Springtime...snow

Well I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this:


That was the view on the University of Nottingham campus earlier this afternoon. We are under quite an unexpected amount of snow at the moment! Strange to think that this time last year, I was sitting in the garden in 25 degrees on my week off, with the magnolia in full blossom, drinking dandelion and burdock tea and watching the bees start to come out. I really hope the weather gets a bit nicer for next week and the Easter long weekend, as we are hoping to take a trip to Bristol. Then in two weeks time we are off to Paris!

Anyway, we did have two nice snowdays this weekend. I managed to persuade Mark to drive me to the library on Saturday afternoon (yes I know it's only round the corner but the pavement was iiiccceey!), I needed to return The Blue Flower and I managed to get my hands on two books I have been after for ages! Underground Time by Delphine de Vigan and Monkey Grip by Helen Garner.

I was actually planning to buy Underground Time (or rather, Les Heures souterraines) while we are in Paris but once I saw it I thought, nah, I'll read it now! I'll get another of her books in Paris.

Saturday evening was time to try out a new tart recipe, which was SO GOOD.


Lay puff pastry into the tart tin and crumble in some big chunks of stilton. Cover with some chopped walnuts. Layer with thinly sliced pear and bake the tarts for 30 minutes or thereabouts, on 180 degrees or thereabouts. The added bonus of this recipe is that the making process involves one of the GREATEST SINGLE PLEASURES OF HUMAN EXISTANCE: crumbling blue cheese with your hands and then licking your fingers. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

A little brown stew and some healthy living

Happy New Year!

It seems ages ago now, but New Year's Eve passed in a cheerful and relaxing way in our house. We cooked up a lovely stew from mushroom and pearl barley (thanks to Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries vol.2!), eaten with a little crusty roll I baked in a hurry (and therefore wasn't perfect, but hey!), and a bottle of the perennial favourite wine of our household, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.


I baked a quick apple cake, which went from nought to oven in less than 15 minutes thanks to the wonders of the Magimix, and Mark delved into the Nigellissima book and came out with 'Tiramisini' - a sort of rudimentary tiramisu and utterly delicious.

We watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service and then Jools Holland, and danced along to perennial favourite band of our household, Dexy's Midnight Runners.

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Back at work, I was scoffing my leftover mushroom stew with some colleagues, who had salads from our little office cafe. One commented that it had been some time since she had seen a salad and I had to agree. And all of a sudden I was craving fresh, simple food.


I came home that night and tossed quinoa, spinach, beetroot and grated carrot in a bowl with a bit of lemon juice, honey, olive oil and grated manchego. We ate it with great big tuna steaks, just slightly seared so they were deep red and rich in the middle. A healthier start to 2013.

The best type of flea

So I was planning to walk up to Beeston Library this afternoon to return my Edward St Aubyn books but it suddenly started pouring down with rain. So I am stuck in on the sofa, getting a bit emotional listening to Ed Miliband on Daily Politics Conference Special. But there is a benefit to you, dear readers, and that is that you get a lovely blog post!

Last Saturday we headed into Nottingham for a lovely brunch at Jam Cafe followed by a trip to the Pretty Dandy Flea Market held in the Congregational Church on Castle Gate.

The church was a great venue for the flea. You can see some photos of the day taken by one of the stallholders on their blog, here. It was the first time the market had been held, but I hope they do another one soon as it was amazing - so many wonderful stalls with artists and collectors selling beautiful handmade/secondhand homewares.

It would have been very easy to spend a LOT of money at the market, but we restrained ourselves as I am still out of work right now. One thing we have been doing recently in our home is trying to build up our cushion collection - it's amazing what a difference they can make to the living room! There were a couple of stalls selling cushions made from vintage fabrics and we this one really jumped out at us as soon as we saw it...

The front is a screenprinted fabric from 1964 called 'Stanhope' (you can see it in the V&A textile archives). The back is a Harris Tweed. We got it for £35 and it makes such a statement, it looks amazing on the sofa!

Most of the sellers at the market had online stores so we collected fliers from the stalls we liked so we can buy from them another time. In particular there was a lady there selling her own prints, I can't remember her name right now and Mark has the flier, but they were really nice and bright and hopefully we'll get one to hang on our wall soon.

Otherwise, Mark picked up a few records from the second hand record stall and we also bought this set of 4 bowls for only £4!

According to Pretty Dandy's Facebook page they are looking at trying to arrange another flea market before Christmas, which would be brilliant for present-buying! *fingers crossed*

Growing your own...

I'm quite good at growing my own stuff. I grow my own hair, toenails, waistline, occasional lifeforms in the back of the fridge.... Last year however we started growing out own food, albeit on a fairly basic level (chillies and tomatoes). We intended to branch out a bit this year, but time constraints at the relevant times meant we just stuck to what we knew, but on a slightly larger scale.


We have four tomato plants this year and are currently revelling in tomato gluttony. Last year we found the tomatoes had quite tough skins (which happens when you grow them outside), but this year that's not been a problem at all. I guess the weather has made quite a difference - our garden is quite sheltered and south facing, and the latter part of August/early September has been quite pleasant this year compared to last. As a result, the little tomatoes didn't need to toughen up so much. We have three varieties and are scoffing them every day!


This is last year's chilli plant, back in full swing! Everything we read about chillies told us that it was unlikely to produce a second year crop, but we looked after it well all winter, keeping it inside in a sunny spot, and moved it back outside in May when the weather warmed up. Until late June it didn't do anything and we thought that was it, but all of a sudden it seemed to have all its seasons at once - dropped its leaves, regrew its leaves, flowered and started producing in the space of about a fortnight!

This was good news as the new chilli plant we got unfortunately failed on us - the appalling weather at the start of summer made it too depressed and barring a few new leaves it hasn't grown at all.

Next year we want to try some beans of some description, possibly some courgettes but I enjoy courgette flowers more than courgettes themselves! Mmmmmm courgette flowers stuffed with cream cheese......mmmm. Tomatoes again and of course chillies. If like us you eat a lot of asian/spicy food I would absolutely recommend growing chillies. If you get good weather (or have a greenhouse so it doesn't matter so much) just one plant will keep you in chillies from July through to January/February (and beyond if you freeze/dry them). Saves SO much money.

Irish Soda Bread

I must admit to not having eaten much soda bread in my life - I think a few times on holiday in Ireland, and, strangely, a few times in Sydney. In Sydney it was always with my friend Aisling, who was on a constant quest for good soda bread to remind her of her Dublin home.

I have been slowly working through the bread chapter of my copy of The Great British Book of Baking and this recipe is in there, so I thought I'd give it a go. It quickly became a firm favourite. It really is one of the easiest recipes I have ever come across and takes no time at all (no yeast and no kneading like 'normal' bread!), and is UTTERLY delicious. You do need to get hold of wheat germ and wheat bran, neither of which were in my local Sainsbury's or Tesco, but find yourself a good health food shop and you'll be sorted in no time.

Mix 200g wholemeal plain flour with 200g white plain flour. Mix in 25g wheat germ, 25g wheat bran, teaspoon of salt, 1.5 teaspoons of bicarb. Add 350ml buttermilk and mix in with your hands to make a soft, sticky, rough-looking dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and shape into a ball. Set on non-stick baking tray, gently flatten to 4cm high, score the dough with a cross and dust with flour. Bake for about 35 mins, until it's golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.

See? Easy. I'd really recommend this whole book too, if you are newish to baking or want to expand your repertoire. The recipes are super-easy and it has all the greats, from Bakewell Tart to pork pie, treacle tart to hot cross buns, challah to focaccia and everything in between. Also the best Death by Chocolate EVER.