My mother-in-law was a big fan of ginger, and always had some crystallised ginger in the pantry. Ginger Jar is written with her in mind. I remember her elsewhere on this website, too, specifically through her foolproof casserole, which has…
Still Life with a Ginger Jar – A Poem
Oranges and Goblet of Wine – A Poem
A lovely detail about this painting is that there’s an inscription on the back by the artist’s daughter, Helen Peto Smiley, that simply reads, “Painted by my father”. It makes it even more relevant that I’m using it on a…
When the Soldiers are Coming – A Poem
Richard Redgrave was an artist, arts educator, arts administrator, historian, and curator. He was Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures (cataloguing the Royal Collection), and he was awarded France’s highest order of merit, the Légion d’honneur in 1855. He also found…
Girl Bundling Asparagus – A Poem
An interesting point about asparagus. According to Nicholas Culpeper’s The Complete Herbal (1653), asparagus roots boiled in wine “taken fasting several mornings together stirreth up bodily lust in man or woman, whatever some have written to the contrary” (pg 34)….
And a Cob-Nut – A Poem
William Henry Hunt’s nickname was “Bird’s Nest Hunt” because in his time he painted quite a few nests and speckled eggs. Old Bird’s Nest was a prolific painter, contributing nearly 800 works to 19th-century exhibitions of the Society of Painters…
For a Minute There, the Internet was a 17th-Century Coffee House – A Poem
If you ever want to fall down an internet hole, then may I recommend the coffee houses of old London? Here are some of the links I poured through to get a feel for what life may have been like…
My Bae’s Eyes are Nothing like the Sun – A Poem
Well, this was fun. Marcellus Laroon the Younger was trained in painting by his father, Marcellus Laroon the Elder, a portraitist and history painter. Apparently, the Younger, who specialised in genre scenes and conversation pieces, was “a colourful character who…
Delivering Grapes to a Prospective Lover – A Poem
There’s not a lot to be said about this glorious painting of abundance – enjoy! The form is Italian, a stornello, which I though appropriate for the Italian artist, Luca Forte, who was an innovator, introducing landscapes as backdrops for…
Just Right – A Poem
William Rickarby Miller was a watercolorist, a magazine illustrator, and also a painter of still life. He particularly loved to paint peaches. I enjoyed looking at this foray into apples. For Just Right, I was particularly interested in the old…
National Vanilla Ice Cream Day – July 23
Vanilla ice cream is my favourite. Is it yours too? For more on vanilla, including a vanilla cake recipe click here. For the full poem “Contentment” by Oliver Wendell Holmes click here.
Celebrating 100 Poems
You may have already read that the reason I began this website was because my daughter asked for my favourite recipes. Since then, everything has grown – the site, my daughter’s cooking repertoire, the scale of the project! I started…
Blue and Green Bottles and Oranges – A Poem
The Yale Center for British Art writes that the artist here, Spencer Gore, was influenced by Paul Cézanne and André Derain in using “bright, undiluted colour and seemingly prosaic subject matter“. I was stuck in particular by the blue and…
