If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley

When Dorothy clicked her heels and said "There's no place like home" she naturally meant her home.  Not the neighbours house across the field because a house is something all together different from a home.  We all eat, sleep, bathe and entertain in our homes but the way those activities are performed vary from post code to post code, family to family and person to person.  And who isn't curious about what goes on in other people's homes?  I remember being intrigued by the compost bucket that resided on the counter of a friend's house when I was ten years-old.  My family wasn't nearly as resourceful and usually, until you get to a certain age you think every family does things the same way your family does.

Lucy Worsley dishes on all sorts of activities that went on in the home from medieval time to fairly recently and the thought processes behind them.  While we may consider medieval citizens to be a bit on the whiffy side without heavily scented deodorants and body wash they had their standards. 

'There is an important social distinction between being afflicted by lice as opposed to fleas.  Fleas were almost unavoidable, everyone had them.  But to "be lowsie" was an indicator of poor personal hygiene.'

Origins of certain phrases are another fascinating subject and 'getting the wrong end of the stick' possibly came from a time when Romans would use a sponge on the end of a twig to clean their bottoms.  Moving right along past the time of putting children to good use by getting them to rip newspaper into strips for toilet paper, I learned that apparently North Americans are 'scrunchers' while Europeans folded.  Who knew?  The natural progression from toilet paper was to feminine hygiene products.  As a woman born in the 1960s I can attest to the continual improvements in this department.  It was more than a bit difficult to hide the fact someone in your house was menstruating in the seventies when a box of fifty napkins was so large they took up half of your closet.  These days a package of ninety fits in your lunch bag.  Actually, with Kotex now marketing their product in neon, young ladies no longer to 'have a little secret', instead they are supposed to shout about it from the shop aisles!

Moving right along into the area of food and spices, the saying "above the salt" comes from being seated according to status.  Since salt was kept in the middle of the table should you find yourself between the lord and master and the salt you were considered to be higher on the social ladder.  Imagine the sly grins as people glanced at the salt and their guests further down the table.  And if some Victorians were boiling their veggies for up to two hours to aid digestion as suggested by Dr Worsley then guests and family would be reaching for the salt just to give their food a bit of flavour.

Not only is it fascinating to learn how people lived throughout the ages but also how we see others through our own set of social mores.  While I would be hard pressed to recognize every single piece of formal cutlery on the market I couldn't help glancing at how my daughter's friends would hold their fork and knife when they stayed for dinner.  A clear sign as to how important table manners were in their own home.  I could be as sniffy as I liked but the truth is that if a barbequed chicken appeared on the table we are as capable as anyone of behaving like we're at a medieval feast..as long as no one is looking.

I soaked up every word, no dipping in and out for me, and highly recommend this delightful book as one of the most entertaining history lessons you will ever have.

Bouchons au Thon

The date has been set for one of several friendly competitions between friends this summer. 

AppetizerFest will be an afternoon of consuming delicious tidbits and assigning marks based on various criteria.  It's really just another excuse to have a laugh with friends and partake in some culinary jousting.  One of our friends thought this would be the perfect time to introduce a woman he had recently began seeing romantically.  Can you imagine what ran through her mind with fifteen other people pulling out score sheets and mulling over every detail of an appetizer?  It's one thing to know you're amongst friends who are completely full of it but poor Ms M must have been wondering what she had got herself into.  While everyone was chewing and mulling, pens poised to assign a mark, I leaned over and said quietly "We are so full of it it's not even funny" which made her laugh.  The very lovely Ms M is still around and will be in on the fun for this year's competition.

Mrs Miniver's Daughter recently wrote about discovering a copy of A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg and a craving for Bouchon au Thon was heartily underway.  I made a batch on Wednesday in regular muffin tins as called for but I'm thinking that baked in those miniature tins they would make a lovely bite-sized appetizer.  Would they be boring without some sort of dipping sauce?  These are basically tuna, egg and Gruyere cheese so if you have any suggestions for something zingy to accompany them please feel free to share!

The Virago Book of Food

'A delightful selection of literary canapes' states the Evening Standard. I would also hasten to add 'delicious', in the sense that you could sit for ages gobbling up snippets from this wonderful book. There are several paragraphs interspersed throughout from Barbara Pym's books which brought about a 'wonderful' from R who was trying to be happy for me. From Excellent Women, 'I made myself what seemed an extravagant lunch of scrambled eggs preceded by the remains of some soup, and followed by cheese, biscuits and an apple. I was glad that I wasn't a man, or the kind of man who looked upon a meal alone as a good opportunity to cook a small plover, though I should have been glad enough to have someone else cook it for me.' Other culinary descriptions from books include works by Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Mansfield, Beatrix Potter, Sylvia Plath, Sarah Waters, Emily Bronte and Virginia Woolf. Short though still delightful is 'I am glad the new cook begins so well. Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness.' Written by Jane Austen to Cassandra at Chawton. Non-fiction writings by domestic doyenne's are included as well. So if you're interested in reading the thoughts of Mrs Beeton or Fanny Farmer among others, you will find interesting advice scattered here and there. An abundance of writings by various aristocrats and ladies from more humble homes throughout history, are presented as well. I just bought this yesterday but couldn't resist telling everyone about its existence before I've explored it more thoroughly. Many of you will no doubt have it on your shelf already but if you don't, please look for it! It has had me smiling ever since I brought it home.