All About Food

Today seems to be all about food.


Early in the morning, a text from our local fisherman alerted me that he had some lobsters for me. Lobsters! We had been hoping for some all week, and Stuart came through for us once again. I trotted to Smeaton's Pier and saw him pulling up lobster pots about 300 yards out to sea. How big would they be? How might we successfully cook them? We had ideas. We hoped our ideas would work. 

He had so many amazing looking lobsters in his pots, squiggling around and being creepy. Of course, he had already bound up the claws while still in the boat, so there was no danger of a pinching. But I think they would have liked to have a go. Do you see the immensity of the lobster I am holding? It is truly shocking, when you look at it. And we had two of the creatures!

Back to the cottage I went with my catch, where we refrigerated them until it was time to (drum roll) cook them!

In the afternoon, we baked a Victoria Sponge. I had always wanted to learn to bake a proper Victoria Sponge at least as good as Mary Berry could bake. Rosie and Emmie were the perfect pair to help me learn to concoct this old British treat.


We found the Mary Berry BBC recipe, baked the cake, let it cool, whipped up the heavy cream (and I will tell you a little secret, dear American Readers: the Brits DO NOT ADD SUGAR OR VANILLA TO THEIR CREAM!! Are you shocked? I was.). But the cream turned out to be just exactly perfect and unimpeachable. We spread the jam on the bottom layer, then added the whipped cream. After that we placed the top layer of cake on top of all that jam and cream, and it was: Delicious. Moist! A sheer delight.

The only trouble with having Victoria sponge for your afternoon tea, is that you are not hungry for dinner. It was ever so late when we finally detected a tiny smidge of a hunger pang, and trooped down into the kitchen to boil up the water. Before doing anything drastic, we used a phone to give 4 small people in California a peek at the lobsters. I think somebody screamed. Then somebody said they were "cool", and I believe everybody thought they were creepy (or words to that effect). The lobsters were squiggling dramatically in their bag, almost as though they had a presentiment of what was ahead. 

Over the next half hour or so, we will draw a veil. I can say that the entire event was noiseless, if you are wanting to know. And it was all a success! Ted cracked the shells for us, and we sat late into the evening, enjoying our delicious dinner and our last night together in St Ives. It was a grand way to end this lovely week.

We are now dashing about, packing, picking up the bits and pieces of our week and preparing to eat a wonderful breakfast on the beach. My attention is drawn to an airplane sailing high over the Atlantic. It carries two beautiful young people who are about to share the Cornish lifestyle with me, and perhaps begin one of their own. 


See you along the way!
the SconeLady