The Bluestocking, where the short days shorten and the oaks are brown

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all, regulars and newcomers, to the Bluestocking Women's Pub, a place of refuge and inspiration and camaraderie and silliness, where all alcoholic drinks are non-intoxicating, cakes contain no gluten, sugar or calories, but still taste yummy, and the attentive staff are small but very professional rodents wearing snazzy little outfits.

Other roles - such as acting as foot stools, looking decorative in the garden, or just being impossibly cute when you need something impossibly cute to go awwww at - are filled by a team of miniature pigs, quokkas, wombats, etc etc.

If real life is difficult, you can bring your troubles to the Bluestocking and a comfy chair will be found for you at a roaring fire, a miniature pig will settle down happily to support your tired feet, and a gerbil will serve you promptly with a comforting drink - very large G&Ts or massive mugs of hot chocolate with extra cream and marshmallows are popular choices [don't forget: no calories in the Bluestocking].

Banned that sounds like a spin on Manchester tart, traditionally topped with desiccated coconut. At primary school it didn't have a topping and you could peel the custard off the jam and pastry in one piece. I'm fairly certain if you dropped it, it would have maintained cohesion and bounced. There were some kids that the dinner ladies would save the custard skin for 🫢

At that point I would maintain that the custard was ALL skin, Cake!

Yep and yippie, there were kids who begged for the skin of the custard in the bronze like jugs, that they slopped over other monstrosities AKA pudding.

Agreed.
And thick hot custard too.
Custard needs to pour properly.

Please continue with your chat about disgusting puddings. It helps my diet.

In advance of a Hallowe'en-themed talk earlier in the week I made two spelt-flour barm bracks (the first was a bit flat and solid; the BB 2022 date on the yeast might explain) and I've been thinking how nice the leftovers will be as bread-and-butter-pudding, soaked in custard and baked.

Other bracks were provided by pals - it's what women do when they're organising things - make sure the catering is seasonal and adequate.

@FuzzyPuffling rice pudding what is that about it comes second to tapioca aka frogspawn, vom…

I like custard skin. And cold custard. And tapioca. I am clearly a child of the 50s.

With a dollop of jam on top

Don't forget semolina. Urgh...

Then the dinner the main event, i am surprised i survived childhood

Oh god semolina that always had a dollop of jam on it

I rather like rice pudding, when I make it - using full fat milk and double cream, and brown sugar - but it isn’t particularly diet friendly! The same goes for home made custard with double cream - but it is lovely when used to make rhubarb fool. Semolina and tapioca, though - urgh! 🤢

Rice pudding is gorgeous, particularly with some flaked almonds mixed through.

For me, it has to be rice pudding with raspberry syrup.

That's a thought... when I get the chance, I shall investigate.

Proper custard, like proper rice pudding, is a thing of wonder.

When autocarrot said 'custard bowler' I thought in terms of bowler hats.

Proper alcohol-infused custard eaten early-Victorian style out of little stemmed glass cups. mmm

I'm now skimming over these disgusting pudding posts.
🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

I somehow got away with just a blob of the runny jam on school semolina days.

proper rice pudding and custard are indeed lovely. At the start of lockdown we couldn’t get out staple yogurt(and hadn’t yet thought of buying dried cultures) , but eggs and milk were locally abundant so I made baked custard instead.

A custard bowler is an alternative to the more traditional pie for some clowns I think.

Oh the “quiche”, just congealed Luke warm egg with a a bit of cubed spam, in it and a hint of cheese sitting in the very same grey pasty.

I see your "quiche" and raise you cold sliced spam, served with cold beetroot and lukewarm lumpy mash.

<shuffles dietary memory cards>

thats a hard one to beat

Slaps on the table how about “stew” a watery grey brown sauce with the odd bit of grey flesh floating around sharing space with large bits of offal and tubas wobbling about you could see the actual arterial connections of unknown bits of body.

beetroot was on offer to spice it up a bit

It was ‘cheese flan’ in my school, that was the main couldn’t manage to eat any of. Worse than spam fritters or bacon suet roll or liver and bacon. (Obviously liver and bacon can be nice but this wasn’t).

I don’t know about nutritional content but I expect it was character-forming.