#notions

Died To Match is Agatha Christie's least popular novel.

@tartapplesauce reblogged my (long) post about Dublin coddle, which mentioned a weird version called "New World Coddle" using chorizo and squash.

TBH, my Mind Palate suggests it would taste quite good, but it's so far from traditional or even well-tweaked-traditional coddle that it's not coddle any more, and should have a different name entirely, possibly in Latin American Spanish.

Also TBH I've already amended the recipe thrice in my head, (1) chipotle powder not smoked paprika; (2) finish with a scatter of toasted pine-nuts; (3) restore the chickpeas mentioned in the Method to the Ingredients where they'd been forgotten.

I've already admitted to breaking the Dublin coddle rules by browning things, so all bets are off. :->

(BTW, this wasn't ours; @dduane's spine and hip have been rather a trial this past couple of days, so we just took things easy and let the Ibuprofen do its thing.)

Re. coffee mornings, what about various tea-breads, fruit sodas, barm brack etc.? Those could be made either trad or tweaked-trad, and though I'm not sure how they could be made "dainty" like petits-fours and so on, I bet it could be done.

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As for the changed-meaning word (getting there eventually) it's "notions" and @tartapplesauce added this link.

"To have notions" in Ireland is to think highly of yourself, often without justification - though if the justification is, er, justified, "begrudgery" will often follow. I've encountered "begrudgery" before, but this version of "notions" is a new one.

I have, however, experienced the Northern Ireland - or maybe just my family - version, which is "don't put yourself forward". This is a bad notion to have when thinking about author profile and book publicity and as DD can confirm, it took me far too long to shake it off.

On the flip-side, having notions can mean thinking outside the box, being imaginative, boldly going where no-one has gone before...

Um, got a bit carried away there... Right to the NYT bestseller list, in fact. Twice. ;->

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Neither of those are MY usual meaning.

Whenever I use "I have a notion", either said or written in a post, it's either "I have a thought" with the thinking-intensity dialled down a few notches, or "I have a vague memory of", otherwise known as IIRC or AFAIK.

And the other OTHER meaning of "notions", the one I first thought of (maybe with notions of food already in mind) was this:

That book was published in 1890, and the title, translated from Victorian English, is something like "Tips and Tricks" or, in more modern English, "Household Hacks".

There's nothing derogatory about it.

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DD and I have both posted about Mrs de Salis in the past; all her books are what's usually referred to as "slim volumes". Here are six of them alongside Mrs Beeton's doorstopper:

I inherited a copy of "Savouries a la Mode" from Mum, who inherited it from Granny, and we've made several things from it, all of which worked - though far and away the best so far are the Parmesan Biscuits, which are...

Well, "more-ish" is a good start, though it doesn't hint at the underlying desire to get in there with both hands...

Here:

All of Mrs de Salis's books are Public Domain, and while we intend eventually to have a full collection of the Slim Volumes, they're also available as PDFs here.

I bought 10 tins to make kits in back in June, and now (November?) they finally sold out. So we got another 10 tins, and during our work session yesterday my assistant divvied up needles, pins, and everything else in the kit.

They're assembled in-house because I haven't found a reasonable ready-made kit that has tools I'd actually like to use. These kits have the kind of tools we use ourselves, and they're $15 CAD.

Included:

The tin: It's compact, roughly the size of a playing card, with a hinged lid that fits on snugly.

Seam ripper: Compact enough to fit into the tin, sharp, and nimble. (Pro tip: Keep the clear cap around to fit onto the butt end of the tool when you use it, and make life easier on your hands!)

Needles: 5 assorted sewing needles, sharps with different thicknesses and eye sizes.

Needle threader: I went on a quest to find decent ones, since the little tin ones in your average sewing kits break easily and drive me wild. The plastic flower is easy to grasp, the wire is sturdy if not indestructible, and it makes threading your needle (especially when working with crewel wool or embroidery floss) SO much easier.

Thread: 5 metres/5.5 yds of glazed cotton quilting thread. Choice of white or black. I am SO sick of crappy sewing-kit thread, which is usually flimsy AND a nightmare to sew with, so I've spun up spools of my favourite handsewing thread instead. It's smooth and sturdy, and less likely to snarl or knot as you're working.

Pins and pincushion: The secret ingredient is a strong and tiny magnet, which sticks to the tin but can also be taken out. It keeps all 20 of these sharp glass-headed pins in line without breaking a sweat. Once I discovered magnetic pincushions, I never turned back. You just have to throw your pins at them to make them stick.

The sewing kit on Etsy

There are also two other things I think are good accompaniments to the kit, but kept them separate to keep the kit's price down.

Thread wax: 100% beeswax thread conditioner. Running your sewing thread through the wax will make it much tamer and easier to deal with. It saves SO many headaches if you do a lot of sewing by hand. $3 CAD