Shabby yet Chic: I Pitty The Man Who Marries Our Josephine....

"I pity the man who marries our Josephine, he would have to live on doughnuts and puff candy...."-G.Grandfather Hislop

I went to dinner at my grandparents home recently. If you know my grandparents, you would know exactly what that may include... A home cooked meal, usually of the delicious and predictable variety and lots of stories and discussion about recent news. My Grandfather is a brilliant man, who did a lot of good in his career heading up important negotiations for big names like CBC and CUPE. He worked with health care for years, we always have so much to discuss, not to mention he has an excellent sense of humor and totally cracks me up. My nanny? Well she should have probably been a writer. Her stories are always so vivid I feel as though I have been transported to Scotland or Halifax in the 60's and I am watching the story unfold.

On this Sunday, nanny was telling me all about how before she was married her culinary specialties (her only specialties) were homemade doughnuts and "puff-candy"(which sounds like a bubbly brittle toffee of some sort, have yet to find a recipe...). Her father always said he pitied the man who married her as they would have to live off of doughnuts and puff-candy, which would not be an easy task. Josephine told me the very last time she made puff-candy was over 50 odd years ago, and that it left a bad taste in her mouth. She had set it on the window sill to cool, just like in a cartoon.... a stiff Scottish wind blew and her beloved toffee fell the two stories down into the garden. She hiked up her skirt and ran down the stairs out into the garden only to find several puppies, yes puppies, devouring her creation...all within a matter of a minute. I love Josephine stories and I nothing short of loved that one!

I personally have never made puffy-candy or doughnuts but I do make cupcakes. Since I had a borrowed SLR camera, I couldn't not bake something fabulous and capture it with a decent lens. Plus I really haven't had the chance to introduce you all to Betty, my fabulous, magical, mixer.
-m