Blog part 1…………Recipes fit for the Royals ?

Pancakes Royal

Season half a Pint of cream, Half a Pint of Sack*, with the Yolks of eighteen Eggs, and Half a pound of fine Sugar, with beaten Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Mace, beat and mix all thefe, then put in as much Flour as will make it ftiff enough to run thin over your Pan, let your Pan be hot, and fry them in clarified Butter. This sort of Pancakes will not be crifp, but are very good.
*Sack is Madiera wine.

Peacock Pye

Bone your Peacock, parboil it, and lard it with large Lardoons* of Bacon, then feafon it with Salt, Pepper and Nutmeg, of each two Ounces and a Half, when your Pye is ready, lay fome butter in the bottom, with some Cloves beaten, then lay in your Peacock, and the rest of the Seafoning upon it, lay good store of Butter, and clofe it, bafte it with Saffron-water, and when it is baked, and half cold, fill it with clarified Butter.
*small chunks/cubes.

Cowslip Pudding

Having got the Flowers of a Peck* of Cowslips, cut them fmall, and pound them in a Mortar, with four Handfuls of Naples Bifcuit** grated, and three Pints of Cream, boil them a little, then take them off the Fire, and beat up fixteen Eggs, with a little Cream, beat theefe among them, and if it does not thicken, fet it on the Fire a little, but take care it does not curdle, then fweeten it with Sugar and Rofe-water, when it is cold, butter a difh, put it in, bake it, ftrew Sugar over it, and ferve it up.
*Peck, about a small mixing bowl full
** similar to a macaroon

Queens Cake

You muft take a pound of dried Flour, a Pound of refined Sugar fifted, and a Pound of Currants wafhed, picked and rubbed clean, and a Pound of Butter wafhed in Rofe-water very well, and rub it into the Flour and Sugar, with a little beaten Mace, a little Orange-flower-water, beat ten Eggs, but Half the whites, work it all well together with your Hands, and put in the Currants, fift over it double-refined Sugar, and put them immediately into a gentle Oven.
This recipe doesn’t actually seem much different than some of todays recipes for Queen Cakes, just reducing the ingredients by a quarter maybe and just using 2 eggs, put in individual cases, I would think about 15 mins in hot oven. I will try it and let you know.

Blog Part 2……Blackpool Birthday trip

It was Dave’s Birthday last week, so we went off to Blackpool, was a pre booked trip (Newspaper tokens again) Neither of us had ever been before, I could write several pages on what was wrong with it, will try to keep it brief.
Blackpool, Fleetwood and surrounding areas are run down, and seriously unloved, untidy, lots litter and dogends, places closed down, half demolished buildings. We went to the local Nature reserve for a walk the first evening, lovely except that all the lovely new hardwood fencing, has been mostly sawn away and pinched.
The Tower is closed till about September for a new attraction being done, its all covered in Scaffolding, they were still expecting you to pay £8.40 each just to have a look at the famous Ballroom. No trams at all they are redoing the tracks, Roadworks seem to be everywhere, making it difficult to get around, and the Promenade from North through to just before South Pier is closed for renovations, you can’t even walk along there. South Pier is fine and up and running.
Nevertheless we still had a lovely break, we always try to make the best of it, even if it wasn’t up to expectations. On the actual birthday, we had coffee in the Art Deco Café at Stanley Park first, and then we had an amazing Day at Blackpool Zoo, which is just so wonderful, I could have spent every day there. Was worth going away just to go there.

Some pictures I took at the Zoo.

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We never saw a Road Sweeper or Gardener in the five days we were there, I don’t think they like flowers! Well except Dandelions and they were everywhere, verges, Promenades etc with the long grass, not cut.
They would have quite a shock at the profusion of colour down here if they were to visit, Christchurch, Boscombe, Bournemouth, or Poole at any time of the year, beautiful Welcoming Floral displays, and its Clean !
Sorry for the rant!
Will end on a positive note, the Caravan and Park we stayed on were Fabulous at Fleetwood.

Till next time then……………………..