Tea at Trianon: Cool As a Cucumber

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Cool As a Cucumber

Light, tasty meals for hot days.

I've assembled a few recipes that show off the cucumber's greatest assets. Its cooling, melony flavor marries with avocado and tangy buttermilk in a chilled soup that's as refreshing as a lake on a mid-July afternoon. I love the juicy crunch that cucumbers add to a bread salad dressed with the sweet, sour and funky flavors of Vietnamese cooking. That crunch also plays well with fish in ceviche and in a lemony pasta salad. It co-stars—in long, tender ribbons—in another salad with herbed pesto.

When I'm finished preparing these dishes, I'll juice any leftover cucumbers (and their scraps) for mixing into Pimm's Cups and other gin-based cocktails, then sweeten and freeze the remaining juice into granita for dessert. (Read more.)