie in 2 minutes flat!  But it is wonderful to see the metamorphosis from start to finish.  From a naked cookie to a beautifully decorated colorful creation!  Our teacher for the day, Michelle, was beyond patient and she just so happens to be an amazing artist herself.  She makes it all look so easy, but I know its not.

When you take a course at Biscuiteers, all of their expert artists guide you through the step by step instructions from making and baking the cookie dough, to learning the different icing techniques.  The real trick is getting the basic icing recipe down. The mixture of icing sugar, Merriwhite  (powdered egg whites), and water is beaten to the perfect consistency where it just has a bend on the end of the spatula.  Then you add the color (which can be gel or powder) and place it in the piping bag for the “line icing” which you use to make the outlines on your cookies.  It is important to hold back a little bit of the icing in the bowl.  Then you add water to that icing that’s left over to create a “runny icing”.  In this way you make sure you have a color match for both the line and runny icings.  You use plastic squeeze bottles as the container for the runny icing since it is easier to manage in order to” flood” the inside of the cookie.

Once you have decorated the cookies they need to be baked to help set the icing.  The oven temp is quite low (50 C) and they stay in for about one hour. You can add more detail to the cookie after this stage.  And the sky is the limit in terms of creativity.  This is such a nice stress relieving activity.  I can see why many corporates, hen parties and school outings are booking in for these sessions.

As if the fun wasn’t enough, you get to take home the cookies that you have made on the day in a lovely tin case.   You just have to attach your cookies to a cushy cardboard base (with the help of a dot of icing instead of glue) and arrange inside the gorg keepsake container.  As well, the apron you have used, is now yours!  Hello!  I’m loving this!  Plus you get a gift voucher for future use.  Right,  I’m on it !

During the day long class we were treated to an unlimited supply of teas or coffees (I had the best cappuccino since I moved to London) and a slice of one of their gorgeous cakes. Yes they make cakes and chocolates as well as their famous biscuits.  I had the white chocolate passionfruit cake and it was so fresh, moist, tender and tasty!  I was in heaven!

Since there is only my husband and myself in the house and I made eighteen cookies I decided to create a contest for my snapchat followers.  They had to send me a snap of themselves doing their best impression of me (which would include one or all of the following: Bad singing, bad dancing but good recipes and possibly an American accent) and I would award the winner later in the evening.  Well it was a hard choice as there were so many great entries.  But since I had so many cookies anyway, I decided to award three winners!  Since I take snapchat along on many foodie adventures and they can’t taste or smell the goodies it can almost be torturous.  So, this is a great pressie for the lucky three then!

If you’ve been following for a while you know that my pretty pit Stella plays a big part in all YDP activities (where allowed).  So she was quite curious about my Biscuiteers adventure. She loves a treat, and might have even eaten a bit in spite of it being in a kitty cat shape!  But I wasn’t sure how dog friendly the ingredients are.  So I think when I do a follow up assessment of the course I might suggest they actually include doggie biscuits to their menu. I know there would surely be one happy customer!

Decorated with Love,

YDP

P.S. If you are new to the blog you are very welcome!  And if you are on snapchat you might like to follow along there as well (user name:  blissbakery)

 

 

 

Due to certain reasons, which I shall divulge shortly, I’ve never really been the biggest fan of mustard.  Though a staple with a baseball game hot dog, I would tend to defer to the red stuff, ketchup, on my ball park frank.  In fact, I even avoid the color yellow in my wardrobe.  I own not a single piece of clothing in the color.  But this recipe changed all that for me.  It is seriously the simplest, quickest and tastiest dinner ever!  Served with a side of mashed potatoes or rice pilaf and something green (a nice steamed broccoli or a dressed mixed leaf salad) and you are good to go.  Very helpful on a busy Monday, especially the week of Halloween when there are tons of last minute errands to run!

The thing about this recipe is that you literally only need four ingredients.  However, the key is you have to get the proper type of mustard as it is the star of the show.  That can be tough as there are so many varieties on the market these days.  And considering that mustard is thought to be one of the world’s oldest condiments it is understandable.  Some chefs swear by mustard as their go to ingredient for everything from sauces to salad dressings.  Famed British chef Nigel Slater is quoted as saying, “Almost anything is edible with a dab of French mustard on it.”  Can I emphasize, as I am now a resident of the U.K., it is massive for a Brit to say that about something from France.

Mention the word mustard to some people and they usually fall into one of three camps: French, English or American.  In fact, for some maniacal mustard fans, there is even a Mustard Manual.  Check it out for yourself if you are a yellow hued yoke!

Even if you aren’t so nuts about mustard that you have to know every detail, you can still enjoy this recipe tonight!  And if you make enough to have left overs, it is tasty as a warmed sambo, like an Italian meatball Sub type.  Only this is lighter since it is made with poultry.  You can also put it on a wholewheat roll to make that bit healthier.

Ingredients:

Skinless boneless chicken breasts (I use free range and organic)

Dijon French Mustard

Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

French’s Crunchy Onions (if you can’t find this in your supermarket you can make them yourself by following this recipe which also happens to be gluten free)

*I deliberately left out the amounts. You can make two chicken breasts or more depending on how many servings you want. Just increase the amounts of mustard, onions and cheese you need to accommodate.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Grate some Parmesan Cheese on the bottom of an oven proof baking dish.  Spread a generous tablespoon or more of mustard all over each of the chicken on both sides.  Place on top of the grated cheese in the baking dish.  Grate more cheese on top of the chicken. Sprinkle with the Crispy Onions.  Cover with aluminum foil.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove the foil.  Bake another 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the Crispy Onions are browned.

I like to serve this on top of mashed potatoes. Then when you cut into it and have a “combo bite” of chicken and the mash, you get the perfect balance of flavor and textures.  It is so delicious!  The Parmesan mellows out the mustard and the onions add that bit of crunch to make it totally and completely Yummer-ific!

 

So the story goes that my mom and dad used to have rip roaring fights. The kind that sent us kids to hide under our beds or in the closets.  On one occasion, like many, things started to go flying around the kitchen.  I heard a few crashes and bangs and then silence.  That was a sign that it was safe to re-enter.  What I saw was a mound of yellow mustard dripping down the wall like a Jackson Pollock painting.  Thank God many varieties of mustard now come in plastic bottles!  So while I may only use the Dijon variety myself for this recipe, I have come to appreciate one other form of the color yellow.  It is in fact a song by the band Coldplay.  However, this is actually a version done by an all female choir from Belgium called Scala.  It is quite haunting and beautiful.  My favorite line “look at the stars, look how they shine for you”.

I hope you try this recipe and it shines for you.  And thanks for being a star and following along with me on this journey!

Yellow Mellow Mustard Love!

YDP

 

Did you ever hear of or see the hugely successful award winning miniseries for television called Rich Man, Poor Man ?  It was based on the novel of the same name and was aired during the throes of the golden age of television, along with other hits such as Roots.  The show was a breakthrough not only for this genre, but it also helped propel rising stars Nick Nolte and Peter Strauss to super star status.  It is the story of two brothers, one rich and one poor, like the title states, as second generation immigrants of  Post War America .  But it is more about the personality dynamics and the life trajectory that these two men take.  They may share DNA, but don’t necessarily share the same path.

I remember when it was on television and though I didn’t watch it myself, I recall all the hubbub about it.  It just struck me the other day that for some of the readers of this blog, it can be a bit of a brain whiplash when I talk about going to food banks in one post and then the next about going to the Academy Awards show.  So in a way, I am a real life “Rich Woman, Poor Woman”, except rolled into one person.

In my life I have gone from being middle class, to dirt poor, from wealthy, to average.  I have owned homes and cars, and lived out of a car as my home.  I have eaten from a soup kitchen and served food at a soup kitchen.  And whether I am wearing a designer gown for a fancy awards show or wearing second hand clothes from a charity shop (where my very first bra came from) I am the exact same person.  For some reason, I am not changed by the change (or lack thereof) in my pocket.  It doesn’t matter what my bank account says, what matters is what my heart says.  What it says at all times is to be giving.  Even if I don’t have credit left on my bank card, I can still give the best gift, which is a smile, a hug and my love.  They don’t cost a thing but from what the recipients tell me, they are the most priceless gifts.

In fact, I can honestly say that I am not the most comfortable when I am showered with the indulgences that wealth brings.  For instance, the first time a limousine arrived to pick me up, (which I did not ask for, nor pay for myself) I actually got in the front seat.  The chauffeur said as he opened the door, “Excuse me you are supposed to ride back here”.  You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I preferred to sit up front with him.  But we had a grand old chat on the way to my destination!

Another time I received a full length mink coat from my ex-husband.  It was one of those “Cheat Treats” or “Guilt Gifts”  as I coined them.  But nevertheless it was beautiful and some of my friends said they would gladly have had their husbands sleep with someone else to get one of those.  I didn’t recommend that method!   I think I wore the coat twice.  No offense, but it just wasn’t me.   I didn’t see it for years while I paid for it to be in cold storage, but finally I donated it to the silent auction of a fundraiser.  I was the philanthropic chairperson for the American Women’s Club of Dublin and that year our charity was the ISPCC.  I didn’t tell many people working with me on the campaign that I actually donated it.  On the program booklet it was listed as an anonymous donor.  But I was delighted to see it raise money for a good cause, and the lady who bid on it and won was over the moon!  For me it turned something sad, ugly and painful into a positive.  Most importantly,  children in need were ultimately helped by the money raised.  They might never know this story, but certainly they have their own stories.

Years ago I was looking after the children of some dear friends.  These friends happen to be massively successful and wildly wealthy.  They lived in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles in a mansion complete with its own stream running through their expansive wooded back garden.  On this day in particular, their kids were playing out back an asked me if they could take off their shoes and walk in the stream.  Sure, why not?  Then, as kids do, they began using their imaginations.  They said, “Let’s pretend we are poor shoe less children walking through a steam trying to find food.”  I didn’t have to do too much pretending to reminisce back, albeit I didn’t walk through streams as a kid.  But it made me laugh thinking how children use their imaginations for all sorts of things.  Rich kids or poor kids!

I used my own imagination many times as a little girl when I was up against the wall as I have shared before.  Once when I had a friend over to our hovel of a home I remember saying, when she asked what was behind my mom’s locked door,  “Oh, that goes into our other wing of the house”.  I suppose I was trying to let her believe we had this enormous castle, just not in eyeshot. NOT!  But I don’t think it would have been prudent to tell her that was where the drugs were stored!  Hey it’s all perspective isn’t it?!

In the mid nineties I was in the Philippines with my ex husband.  We were staying in a very posh hotel, you know the kind with one billion thread count sheets and chocolates on the pillow every night.  When we left the hotel to go sightseeing we passed some impoverished areas.  Literally like slums.  I began crying as I saw these kids playing outside barely clothed.  I didn’t want to go back to the billion count thread sheet hotel.  I felt like they should have those luxuries too.  My ex husband pointed out to me that the children seemed happy playing with their ball and stick.  They didn’t know they were missing out on toys that some kids had like Nintendo.  I had to agree with him.  The kids looked happy as their granny carefully watched them while they played.  Their big sister was there to hug them and tickle them.  I realized something.  They may have been poor in material things, but they were rich with love.

It is much harder on people that have had money and success to deal with losing it if they have been attached to it.  I’ve witnessed many people struggle with that in my lifetime.  After my divorce I took a sabbatical from acting for a while and became a preschool teacher.  It was a more conducive job to have as a single parent raising teenagers.  It was actually one of the best professional experiences of my life as I love children and appreciated the opportunity to be an integral part of their precious lives.  As preschool is their first foray into the social realm of school, I felt lucky to be their tour guide!   I worked at a school on the westside of Los Angeles and there were many children of celebrities and wealthy parents.  Personally I didn’t mind being a teacher to the children of people I had previously attended black tie affairs with or hob nobbed with at country clubs.  But one teacher had difficulties with that juxtaposition.

Grammy award winning singer Jody Watley decided to put her music career on hold and began teaching at this same preschool.  She was absolutely beautiful physically, but was even more lovely with her warm and caring demeanor towards the kids.  She was appointed my co-teacher and I had high hopes we would have a great year with our class of three year old students.  But it only took a few weeks for the shock and pressure to affect her.  It was too overwhelming for her to be in a quasi subservient role to the record executives and talent agents for whom she had previously earned money.  As these were the people who would have taken percentages of her record sales during the height of her success.  I suppose when you are not selling records anymore and instead wiping their snotty nosed kids it is a bit humbling.  The students were gutted when she quit and I missed her too.  But I understood.  Yes being a teacher is hard work and for little pay.  But I think the rewards are great!  However, money isn’t my motivation so it is easy for me to say that.

The Irish have a saying that a person isn’t buried with pockets.  Basically it means you can’t take your money with you.  And certainly we aren’t born into the world with fistful of the green stuff.  Somehow though, it becomes an obsession for some, a longing for others.  But I hope people will realize that it is our relationships that matter more than our bank accounts.  Our experiences are what we can savor more than our stuff.  Even experts agree about that! And mostly that LOVE is the one thing money can’t buy, yet it is what we all need and want and it never goes out of style!  There will always be people with more, and people with less.   In our own lifetimes, as I have experienced, money comes, and it goes.  But when you count your blessings instead of your cash you’ll have lots more happiness!

Rich with Love,

YDP

P.S. So you’re thinking, hey wait where is the recipe?  I thought for today I would share a recipe link as opposed to writing it out.  It is a recipe for a monkfish dish.  Chosen because monkfish is the poor man’s version of lobster.  However, it is in a gloriously rich cream sauce.  So you too can have a Rich Man, Poor Man dinner if you decide to make this!  I first came across this recipe while I was attending the Ballymaloe Cookery School.  It really is a lovely treat!  I think you too will enjoy this Monkfish with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As promised in yesterday’s post, I’ve put together the recipe for the triple layer lemony cake that I renamed “Forgiveness Cake”.  But just before I share that, I have to tell you about the wonderful gifts I received yesterday.  And all from people that I don’t know personally.  Or as society would call them “strangers”. Though funny enough these strangers didn’t seem strange to me at all.  In fact they showed more kindness than some people close to me have.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, for my mom’s birthday I decide to make her a birthday cake and then take it to where a group of homeless people congregate.  I was a bit apprehensive when I went there.  I didn’t bring a purse, and only had my phone, my big tupperware case with the cake, and a bag with a cake knife, napkins and matches to light the candles.

I walked up to two girls in a large crowd. They were maybe in their late teens or early twenties (I’m not the best at gauging ages) and I introduced myself.  I explained that I had baked this cake and wondered if they would like to share it with me in honor of my mom’s birthday. They looked at me kinda funny at first.  Like who is this lady with the American accent and a giant plastic case (because at that juncture you couldn’t see the cake inside) babbling on about her mum.  Finally, I set down the case on the bench and opened it up and their faces totally changed.  They saw I had written on the cake “Happy Birthday Mom” and they could smell that amazing smell you get from a freshly baked treat.  Literally, all the people who had been milling about started to come over and I sensed they were getting excited.  Then one of the girls explained to the others what was going on and said “Let’s help her celebrate her mum’s birthday”.

With maybe 15 people gathered around I tried to light the candles.  I was a bit nervous and my hands were shaking, so I was having trouble with the matches.  Then this man, who I heard someone call him Keith, came over and said, “Here let me help”.  He whipped out his lighter and began helping me light the candles.  And once I started singing the birthday song, they all joined in and sang with me.  It was actually surreal.  But it felt really good.  When I blew out the candles I actually started to cry.  Two people, I didn’t see their faces as mine was buried in my hands, touched my shoulders, one on each side.  I could hear their voices, one was a man and one a lady.  They said, “There, there, come on now, you’re gonna be okay.”

Once I began to slice up the cake I felt better.  Then I really felt great when people reacted to  the taste of it.   One older lady said it was the best cake she had ever eaten.  There was a young teenage boy there and he came back a third time!  The cake was nearly gone at that stage.  He said he thought it was gorgeous and he absolutely loved it.  I saw myself in him!  Then I noticed he took the third piece to the end of the long bench and gave it to a very worn down looking woman.  She reminded me of my mom.  And the girl who I first approached saw me watching and she said, “That’s his mum.”  I realized that even if this kid is in a bad situation, he still loves his mom and will want to do things for her.

I thought back to when I was a kid.  And in spite of the hell we lived in, I tried my best to help my mom and do things for her.  For instance, when checks would arrive in the mail for the commercials that I worked on I remember saying to her, “Why don’t you take this check for yourself”.  I told her, “If it weren’t for you driving me to the auditions I wouldn’t be in commercials.”  She would take them now and again.  But mostly she would say, “No this is yours and it’s all going into a trust account for you to have when you’re grown up.”  From the bottom of my heart, I honestly don’t care about the fact that there never was an account.  Money is money, it comes and goes.  But a person’s word and their integrity is more powerful.  I just wished she had used the money to help our family’s situation and not on her drug habit.

As I watched this boy, who was introduced to me as Tyrone,  give her the cake,  I knew he was just doing what most kids do no matter their situation.  He wanted to please his mom.  All the other people there seemed to know him well and teased him about his sweet tooth.  There were old people and young, black and white.  And they almost seemed like a family, in that they all knew each other and seemed to look out for one another.  I have to say I really enjoyed eating my slice of cake with all of them.  The two girls I first approached, Nina and Maryanne kept asking, “Are you alright luv?”  I felt very comfortable, like a 180 from the moment I first walked up to them.  I could have stayed longer, but decided I should go.  I thanked them all and got a few hugs as they sent me off  with *one small piece of cake left in the case.  It was much lighter carrying it home.  But that wasn’t all that felt lighter.

Yesterday I had stayed off snapchat all day except an early morning snap (text) to those that follow me saying that though I was baking I was going to be silent because of the “day that was in it”.  I suggested people might read my blog to explain.  I had trouble going to sleep last night with so many things on my mind about the day.  Going to mass, baking the cake, having an impromptu party….and then I decided to check my snapchat.   I had all these messages waiting from people that follow me.  Total “strangers” if you will.  Yes, they see my snapchat stories and I theirs, but we haven’t met in person, nor do we have a relationship outside of this social media realm. Yet the most amazingly kind and supportive words were written to me.  Even encouraging me and thanking me for bringing joy into their lives with my wacky baking tutorials.

It struck me that this “kindness of strangers” bit is really the Gospel story of the “Good Samaritan” but it’s happening here and now.  And I feel so utterly grateful!  I once read a newspaper quote by a homeless person that said what they don’t need is another brown bag sandwich dropped off to them from the “do gooders”.  What they need is someone to talk to them and show them a bit of love to help make them feel human.  I hope this cake, made with the secret invisible ingredient, LOVE, can help us all feel a bit more human!

 Triple Layer Lemony Cake

For the cake:

1 cup (1/2 lb) unsalted butter softened

2 cups (450g) caster sugar

4 eggs room temperature

3 cups plain flour, sifted

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup whole milk

2 Tbsp lemon zest

2 Tbsp lemon juice

For the icing:

1 cup icing sugar

2 Tbsp lemon juice

For the filling:

1 jar of Lemon Curd

For the frosting:

500 g icing sugar

160 g unsalted butter, room temperature

4 Tbsp lemon zest

50 ml whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350F/Gas mark 4

2. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy about 3-5 mins; add the eggs one at a time beating 1 minute after each addition and scrapping down sides of bowl in between.

3. Meanwhile in a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk. Mix until all is integrated and then add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat for 30 seconds.

4. Fill prepared baking tins and bake until done about 20 mins, when toothpick inserted comes out clean (12 mins if making cupcakes). Put on a rack to cool in the tins. While still warm pour a mixture of 1 cup icing sugar that has been mixed with 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice on top of cake and poke holes in cake with a toothpick so the icing can be absorbed.

5. Once the cakes have totally cooled fill with lemon curd (if making a layered cake spread in between layers).

6. To make the frosting, beat together the icing sugar, butter and lemon zest (you can also add some yellow food coloring if you desire) until it has come together and is well mixed. Turn down speed and slowly pour in milk, when incorporated turn up speed again and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 mins. Then spread on cake and put sprinkles on the sides of the cake for decoration.

I was happy as usual this morning.  A new day, a new opportunity to love more, and make the most of this precious life.  I was back on snapchat with my bad singing, bad dancing, but  good recipes. Today  I made a peanut butter ice cream sambo!  Haha , auto correct just tried to change the sambo to samba. That’s a dance move.  Even with my dance naiveté I know that!

Thanks for all the kindness,

YDP

*ps. I wrapped up the one last piece of Forgiveness Cake and put it in the freezer.  Maybe if my mom is still alive, and if I ever find her, I can share it with her!