The Tingle Factor Box

Roy Creates Rainbow Sandwiches

This week Roy decided he wanted to try out a recipe he has been contemplating for some time. Today, sandwiches are an everyday thing and people don’t tend to think a huge amount about how to make them ‘fancy’. In the past though, making beautiful sandwiches was very important for entertaining and, since Roy had friends coming for a light lunch, he decided it would be the perfect time to try out an old sandwich recipe from the ‘New Sunshine Cookery Book’. So this week Roy Creates Rainbow Sandwiches.

You Will Need:

• A loaf of white bread. Traditionally, you would use an unsliced loaf, but Roy just used sliced.
• Butter
• Sliced tomato
• Lettuce
• Boiled eggs, mashed with a little mayonnaise
• Drained pickled beetroot

Method:

• If you are using an unsliced loaf, cut off the crusts from the whole loaf (you only want the soft inside for this recipe) and slice the loaf into 4 pieces LENGTHWISE. They will be long slices, but this is exactly what you want.

• If you are using normal sandwich slices of bread, remove all the crusts and throw them away. You will need 4 slices of bread per sandwich.

• Place the first slice of bread in the centre of a clean plate or cutting board and spread this piece of bread with butter and top with the sliced tomato.
• Spread the next slice of bread with butter on both sides and place it on top of the tomato

• Top the second piece of bread with the egg mix and lettuce leaves.
• Butter the third slice of bread, again on both sides and put it on top of the egg and lettuce

• Top the third slice of bread with beetroot slices
• Butter just one side of the last piece of bread and lay it on top of all the other layers.

• Gently squash the sandwich to make it hold together and then tightly wrap in clingwrap.

• Put the sandwiches on a plate or tray and sit another plate or tray on top of the sandwiches. Put the loaf in the fridge and sit weights on the top tray for one hour. This will squish the loaf and make sure all of the fillings stay in place.
• Carefully slice the sandwich loaf into ribbon sandwiches (we cut each sandwich into three) and transfer to a serving platter
• Serve and enjoy!

Who Knew That Old Wood Could Be So Pretty? Jet

Imagine you are walking along a beach in Whitby in England. You are kicking stones and looking at the beautiful scenery when you notice that some of the stones are unusually dark in colour. In fact they are almost black, but they aren’t like the shiny black pebbles you find in other places. You’re curious about whether this could be the famous Whitby Jet you have heard about, but it doesn’t look very much like the beautiful stone you saw in the museum and for sale in the shops!

When I took these jet earrings to show the children, they were intrigued. They assumed that the stone was a type of plastic or glass because they had not seen such a beautiful, shiny black in other jewellery made with precious or semi-precious stones. When they discovered that the earrings were made with not just any stone, but an ancient, fossilized wood, they were even more interested. As one child said, ‘who knew that old wood could be so pretty’

Jet is a product which is created from wood which decomposed millions of years ago. Over time the wood is compressed and becomes a stone. It is quite easy to carve, but also very easy to damage or even shatter when it is being shaped so people who could work with jet were highly skilled and the things they made were expensive and a sign of wealth. Not all jet is the same though and the best quality jet, and indeed the most famous, comes from Whitby in England.

Jet has been used to make jewellery for many years, dating right back to the ancient world. In fact, it is one of the earliest stones to be used in creating jewellery. Carved pieces of jet in the shape of insects and animals have been found which date right back to the Stone Age. These carved animals are thought to have been worn as pendants as many of them had holes drilled in them. It was during the Bronze Age though that jet really began to be used widely and many burials from this time contain jet beads. Many of the beads appear to have originally come from Whitby, but they are found a long way from the town, so it is thought that there was a trade in mining and selling jet even in the ancient world! Over time, jet continued to be used for making items, particularly jewellery. In England examples of jet jewellery have been found dating the time of the Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings amongst others. It was also famously popular as a material to be used in mourning outfits in the Victorian era with jet being used for buttons, jewellery and beading on clothing.