What We Ate Wednesday--Macaroni Cheese like the Blue Box Stuff

Hello lovelies! If you read this blog regularly, you know I get obsessions. Food obsessions. I see something and cannot stop thinking about it until I have made a vegan version at home and then I eat it until I am sick of it. Then after a while the memory surfaces and I decide to eat it again. And again. 

And quite possibly again.

My BFF and I were recently at the Allergy and Free from Show at Kensington Olympia. It was massive with hundreds upon hundreds of stalls. We ate ourselves silly trying samples of everything on offer but there was one thing we ate that stuck with me. There was this macaroni cheese made from a powder that you just added water or milk to that tasted just like the kind in the Blue Box. Just. Like. It.

Now, I wanted to buy some, but it was £4 for a one box serving and while it was amazing, I had spent my cash on other things and was out of money. But it got me thinking that I could make a powder mix at home and then just have easy mac and cheese whenever the mood took me. Theirs was nut free but their ingredient to make it creamy was powdered coconut milk. I was sure I could make something similar.

And I did.

The whole way home on the Megabus (6 hours—I told you I was obsessed!) I searched the internet for recipes for a vegan powder mix. I settled on THIS ONE because it was developed by Miyoko Schinner who developed all those aged artisan vegan cheeses so I thought it would be the best one. It does contain nuts so if you need a nut free one go here for a similar but allergy friendly version. NUT FREE VERSION. 

We had it last night and it did not disappoint. I was out of unsweetened non-dairy milk, so I made it with water and a few blobs of melted coconut cream. I think it would be even richer and creamier next time. And there will be a next time. The powdered mix made it super easy to have macaroni cheese in minutes.

Because mac and cheese by itself is not a meal I served it with some mushrooms and broccoli cooked with a splash of tamari.

And for once I followed the recipe exactly as it was written. Can you believe it? You can find the original recipe HERE. Also, you will need to source tapioca flour (sometimes called tapioca starch) as it gives it a stretchy quality. I think it would benefit from a little sharpness, so next time I might add a tablespoon of lemon juice at the end or add a bit of lemon pepper (if I can find it) like the nut free version above used. 

Macaroni Cheese Like the Blue Box Stuff

1 cup cashews

¾ cup nutritional yeast

¼ cup (GF) oat flour

¼ cup tapioca flour

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons powdered mustard

2 teaspoons sea salt

2 teaspoons onion powder

Instructions

Add the oats to a food processor and process until a powder is formed. Then add the cashews and pulse until they are coarse crumbs. Then add everything else and process until there are no discernible chunks or large granules of cashews--just a fine powder. 

Store this in a jar. It makes 1 and 2/3 cups which is enough for 5 bowls. 

How to use this mix
Cook 1 cup of dry (GF) macaroni according to package instructions and drain. Combine 1⁄3 cup mix with 1 cup water or unsweetened nondairy milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add in optional 1 TB lemon juice.  Whisk well and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 minute, then toss with hot cooked macaroni.

We doubled this recipe so we could each have a bowl of cheesy, noodle goodness because we are greedy vegans. I had forgotten how I love macaroni pasta as the sauce goes into the tubes and you can suck it out and make a little whistling noise to annoy your husband. ha ha.

This would be a great meal to take on a holiday where you had access to a kitchen as you could just buy some dry pasta and portion out the right amount of powder on a container and bring it in your suitcase. 

We will definitely be having this again. And again. And again. 

Fairy Tale Friday--Morag a Chota Bhain/Margery White Coats (Scotland, 1860)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week we look at another tale collected by JF Campbell in his 1860  Popular Tales of the West Highlands: Orally Collected, vol. 1. We looked at his story of The King Who Wished to Marry His Daughter last week, but this tale of  Morag a Chota Bhain/Margery White Coats was sufficiently different to warrant its own entry.

This tale begins like last week’s tale with a father who says he will only marry the person that his dead wife’s clothes fit. Thankfully, this version does not go into the creepy aspect (It was fitting her well) like last week. In last week’s version she went to see her muime (foster mother) but this week out magical helper is her maternal uncle. He gives her the advice about requesting dresses and shoes (we are back to glass slippers again in a nod to Charles Perrault) as well as a filly with a magic bridle.

In other versions she asks for a disguise of fur or feathers or pelts of fleas, but here she just strips down to her petticoat and shift and goes to work in the kitchen, letting the hard work of tending the fire under the cauldron make her “dirty and ugly.”

Several other versions have the prince being very abusive to her, shouting and throwing things at her head when she is in her dirty state and wooing her in her clean state, making him (in my opinion) not a good love match. This tale is unusual in that it is her future mother-in-law the Queen who is so abusive. She throws a basin and a candlestick at our heroine’s head when she dares to ask to go to the feast. This does not stop our plucky heroine who goes out to her hidden chest of clothes, puts on her posh frock and calls for her filly by producing the magic bridle. She then rides to the feast and makes the prince fall in love with her.

At the end when the shoe fits, everyone (not just the Queen) is incredibly abusive until she goes out once again, puts on her posh frock and shows that she has a horse and then suddenly because she has scrubbed up well she is acceptable.

This tale also includes an interesting footnote from JF Campbell about how the story was collected.

source

Morag a Chota Bhain -- Margery White Coats source

A king had four daughters, and his wife died, and he said he would marry anyone whom his dead wife's clothes would fit. One day the daughters tried, and the youngest only could wear them.

The king saw them from a window, and wished to marry her, and she went for advice to her mother's brother. He advised her to promise to marry the king if he would bring her a gown of birds' down, and a gown of the colours of the sky, woven with silver; and when he got that, a gown of the colours of the stars, woven with gold, and glass shoes.

When he had got them, she escaped with all her clothes, by the help of her uncle, on a filly, with a magic bridle, she on one side, and her chest of clothes on the other. She rode to a king's palace, hid the chest in a hill under a bush of rushes, turned the filly loose, and went to the palace with nothing on but a white petticoat and a shift. She took service with the cook, and grew dirty and ugly, and slept on a bench by the kitchen fire, and her work was to blow under the great caldron all day long.

One day the king's son came home and was to hold a feast; she went to the queen and asked leave to go and was refused because she was so dirty. The queen had a basin of water in her hand, and threw it at her, and it broke. She went to the hill, took out the dress of down and silver, and shook her magic bridle; the filly came, and she mounted, and rode to the feast.

The king's son took her by the hand, and took her up as high as any there, and set her on his own lap; and when the feast was over, there was no reel that he danced but he gave it to her.

He asked her whence she came, and she said, "From the kingdom of Broken Basins," and the prince said that he had never heard of that land, though he had travelled far.

She escaped and returned to the cook, and all were talking about the beautiful lady. She asked about her and was told not to talk about what she did not understand, "a dirty little wretch like her."

Then the prince had another feast; and she asked leave again, and the queen refused, and threw a candlestick at her, and it broke, and she did as before. She put on another dress and went; the king's son had eight men on each side of the door to catch her. The same scene went on, and she said she came from the country of Candlesticks, and escaped, leaving a glass shoe.

Then the king's son fell sick (of course) and would only marry the woman whom the shoe would fit; and all the ladies came and cut off their toes and heels, but in vain. Then he asked if there was none other.

Then a small creature put his head in at the door and said, "If thou didst but know, she whom thou seekest is under the cook."

Then he got the history of the basin and candlestick from his mother. The shoe was tried and fitted, and he was to marry Morag.

All were in despair and abused her; but she went out to her chest, shook the magic bridle, and arrayed herself, and came back on the filly, with a "powney" behind with the chest. Then all there that had despised her fell on their knees, and she was married to the prince.

"And I did not get a bit there at the wedding," said the girl.

Campbell’s Notes On the Tale

This was told as we walked along the road and is but a short outline of what was told me, written from notes made in the evening. The man said that the girl told it with a great deal of the queer old language, which he could not remember.

The girl and her chest on the same horse may be seen in the Highlands. The girl, in her white coats and short gown, may be seen blowing the fire in highland inns, the queen's likeness might be found; and the feast is a highland ball; the filly and the magic bridle are common in other stories; the incidents of the basin and candlestick have an equivalent in Norse; and I got them from a woman at the Sound of Barra afterwards, in another story. This shows what may be lost by dignified traveling. While the man was enjoying himself in the kitchen, the employer was smoking in solitary dignity, upstairs in his bedroom, writing a journal, and utterly unconscious that the game he pursued was so near.

I have other versions of this tale from other sources and may find room for them hereafter.

You can see more extensive notes by Campbell HERE if you’ are interested.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a tale from the land of Broomthrow, Brushthrow and Combthrow.

What We Ate Wednesday--Cashew Milk

Hello lovelies! In my effort to reduce our waste I looked into my blue recycle bag and saw what seemed to take up the most space and it was tetra packs. Cartons. Mostly of almond milk.

Then I went on a picnic with a friend and we talked about how thirsty of a crop almonds are and how much water they need to grow and I got to thinking that maybe if I could find a lower waste DIY milk I would give it a go.

My first thought was Oat Milk. Oats are relatively cheap, but I tend to use milk on homemade granola made with oats and I didn't want to over-oat myself by having too much of a good thing at all once as that tends to give me tummy ache. Plus you have all this oat pulp that you strained out that you have to either dump or find a use for. When i looked into the logistics of buying a nut milk bag (or nut sack bag as my friend Jo refers to it as) and thought about the act of straining anything through a fiddly bag, it just sort of took the wind out of my eco-sails.

I needed something relatively cheap and extremely easy.

Then I thought of Cashew Milk. Cashews are something I can buy in bulk. They are soft and creamy and blend well. There is no need to strain.

Cashew milk for the win.

I scored some 750ml Kilner-type bottles at Poundland that were the perfect container. I had hoped to buy the cashews in the zero waste shop but they were nearly 3 times more expensive than buying them in a bag by the kilo at Grapetree. I have reused that nut bag as a rubbish bag in the bathroom. That's the best I can do for now.

I have not sterilised the bottles, just washed them in very hot soapy water right before i added the milk and all has been well. The cashew milk only lasts 3-5 days in the fridge anyway. A word of warning--it does separate, but just give it a shake before you use it and all is well.

I am still experimenting with how I make it. But this amount is just right for one person using milk daily for granola and the occasional date and banana smoothie to use up within 5 days.

I am thinking about supplementing. Maybe a brazil nut or two and possibly added calcium powder. We use calcium carbonate (limestone flour) for the snails and so why couldn't I add some to the milk? The one we buy for the snails is 100% pure with no additives and i read online that 1/2 tsp per litre gives you the equivalent calcium as cow's milk. The snails are EXTREMELY delicate and this has been fine for them, so why can't we eat it? The calcium we buy for the Bronte snails is THIS ONE. It says it is for reptiles and poultry. There is a food grade one HERE  if you are squeamish about the animal one but it costs 3 times as much.

This is the recipe I use. It works well for me. I soak the cashews for a few hours beforehand. Partially to make blending easier and partially because it makes the vitamins and minerals more bioavailable. Just soak for a few hours, then drain and rinse well.

Cashew Milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup soaked cashews (1/3 cup is more like the watery texture of semi-skimmed milk, 1/2 cup thick and creamy like whole milk--can you guess which one  I like best?)
3 -4 cups water (I use 3 cups as that's how much I can drink in 3-5 days)
4 pitted dates (soaked as well if not really soft)
pinch of salt

Instructions:
Blend in a blender until smooth. Decant in a clean bottle and refrigerate. Use within 5 days.

That's it. It takes no more than 5 minutes to make. Tastes amazingly thick and creamy. Cheaper than store-bought milk.

It will also be quite foamy when you take it out of the blender...but that settles down. Although the froth probably would be lovely in a hot coffee if i were allowed to have caffeine. Which I am not after eating a box of chocolate covered coffee beans at work recently and things went badly wrong. But that's a tale for another time.

Fairy Tale Friday--The King Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter (Scotland, 1860)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week we look at a tale from Scotland called The King Who Wished to Marry His Daughter. It was collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands: Orally Collected, vol. 1, published in 1860.  

JF Campbell (also known as Young John of Islay or Iain Òg Ìle in Scots Gaelic) was a renowned Scottish author and scholar who was an authority on Celtic folklore. He travelled  all through the Scottish Highlands with a group of scribes collecting the tales, ballads, songs and charms of the West Highland people. His source for this tale was listed as Ann Darroch of Islay.

Extra bit of trivia: He also invented the meteorological sunshine recorder called a thermograph called the Campbell-Stokes recorder.

This tale does not begin as many others have with the dying wife causing her daughter’s predicament by making her husband promise not to marry anyone who did not fit her ring/look as beautiful as she did/be as kind and wise. This father takes it into his head to only marry a woman who can fill out his dead wife’s clothes. I am not sure he ever shared this fact with his daughter, otherwise she might not have innocently been playing dress up and gone to show her father how well it fitted. But her certainly notices how she looks. The story says: It was fitting her well, which has a rather creepy vibe to it.

In many of these tales our young heroine has a confidant (magical or not) who gives her advice on how to avoid this disastrous union. In this tale she goes to see her muime. The story defines this word as foster mother, but it can also be translated as nurse, step-mother, godmother or midwife. Her muime advises her to ask for a gown of swan’s down and then a gown of moorland canach (which grows in acidic soil and is called bog cotton because of the cotton like tufty heads it has.) Then she asks for gown of silk that will stand on the ground with gold and silver and a golden shoe and a silver shoe. Lastly a chest that can lock from within. She tricks her father into putting the chest out to sea with her inside and she floats away to her destiny.

It then goes on as you would expect. Thankfully the prince is not abusive like he is in some of these tales, but his mother is. Our humble heroine asks to try on the shoe and the Queen refuses saying "Thou! thou ugly dirty thing, that it should fit thee." Luckily her son persuades her to let our unnamed heroine try it on and the shoe jumps onto her foot. The rest, as they say, is history.

Bog Cotton source

The King Who Wished to Marry His Daughter source

There was a king before now, and he married, and he had but one daughter. When his wife departed, he would marry none but one whom her clothes would fit. His daughter one day tried her mother's dress on, and she came and she let her father see how it fitted her. It was fitting her well. When her father saw her, he would marry no woman but her.

She went crying where her muime was; and her foster mother said to her, "What was the matter with her?"

She said, "that her father was insisting that he would marry her."

Her muime told her to say to him, "that she would not marry him till he should get her a gown of the swan's down."

He went, and at the end of a day and a year he came, and the gown with him.

She went again to take the counsel of her muime. "Say to him," said her muime, "that thou wilt not marry him till he gets thee a gown of the moorland canach."

She said this to him. He went, and at the end of a day and year he returned, and a gown of the moorland canach with him.

"Say now to him," said her muime, "that thou wilt not marry him till he brings thee a gown of silk that will stand on the ground with gold and silver."

At the end of a day and year he returned with the gown.

"Say to him now," said her muime, "that thou wilt not marry him till he brings thee a golden shoe, and a silver shoe."

He got her a golden shoe and a silver shoe.

"Say to him now," said her muime, "that thou wilt not marry him unless he brings thee a kist that will lock without and within, and for which it is all the same to be on sea or on land."

When she got the kist, she folded the best of her mother's clothes, and of her own clothes in it. Then she went herself into the kist, and she asked her father to put it out on the sea to try how it would swim. Her father put it out; when it was put out, it was going, and going, till it went out of sight.

It went on shore on the other side; and a herd came where it was, intending to break it, in hopes that there were findings in the chest.

When he was going to break it she called out, "Do not so, but say to thy father to come here, and he will get that which will better him for life."

His father came, and he took her with him to his own house. It was with a king that he was herd, and the king's house was near him.

"If I could get," said she, "leave to go to service to this great house yonder."

"They want none," said the herd, "unless they want one under the hand of the cook."

The herd went to speak for her, and she went as a servant maid under the hand of the cook.

When the rest were going to the sermon; and when they asked her if she was going to it, she said, "that she was not; that she had a little bread to bake, and that she could not go to it."

When they went away, she took herself to the herd's house, and she put on a gown of the down of the swan. She went to the sermon, and she sat opposite the king's son. The king's son took love for her. 

She went a while before the sermon skailed, she reached the herd's house, she changed her clothes, and she was in before them. When the rest came home, it was talking about the gentlewoman that was at the sermon they were.

The next Sunday they said to her, "Was she going to the sermon?" and she said, "that she was not, that she had a little bread to bake."

When they went away, she reached the herd's house, and she put on a gown of the moorland canach; and she went to the sermon. The king's son was seated where she was the Sunday before, and she sat opposite to him. She came out before them, and she changed, and she was at the house before them; and when the rest came home, it was talking about the great gentlewoman that was at the sermon they were.

The third Sunday, they said to her, "Was she going to the sermon?" and she said, "that she was not, that she had a little bread to bake."

When they went away, she reached the herd's house. She put on the gown that would stand on the ground with gold and silver, and the golden shoe and the silver shoe, and she went to the sermon. The king's son was seated where she was the Sunday before, and she sat where he was. A watch was set on the doors this Sunday. She arose, she saw a cranny, and she jumped out at the cranny; but they kept hold of one of the shoes.

The king's son said, "Whomsoever that shoe would fit, she it was that he would marry."

Many were trying the shoe on and taking off their toes and heels to try if it would fit them; but there were none whom the shoe would fit.

There was a little bird in the top of a tree, always saying as everyone was trying on the shoe, "Beeg beeg ha nan doot a heeg ach don tjay veeg a ha fo laiv a hawchkare." -- Wee wee, it comes not on thee; but on the wee one under the hand of the cook.

When he could get none whom the shoe would fit, the king's son lay down, and his mother went to the kitchen to talk over the matter.

"Won't you let me see the shoe?" said she. "I will not do it any harm at all events."

"Thou! thou ugly dirty thing, that it should fit thee." She went down, and she told this to her son.

"Is it not known," said he, "that it won't fit her at all events? And can't you give it her to please her?"

As soon as the shoe went on the floor, the shoe jumped on her foot.

"What will you give me," said she, " to let you see the other one?" She reached the herd's house, and she put on the shoes, and the dress that would stand on the floor with gold and silver. When she returned, there was but to send word for a minister, and she herself and the king's son married.

Stay tuned next week for the tale of Margery White Coats.

What We Ate Wednesday--Walnut Meat Taco Salad

Hello lovelies! This was one of those "we need something quick" meals and it sure was delicious.

The walnut taco meat was spot on...the cheese sauce still needs a bit of work...I was trying to make pepper jack flavour and it wasn't quite there yet. I used tapioca starch which really does make it stretchy, but hadn't quite got the proportions right. This was tasty, but not drizzle-y enough--it would be perfect for scooping out as a dip though.  I will keep trying on the cheese and report back at a later time but you will definitely want to try the walnut taco meat (unless you have a nut allergy...then obviously you won't want to try it.)

Basically for taco salad just use whatever fixin's you want. We had some lettuce that needed to be used up. Sometimes I use sauteed kale, but this time I used the more traditional lettuce.

 I also added lots of pickled jalapenos as I had a jar that I am working through (hence the pepper jack cheese). You can make pico de gallo  or just crack open a jar of salsa like I did. Salsa jars are my favourite jar--they are great for reusing and I use them to store hummus, olive tapenade, pesto etc in my freezer.

You could also just do these in taco shells and eat them as tacos...but shells cost a lot more than a bag of tortilla chips, so we tend to make taco salad and eat it all in a glorious pile.... and you get more fixin's this way. I just can't stuff enough of the good stuff into a teeny-tiny taco shell. Why not just pile it on and enjoy yourself?

Walnut Meat Taco Salad

For the walnut meat you need:
1.5 cups walnuts
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 TB tamari or soy sauce

Pulse the walnuts in your food processor until they resemble coarse crumbs. Take out the blade and stir in everything else. Mix well. That's in. Taco meat in under 5 minutes.

It made enough for 4 plates, but  if you need this to go further and feed more people, add in a tin of kidney beans. Taste for spices. Feel free to add more garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika and tamari/soy sauce to the beans.

The fixin's:
I used
a caramelised white onion, cut into rainbows
half a red pepper
jar of salsa
lettuce
tortilla chips

Top with vegan cheese sauce. I used a variation on this recipe Quick and Dirty Cheese Sauce but substituted tapioca starch for the flour and added jalapenos. As I said...you need less tapioca starch than flour, but it did make it stretchy. So play around with it or just have really gooey cheese like we did.

That's it. It was on the table in 20 minutes, so will definitely become a regular meal in this house over the summer.

Recycling with Beyoncé (all the single plastics)

Hello lovelies. I have written over the years about our desire to cut back on our plastic waste. I know we tend to agonise more than the average person on stuff like this, but we still have so far to go.

One of the many reasons we wanted to emigrate to the UK was to be able to less wasteful....to recycle more...to be car free....to cut down on our carbon footprint. And in many ways we have been very successful. When we lived in England we had a glorious farmer's market and got most of our fruit and veg plastic free at really cheap prices. We also used a lot more reusables when we lived in England. Some of those things we let slide when we moved to Wales because they were too expensive. Even now that I have a good job and we have more disposable income, we still need to be cautious with our spending. It means we cannot be as ethical as we would like, but we do our best.

You read about tips and tricks to become ZERO WASTE and see people who fit all their waste for the year in a jar. They talk about all the money they save buying without packaging, but that really isn't the case. We are starting a journey to reduce our waste as much as we can and recycle LESS. I know that sounds mad as I am always banging on about recycling, but really we all need to create less waste. Especially since I recently read an article about how plastics that our councils told us had been recycled had actually been shipped to Malaysia and they were shipping it back.

This prompted me to really crack down and work harder to eliminate single use items. Single use plastics. Single use anything that cannot be recycled.

But cost has to be factored in, unfortunately. I am so thrilled to have a Zero Waste Shop right next door to my job. I shop there as much as humanly possible, but there are a lot of things I cannot afford to buy from her. Things like oats, nuts, gluten free pasta and rice are 3 to 4 times more expensive naked. I can't justify that. I want to, but I can't. But things like spices, vegetables, lentils, polenta and fruit are just a little more expensive than normal and so i buy what I can.

I bought a book called No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey. There are lots of good and helpful 2 minute solutions in there. Suggestions like if there is a choice between plastic and glass, choose glass. I have been doing that at only slightly more cost. But somethings like toasted sesame oil don't come in glass. Or sunflower oil.

It also says if a package says not currently recycled don't buy it again. That just won't work. We would never get kale again as I cannot find it anywhere fresh. Or rice. Or pasta. Or nuts at an affordable price. Which breaks my heart, but there you are.

So what are we actually doing to reduce our waste?

1. We always have water bottles with us and utensils in my cutlery wrap so we never have to get disposable stuff when we are out. 

2. It is a struggle to find affordable consumables, but we are vowing not to buy (as much as humanly possible) things that are single use plastics. If I can make it to avoid plastic I will.

3. To replace as many nonconsumables with reusable options. I spent around £30 and invested in some  fabulous silicone mats to eliminate things like parchment paper and cling film as well as some eco kitchen scrubby doodahs (technical term). I am loving all the silicone mats as I used to use an insane amount of parchment paper.  I will be doing a post next week about these and what has worked well and what had worked less well.

4. We currently get our rubbish picked up every other week. We normally put out one black bin bag every four weeks, but we are working toward moving to throwing away a bag of rubbish every six weeks then every eight weeks. 

5. Less recycling. Glass is acceptable as we can take it to the bottle bank. But single use plastics are out and we are decreasing our dependence of tetra packs. I noticed that quite a lot of the bulk of our recycling is drink cartons. We had been buying almond milk, but after a talk with a friend about how thirsty a crop that almonds are I decided to forgo almond milk in a carton and start making my own cashew milk. I bought 2 Kilner style bottles at Poundland and starting this week I will be making my own milk. I did have to get cashews in a plastic bag but I got a kilo for £9.99 so it really means only one bag, not lots of little single bags. Definitely more on this later...I just need to perfect my formula. I am even going to try my hand at supplementing it. Watch this space.

6. Any non recyclable plastics we do have to buy like kale and nuts that come in a big bag get a second use as a bin bag for the bathroom before throwing out. I've also found that crinkly plastics expand and don't stay scrunched up like they should. This means they expand in your bin bag and take up more space. If you use a bag like a rice or pasta bag and a outer bag and fill it with lots of folded scrunchy plastics, they don't expand as much and you can get more in your black bag and it takes longer to fill up, if that makes sense.

I am sure there are more things we are doing, but i really am too tired to think of any more. What are your top tips for reducing your waste?

Fairy Tale Friday--Cinder Blower (Germany, 1879)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week we look at a tale from Germany with a spunky, resourceful heroine and an unfortunately abusive prince (which doesn’t stop her “liking him beyond measure.”) This tale was collected by German medievalist Karl Bartsch in his book Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg (Legends, Fairy Tales and Customs from Mecklenburg) in 1879. Interestingly, Bartsch studied philosophy and was a pupil of Wilhelm Grimm—one of the Brothers Grimm along with his older brother Jacob.

In this tale, despite having a father who threatens to rape her, our heroine (who is not given a name) using cunning to outwit her father and improve her situation. In order to delay their union she asks for the typical silver, gold and jewelled dresses, and the customary strange coat (in this case a crow-skin) but also for a magic wand. In some tales she wears all the gowns at once, in other tales they are packed in walnut shells, but here she just hoiks them over her shoulder and magics herself to the next kingdom where she knew a prince lived. Then she magics a wooden chest for her dresses, disguises herself as a boy and seeks work at the castle in order to win the heart of the prince.

As expected in these tales, they meet while she is wearing one of the dresses and catches his eye. The prince, being in a foul temper because he cannot figure out who his mystery sweetheart is, throws both a boot and a brush at her head which does not deter her. He gives her a ring which she drops in his soup which catches his eye and make him look twice at the young boy Cinder Blower. Yes, remember oh best beloved, she is disguised as a boy. 

Then, in what can only be described as the most romantic chat up line of the century, he asks her to check his head for lice saying, "My head itches. Look and see if any vermin are there." He sees her diamond dress glittering under her crow skin coat and the rest is history. The whole “you were my male servant and now I want to marry you” reminded me a bit of that episode of Blackadder where Bob turns out to be a girl.

 

Cinder Blower source

A rich widower had an only daughter who was developing into a beautiful and charming woman. Her father's heart became inflamed with impure love, but she withstood his advances. He threatened to force himself on her, and she responded with cunning. She promised to yield to his will if he would give her a dress made of silver. When she received such a dress, she then demanded one made from gold, and the third time, one made from jewels. After receiving that one as well, she said, "Now all I need is a crow-skin coat," and then she made one last wish: a magic wand. These too she received.

Now in another land there lived a prince who had heard of the girl's beauty. Taking the magic wand in her hand and the dresses over her shoulder, she wished herself to the vicinity of the prince's castle. She immediately found herself in the castle garden. Then she wished for herself a chest in an oak tree in the garden, put her dresses in it, put on the crow-skin coat and went to the castle kitchen where she presented herself as a poor boy looking for work.

"I can use you," said the cook. "You can be the cinder blower."

A few days later the prince came to the kitchen with some freshly killed game. She saw him and liked him beyond measure.

Soon afterward, there was a wedding in a nearby castle, and the prince went to it. Many people went there to look on at the dance. Cinder Blower asked the cook for permission to observe. She ran to the oak tree, put on the silver dress, and wished herself a carriage in which she rode to the castle. The prince saw her and danced with her, but after a few dances she disappeared. Seating herself in her carriage she said,

Darkness behind me, Before me light,
So none can follow me into the night.

The next morning the prince was in a bad mood, for he had been awake all night thinking about his beautiful dance partner. Cinder Blower was asked to polish his boots, and this she did, but she failed to polish one small spot on one of the toes. The prince noticed this and angrily came into the kitchen and threw the boot at her head.

The next evening there was another dance, and Cinder Blower again asked for permission to go. This time she put on the golden dress, then rode there in the carriage. The prince had been looking for her and was very happy when she arrived. While dancing with her he asked her where she lived.

"In Boot-Throw" was her answer. She remained there one hour, and then disappeared. In vain the prince asked where Boot-Throw was. No one could tell him.

Again that night the prince could not close his eyes, and the next day he was in an even worse mood than before.

Cinder Blower was asked to brush his coat, but he did not like the way she did it, and finally he threw the brush at her head.

The third evening Cinder Blower again asked for permission to look on at the dance, then put on her dress of precious stones. While dancing with her the prince asked her where she lived.

"In Brush-Throw," was her answer.

"Whoever you are," he said, "take this ring from me."

She let him put the ring onto her finger. Then she tried to sneak away, but the prince carefully watched her and followed close behind her. She climbed out of her carriage near the oak tree. However, she did not have time to take off her dress, but quickly put on the crow-skin coat over it.

The next morning when the cook was preparing the soup, Cinder Blower dropped the ring into it. The prince found it and asked the cook who had been in the kitchen.

"Only Cinder Blower and I," he answered.

The prince summoned Cinder Blower and said, "My head itches. Look and see if any vermin are there."

Cinder Blower obeyed, but when she stood before him, he saw the diamond dress glistening forth from beneath the worn-out crow-skin coat. Then he recognized her. "Now you are mine," he said, and he made her his wife and they lived happily together until they died.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned net week for a tale of a princess who would not marry her father.