Welcome Summer with the Perfect Pimms

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Once more, please welcome our own Celia Wakefield, today with some wonderful stories and her recipe for a perfect Pimms Cup.

 

I’m very happy to be back home with all the JRW clan (nod to Roberta), and writing about a subject that is dear to Julia and my hearts - L’heure bleue. That time when we stop and relax, preferably with a delicious drink. With our vaccinations done or shortly to be done, our l’heure bleue can include family and friends. Now that, my dear clan, gives me much joy. 

 

I don’t intend to drag on about our last fifteen months. Enough said and while the pandemic is hopefully a once in a lifetime experience, and will linger long in memory, it is time to embrace each other without the aid of Zoom. For most of us, that embrace will include something to eat and something to drink. Rather like Alice, we can choose our poison. Here by the lakeside we drink Pimms in the summer. Well that is I drink Pimms, Julia drinks Pimms, my daughter Olivia drinks Pimms and I share my Pimms with close friends who will appreciate it. I know that Pimms is not for everyone. Victor doesn’t usually drink Pimms.

 

Well, you may say, why Pimms and why in the summer In England? Well, with help from that web thing, I found out that Pimms was invented by James Pimms in 1823. Pimms grew up a farmers son in the County of Kent with which I have many ties, including boarding school, where we would have never been allowed to drink Pimms. James (one can overuse Pimms), owned an oyster bar in the City of London, he developed his ‘tonic’ with a gin base, - “Gin was mothers milk to her”, or “penny a glass, dead drunk for tuppence”, then added herbs and sold it as a health tonic. The actual recipe is still kept a deep, dark secret, but now includes fruit too.

 

It appears that I had to leave England for the drink to become so popular. Julia was in London in the ’80’s and remembers its popularity then. However when I went to Wimbledon in the ’60’s, what we wanted were strawberries and cream. 

 

I don’t remember what I drank at Henley; I was a guest of my best friend Helen’s parents, and dressed in my summer best including a gorgeous pair of while Kurt Geiger high heels, I was freezing all day. Lunch was the traditional poached salmon with hollandaise sauce, new potatoes and salad, and that was cold too. Whatever the weather, tradition is not just observed in the village of Anatevka, it is alive and well in England, which may mean freezing in the summer but dressed to enhance the occasion.

 

My introduction to Pimms came at the home of the same Helen. We met at boarding school and lived close enough in the holidays to get together then. Imagine a beautiful summer’s afternoon in the garden, Helen and I stretched out on rugs catching some rays and Mr. Plutte, Helen’s father, bringing us Pimms to drink. It was love at first taste. 

 

I don’t think I probably had the opportunity to drink Pimms when I was working in London as I really didn’t run with a high society crowd. Boys were willing to shell out for beer but anything more exotic? No, though I do remember after work  parties in the local, when I moved up to corporate life where spirits were always bought for one.

 

Ah me, now when I drink in the summer I do enjoy a Pimms, and I make it differently from any of the  263,000 recommendations from Google. I don’t always measure, but for this recipe I have done so. But first some explanation of the why mine is different. I add spirits to the Pimms mix, along with the measure of Pimms and I top it with Schweppes Tonic Water. 

 

 

 

For a garnish, I like cucumber first; the smell really enhances that first sip. Other than some wines is there any drink not enhanced with a slice of lemon or lime, so let’s add that too. Finally, fresh mint, preferably just picked mint which is why I try to grow mint each year. The mint in the photos was picked maybe twenty minutes before we started shooting.

 

Again, there are recipes with enough cut fruit that one might as well be eating fruit salad. Pimms is a drink, it should be treated as one. Now a note about your mix choice. You will see recipes with lemonade, soda water, ginger ale etc. this is a personal choice. My only caution is please don’t use *diet sodas, they will ruin the taste. For me tonic fits the bill and I like Schweppes.

 

 

 

Our l’heure bleue would not be complete without some tasty nibbles. The display on the table is an English cheddar served of course, with Carrs water biscuits, cornichions to add the bitter, some fresh strawberries in my Wimbledon strawberry bowl, yes, bought at Wimbledon, and the most delicious cookies from a local friend, Samantha Jane Melton, who has started her own commercial baking business. I don’t know if she is shipping yet but those chocolate crumbles, and lemon delights are to die for, and I know my cookies. You can order on her web site, Samantha Jane's Treats, if you want to indulge or send a gift. I know I’ve eaten too many tonight.

 

Finally, here is the recipe and a hearty Cheers to you all:

 

Into a 14 oz glass

Put 5-6 ice cubes

Take a 4 Tablespoon measure (I use a shot glass)

Pour to the top a measure of gin or vodka and pour over the ice

Repeat with a measure of Pimms #1 Cup

Fill with Schweppes tonic water* see above

Add Garnishes, cucumber, lemon, lime, mint, strawberry half etc. to choice

 

Spin-offs: Characters Who Leave Us Wanting More

Ingrid Thoft

In Tuesday’s post celebrating the publication of Deborah Crombie’s newest book, THE GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS, I asked her if she had ever considered spinning off one of her supporting characters into a separate book.  It doesn’t sound like that’s on the horizon for Debs’ London cast of characters, but it got me thinking:  Are there characters who deserve their own spin-off?  In books and on the smaller screen?

I did a little digging to refresh my memory about successful spin-offs, both on TV and in literature.  Some were obvious including “Frasier” from “Cheers” and the many iterations of “Law and Order” that were spawned from the original series, which first aired in 1990.  But did you know that “Mork and Mindy” was a spin-off from “Happy Days”?  Or that “Torchwood” came from “Dr. Who?”

In literature, I found examples of authors being inspired by earlier works, as opposed to spin-offs created by the original writers.  WIDE SARGASSO SEA, a wonderful book by Jean Rhys, was inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s JANE EYRE.  It tells the tale of the first Mrs. Rochester, the one who went mad in the attic.  AHAB’S WIFE gets her due in the book of the same name by Sena Jeter Naslund.

   

These riffs on earlier works are compelling, but there are some supporting characters who deserve to star in their own stories.  The first who comes to mind is Winston Nkata, the detective sergeant who works alongside DI Thomas Lynley and DS Barbara Havers in Elizabeth George’s English detective series.  DS Nkata’s Caribbean roots are mentioned in some of the books, but never explored in depth.  Nor is much information given about the knife scar that traces a jagged line across his cheek.  There is always the sense that a deep chasm separates Winston’s youth from his current role as a police officer.  As a reader, I’d like to know more.

Aren’t all readers of Sue Grafton’s alphabet series just a little bit in love with octogenarian Henry Pitts?  A retired commercial baker, Henry provides Kinsey Millhone with advice and cinnamon rolls, but it’s his roster of elderly siblings that piques my curiosity.  Now fit and well into their nineties, what must it have been like in the Pitts’ household during Henry’s youth?  And what of Henry’s romantic history?  I’d love to peek into his life when he was a younger man, say 70-years-old.

George Fayne.  Bonus points if you know who this character is without the context of her two BFFs.  Nancy, George, and Bess solve crimes and find themselves knee-deep in trouble on a regular basis.  Of course, I love Nancy Drew, but I’d really like to know more about George.  How did she get that name?  Is it short for Georgina or Georgia?  Always described as a “tomboy,” what exactly warrants that description?  Does she skydive when not teaming up with the girls?  Does she join the guys for pick-up football games?  At a time when Nancy Drew was breaking the mold, I wonder how much George might have pushed the boundaries even further.
  

What are your favorite spin-offs, and which ones have been utter failures?  “The Love Boat: The Next Wave,” perhaps?  Any spin-offs you’re dying to see on the page or the screen?  Any die hard “The Love Boat: The New Wave” fans out there?