THE DANISH COOKIE RECIPE.. WITH BEST WISHES FOR 2015.

Hurry-Scurry to the 319 bus, which, bless its' big red heart, came along quickly and was almost empty. So she was able to sit in her favourite seat with Small Wicker by her knees.

Yesterday was a glorious day and she sat and looked at London in brilliant sunshine as the bus trundled off down Beaufort Street, over Battersea Bridge and began the twisty journey up into Clapham Junction.

Normally, when going to Susan, she will take an overland train to Streatham Hill but she had caught on the radio that all trains on this line were being delayed due to some glitch. So she stayed on the bus as it started the climb up towards Wandsworth Common and Trinity Road.

She was very pleased that she had called her old friend to say she would be late and reached forward to take her book out of the trolley and realised that there was NO basket under her handbag.. oh dear.. oh dear indeedy.. basket was still a'sitting on the hall carpet with their lunch inside it.

Thank goodness she was going to Streatham, for three minutes walk from where she would get off at St.Leonard's Church is Bartek on Central Parade.

Zoom.. change of menu.. back out of the store.. and down the road to Susan's house. Her dear friend did laugh.. oh, how they both laughed at the silliness of leaving the lunch basket behind. But the new lunch was delicious.. yum.. and soon it was time to wash up, make coffee and make Danish Cookies!

Susan calls them 'Aristokrater', the Danish name for these very simple delicious cookies.

You will need the following..

250gms Selfraising flour.
185gms Caster Sugar.
185gms Unsalted Butter
1 medium sized Egg
1 teaspoon of GOOD quality Vanilla Essence
4 - 5 drops of Good quality Almond Essence.
A small bowl of very finely chopped fresh Almonds and Pistacchio Nuts - Unsalted.
Oven temperature should be 200 degrees.

Mix flour with butter with your fingers until it resembles very fine breadcrumbs and all of the butter has been absorbed by the flour.

Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add the Almond and Vanilla essences, then add the sugar. Mix well.

Make a hole in the flour and butter mix and add the egg and sugar mix.
Use a fork or a spoon (or a mixer if you have a Dough Hook).

Put the bowl into the fridge for 20 minutes for the dough to harden.

Take the bowl out of the fridge and make small rolls of the dough which should be quite firm.

This can now be either sliced very thinly or you can pinch bits off with your fingers. This is what Susan does and make them into little rounds no bigger than a new 10 p piece, then dip the top of cookie into the bowl of very finely chopped nuts.

And place them onto your baking tray, they will spread so do not have them to close together.

Bake for 8 - 10 mintes. The thinner they are, the quicker they will cook.. Don't let them burn!

Take a metal spatula and move them off the baking tray whilst they are still hot and lay them to cool and dry on a metal rack.

There you are.. the easiest Danish Cookie you will ever make! And, of course, you can 'fiddle' with the recipe by add a little Cocoa powder, or adding a little desicated Coconut to the other nuts for the topping or a little Lemon zest.. or a bit of Cinnamon or our favourite.. the Seven Spice Mix.. they are a great way to start children baking.. for WHO doesn't like eating homemade Cookies!

This comes to you all, wherever you may be and whomever you may be, to wish you a Happy New Year for 2015.

With best wishes from.. Susan.. Her and.. Me.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 30th, 2014.

GETTING THE RECIPE FOR DANISH COOKIES.. VERY SLOWLY!

Yesterday was a very 'funny' day. 

Read on Dear Readers and then perhaps you will understand why my feathers are grey although I am so young.. just kidding folks, just kidding!

It started out with both of us oversleeping, through the beep-beep of a text message arriving and the ring-ring of a landline - yes, we still have one of these - on we slept.

When she surfaced from her deep sleep and saw what time it was, well, it was if that comfy old bed ejected her!

Whoosh, my curtain opened as she said "Quick GeeGeeBugBug, wake up, for very late, it's thirty minutes after ten of the morning clock".

Hurry-scurry into the bathroom and then into YumYum HQ. Eggs, bless their hearts, are so quick to cook. The only downside (can an egg have a side, I ask) is that with one slurp or two, they've gone.. sigh.

Flat griddle down from its' hook, air-dryed bacon and two eggs. Oh.. fried eggs, I love them and get a really soft one all to myself.

It comes with a slice of German dark rye bread with seeds with the smallest scraping of Goaty Curd, not small out of meaness, small because we are approaching the bottom of the pot.. sigh.

She had made the lunch which she was taking to Susan. A pate, a dish of pork, red cabbage from Bartek, a loaf of our favourite toasting rye bread from the Polish Bakery, the recipe is from Lithuania. Pudding was a winter fruit compote and  a small bag of her homemade crystallised ginger.

The compote was in a glass jar, the ginger was in a little box and they were already in small Wicker-Wheelie.

Poor big Wicker-Wheelie is very 'poorlie' and waiting to go to Debbie's friend David for serious repair work

She packed up the lunch and put it into her basket. Washed up, cleared and cleaned the kitchen. 

Washed, dressed, a quick call to tell Susan she was running a bit late, she gave me fresh water, big bowl of yumyum, turned on the radio, switched on my 'SAD' light and whoosh, she was out of the door.

I called her but she had gone.. running with Wicker up the street.. oh dear, I though.. oh dear..  you see.. she had forgotten her basket!

She is so used to putting everything into a Wheelie that she thought the food was underneath her bag.

Part Two of this post will be coming your way after we break our fast.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 29th, 2014.

THREE YEARS AND TWO DAYS..

Three years! Can this be true? Well, if you take eleven away from fourteen it leaves three, so it is.

How about that, Dear Readers, if you have been reading the exploits of a small Grey Parrot, me, and her from the start, you are very loyal.

And, therefore, as loyalty should always be recognised. I am going to give you a very secret recipe.

It is the recipe for those tiny but very delicious Danish biscuits that, if you know us, you might have been given with a cup of tea or coffee. 

A couple of rolls of this dough live in our white frosty-cabinet, aka freezer.

The recipe was given to her many years ago by one very special friend, Susan, who is Danish. 

She is having lunch with Susan today and they will make fresh dough, it is very easy and quick to make and she has promised me that she will write it down. 

Everyone 'tweaks' recipes and she certainly has and does so she will be writing it down exactly as Susan does it, so that you, Dear Readers, can have the 'Real McCoy'.. or the 'Real Susan'!

It is chilly-billy this morning here in deepest Knightsbridge and I am thrilled to see, sitting on our bedside table, there is one of our larger mugs with my favourite tea in it. 

So I am off to slurp Lappy-Sang tea and you must go about your business but before you go..

We both want to say "thank you" for the cards and emails we received over the Christmas holiday. I have already told you about the email sent by my First Follower, the incredibly loyal, lovely Pam Keeley-Butler.

Well, she received an email today, a charming email, it was very complimentary about my Blog, from Pegeen last night. We actually know Dear Reader Pegeen, she stayed with us, is it really two years ago already! 

Gosh.. oh.. golly.. how time flies.. especially if you can FlapFlap.. Tea time.. FlapFlap.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 29th, 2014.

WALTER DE LA MARE WAS A BRILLIANT AUTHOR WHOSE NAME IS SELDOM HEARD OF THESE DAYS.. THIS IS A GREAT PITY AS HIS WORKS ARE..

Pure treasure!

I forgot to tell you that she very recently found a copy of one of his charming books.

The Three Royal Monkeys was first published in 1910 under the title of The Three Mulla-Mulgers.

Here is the a snippet for you to get your literary taste buds going..

'On a day when snow lay thick on the forest floor, Thumb, Thimble and Nod set off to seek their homeland, the beautiful valley of Tishnar. They wore warm jackets and carried bundles on their shoulders - and Nod, for he had magic in him, was guardian of their most precious possession, the milk-white Wonderstone'.

This book, she has never read before, will be read and then handed onto an old friend.

Why is she giving a childrens' book to an adult?

Well, you see Peter Jenner, one of her dearest friends, is the grandfather of three small people. 

He has spent a lot of his life living in Africa and will know exactly how to make the sounds of an African jungle.

And yes, you are right, Dear Readers, it is for his three grandchildren that Hugo sent her on that hunt yesterday.

So now we know what she will be reading between now and December 28th.

FlapFlap and yes Pegeen, Parrot language is a'catching.. PipPip to you and all your beloveds!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 24th, 2014.
Post script.. Yippee, it's Christmas Eve!

JAMIE SCOTT WINS THE 2014 MASTERCHEF PROFESSIONALS YIPPEE & THE HUNTING JAUNT WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL.

We've been Jamie fans since the beginning of the latest series.

The three dishes that he produced for the final were real 'crackers' and as the three judges said "we all know who the winner is". Mouth watering dishes, so it was a good thing that our supper, that we ate before snuggling down to watch the programme, was tasty and ticked the taste buds.

Congratulations to him and as Monica said "I'll be watching this young chef's career with great interest", generous words from Monica, herself a great chef.

Now she was out-and-about today as instructed by her papa.. aka Hugo.. I know, he's been dead for over thirty years but she considers it 'not at all creepy' that Constance, Hugo and her most beloved aunt Hay darling all pay her a visit now and again.

Today's jaunt instructions was very clear, go to Kensington High Street. He never directs her into expensive shops, if it is a shopping jaunt then it is into charity, second hand, jumble shops, the like of which they used to visit when they were father and daughter out on the prowl together.

The object that he wishes her to find is not always for her and she hit the jackpot today.

She is meeting up with old friends after Christmas, there will be three generations of this family at the lunch in Putney, they don't live there but it is a convenient place for them all. There will be her friends, their daughter and her three children.

The first shop she went into was empty, well, it wasn't empty, it was full to the brim but she didn't get the all important nudge, they always give her a nudge or squeeze an arm through hers and tug her about-a-bit when they want to alert her to something.

It was when she was walking into the second shop that she felt the nudge, it was a big nudge towards the bookshelves at the back of the little shop.

It wasn't a book.. it was a marvellous, unused (as in un-opened) huge set of childrens games! You name it, it is in there. And right beside it, an adorable jigsaw puzzle, "oh, please let all the pieces be here" she said to herself, as she counted the forty five sections.

That was it.. that was what Hugo wanted her to find, how absolutely perfect. For you see, the grandparents have just returned to live in England after being in Kenya for twenty seven years and they will, undoubtedly, have these three small people to stay and what do grandparents do with children?

Well, they play and teach games of all sorts, so here is their starter pack together with a puzzle. The adult gifts are wrapped, all she has to do is wrap these two boxes for the children.

She will take a chocolate Salami to Karen tomorrow, then call into several shops to wish them all a happy holiday. Christmas Eve will find her celebrating the beginning of the Christian festival in St. Columba on Pont Street.

She will then come home and make a few telephone calls to dear friends around the world.. Tom, Bob, Claudia, Diane & Thierry.. to send them our love and wishes that they have a merry Christmas and that they and their families are happy and healthy.

When she was up on Kensington High Street this afternoon, she remembered Christmas of 1969 in her parents' home in Stafford Court. Oi vey.. such a long time ago. She had plans and her life would have been completely different if she had not changed her mind but she did and her life changed too.

You can't import any avian into Australia.. you would not be reading MY Blog.. scary thoughts folks.

FlapFlap.. I'm off to bed, it's way past my bedtime.. I might turn into a pumpkin any minute.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 23rd, 2014.

IMITATIONS ARE DISAPPOINTING AND DO NOT PLEASE, AMUSE OR INSTRUCT AS WELL AS THE ORIGINAL!

Isn't that the truth, Dear Reader?

Imitations have to be weeded out from the genuine article as incredible donations are given to the tiny shop where she does voluntary work.

An Artic fox stole with silk ties, the maker's label very cleverly tucked away, was the first to arrive. Yes, genuine without a doubt. SOLD.

Pearls, beautifully strung with a marvellous clasp of rubies and tiny diamonds. Christies described them as "they are absolutely glorious". SOLD.

An immaculate 'Trois Jour' handbag by Fendi in the four colourways, authenicated with pleasure by the lovely manager in Sloane Street.

Likewise a beige patent leather 'Reade PM' bag by Louis Vuitton, the lovely Alex even going to the trouble of tracking down the original selling price.

Two Hermes silk scarves and a vintage McQueen jacket were donated and left the shop with two very happy customers within two hours of being put on display. SOLD.

We won't bother to tell you about the others.. but everyone knows that UGGS are made in Australia, so a label saying 'Made in China' made everyone laugh.

She is going out on a 'jaunt', the Master of all Jaunting.. aka Hugo.. is 'around' and she has, apparently, been told to "chopchop, get yourself up and out-and-about in Kensington High Street".

You may remember as the result of being 'taken' on a jaunt last year, she found three gems in the Leather Lane market, one the identical of a Porcelaine de Paris casserole dish (sold by  of Bond Street) that she gave to Constance many years ago.

She has a plan for that dish this coming week and it involves a Pheasant, some Apples and perhaps a

slug of Calvados. The dish gets the slug.. not her throat!

But back to the title of this post. She is supposedly a grown-up but old habits die hard and she just had to 'check' Debbie's Christmas bag incase the ingredients needed to go into the fridge.

None did, so they went back in to the pretty silver bag but she looked at one gift with amazement.

It was a box of Hadji Bey's Original Rose Turkish Delight.

Whoosh.. she slipped down memory lane for the identical box used to come as her Christmas gift from Pam O'Connor with whom her family had lived in Dublin. 

Dublin.. Turkish Delight? Yes, for Hadji Bey's Turkish Delight is made in the Republic of Ireland in Newbridge, Co. Kildare.

In 1902 a young Armenian called Harutun Batmazian started making and selling his Turkish Delight at the Great Cork International Exhibition.

Only two more days and she will be able to 'crack' open the cover and allow her taste buds to slip back in time whilst tasting this rosy delight.

And how does the title relate to the post.. well most of this statement is on the lid of the pink box and she is very 'strict' about not selling 'fake' goods in the shop.

I will report upon her findings later, she had a very successful hunt, in more ways than one.. so don't go too far away.

We will be settling down in good time to watch the 2014 Final of Professional Masterchef. 

We are 'routing' for Jamie, keeping our fingers crossed Dear Readers, there are three crackin' food chefs up for this award. 

She received from Pamela Keeley-Butler.. aka our first follower.. " that she continues to read MY blog in order to amuse and educate herself"! 

Now.. excuse me.. whilst I puff up my chest and say that makes me feel incredibly proud, that this highly intelligent and charming friend of ours 'gets' MY Blog.. in exactly the manner I wish it to be read.. and remember, Dear Readers.. don't settle with any imitations.. read The Tales of a Parrot by GeeGee.. the original.

FlapFlap.. time to go. the show is on.. 

GeeGee Parrot.
December 23rd, 2014.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

So tell me, wise Dear Readers, how much, is too much?

Now it could be anything you can think of.. but in our case.. no, I think I will let you work out what it is that there might, just might, be too much of.

She cut a few slices of yumyum to take and eat with Debbie at the Parson's Green Farmers' Market today. 

The great out-doors was pretty nippy, to say the least, Debbie, being sensible and having had a taste of cold weather whilst at Wimbledon Market yesterday, had a hat on and several layers of fleecy clothing.  

Muggins, aka my mum, had a scarf around her neck, no hat, a lightweight wool coat, not nearly enough layers on and was very chilly-billy with her short hair.

So she hopped up and down and squeaked for coffee. Debbie Goat is organised and produced a thermos of hot lubbly-jubbly black stuff and she produced the yumyum like a rabbit from her bag.

Having sampled a few nibbles, they agreed that Nigella should be "thanked" for bringing this recipe to her attention and also for making it so simple that she was encouraged to make several batches using different ingredients.

Are you beginning to see the reason behind the title of this post, if not, wake up, no slouching or goofing off whilst reading MY blog please.

Yesterday she made it first as per the original recipe, then she made another batch, changed the liqueur to Cointrea and stirred in chopped up crystallised ginger together with skinny pieces of marinated orange peel.

These two foodies, no other word really describes how much they enjoy eating and talking about deliciously tasty things, agreed that Debbie's suggestion of Kirsch and dark chocolate is a match made in yumyum heaven and that she should try making a Salami with that combination

And she said "guess what, I have the cherries in the freezer that made the last batch of Kirsch!"

There was almost a hush.. as they imagined how scrummydumptious that combination would be.

At about a quarter to two of the afternoon clock and having given and received their bags of Christmas goodies, she left to catch the bus home in time to cook our lunch, a late lunch, of Salmon with Rainbow Chard.

Very tasty, I love fish cooked on a hot plate with nothing on it. 

After washing the hot plate and putting our plate into the dishwasher, she got things out of the storeroom and the scales down from the top of the chilly-larder.

"GeeGee BigBird, let's make a White Salami, with Amaretto, pistacchio nuts and white mulberries, how does that sound?"

This mixture is now chilling in the chilly-larder, in the morning, the mixture will be divided into four balls and then rolled into shape and rolled in icing sugar, rolled again in greaseproof paper and tied up with string.

Now.. I ask you.. how much is too much of a good thing.. for there are now more than several different Salamis in our frosty-cabinet! Slurp.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 21st, 2014.

WE WANT TO KNOW.. WHAT BREED OF DOG WAS HONEY?

Good day to you all Dear Readers.

This is a short post, it comes to you because we have received more than a few emails asking us the following question.

"What breed of dog was Honey?"

She was a Belgian Shepherd.. there are four varities of this breed. She was a Malenois.

She was all shades of tawny gold, with black tips to her - very pointed - ears , LOTS and lots of black eye make-up and her black lipstick was always immaculate.

As, too, were the black tips of the guard hairs on her ruff and tail and she wore pale cream fluffy drawers on top of her very fine and elegant golden hind leg stockings

An outstanding example of her breed, she was a truly beautiful dog with a heart the size of a Lion, whose colouring she matched exactly.

Standing about 25 inches at her shoulders she was not a dog to mess with, with a very big bark and a very scary growl, woe betide anyone to tried to be 'silly' towards 'her' family or house.

The remarkable thing was that this dog 'spoke' four languages. Spanish which she learnt from Tomaso, Swedish from the family, English and, of course, dog.

They never found out who taught her English but she showed that she knew what the word 'supper' signified the very first night, she was sitting in the kitchen in a flash, wagging her tail and grinning like a fool before Hugo had got out of his chair!

And from the moment that my mum released her from the fence, she became HER dog and a fully paid-up member of the family. She never pined or fretted for the other family, it was quite bizarre.

Constance learnt, through her one of her horse contacts who lived near Ronda, that indeed the Swedish family had gone back to Sweden.

But Honey, who was a bright as three buttons, decided that she, Constance, Hugo and her new dog brothers were the people that she had to guard and love for the rest of her life. 

Ah.. Vayo con Dios HoneyBunch..

GeeGee Parrot.
December 21st, 2014.

T'IS THE SEASON FOR DICKENS & SO HERE IS THE TALE OF TWO..

Salami.. Two very different Salame.

The first Salame to be featured in this tale was a spicy chorizo and had been made for her by Maria La Gorda, Constance's dear friend, who was the butcher's wife.

She was going back to London and had left her luggage with the wrapped salame on the top of her basket by the front door whilst she went to say goodbye to Antonio who was working in the garden.

BeepBeep.. the car horn sounded.. she hugged her old friend and went up into the house.

Hugo called out "I've got your luggage, come on". She jumped in and off they drove to the airport.

Whoosh, checked in and boarded.. good flight.. back home to the flat, she collected her mail from the main house. We didn't have the crazy upstairs neighbour in those days so everyone's mail was safe!

Time to unpack and to put the Salame into the kitchen. But where was it, for it was not in her basket, she even checked inside her case but there was no Salame anywhere.

There were no telephones in those days.. hard to remember that she used to write AirMail letters to her parents! So she wrote saying "Haha.. very naughty to pinch my Chorizo, you had better get Maria to make two for me when I come back next month!"

Her letter crossed mid-air with Hugo's, he said that Constance was still laughing too much to write properly!

And this is why..

The day after she left, her parents were walking the dogs over the back hills and they stopped to have coffee with Antonio and Ana.

Ana loved Honey and bent down to stroke her head and then stopped and said "Poo Honey, you stink of garlic, what have you been eating?"

Well, Dear Readers, you know what she had been eating, don't you? She had eaten the whole thing, paper, string, even the little metal tab that Maria used to attach to her wonderful Chorizo Salame!

The second Salame was made last night!

The night before, she and I were lolling about in bed, we had had an early supper and were reading, or rather, she was reading and I was sitting on her head having a good scratch and dry-cleaning my wings.

The television was on and we saw a pretty woman demonstrating how to make a delicious chocolate dish. It was Nigella Lawson, whom we have never seen on the television before. 

"Sorry Nigella, we have never watched your programmes before but we will now".

Yesterday morning, she went online to get the recipe, then went to get a couple of ingredients from Lidl, she loves their own brand chocolate and had an idea to make an extra special sausage with a line of 'lard' running through it.

An easy recipe to make, it requires a really good length of time to harden, (she put them in the freezer over night and then moved them into the fridge), before you can string them up to make it look like a proper Salame.

Nigella made one huge one, my mum has made five out of each batch, the first batch was made with Amaretto liqueur and chopped nuts, the second was made with Cointreau and chopped crystallised ginger and orange peel.

She was going to give something else as gifts to local friends and work colleagues but she knows them all well enough to know they love a good 
'Salame'.

Just like Honey did!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 20th, 2014.

THE TALE OF A DOG.. NEFERTITI-HONEY.. AKA HONEY BUN

Whoosh we are going back in time to when she lived part of the year in southern Spain and to a hot summer's day in 1974. 

Constance and Hugo were having a siesta and she was with the dogs lolling about in the swimming pool. 

She realised, it was after lunch and she was not too swift on the uptake of this fact, that a dog had been barking non-stop for a long time and that the noise seemed to be coming from the small lane which led up to the house. 

Pulling on a dress and shoes, whistled to the 'boys' to come with her and left the house. Sure enough, there was a big dog by their fence and upon getting closer, she realised the poor animal was tied to the fence by a short leather lead. 

Oh dear.. another abandoned dog.. in the August heat.. how very cruel. 

Telling the boys to sit and stay, she walked up to the dog, a bitch, who had stopped barking and was looking at her with a beautiful, intelligent face and wagging her tail. 

The bitch was in immaculate condition, wearing an expensive soft leather collar and lead, but obviously someone had not wanted her any more.. grrrr. 

There was no question of what was she was going to do. She spoke gently to the bitch, who licked her hand and undid the lead from the fence. 

Prancer dancer.. wow.. happy dog.. she rushed up to the boys, barked in their rather astonished faces, then rushed back to her and together, they all walked back to the house. 

As you do, for one more dog when you already have five is no big deal.. and at least it was a dog.. not a goat! 

She went to her mother's bedroom and whispered "are you awake", "come in darling" was the response, then the funny miracle started to happen! 

Rolly, who was a huge German Shepherd, I regret to say was so pleased to be allowed into the bedroom that he totally forgot his manners and jumped onto Constance's bed. Whereupon, the 'stranger' also jumped onto the bed, growled and bit his ear!

Poor Rolly had never been bitten or 'spoken' to in this rude fashion by any dog, he fled and she flew after him down the corridor, through the sittingroom, out onto the terrace and down the steps into the garden. 

Where she chased him round the swimming pool until he gave up and stopped running. 

She walked up to him, stuck her long nose into his ear and must have said something quite fierce because he looked at her, wagged his tail and from that very moment on, she was 'boss dog' of the pack. 

By this time, Constance, Hugo and all the other dogs were looking down at this most extraordinary sight, which really was a most extraordinary sight as Rolly truly was an enormous dog and had never 
taken any truck or nonsense from another dog.

"Is that the noise maker" asked Constance, "are you keeping her or taking her to the dog pound".
"Too beautiful, too friendly, I couldn't give her away and you saw what she did to Rolly, he accepted her, mum, she's staying" and stay, she did. 

Then it transpired that she had been born three and a half years previously, in the local glass maker's back yard.

For in September, she went to get a pane of glass for the melon frame and Tomaso said "How did you get her? Did the Swedish family give her to you?" As he stroked and cuddled the dog, she said "wow, you know her, don't you, how come." 

Tomaso then walked to the back of the house and told her to come and look out of the window, there were a couple of dogs identical to the bitch!

"I bred her, she was born in the back room and on her right hind paw, she has a scar on the big pad where she cut it when she was a small puppy, I sold her to the Swedish family who live up near to Ronda, how did you get her?"

And so she told him the story of finding his beautiful dog tied to their fence on a hot August afternoon.. his face went dark and he said "but why did they not bring her back to me?"

" But I am thrilled that you have her, she will have a lovely life with your family, what 
do you call her" and so her name was told.

That her very exotic eye make-up was inherited from an Egyptian mother who married Mr. Bun the Baker, for her colouring was all shades of gold with black tips to her tail and ruff, her name was Honey.

He roared with laughter and chuckled and said "that was my name for her, I called her Miel"

And she was, she was her Honey until the day she died on July 12th, 1987 aged nearly seventeen.

She was her last dog, sometimes one is enough.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 19th, 2014.

MARY BERRY MAY MAKE MIGHTY FINE CAKES.. BUT HER STEWS ARE MAGNIFICENT!

Winter is here folks.. yes.. indeedy.. and when she saw a photograph of Frittenden, a pretty village in Kent, which experienced one night last week with the frosty temperature of -5 degrees centigrade, she thought to herself and said to me "that's a bit chilly-billy, isn't it? 

We hope that you are well prepared with a good stock of 'proper' food in your store cupboard and frosty-cabinet, aka freezer, with plenty of winter vegetables being stored properly in a cool but dry dark place.

She noticed recently, to her dismay, that the 50 bag box of Lapsang Souchong, our most favourite tea bag tea has disappeared.. gulp.. and in its' place is a little 20 bag box of individually wrapped bags, however, the bags are smaller and the taste is different.

She patrolled all the usual suspects to try to find any of the larger old style boxes.. nope.. none to be had. Yesterday she telephoned Twinings and spoke to a charming woman who said "yes, we have discontinued that box size but there are a few left for sale on our online shop, they are closed now but I will get someone to call you tomorrow morning".

But she wouldn't wait for that to happen and so this morning, as she slurped her first cup of the day, she redialled the Twinings number pressing Option 2 for their Online Shop.

And spoke to a charming man who verified that there were, indeed, some of the original style boxes still available, how many would she like?

The deal was done.. yippee.. no, I am not about to tell you how many boxes she bought but it should keep us both happy for several years!

With that detail taken care of, I thought I should tell you about an extremely fine stew we had for supper last night.

It has its' origins from one of the BBC channels, we were being snug as bugs in our cosy bed one night waiting for another programme when she saw that Mary Berry was going to be doing winter food not cakes.

Yum.. she thought.. she has a dear friend called Gretchen Misick who is an old friend of Mrs. Berry and swears by her winter food recipes.


I think she demonstrated five dishes but the one that grabbed her attention was the Beef and Horseradish Stew.

Go to www.bbc.co.uk and look for Mary Berry's recipes for Christmas. 

She made it yesterday having bought from Messrs Dickinsons a kilo of their excellent stewing steak, everything else she had at home, hot horseradish, worcester sauce, onions, garlic she used fino sherry instead of white wine.

And cooked it on top of the stove for about three hours, we had it with mashed potato and broccoli and, 

So as far as we are concerned in this house.. Twinings make very fine tea and Mary Berry may make very fine cakes but her stew was absolutely.. yes.. you most certainly know that I am a bird of habit and so you can say it with me now..

Scrummydumptious.. 

And I know that a not-so-small bowl of it is going in the thermos to work with her today.

Now it is the time to eat buttered eggs and rye bread and to flap a wing and start our day.. pippip Dear Readers. 

GeeGee Parrot.
December 17th, 2014.

I forgot to tell you this..

That on November 18th we celebrated our tenth anniversary of being woman and parrot.. yes folks, we've been together ten years.

What did we do? Nothing special, no fancy celebrations took place, we spent the day together. We ate delicious things and remembered the long, very scary drive down from Shropshire. The weather was very similar, with wild wind and lashing rain.

Now we are in the month of December and the Christian festival of Christmas is a'coming, that old Goose is getting fat and on the day after Boxing Day, she and I will celebrate another anniversary.

Do you have a clue or do you know what it is? Go on.. be brave.. hazard a guess.. shake and rattle a brain!

It was called 'The Christmas Holidays'.. there is a huge clue.. our first post was written on Tuesday, December 27th, 2011.

Yes, Dear Readers, this year on December 27th we will have been causing you to choke with suppressed laughter at: Fandango dancing, to read about our strange habits, adventures that she and I have had, to know about chilly white-larder aka fridge and Wicker-Wheelie aka her trolley on wheels for three years!

Some of you are still reading my Blog, which we think is extremely sweet and we hope that we continue to amuse and inform you with the special and favourite things in our lives.

Such as very charming ribbons from The Little Printed Ribbon Company on the Isle of Man, all those scrummydumptious manner of Goaty products from Ellie's Dairy, that wonderful, completely chemical free soap from Richard and Elaine Hamner at The Green Mountain Soap Company, fabulous yumyum meat from her lubby-jubbly butchers Dickensons' in the North End Road, delicious Polish products from Bartek in Central Parade on Streatham High Street and last but certainly least the brilliant Herbalists called Baldwins, on Walworth Road, near to Elephant & Castle, London.

Of course, if you've been clever over the past three years, you will have already taken note of these wonderful suppliers and all the others that I have written about over the past three years.

Three years.. of having my own place to write just what I wish.. no editor has been employed in our house! Oh, it has been such fun and I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts as much as I have had writing them.. so onwards mes amis.

But now it is the dreaded time aka my bed time.. flapflap.. Dear Readers.. flapflap.. I'm off!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 14th, 2014.

HERE ARE THREE NICE THINGS THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED & ONE CURIOUS ONE!

Good day to you all and, although it is damp and slightly chilly-billy here in deepest Knightsbridge, it IS a good day because our house is warmer!

No, it is not wishful thinking on our behalf, it is.. yippee.. because the person who maintains the flat, which is behind and above us, has switched the heating on. The owner is very seldom here but our home is getting toasty warm and so she must be due any day!

I know that my poor Blog has been neglected terribly this autumn.. sigh.. but things have been a bit 'strange' to say the least around here and really not worth writing about but she recounted two very pleasant things to me whilst we had supper last night.

Whilst she was out and about yesterday morning, those Manx Kippers arrived at MailBoxEtc and one of the extremely nice and efficient men saw from the label what the package contained, put it into the fridge and left her a message on her mobile!

How kind was that!

The next nice thing happened she was going to collect them, she saw a friend who she has not seen for almost three years! Gill travels a lot for work but there she was, looking chic AND pretty (as always) with lots of news to tell and "yes, I am here for Christmas, come and have supper next week".

They say 'No good deed goes unpunished' .. well, actually we don't hold to that saying and having arrived home, she went into YumYum HQ, took a big much treasured ladle, it deserves its' own post, gave the contents of a very large pot a quick stir and, having poured in boiling water to sterilize them, filled three jars with fruit compote.

She put two of the jars with a small packet of Italian biscuits into a bag, the other into her basket and left the house. "Wow, what is it, they're hot" said one of the MailBox men as she handed over the small bag with the two jars. She laughed and said "Have it for tea, it's to say thank you for taking such good care of my post".

Then she ran to catch the 74 bus to the market. It was now raining hard and very cold but she knew lovely Karen would still be there, working hard as she does six days a week in all weather, she got off the bus and turned into the market. She went up on the street side of the stall and put the still very hot jar into her hand.

"Oh, I know what this is, how wonderful, thank you, it will be perfect for my tea" said her lovely, hard working friend.

Hugs and laughs and then crossing the road, she went into her favourite Middle Eastern supermarket, UR Market, to get lots of 'little' things. No, I can't tell you what they were because they've been packed into a box and sent to Peel on the Isle of Man.

The reason I can't tell you what they were is because they, and two small bottles full of mysterious things, are a gift to LazyBoyBruce. And why should he be so lucky, I hear you saying to yourselves?

Well, it is a very long time since she ate a Manx Kipper, a present of which his father sent to his sister for Christmas all those years ago. Yes, this is the third nice thing.. a pair of Smoked Manx Kippers broke our fast!

Bruce's father was Constance's brother, Constance was her mother, Bruce is her cousin. Yes, Bobs' her Uncle!

You've read about the two nice things which happened yesterday, the third which was eating the fore mentioned Kippers and now I will explain the curious portion of this post. The weather goes in cycles, doesn't it? Which means that what we eat does too, you don't want to eat winter food in the summer and vice versa, do you?

Now, it is a little earlier this year, like a week or so, but apparently, her brain switches in December to thoughts of Terrine of Pork with Whisky flavoured Hazelnuts and Raisins soaked in Brandy, for a couple of Dear Readers have pointed out to us that we wrote a similar post about them last December!

Well.. she is obviously trying to tell you something, isn't she! Like find a big jar, get the raisins, Don Pedro's Brandy and all the other good stuff together and 'put up' these delicious treats yourselves, you WON'T regret it in a couple of years to come, that's for sure!

Of course, I eat fish. What do you think Pirates' Parrots, who sailed the high seas on galleons, ate whilst plundering the Spanish Main? Limes!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 5th, 2014.
Postscript.. The old expression 'Put up' refers to bottling or canning.

DRUNKEN RAISINS & BOOZY NUTS..

Yohoho.. oh, some very serious cooking has been going on in the YumYum HQ. Because it's very chilly-billy outside (and a little bit inside as we don't have the heating on yet) proper food is being planned and cooked.

She realised at about half four of the afternoon clock that we had no more apples.. dire straits! So she shot out of the house to catch a bus to the market before it packed up, it was pitch dark when she got there and most of the stalls had gone but Karen was still there and was delighted to see her as the Herbal Tincture that she gave to Karen last Wednesday has done the trick!

Yippee.. poor love, she was suffering mightily with 'night sweats' and all that they entail, lack of sleep  being the main offender and had complained about them to my mum. Who said "can't have that" and went to get her much loved friend a bottle of Tincture of Sage.

So there she was looking very perky and rested and dishing out bowls of veg and fruit at two for a quid! What a good thing she had old Wheelie Wicker with her! For mushrooms, grapes, pears, courgettes, those juicy dark plums, fat pears and apples, russets and cox, all went into the basket!

Along with 60p's worth of Spanish sausage from the butcher!

Quickquick.. back on to the bus and rushrush to Mr.Mail Box to collect the Manx Kippers from The Isle of Man before they close at 6.00pm.

Zoomzoom.. through their door. What's this! Nothing for us, what do you mean nothing! Cousin LazyBoyBruce said the company said they would be here today.. sigh.. eggs again to break our fast.

So home she came and plopplop down the stairs came Wheelie Wicker.. supper was just scrummy, Freekeh with beans that had been soaking, courgette, broccoli, mushrooms and the Chorizo sausage.

And into a very big pan went all the fruit.. PLUS.. hahaha.. the cherries that made the kirsh which is now sitting in pretty bottles in the store cupboard, a handful of dried strips of orange peel, two tablespoons of barberries, two persimmons, you might know them as kaki or sharon fruit, a good squirt of pommegranate syrup, a few chunks of crystallised ginge and some very secret ingredient!

The oldest jar of these is very sacred.. for they are the last of the originals..

She spent the Christmas of 1973 with her parents in Spain and Constance gave her three very large jars of Raisins in Brandy. You can do this yourselves. Constance used Fundador Brandy, it is strong and goes wonderfully with the raisins, the trick is that you must leave them for at least two years in a dark cupboard to soak and, of course, the longer you leave them, the better they will be.

1973 to 2014.. yes Dear Readers, forty one years, you can just about begin to imagine how amazing they are!

This was left to simmer on a very low heat for two hours whilst we watched the beginning of the Professional Masterchef finals. Tonight it was the turn of Richard and Jamie who had done a days' stint working at The Connaught. They then came back and had an hour and three quarters to produce two dishes.

Richards' dishes were good but there were a couple of things which let him down but Jamie's.. well.. his two dishes showed off a wonderful talent and the word outstanding would not do this young chef justice!

But Boozy Nuts.. why do they come into the title of today's tale?

Ah well.. a long time ago, she used to cook a great deal and one of her 'signature' dishes was a terrine of two cuts of pork with hazelnuts.. but they were not ordinary hazelnuts. Oh no.. For they had soaked in whisky and thyme for at least two years.

Just a couple were used in the terrine, they were cut into two so, in fact, there were only four pieces. It was all that was needed, any more and the flavour of the whisky would be too strong.

And today, whilst she was buying her chorizo sausage, she asked her lubbly-jubbly butcher to keep her some of those two pork cuts for her tomorrow.

You see, she was sorting out the boiler room store cupboard yesterday and there they were. Sitting quietly on a small shelf with two tins of black grape seed.. two jars of hazelnuts in whisky with thyme and she smiled and said "Yes, GeeGee, it is time to start cooking again"

So all we need now is for Joe in Ottawa to get that lazy cat to move off the pile of papers so that he can send her his Sicilian biscotti recipe.. HINT HINT Joe.. how many years is it now?

They would go really well with a compote of autumnal fruits, wouldn't they?

Chirp.. it is my bed time.. she's vacuumed the bed, everything is ready for the morning, she has an appointment at 11.00am and so it is "Good night to you all Dear Readers".

GeeGee Parrot.
December 3rd, 2014.

IT WAS £25.00 VERY WELL SPENT (SHE SAVED £75.00) AND IT WAS NOT ON FOOD!

Yes, she's been spending money! Now this is actually something that happens quite rarely as F is one of her initials.. frugal by nature, if not by name!

Get on with it GeeGee (I can hear you) what did she spend that £25.00 on? Well, she gave herself a gift of a year's Digital Subscription to The Daily Telegraph. The price is usually £100.00 per year but they had a four day sale and she snapped it up this afternoon!

We have just read last Saturday's and Sunday's editions.. but haven't got to deal with all that paper! What a treat. The other papers that she reads are available free online but the Telegraph limit their readers, as do the NY Times, to only so many articles before cutting off the supply, as it were.

With cold winter weather fast approaching it will be such a nice treat to curl up in the evening to read this at our leisure, she finds lots to read at her beloved Library, another good place to read papers and magazines.

Oh, she is SO grateful to both her parents who instilled in her the love of the written word.

Now, what else is here apart from the iPad? Yum.. a jar of mixed nuts, cashews and walnuts and two juicy apples. It is a good thing she has a little DustBuster as I chomp nuts on the top blanket which then has to be vacuumed before we go to sleep.. otherwise Mr and Mrs. Mouse would probably be leaping up there during the night and you can just imagine what she would have to say about that!

It was St.Andrew's Day yesterday, You would probably only be aware of this if you are a Scot or are of Scottish descent. He was the younger brother of Peter and it is said that he died on an X shaped cross, hence the Blue Saltire (The Scottish Flag).

Anyway, that's your lot for today, the first of December.. stay warm folks and eat sensible rib warming yumyum.. Me.. I'm awaiting a package from LazyBoyBruce, he has sent us some Manx Kippers, they will be here on Wednesday.. oh.. roll on Thursday mornings breaking of the night's fast!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 1st, 2014.