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I like the smoothie idea. Smoothies are good.
Especially when made with rum or even vodka.

They used to grow wild around our house when I was young. Never tasted good to me, especially as the blackberries were everywhere and they are so tasty. Gooseberries just lost out. Might be good in pie, though.

I’ve wanted to use some of my mead to make a syllabub, but haven’t yet. Need to do that once I move!

Here’s a good link: http://www.historicfood.com/Syllabub%20Recipes.htm

Try a gooseberry pie or a gooseberry crumble. The really adventurous use them to make a sauce which you eat with oily fish, such as mackerel. That’s not the way a badger eats, I must say.

Next come the loganberries and raspberries, red and white currants. Guess it’s jam season.

You should ask Uncle B how his desired dessert treat squares with the old saying “You are what you eat.”

Didn’t realize ’till I clicked your link that Fool was custard based (originally), might actually be ok that way. I think I had it confused with Whip, as in Prune Whip, which I think I had as a kid once with no recollection that I wanted to repeat the experience.
http://theglamourologist.blogspot.com/2011/06/flesh-reducing-prune-whip-1934.html

You’re obviously not reading enough Patrick O’Brian around there, or you’d have known about syllabubs. Syllabubs, drowned babies, spotted dogs, soused hog’s faces…all those old English recipes. No wonder England’s reputation for cookery is so abysmal. Suet and raisins. Yeah, that’s a plan. Shit.

This is a post that needs to be shared on Facebook. All those dessert recipes, and the exotic English names, the miracle of language, the specialty ingredients and exotic flavors.

I’d do it, but I don’t have any friends.

Way back when Maggie Thatcher was PM, I made my first trip to England. Among many other wonders (The Machine Gun Corps Memorial blew me away) was a dessert the cook called a Gooseberry Fool. She apologized that the gooseberries were frozen, not fresh, but the egg custard was so good she could have made it with stewed shoe leather and I still would have enjoyed it.

English cuisine is weird–how does the same culture come up with both Strawberries with Devon Cream and Grey Meat with Overcooked Veg?

Cool!! I’ll be right over!

American Badgers like their fish beer battered, and deep fried!

My family would make jelly out of all those gooseberries!

As long as we don’t have a repeat of the elderberry cordial incident.

Gawd, I love summer!

You can use the honey from your beehive too!

Beer & coffee for breakfast, beer for lunch, steak & beer for dinner.

All those desserts sound delicious, although a couple require more time and precision than my usual offerings.

Gooseberry crumble would be my choice, if a crumble is anything like what we call a fruit crisp. They’re so easy to make and perfect for tart berries (especially huckleberries).

Same here, cousin Scott 🙂

These are some of my favorite posts. With your help I am slowly becoming bilingual. English and, um, english?

And what of that classic English dish called Toad in the Hole? I’ve never looked it up to see what it really is. The name is so perfect I don’t want to spoil it.

Eli Wallach died Tuesday afternoon.

Pie. Definitely a pie. With sourdough crust.

Oooo…Wolfus! Toad in the Hole is my fav! Uncle B makes a splendid toad.

It’s just pork sausages plopped in the middle of a pan of egg batter. Basically the same batter as a Yorkshire pudding.

Tastes of my childhood: gooseberry pie and persimmon pie, both picked out of our backyard.

I had always assumed gooseberries were a Southern thang.

“[Toad in the Hole is] just pork sausages plopped in the middle of a pan of egg batter. Basically the same batter as a Yorkshire pudding.”

Well, then, TitH (which looks interesting when I abbreviate it like that) sounds pretty good. But why, oh, why (I ask with my arms open in supplication to Paul Prudhomme), why did they name it that?

Gooseberry jam is the best. Better than redcurrant, better than apricot, better than plum (although all of those are excellent, too). We used to grow goosberries when I was a kid and plucking one off the (very spiky) bush, sticking it in your mouth and feeling it pop was just delicious. Looking back, I don’t know how my father managed to grow so much food and keep a full-time job. As well as goosegogs we had black- and redcurrants, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, apples, pears, plums, peas, carrots, lettuce, cabbages, brussels sprouts, kale, onions, runner beans, cucumbers and gherkins. We were broke but very well-fed.

I am presently in escrow for my very first little suburban house of my very own. The yard (garden, for you Britishers) is not very big, but I plan to put in raised beds and grow as many delicious foods as I can, front and back. I may grow gooseberries just so I can make a fool! And hopefully chickens.

I am very much looking forward to it.

Toad in the Hole sounds wonderful! I bet it particularly nice on cold, wet Winter mornings!

Congrats, Nina! Wishing you many years of happiness in your new home.

Congratulations indeed, Nina!