It's Coleridge's Birthday!!!

 Celebrate this amazing poet , Samual Taylor Colerdige born this October 21st in Ottery, St Mary's East Devon, England  Celebrate the foods he would have enjoyed, namely clotted cream and jam on scones,a good tea, possibly a good beef roast dinner with all the trimmings and that frothy treat syllabub.

As for me, I'm celebrating with these all American cupcakes.

October A Month of Cooking

Now that it's October and the weather is cooler, Its time to start making reals meals and real desserts. - none of this grilled or iced stuff.It's also time for Octoberfests both in Germany and America. The month also brings Halloween parties and treats along with a celebratory tea for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's birthday.

Octoberfest is big ,especially in the German  .neighborhoods. Many restaurants such as Bahr's in New Jersey's Atlantic Highlands offers a full menu complete with rouladen and potato pancakes. It's easy to recreate any German dish. Rouladen is one of the most delicious to make. It's simply rolled flank steak that's stuffed with pickles and onions although some family recipes  sub in creamed spinach. This last is a fantastic pairing with the beef, each flavor complementing each other.Potato pancakes are another yummy October fest treat.They are labor intensive to make,especially with grating the potatoes but so worth it. Serve it with homemade apple sauce which brings up the other October activity - apple picking. This is definitely the month and the season for it. Remember there are several different types of apples. They're not all the same. Use the correct one for the recipe you want and your pies and fritters along with applesauce will turn out perfect. Apples can also be used in many German dishes too, such as roast pork..They are sliced and usually placed with onions around the roast to infuse flavor. Apple butter and apple sauce can also be used as glazes for these roasts as well as for pork chops.

Many Coleridge fans along, with most English majors, know that the third week of the month, October 21st is is the great poet's birthday. Some celebrate with a Devonshire cream tea, since he was born in the scenic county of Devonshire. Cream teas are a  wonderful combination of clotted cream, scones and jam. It's traditional for the last to be strawberry. Scones are split and one half is slathered with clotted cream,a cooked cream from Devon while the other half is covered with the strawberry jam.They're 'washed down with straight , sweetened or unsweetened black tea. Milk and cream aren't added  because they'll take away from the clotted cream. If  the cream is hard to come by (it can be bought on Amazon) then blend freshly whipped cream with sour cream and a tablespoon of confectioner's sugar.The month ends with Halloween where there's all sort of sweets and treats.This is where home chefs and bakers can explore their creative side with creating dishes such as Monster Meat Loaf or Spider Burgers - basically cooked , and split hot dogs served on a hamburger buns.Then there is Bones and Blood, breadsticks baked in the shape of bones and dipped into marinara sauce. End with Yeti cupcakes that are iced with vanilla icing and shredded coconuts. Candy eyes and fangs are added for the finishing touches.

It's October, a month of fun and feasting.It's also a time for making delicious dinners and tantalizing desserts. Celebrate the festivities with gusto.

Scones, The Way Coleridge Liked Them

Today is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's birthday and surely he must have celebrated with a Devon cream tea. One of the components of any tea are scones, those mouth watering biscuits.They're an easy bake for novice home chefs along with being versatile with their ingredients. They can be just plain or filled with everything from nuts to berries to even candies.

Scones have been baked since the early 1500's and were surprisingly the size of a luncheon plate in their early days. Their origins were not England as you'd might suspect but possibly from Scotland and Holland. The Scots have something similar, called a bannock and it could be from this that our modern day ones originate from. They  could also come from the Dutch schoonbrod  translated into fine white bread. The Dutch ones were smaller , spoonfuls of dough were dropped onto a hot griddle and cooked. Even the Germans made them and also contributed to their name by calling them schoenbrod.Most foodies  as well as Coleridge himself, knew the British variations of them. These are the ones that are  chock full of currants, raisins, dates and cheese. The Scots and Northern Irish mix potatoes in with the dough and then fry them. These tattie scones are a big part of the Ulster fry up, the sumptuous breakfast full of streaky bacon, pork sausage and eggs.The US embraced scones thanks to the recent coffeehouse culture , and we probably have Starbucks to thank for that. They're mostly cinnamon and blueberry flavored here .In Utah, they're a variation of the Indian fry bread with buttermilk and baking soda.


Scones are the perfect bake for the novice home baker. You can easily make the ones that ST Coleridge probably enjoyed with his Devon cream tea.There is the Bisquick kind made with that baking mix.These are the closest to what Starbucks sells, with a confectioner's sugar glaze and stuffed with blueberries.A more authentic version is the English recipe which calls for mixing white flour with baking soda.Butter is added to this and the dry ingredients are cut together similar to what is done with pie crust.Once the mix resembles course breadcrumbs, eggs and milk are added to give it a  more doughy quality. It is then rolled out to a one inch thickness and then cut with a biscuit cutter or can be cut into triangles.They're baked in a very hot oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit   for only ten to fifteen minutes . If you want them to have a shiny top then brush them with a beaten egg before baking.If you want to have a sweet crust then, just sprinkled granulated sugar on top after egg /butter washing and before baking. For cinnamon flavored ones just add four teaspoons of the spice to the dough.Serve them the true British way with clotted cream (which you can get on Amazon) butter and any jam, such as raspberry or red current.

Celebrate Coleridge's birthday with a batch of freshly made scones, butter, jam and , of course Devon cream tea. He would have appreciated this tea, as you will. Savor the taste of a butter and jam covered one washed down with hot milky Earl Grey.

Coleridge's Devon

Devonshire cooking hasn't changed much since its' literary son, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born there on this date (as am I however not in beautiful Devon however) in 1772. The food reflects both the land and the sea, the farms and the arbors that make up one of England's most loveliest and varied counties. It is full of fresh seafood as well as beef and lamb. Greenery also plays an important part of the cuisine , with berries and dandelions being part of the diet and landscape.

One dish that the young poet would have feasted on is blackbird pie. Yes, that blackbird pie from the famed children's rhyme. This involves plucking and boning the little birds and then placing them neatly in a pie shell along with bacon , liver, onions and mushrooms. The dish is no longer made (unless by those wishing to recreate 18th Century cookery.). Devon was also known for its' classic skylark recipe, which basically is plucking and then roasting the buttered birds over a spit and then serving them on buttered toast. For the more faint hearted there is also a rabbit stew that is more to contemporary tastes along with a mutton pie that could easily work as a dinner or even a Sunday lunch. Devon cuisine featured the sea as well. , considering it is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel. Coleridge probably enjoyed a few eel pies as well as homemade fishcakes too during his childhood there.

Devonshire is also known for its' greenery and fruits. Dandelion wine is one of the favorite homemade drinks. It involved fermenting the greens with raisins, brown sugar and yeast along with lemons. Another is apple cider as well as a gooseberry wine both being very easy to make, These were probably served as were traditional punches during the holidays and the young poet probably imbibed , relishing the headiness of these home made brews. Devon is also the birthplace of clotted cream, that English classic that goes well with everything from fruit to fresh baked scones. Devon is also know fo r its' walnut cake and Somerset pound, a lemon cake made with sultana raisins. There is also a local sponge cake recipe consisting of just eggs, flour and sugartoo

Samuel Taylor Coleridge probably was inspired by the land and seascapes about him. Hopefully he enjoyed them as he enjoyed roasted skylark or mutton pie, washed down with good Devonshire cider, homemade dandeline or green gooseberry wine. He not only fed his soul but also himself with classic and traditionals western English food.