January 23rd, 2012

Important things

I’ve been up late tonight ressurecting an old project. Something that’s coming back to life. Soon. Very soon. Very exciting to be back in blog land. And back with my old friends. It’s like waking up after a long slumber. Waking back up to life and love and living and friends!

And I said I’d reply to comments. I need to reply to comments! At the moment I’m reciprocal visiting and commenting on blogs. I am going to figure out a system. I like the way some people reply to comments in their next post.

Food food food food food. That is my important thing. Along with sewing and the garden and family and work and London. And home. And the Heath. And friends.

My secret hobby is spending hours in the evenings carefully coordinating the amazing supplies for the week from Abel and Cole, Goodness Direct and Ocado. And then when it all arrives I spend my time arranging it. And then I cook it into new recipes and I write these recipes into my moleskine notebook. Or for a really good one into my watercolour paper notepad with my Rotring pen. That’s when I know a recipe is becoming a final recipe.

Final recipes being lined up for the other big project this year. Recipes and photos and writing. And my favourite little Rotring pen. Go this year go!

Cardamom cake recipe to follow now that it’s in the proper notebook…

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January 22nd, 2012

A swell party

The last time we had a birthday party for the girls was Edith’s first birthday and Astrid’s third. We skipped last year. I’m so tired. I’ve been working weekends and evenings for the last three weeks. Yesterday I baked tarts, cake and cupcakes and today we hosted the party and I’ve been creating an intricate sitemap for work since 7.30pm.

The brilliant news is I’ve perfected the orange blossom and cardamom cake – I even did pink icing for it. The Alsace tart was a winner. Not so much the carrot pie. I’ll work on that recipe.

The girls’ guests had a lovely time at the party. I made party bags for all. They were finished half an hour before the guests arrived at 11am. The face painter came at noon. Kids had lunch then cake at 1pm and everyone left by 2.15pm. Then we went out with my brother’s family for a nice long walk on the Heath and a well earned cup of tea at the caff.

I think ten was the pefect number of children to have at the party. We had enough chairs for everyone including the adults so we didn’t need to call in chair hire! Edith really wasn’t happy near the end – it was all a bit much for everyone I think.

The guests all left happy and I’ve had reports back of children spending the afternoon eating loads of sweets and drawing in their new books, happily leaving their parents in peace for a bit. Happy Birthday girls!! It was a swell party.

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January 17th, 2012

Spice. Essence. Tea.

My favourites of late. Cooking from the Moro. Essences from Steenbergs. Tea with cute packaging design from Higher Living.

I’ve been in pitch hell for the past two weeks at work. People following my Instagram will have seen that. And a few other things that I’ll write about soon because they need to be written about. Sorry I’ve not replied to all your comments this past week. I have some catching up to do!!

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January 10th, 2012

The adventures of the boy cats

Top: Rufus; Bottom: Oscar (and we need to clean the windows eek)

Rufus and Oscar have settled into London life. Again. They’ve both carved out their neighbourhood territories and places they go to sleep in the sun. There’s a great big enormous cat that lives somewhere near. It’s the size of a very small cow. A very small cow that has slashed poor Mr Rufus’ little leather ears. Little leather ears from too much Oscar licking them. Soft leather ears, are I suppose, quite easy to rip.

Sometimes Oscar takes a while to come home and we go down the street and around the block and then out into the back garden again, calling, “Oscar, Oscar… Oscar. Puss puss puss puss. Puss puss puss puss. Oscar”. And on it goes. Usually Oscar comes back. The other night Oscar did not.

I wandered down the road, singing the usual Oscar call. A few doors down I heard meowing and I looked and I looked and I thought, “He’s in one of those bins”. Surely not. He’s behind that garden door. But he can get out of there easily. Not the bin. Not the gate. Follow the quiet sound of the Oscar meow. Meow. Raow. Raow. Rrrrraaaoowwwwwww.

Oh. There you are Oscar. You’re in that man’s house aren’t you. Now it’s all falling into place. The man. Who says you come into his house. My brother said a cat can’t just get into someone’s flat without a bit of cooperation from the human occupier.

Ring ring ring ring ring. All the doorbells of all the flats. It’s dark up where you are. But at least I can see you and you’re alive. Oscar. Oooh, here come footsteps and somebody opening the door. Ah, you’re not from that flat. Oh. Really, the guy is feeding Oscar. Right. That explains why he’s always talking about Oscar when he walks past us when we’re out in the front garden.

The neighbours all know the guy who’s flat Oscar is stuck in. The lights are out. I think the worst. He’s fallen asleep and Oscar won’t get out until tomorrow. Kevin thinks even more worst – the guy is dead. I stand outside in the freezing cold watching the house. Talking to Oscar. We’ll get you out little Oscar as soon as we can. But it might not be until tomorrow now. The police can’t come and knock the door down. (We did check).

It’s freezing. Free. Zing. I walk a few meters back home. But I keep my boots and coat on while I put Edith to bed. She’s asleep in minutes and I go back to stand guard for Oscar. Poor little cat. It’s still freezing so I go home again. Back. Home. Back. Home. Ring the doorbell. Home. Back. Ring the doorbell. Talk to Oscar. At least he’s ok.

What if the guy is dead? Ok, well the police will come tomorrow. We’re going to have to stop the guy feeding Oscar. Now we know why he’s ballooned. Even the vet said he’s getting a bit big.

Kevin says we’ll wait till midnight. Then what? I ask him.
He’s not sure. Nor am I. I decide I’ll go to bed soon. But I’ll wait up till pub closing time and keep checking but in the meantime I write a note for the door. A little drawing of a cat with a speech bubble saying he’s stuck inside and he’d like to go home please.

Sure enough. At 11.45pm. Not long after pub closing I am heading to the door. I’ve still got my boots and coat on. Kevin says, “He’s coming”. Little Oscar is slinking up on unsteady feet. Creeping long and low like a ferret, looking around. I open the door and he swiftly slinks in and I pick him up and he’s overjoyed to be home. Purrrr purrrr claws in my chest dancing feet purrr purrrr purrrrrrrrrr claws ouch ouch ouch yes hello cat glad you are home little cat I hope you don’t go visiting like that again.

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January 9th, 2012

All the cakes I’ve been baking

Hard to believe I’ve never baked a chocolate cake but usually all I ever bake is my 1 cake 100 ways. And this required a new method. I used the Donna Hay recipe from Modern Classics 2 although it didn’t come out at all moist which I suspect was due to my baking it for 60 and not 50 minutes.

And because the second to last cake I baked was so gooey and soft (yet utterly divine and incredible – cardamon and orange water that was demolished within an hour and not photographed because it was the day my camera died) I’ve been over-compensating by leaving things in the oven too long. Heck I even burnt the previous cake the day before Christmas. That. Never. Happens.

But the previous altogether gooey, sticky, delicious, wonderful orange and cardamon flat cake that was really more a giant sticky sweet orange blossom toffee slice made up for all recent cake failures. Should I say cake discoveries. The cake before that was a new one; biodynamic sour cherry and almond tart. And the cake before that was lemon and poppyseed syrup almond tart.

What shall I bake next?

Chocolate and biodynamic sour cherry almond cake?
Or shall I have another go at a good cardamom and orange blossom one?

Also from now on I will reply each day in the comments area beneath a post so please check back. Thanks for reading and for your comments!!

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January 8th, 2012

A delicious weekend

This weekend I made hot chocolate each morning for myself and the girls. Saturday Edith made big tall towers of the old kitchen containers while I cleaned and filled the beautiful new Le Parfait jars to take pride of place in the pantry.

In the afternoon we went to fabulous Lakeland out by Brent Cross in the middle of shopping-by-the-motorway-land. I discovered that 3L Le Parfait jars are not advertised on their site and are £5.39 each as opposed to about £8 which was the cheapest I found online. We were on a mission for jam jars as this weekend was to be Sweet Orange Marmalade weekend. Oh yes. Back in the car with our new collection of small Le Parfait jars we headed home for ice cream.

Sunday was indeed Sweet Orange Marmalade making day, with much shredding, boiling and testing, the marmalade is quite heavenly and will be ready to photograph tomorrow. In the meantime I’m back and regularly updating my Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

Burleigh mug from the Habitat sale. Clipper Hot Chocolate from Planet Organic. Le Parfait preserving jars from Lakeland. Orla Kiely storage jars from Heals.

Sale tip of the week: Burleigh have 25-50% off everything you could possibly want to buy (apart from the cheese plate I wanted).

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January 7th, 2012

The living room

Back in June when we were in Provence the whole interior of the house was painted. So far I still haven’t styled the house to my satisfaction. No matter how tidy it is, the girls come along and mess it up. Three steps forward, two back. Always.

At times like this I remember Melissa’s sewing policy – that she’s not a dressmaker and her sewing isn’t perfect. I like that philosophy. The philosophy of imperfection. It’s got character and it keeps things moving. So in that vein I shall be posting imperfect photos of our interior. If I waited for me to make it perfect we’d be waiting at least another fifteen years.

The walls are painted Farrow and Ball Calluna and the feature wall is in Brassica. Big painting by Polly and the small one is by Euan McGregor (not that one though). Oh, which reminds me of something that happened today. Liam Gallagher was walking to Starbucks for coffee and the entire street just stopped and stared. What incredible presence he had to stop a street in its tracks. It was literally like in a film. This guy with such energy walked from his apartment block up the street and it was as though time slowed down. People stopped talking and just looked. It was like he had left a golden trail of presence in his wake.

Back to our living room then. Walls in Farrow and Ball, my favourite corner in the house of course with mum’s crystal collection, my beautiful collection of vases and the lovely Babette from Le Train Fantome. The tall sideboard and coffee table are from Skandinteriors in South End Green just up the road.

The sofa we bought in Auckland for our amazing industrial warehouse office in 2004. It needs re-covering and wooden feet putting on. Persian carpet from eBay. Little cat bed from Cath Kidston and orange lamp by Kartell from Pink Apple Designs.

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January 3rd, 2012

The wrong pants for gardening

Oh good lord it was too cold to go in the garden yesterday.
But garden we did.

I wanted an activity the girls to do at home to shake off some energy so I could sneak in some more photo editing. But in the end I erred on the side of being out there to make sure they didn’t dig up the garden be an involved mum.

And this all just so happened to be on the day I was wearing my purple cords that are a bit low slung so my builder’s bum was freezing itself to death in the cold north wind and I had to use my muddy gloves to keep on hoisting my tweeds up to avoid exposing myself too much to the neighbours.

Oh they are the WRONG pants for gardening, the purple cords.
Have you got an inappropriate gardening outfit?

ps. I have noticed Yvonne‘s fantastic huge portrait images of late and I so rarely shoot portrait that I’ve given it a go. Thanks Aunty Von!!

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December 31st, 2011

Happy fifth birthday, Astrid

Astrid turned 5 this week. Five.

Five years ago in New Zealand on a Summer’s evening and there she was. End of 2006. That was the time I began writing this blog. It was a time to begin documenting our lives with the children. We’ve made family albums. I’ve not done the last two.

The best thing about this year for Astrid is that I look back on last year’s birthday photos when Astrid refused to have her photo taken – yet this year she got a packet of Hello Kitty candles weeks in advance for her birthday, she even got us to light them twice so she could blow them out twice.

She’s been talking about her party all the time and who she wants to come (it’ll be after the holidays), out riding her new bike all day, finding out how things are made, how I made the pastry for the Alsace tart I baked tonight, wanting to bake, insisting on going outside in the garden, standing up to Edith.

Astrid is really settling in here in London.
Settling into herself. Settling into some form of permanence.

Happy birthday little love.
I wish all the joys that life can bring for you in 2012.

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December 19th, 2011

A winter kitchen

I’ve taken delivery of the amazing and beautiful Nigella Lawson mixing bowls. Amongst other things. The brilliant secret sale compares only to the Le Creuset half price sale of sky blue cookware a few years ago. I spent all weekend rearranging and clearing the kitchen. This evening I briefed Joelene our nanny on where everything goes. On Saturday I briefed Kevin.

So much has been ditched, the kids have got a few pieces for their kitchen.

But I, I am happy. A clear space. New cookbooks. Total kitchen perfection in tidy spaces and cupboards and clear bench tops. Space now for the new cook books and ingredients to sit on the bench. This weekend I discovered pomegranate molasses, new balsamic and North African spices from Melrose and Morgan, red wine vinegar from Carluccios and fresh parsley and pomegranate from our corner shop.

I spent all weekend in the kitchen, working on new recipes. Learning from new cookbooks. And working on energy efficient cooking. This weekend we had smoked salmon which I’ve not dared eat for seven years. We had anchovies with caramelised onions and garlic. We had scary dark Italian tinned tuna with giant penne. We had potato tart with thyme. The girls loved their macaroni cheese made with bechamel sauce from The Silver Spoon. I made tabbouleh with my famous hummous. Grilled pitta crisps. Soft fried purple carrots in butter.

The brown velvet curtains are up at last. Insulation to keep the cold of winter out and to stave off the ever rising London electricity prices. Upstairs and downstairs. The Christmas tree is up. Home is becoming ever more home. And I’m so looking forward to a couple of weeks off work for big walks on the Heath. Amazing Christmas food and wine has all been carefully curated and ordered.

Good company and warm times ahead.

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December 15th, 2011

First ballet recital

The other Sunday we went to the girls’ first ballet recital. I can’t remember why there wasn’t one last year, although last year I went to see their final ballet performance and I went to end of year festival for Astrid. This year I did neither. I’ve taken so much time off lately while we had an au pair while our nanny was away and I know there’s more of that ahead during Christmas. So Astrid cried this morning that I couldn’t come. And tonight somebody told me about their good friend who’s a photographer who earns bazillions of pounds to work a few days a month.

I know what next year’s goal is now.

My Yquem arrived yesterday. And James came over to work on his site so we tiptoed down to the cellar and opened one of the gift boxes. Ok, well I’m not giving any away so the fancy box was a nice present for us. It is indeed the best wine I’ve ever ever had.

And tonight I was reassured I wasn’t such a terrible cook after all and that simple has its merits.

All in. A good evening.

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December 14th, 2011

Parts of rooms

Now the house is slowly beginning to take shape I’m taking photos of part of rooms. A couple of people have said they’ve seen my house photos on the blog but they still can’t really tell what the house is like; just very small zoomed in bits of it.

So I’m branching out a bit from tiny zoomed in scenes to parts of rooms. I’m not quite yet brave enough for whole rooms. They’re still not quite perfect enough. Or perhaps I shall just do it like my new way of sewing (as inspired by Melissa) to not worry about being perfect and just do it for the sheer joy of it and accept how things are without painfully striving for perfection.

That said I’m not taking any bed photos. Well, I did. And it was upon sight of said bed photo that I realised just how ugly our giant IKEA bed indeed is.

Kevin wants modern from Heals. I want a vintage style french bed maybe from here http://www.thefurnituremarket.co.uk/french_furniture.asp that I can just order now. Although in reality I will want a real vintage one which I’m happy to wait for. Perhaps a reason to go to Paris for some furniture market shopping.

And onwards and upwards to whole, photographable rooms.

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