The Return of Michaelmas

"Netherfield Park is let at last... he is to take possession before Michaelmas..."

Pride And Prejudice is my favorite Jane Austen novel, but lines like this were always so perplexing to me as a child. When the heck is Michaelmas? What time of year are they supposed to be laying out for me? And what on earth is Michaelmas anyway? This old fashion, English ordering of the year was as lost to me as any French word ever inserted into a story but not translated (my only regret to learning Spanish in high school.)

It has been a really long time since we have celebrated Michaelmas by roasting a goose. In looking back through my notes it was 2008 the year after we had our oldest child. Parenthood took a toll on us I guess! I have made the Michaelmas pie in the a couple of times and done a simple tea party rather than the full dinner. But I was really missing the full goose experience. Since St. Michael's Day fell on the weekend this year I felt like I had a better chance of talking Mr. W into roasting a goose. He didn't say no when I first suggested it so I took that as a yes. Earlier this week I bought a 9 lb frozen goose at New Seasons which was comical because the man behind the butcher counter acted as if he had never had anyone request a goose before, and was I sure I really wanted it because they are frozen, they'd have to go all the way upstairs to retrieve it from the freezer, and I would have to wait at least 5 minutes. "okay"

Because I knew Mr. W did not want this to have a lot of fan fare I did not invite anyone over figuring we would just eat the goose ourselves and probably have some left overs. Then yesterday morning he decided that it would be too much goose for us so he invited the Fs over for dinner when he saw them at the tweens' soccer game.

As I mentioned I had to review my notes from my Michaelmas binder and fortunately found a few former menus. We revised it slightly this year and served:

• Gordon's roast goose (Mr. W really enjoyed this recipe vs the Irish recipe. he liked the cavity stuffed with citrus and the addition of citrus zest on the skin.)
• Potato apple stuffing (From The Traditional Irish Wedding Book; we actually serve this as a dressing, baked in a casserole dish rather than in the bird's cavity.)
• Brussels' sprouts with bacon and cream
• sautéed carrots
• homemade pickles, dried apricots, almonds, fresh blackberries (for the finicky eaters among us)
• two bread options
• Michaelmas pie (I reduced the cloves by half because in the past I have found it overwhelming)

By the time I found two printed out recipes for for bannock I learned that Mrs. F had volunteered to bring both bread and a cocktail to share. I would really like to try this out next year.

The Michaelmas daisies I have in the garden are beginning to fill in nicely although I did not water enough this summer so some were looking a bit spent. But I was able to put this whole arrangement together from my own garden so I am quite pleased. Maybe one day we will be able to afford to have the last of the laurel hedge removed and my favorite bunch of Michaelmas daisies won't look so leggy. I paired the fresh arrangement with the original wheat sheaf arrangement. And I still have this sweet old Michaelmas daisy fairy postcard. 

I have served carrots in the past, based on my old menus, but unlike blackberries, I could not remember what was the significance. Today I learned about Carrot Sunday which I love! This would be good motivation for me to plan carrot seeds as part of our kitchen garden/homeschool science class and then harvest them on the Sunday before Michaelmas. And maybe learn the ceili dance!

An Introduction into Poetry Teas

I wouldn't say that I am overwhelmed by homeschooling, but I am certainly researching homeschooling tips and tricks anytime I get a chance. Sometimes that might take me down a rabbit hole. One such hole was the concept of Poetry Teatime. My curiosity was piqued; this takes something very near and dear to my heart, tea time, with something I cannot stand, poetry. I have never been able to understand poetry, my brain just doesn't work that way. So much so that the few books of poetry we have been gifted have sat on bookshelves unread by me to the children. (And I am sometimes guilty of donating them to charity.) Now this homeschooling tangent had brought me to a website essentially challenging me to not pass my bias along to the children. And it could be fun for all my children, both homeschooled and traditionally schooled because tea time snacks has always been a part of our after school lives. If nothing else it would give me a chance to set a pretty table.

I began by perusing bookshelves in everyone's rooms looking for any book that might technically contain poetry, or at the very least have a nice cadence. Once this pile of books was assembled it sat on a spare chair in the dining room awaiting me to get it together to actually host the tea time, after school activity schedules are hard. Finally yesterday I found that perfect combination of free time and beautiful weather so I decided that our inaugural Poetry Tea could be held outside. In recent years I've gotten sucked into Emma Bridgewater pottery and I just splurged on a big teapot during a sale so I decided to set the tea table with them. A little bit of fruit, a box of Ikea alphabet cookies, and apple cider were enough to satisfy the children into sitting for me to read aloud.

I was pleased that all of them read a couple poems as well. We talked about authors they might know of who write poetry and eventually they landed on Shel Silverstein. Both the boys have one of his books and I encouraged them to bring those to our next tea.

This is the collection of books that we read:
All For Love by Tasha Tudor
Hi, Koo! by Jon J. Muth
The Springs Of Joy by Tasha Tudor
The Real Mother Goose

Late summer in the perennial bed

We have been having some nice dry weather interspersed with rain showers so my garden is looking happy right now. I was able to go outside over the weekend to do some long overdue deadheading near the front steps; as a result my chrysanthemums are looking cheerful and one can see their second bloom better. The dogwood is turning a lovely red. And my only dahlia, out of four plants, that has bloomed this summer is the Teddy. (The one I planted in the back near the terrace didn't come back at all :( )  I cut these back to the third set of leaves, as is recommended to encourage them to be more bushy and have more blooms, but it seemed to stifle any flowers on the other two dahlias in the perennial bed. Maybe next year?

The Teddy has great color to tie in with the autumnal Victorian color scheme of the house.

Sapphire & Silver Tea

A few years ago while I was reading an issue of Victoria magazine I was inspired to throw a sapphire tea for my mother's birthday. I can't even remember now what the article was about specifically, blue and white dishes? Gem stones? Blue crystal? whatever it was I decided that it would be perfect to throw her a sapphire themed tea for her 65th birthday. I even ordered more cobalt blue biot crystal to fill out the set we received as a wedding gift. But then somehow she and I never scheduled it. I brought up the idea again this summer and convinced her to do it the afternoon before she and some of her girl friends would leave on a girls' trip because her best friend, who lives in Canada, would be in town.

I set the table with a white, chrysanthemum patterned linen table cloth, Moonlight Rose china, silver, and the blue Crystal.

I had purchased a set of 6 silver glittered taper candles at some point and fortunately was able to find them where I had stashed them in time to use them in my heirloom glass candlesticks.

The white and blue flowers I bought at the grocery store and arranged myself.


Now that I am homeschool and this is technically a school day I decided to use as much ready made treats as possible.

Sapphire & Silver Tea Menu

Murchie’s Ms. Grey black tea

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Curried chicken salad on Blues Bread

Tillamook cheddar and garden tomato on white bread

Cucumber cups with dill cream and smoked salmon

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Crumpets with strawberry jam or salal and blueberry preserve

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Blueberry & oatmeal bars

Assorted La Provence macarons

Assorted JaCiva chocolate truffles

Fresh blackberries, blueberries & mangoes

I also made a signature cocktail, I wanted something blue AND with Sapphire gin, and settled on the Sapphire Alpine. I made a huge pitcher full and it was way too much. The Boomers did not drink nearly enough of that as I had hoped! I served it in martini glasses in the drawing room while I was assembling the tea sandwiches.


This tea was a lot of fun to put together and my mother, her friends, and her sister really enjoyed it which made it all worth while. I was so tired afterward though being on my feet for several hours serving and pouring out hot tea. I went to be early last night!

Back to School Dinner Party 2019

This year the first day of school falls right between T-Bone's birthday and our wedding anniversary which complicated the scheduling of our traditional Back To School dinner party. For many years now our oldest has requested to go out for fondue for his Mommy & Daddy birthday date and since this was a big milestone anniversary for us we were definitely going out to eat then. Therefore this dinner party menu is not very elaborate.

I decorated with Pee Chee folders finally, something I totally remember from childhood (thank you handy multiplication table on the inside flap) but Mr. W had never seen. I also used flash cards, something I anticipate using a lot of as a homeschooling tool.

This year we have 6th, 3rd, and 1st graders. Plus me, starting a new career as a teacher. Exciting!


Our simple supper was plain or chicken quesadillas, black beans, and Mexican rice. I used the top search result recipe for the rice, something I could make in the rice cooker. It called for a lot of tomato paste. I was imagining I would find a recipe with tomato juice or perhaps stewed tomatoes, but that wasn't in the top search result. It was too much paste for my preference although the seasoning was good. I need to keep searching for a good Mexican rice in the rice cooker recipe.

For dessert I made a mixed berry pie as requested by T-Bone for his birthday.