The Best of Summer Recipes from Celia Wakefield

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Our dear Celia Wakefield is taking a well deserved rest, so I thought I'd share some of her best summer recipes, for you to revisit or to discover for the first time. Why Friday instead of her usual Sunday? Because it's the start of Labor Day weekend, and chances are good you'll either be entertaining or taking a dish to someone else's dinner/ cookout/ pot luck. 

All of Celia's recipes elicit ooos and aaahs and look like you worked for hours in a hot kitchen (but you won't!) And i can personally vouch for how very good everything tastes.

And if you're not part of a crowd? We've got you covered - you can relax, kick your feet up, and enjoy the last lazy days of summer with a Pimms Cup.

 

First up, a simple summer meal of marinated shrimp, green salad and a deconstructed strawberry shortcake, featuring shortbread cookies, strawberries, and - yum! - Grand Marnier. 

 

Not feeling like shellfish? Need a dish that will travel well? Not to worry, you'll be happy with the alliterative Fresh Pea Pesto for Pasta and a Fourth of July mess for pudding (or call it Red-White and Blue dessert.)  

 

If you're overloaded with gorgeous fresh tomatoes, first of all, congratulations, and secondly, the cool and easy Tomato Tonnato is made for you.  

 

Since the tonnato doesn't come pre-loaded with a dessert, why not try some British Summer Pudding, bursting with fruits and berries.  

 

And as promised, the perfect Pimms. If you make one, please raise you glass and toast the founder of all this summery goodness, our own Celia!   

How Often Do You Go To the Groomers?

Kingsley before...

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Yesterday, my Shih Tzu Kingsley went to the groomers. One of the facts of life about having certain breeds is the standing date with the groomer, who will take in your pup looking like a Victorian street urchin and return him ready for the Westminster Kennel Club show.

 

Kingsley needs this service more often than Rocky, as the former seems determined to shed (no pun intended) the Shih Tzu's history of pampered imperial pet for something more akin to one of Jack London's wilderness dogs. Kingsley comes back from foraging around my three acres with a staggering amount of twigs, leaves, and most damnably, burrs embedded in his coat. This wouldn't be TOO awful if he, like Rocky, would sit obediently while I pick out everything (usually while cuddling on the sofa.) No, burr removal is an activity up with which Kingsley will not put! 

 

...and after.

Therefore, he needs more frequent grooming, and has a different result than his more biddable pal. Rocky runs out shiny and fluffed, neatly trimmed and very photogenic. Kingsley comes out shaved, like fresh meat entering maximum security. (I could also use the metaphor of a new recruit at boot camp, but Kingsley's personality is much more "commit crimes" than "serve country."

 

All this has me thinking about my own grooming, i.e., visiting the salon. Dear readers, will you be shocked when I tell you I can't recall the last time I went? My regular gal left the state during Covid, and I just started to... let it grow. I've trimmed off the ends myself a few times, but since I've gone with my natural color and I wear it up in a bun or a twist, I don't see the need. I admit, I do miss the luxury of leaning back and having someone else shampoo my hair, and I occasionally look at others' shiny, keratin-treated locks, but, eh. Not enough to fine someone new.

 

How often do you go to the groomers? 

Too bad hair salons don't give us theme bandanas.

Swedish Death Cleaning for Very Much Alive Guests

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: We've all heard about Swedish Death Cleaning, yes? I confess, I'm not sure how it got it's name - I don't suppose Swedes as a group get ready en masse for the end. On the other hand, we've all seen clips of Ingmar Bergen's The Seventh Seal, so maybe they are?

 

The goal is to declutter and organize, not just for you, but to make it easier for your family to deal with your home and possessions when you go toes up. But it's also an absolutely prime way to get your house more ready to put on the market. I'm not planning on either in the immediate future, but I am sick of having a huge house where I still can't comfortably have guests sleeping over because the bedrooms are still crowded with the kids junk precious things.

From Just A Girl and her Blog. My tubs, sadly, don't match...

At any rate, this spring, I decided to combine the traditional seasonal deep clean with a real deep clean, tossing bags and bags of old clutter from the kids' rooms, shoveling out the depths of a closet that went back thirty years (dear reader, I found perfectly preserved baby clothes there!) and finally sorting my Christmas decor by type, giving away ornaments that no longer sparked joy, as Marie Kondo says. It's so perfectly organized now, I plan on including 'The Christmas Closet' as a regular part of the house tour.

 

 If you have a keen eye, you may notice that I'm writing about this as if it's still going on, despite the fact we're in late August and getting perilously close to the Fall cleaning season. Yes! It is, and I am still working on it. But now I've run into a difficult contradiction.

 

This Saturday, my daughter Victoria is getting married! (You can read more on that this weekend.) Some of you may remember I've already referred to my daughter's wife, and mentioned their November trip to city hall in the comments. They're doing this European style, separating the civil service and the religious festivities. 

 

As a result, my house is going to be topped off with guests. Along with Spencer and Virginia returning to the nest, I'm putting up both Victoria's godmothers (plus one godmother-husband.) In addition, I'm having a dinner party Friday night!

 

The issue, of course, is that Swedish Death Cleaning involves careful consideration, organization, and sorting. Here Come The Guests cleaning involves putting everything into boxes or laundry baskets and shoving it all into a closet or unused bedroom where no one will see your shame. 

 

This will VERY MUCH not be me.

But there are no unused bedrooms! Heck, I'm putting myself on the blow-up bed in the family room. And I'll be darned if I'm going to sully those carefully emptied closets with yet more odds and ends. What to do, what to do? 

 

Dear readers, tell us your techniques for in-depth cleaning versus Quick! Guests! cleaning. By the time you read this, I will have hopefully succeeded in prepping for my visitors without disappointing the Swedes. Or Death. If not, I'll let you know in the comments.