"One NEVER counted one's calories: The Queen Mum's favourite recipes, including After Eight ice cream and tipsy tart"

Dubonnet and gin before lunch. Martinis at 6pm and Veuve Clicquot champagne with dinner. Her favourite recipes came doused in double cream, expensive liqueurs and brandy syrups — and yet she lived to be 101.

The Queen Mother had a remarkable appetite for food and drink. This week sees the publication of A Taste Of Mey, a collection of recipes — with a foreword written by the Prince of Wales — from former staff and guests at the Queen Mother’s Scottish residence, the Castle of Mey.

Oeufs Drumkilbo

A picnic favourite of Her Majesty’s, Oeufs Drumkilbo is described as ‘a posh prawn cocktail and egg mayonnaise wrapped into one’. The dish provided hearty ballast for afternoons of vigorous walking in Scotland, and was served at the wedding breakfast of Prince Andrew and Fergie.

Modern twist: The dish featured prawns and eggs, like this one

SERVES 6

450 ml mayonnaise

4 diced hard boiled eggs

225g prawns (cooked but chilled)

225g diced lobster (cooked but chilled)

3 diced tomatoes (skinned and de-seeded)

1 dessertspoon anchovy essence

6 drops Tabasco sauce

1 dessertspoon tomato puree

4 sheets leaf gelatine

150 ml warm fish stock

Soak the gelatine in cold water, then dissolve it in the fish stock and allow to cool. Place the mayonnaise in a bowl and add half the cooled gelatine. Add all the other ingredients to the mayonnaise mixture and stir carefully to combine. Place it in a china or glass bowl and chill until set. Glaze with the remaining gelatine, decorate at will and allow to set. Serve with fingers of brown bread, mustard and cress.

Tipsy Tart

SERVES 8

100g dates chopped

150ml boiling water

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

125g butter softened

225g sugar

1 egg beaten

150g plain flour

For the syrup:

100g sugar

50ml water

1 teaspoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

25ml brandy (and a drop more to taste)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and grease a 20cm pie dish. Soak the dates in the bicarbonate of soda and boiling water till soft.

Leave to cool. Cream butter and sugar together with the egg. Sift dry ingredients into mixture, fold in, then add dates and walnuts. Place it into a pie dish and bake for about 30 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean).

For the syrup, dissolve sugar and water on the stove until the mixture has thickened a little.

Remove from the stove and stir in vanilla essence, butter and brandy. Pour syrup over tart and serve with cream or ice cream


Read the full article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2034919/The-Queen-Mums-favourite-recipes-including-After-Eight-ice-cream-tipsy-tart.html

The Ancient Art of Face-Reading

The Daily Mail reported today that it is said that you can tell a person's personality by looking at their facial features.

Here's what the Mail said about Kate (The Duchess of Cambridge).

She has a wide jaw, a short wide forehead, a small nose, long flat eyebrows and large eyes, and so that makes her an "earth face".

These are the traits of an earth face:

"Stability and security are your watchwords. You’re methodical, practical and down to earth. Withdrawn and shy, you take a while to open up, but once you’ve let someone into your life you are utterly loyal and steadfast.

Earth energy is associated with jealousy — you feel things very deeply and take  a long time to forgive betrayal. Totally reliable, you’re perceptive and thoughtful and won’t don’t do anything in a hurry.


You aren’t interested in quick fixes, so although others may think you slow and plodding, you do things your own way and in your own time. You have a strongly-developed sense of justice and a clear sense of right and wrong.


The Duchess of Cambridge has a typical earth face with her well-developed jaw, long eyebrows and deep-set eyes. She has very high standards, is hard-working and utterly loyal.

She will offer comfort and steadfast reassurance to her husband. William has a lot of wood energy in his face. He’ll be reckless and enthusiastic for new projects, but not that keen on seeing them through.


Catherine will have a calming influence on him. Earth people value family above all else and dedicate themselves to ensuring that their loved ones are safe and secure."


To see what your facial features reveal, click here for the full article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2034843/Is-personality-written-face-Revealed-new-book-ancient-art-face-reading-.html

"Why a young virgin must not look a lusty man in the eye... and other compelling lifestyle advice for the Englishwoman of 1740"

The Daily Mail reports that a new rare book has surfaced, one of a didactic nature of the "Fairer Sex" in the 1700s.

"She that listens to wanton discourse has violated her ears.

This stern warning may sound a little severe – but in 1740 it was seen as essential to preserving the honour of many a blushing maiden.

It is among hundreds of pearls of wisdom dispensed in one of Britain’s first  self-help books, written to help women resist life’s temptations.

Grandly titled The Lady’s Companion: or an Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex, it features advice on everything from baking to fending off the advances of lusty men.

The rare book, which has just surfaced in a private collection, claims to be essential reading for ‘virgins, wives or widows’.

Experts believe it is one of the earliest examples of the modern self-help book – proving that while many things have changed in the last three centuries, we’ve always had a weakness for so-called ‘expert advice’.

Among the gems on offer is a warning to virgins that having impure thoughts is a ‘deflowering of the mind’.

Meanwhile wives are advised that their duty to their husbands is ‘first to his person, secondly to his reputation; thirdly to his fortune’.

 

The volume would have originally cost around three shillings but is expected to fetch up to £2,000 when it goes on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on September 22.

The sale also features Britain’s most extensive collection of historical cookbooks, some of which date back to the reign of Henry VIII.

One, A Perfect School of Instructions for the Officers of the Mouth, was published in 1682 and includes a bizarre recipe for a tart containing the entire body of a tortoise.

The author of The Lady’s Companion, whose name is not recorded, aims to advise women at three stages of their lives – as ‘virgins, wives or widows’.
Those who fall into none of the categories – the spinsters – are given the alarming warning: ‘An old maid is now thought such a curse.’

In the chapter titled Duty of Virgins, young girls are told: ‘Every indecent curiosity or impure Fancy is a deflowering of the mind…she that listens to wanton discourse has violated her ears.’

And when in the company of lusty men, they are advised not to look them in the eye, as ‘one careless glance gives more advantage than a hundred words’.
For wives, there is a whole chapter on A Wife’s Behaviour to a Drunkard – which simply advises them to grin and bear it.

It reads: ‘We will suppose that the Husband loves Wine more than is Convenient…but a wife may still live without being miserable.’

The tips are just as grim for widows, who must spend their remaining years faithful to ‘his body, his memory and his children’.

But while it is far removed from modern self-help books, experts say the guide gives a vivid portrayal of women in 18th century society.

Justin Phillips, a specialist at the auction house, said: ‘The book was generally for ladies in the middle to upper classes. Perhaps they might be newly wealthy and aiming to better themselves.

‘It paints a picture of a society where the man is at the head of the household, but clearly it was the lady that was running it.

‘Self improvement was just as important then as it is now – the desire to “Keep up with the Jones”.’
He added: ‘Of course, a lot of the things it warned of probably went on behind closed doors anyway.’"


Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2034104/Lifestyle-advice-Englishwoman-1740-hammer.html

Pippa Middleton Gets a Ticket!

The Daily Mail reports today that Pippa Middleton recently got a ticket. It was also not so very long ago that her car got clamped! It seems like Pippa doesn't mind paying big time for a prime parking spot!

Pippa's most recent car-park incident

Getting clamped in Chelsea

Read the full article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2032889/Pippa-Middleton-gets-parking-penalty-warden-tickets-BMW-convertible.html

Dress Like the Duchess of Cambridge for Under $100!

Check out Cosmo's site for tips on dressing like Kate!



Click Here: http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/fashion/kate-middleton-style-for-less

Zara and Half-Sister Together

"Newlywed Zara Phillips and her half-sister Stephanie, 13, daughter of Captain Mark Phillips and his American wife Sandy, were pictured together at the Burghley horse trials in Stamford, Lincolnshire, yesterday.
Stephanie was a bridesmaid at Zara’s wedding to England rugby star Mike Tindall in July and both sisters are expected to compete in the 50th anniversary three day event.

Zara has another half-sister on the other side of the world, who she has never met – Felicity Tonkin, 26, the love child of Captain Phillips who lives on a farm in New Zealand with her mother, Heather.They appear to share a passion for horses – Zara is a world champion three-day eventer and Felicity is an equine vet."

Read the full article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2032397/Zara-Phillips-big-hug-half-sister-Stephanie-13.html

The Duchess of Cambridge and Pippa Middleton First to Try Lancome's New Product!

According to the Daily Mail, Kate and Pippa are among the few people who will try Lancome's new product first!

"The Duchess of Cambridge and her sister Pippa are to become the first among a lucky few in Britain to get their hands on a new 'miracle' beauty cream.
The two have been sent Lancome's Visionnaire serum, a new product in such high demand that it has generated waiting lists of thousands across the nation.
But Kate and Pippa - along with Harry Potter star Emma Watson, 21, who is an ambassador for the skincare brand - managed to bypass the months-long lists after being sent bottles of the product, which devotees claim is so effective at correcting skin imperfections that it eradicates the need for Botox.

An insider at the brand confirmed that the Middleton sisters and Emma Watson, 21, had been sent bottles of Visionnaire, saying that as 'loyal customers' of Lancome, they would have been sent the product to try as a 'goodwill gesture'.

The Duchess of Cambridge has long been a fan of Lancome - ahead of her wedding she was spotted replenish her stocks of the brand's mascara and Hydra Zen moisturiser."

Which Lancome Mascara do you think that the Duchess buys and wears? I think it might be the brand's Mascara called "Hypnose"

Read the full article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2032547/Duchess-Cambridge-Pippa-Emma-Watson-try-Lancomes-miracle-cream-Visionnaire.html