ushering in the spring

It's one of my favourite times of year. The blossom pokes its head out, the sun shines with a little bit more energy, people smile more, and there's enough warmth to allow for a picnic in the park and the occasional evening outside.

I go a bit nuts, and believe it's summer already, wanting bbq's on the roof, wearing flip flops when it's still far too cold, forgetting my scarf and making lemonade. This stuff makes me squeal just a tiny bit; there's something about the sweetness, mixed with the freshness, mixed with the tartness. it's just plain delicious, and as a bonus, so plain simple.

Here's how it goes.

First things first, make a batch of Darina Allen's sugar syrup. You can keep the leftovers for more lemonade (you'll definitely want some) or amazing rhubarb compote. I highly reccommend decanting it into a big jar and labeling it nicely, for high levels of satisfaction.

Makes 28 fl ozs (825 ml)
1 lb (450 g) sugar
1 pint (600 ml) water
To make the stock syrup: Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil. Boil for 2 minutes then allow it to cool. Store in the fridge until needed.

For the lemonade, mix together:
1 cup of sugar syrup
juice of 5 lemons
5 cups of water
add more water or syrup to taste.
makes about 48 fl oz (1.4l/3pints)

It is the perfect way to usher in the springtime.

I love the Superbowl

I love the Super Bowl. Not necessarily for the football, but because you get to make way too many snacks, watch a crazy half time show, and chat through most of the rest of it. I was inspired by Jamie Oliver to make several varieties of popcorn along with my own almond, sesame salted brownies. I find myself totally enamoured by the sweet/salty combo at the moment. I'm telling you, I cannot get enough of it. Peanut butter and jam, chocolate/raisin/peanut trail mix, brownies with salt, cheese and honey... the list goes on.

Bacon and maple syrup popcorn.
Fry up 4 rashers of bacon to make it crispy. Chop it up into bits. Pop a batch of popcorn (about 60g/1/4cup). When the popcorn is popped, pour about 3 table spoons of maple syrup over it, and mix it all in so the it's all covered. Add more to taste. Mix in the bacon bits. Cover a baking tray with parchment paper and bake on 350f/180c for 3-4 minutes.

Anchovy and Rosemary popcorn.
Cook up a batch of popcorn (about 1/4 cup)
Heat up 3tbs of olive oil. Finely chop 5 anchovy fillets and add them to the olive oil mixing it and smooshing it with a wooden spoon until dissolved into a drizzle. I added a little extra olive oil which helped. Chop up 3/4 sprigs of fresh rosemary. Mix the anchovy paste and rosemary into the popcorn all the way through.

Serve in cheerful bowls and though I didn't try it, I would highly recommend an accompaniment of bubbly or chilled white wine. Sit down and enjoy, you won't be able to stop...but it's ok because it's popcorn right?

developed poverty-draft

I turned left onto Homan, taking it wide to avoid a huge pot hole, keeping my eyes down as I do so, so as not to meet with the huddle of african american teenagers waiting to cross the street. I felt self conscious driving in their neighborhood in my friends shiny Madza. I drove on, painfully bumping over a patch of road that was in total disrepair. On my left I notice someone coming out of a house with boarded up windows and a failing front porch. The front yard is bare, with only a few empty bags of chips and beer cans blown against the steps. I carried on past many more boarded up houses, avoided more potholes and eye contact. I arrived at the medical clinic where I was shadowing a nurse practitioner for the day. This clinic provides healthcare to anyone who needs it, insurance or none. Our first patient was a 21 year old girl, 35 weeks pregnant who had just moved out of the area. She was looking for a hospital in which to give birth and clinic to finish her prenatal care. However, because she was so far along, probably didn't have insurance, no one would take her on.

The poverty in the United States of America is astounding. Even though it is a trully developed country with drive thru-banks, copious amounts of money, gloriously abundant supermarkets, huge and hugely endowed research universities, 20 gazillion ounce coffees, freedom of speech, forward thinkers, a well established and for the most part functioning governmental system, and a democratic one at that, there are hundreds of thousands of people without healthcare, roads surfaces worse than I've experienced in rural India, boarded up and derelict houses everywhere, segregation, racial tension you could cut with a knife, the third most dangerous city in the world and a maternal mortality rate higher than 50 other countries around the world.

"For a country that spends more than any other country on health care and more on childbirth-related care than any other area of hospitalization — US$86 billion a year — this is a shockingly poor return on investment"(ARHP).

I don't understand it. Can anyone explain? It is one nation, and yet it's so so big and so so diverse, how can the government even begin to tackle problems? Especially when there is a constant cry for lower taxes, less intervention and less government. Someone recently explained to me that he thought it would be better if there was less government. He thought that they only had responsibility for things like roads etc and that communities should take care of each other. Oh how beautiful that would be. But...But, look at the state of things now! Communities don't take care of eachother, the US of A is a land of freedom and individuality. With Healthcare, education, employment set up in the way it is, there certainly is not a 'care for others mentality,' it feels as though there is instead, an 'each to there own' mentality. Some of my closest friends are incredibly gifted people and they see that at a higher level, things need to change, and that there needs to be a 'care for others' mentality. They are involved with city planning, social housing developments and improving education for those at the lowest socioeconomic level. It's inspiring and I guess that's the starting point. They've chosen their niches, I need to choose mine (another topic, that by the grace of God might be coming clearer through writing and thinking about this). On a higher level, creating change at a policy level makes sense and needs to happen. I drive through the "ghetto" and the roads are impossibly wide, houses all boarded up or burned out, I get so many stares and I lock my car doors and I turn up NPR to hear a story on biofuel by harvard researchers.

It breaks my heart. It makes me angry. It confuses and perplexes me.

For another post:
Given that at least half of maternal deaths in the United States are preventable, this is not just a matter of public health, but a human rights failure. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “every human being has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including medical care and necessary social services”. This means that the United States health care system must provide health care services that are available, accessible, acceptable and of good quality. (ARHP)

But it doesn't! Perhaps the story at the beginning of this piece points to why the maternal mortality rate might be so high....

Read the whole article here.

The art of pulling a shot

Recently I hung out with a very experienced barista and was educated in the fine art of pulling a shot. In doing so, I pulled shot after shot after shot of espresso. I love that there is an art and an exact science to it all. To growing coffee, roasting coffee and making coffe, drinking coffee. And I love that there's an equation for supposed perfection. Don't think I've quite made it that far, but one day, I'd love to pull the perfect shot.

Winter stylin'

I've been in the states at my parents house over the Christmas/New year period. When I'm there, I always have big plans to cook, but only get around to actually doing it sometimes. This is mainly because my mum is so on it that I really have to get in there early with my intention to cook and I'm just not that planned, and don't have to be in my normal independent life. I also have to admit, that it's nice being taken care of and cooked for especially in the house of my parents where I slightly regress to lazy and I hate to say it, sometimes moody teenager. The result: my bottom is slower to get off it's seat to help than normal.

That being said, I had a few moments of creating and photographing that I thoroughly enjoyed. Joy the Baker inspires me to cook and live a better life everyday and so I was eager to try her peppermint chocolate roulade for mum's birthday cake. I've never tried to roll a cake, but decided that new years day was the day to try! Above you see the results. I've gotta say, I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

see Joy's post here, to give it ago. It's actually so much easier than it sounds and looks, thus creating a high satisfaction to effort ratio. Just remember to grease the wax paper that you cook the cake on unlike me who had to carefully scrape it off trying not to crack it. I also recommend eating it on an empty stomach, infact, perhaps for breakfast with a cup of tea, as it is rich rich rich, but handily gluten free!

Other photographs: christmas leftovers sandwhich and the ever beautiful and photogenic asparagus.

miso soup and the world as a dot

And so I was meant to write everyday this week. That's what I committed to. But alas I've been a little/rather ill and not up to much apart from dragging myself though the days and climbing into bed upon my return, to read, sleep and eat miso soup (it's supposedly high in probiotics, as are cheese and pickles! Who would have thought eh).

One day this week I spoke to my 3 year old nephew on the phone. Mid conversation he started describing a picture he'd drawn. He suddenly broke from my mundane chat about his nativity play into, "The big dot is the world and the small dot is fireworks and the straight line is down to the fireworks road." It was beautiful and some how profound. I can't even articulate quite why, but I loved it and felt that in someway he simplified things: the world and fireworks. That's basically it, our world and the fireworks that go off in it and the relative size of the two.

Today I went to a kids club for some local families and was hearing about a 30 year old woman who has 4 children by two different partners with whom relationships are difficult. I have no children and a relatively easy life, but so often as my world is (egocentrically) a rather large dot, the fireworks feel enormous. In fact unlike my nephews picture with the world being large and fireworks small, my dot of a world is large but it feels like the fireworks going off are concentric circles enveloping it.

Thank the lord for children's wisdom I say, they bring me back to the fact that quite simply put, the world is a big dot.

hello

Hello Blog!
I've missed you. I've missed having time to write and time to photograph, and time to ponder and take note of these things. In fact I think I probably did have time, if I'd made it so I'm sorry I haven't prioritized you more. I'm sorry I haven't taken time to absorb and record beautiful moments, thoughts, ideas. Please take me back and help me think, and absorb and create in a more constructive way, It helps me as I attempt to walk through life.

simplicity and chaos

I was on a search to find kilner jars the other day and came across a little hardware shop I was sure would carry them. outside pots and trash cans were hanging from the awning. mops and brooms were leaning against the window. I walked in and was amazed. I was amazed to find the shop completely full. not only completely jam packed full but also completely chaotic. a weathered older man, with a bit of a belly, and scraggily white beard, stood up from his sunken and threadbare arm chair. I located a tiny crackly tv almost lost amongst garden tools and pots and pans balanced on top of a mini fridge opposite his armchair. again, I was amazed and I think I was even more amazed that this shop survived. there was no order, no desire to sell anything or make anything look its best and even more apealing. there was not one place for packs of loo roll, rather they were placed as if they were dropped one at a time from an over full arm load as someone walked into the shop, and not touched again.

When I asked for some kilner jars he thought for a moment and then delightfully went to a shelf piled high with plates, drills, a pot or 5, some place mats, rubber gloves, a pack of loo roll and pulled out from the very back of a shelf a kilner jar wrapped in paper. once again, amazing.

I haggled with him over the price, sadly I think the chaos of the shop made me not trust his prices and I went on my way to find a cheaper one. (which, by the way, I couldn't!) It's still extraordinary to me that his shop survives.

I'm a sucker for packaging, I'm a sucker for beautiful aesthetics, and when so much time and energy and £6 million are invested in the latest John Lewis Christmas campaign, I walk away bemused that his shop survives, but nevertheless thinking it must somehow doable, whether you have £6 million or o million.

A few weeks earlier, I had popped up to the east end of London for some coffee training and been amazed by simplicity of this shop and the fact that it was surviving. Far from chaotic, this little shop was very homemade and seemed to be just going with the flow. Well not exactly going with the flow as each table was perfectly and very intentionally laid out, but the sweet girl running the shop again, sat reading her book, not looking to explain the simplicity or the paper sign or the idea behind selling match boxes and old excercise books.


I'm constantly amazed and intrigued by how people make a living. Perhaps because I never cease to meander and wander and wonder about how to do that myself. In fact this is why I sat down to write: to instigate some creative juices, to produce and create as this seems to get ideas flowing. So, this is what I am committing to do, I am going to write everyday next week. Who knows what about, but I'm going to write.

a few things I like right now

1. Using fresh bunches of herbs as part of flower arrangements. they're cheaper, edible and beautiful in a fresh way.



2. Soup (apple and butternut squash). and a kind of 70's approach to cheese on toast: square slice of pre-sliced gouda, somehow it works in a photo.


3. This photo of blueberry and raspberry muffins about to go in the oven.

4. Anthropologie displays this season.



5. Glass containers: all shapes and sizes.

lunch no.3 & 4

Eggs. I love eggs.

no. 3 a pile of spinach, bacon, roasted tomatoes and sauteed mushrooms with an egg popped on top.
no. 4 asparagus sauteed and 2 eggs added at the last minute. perfect for those who like to avoid washing up

both delicious, have to say.

lunch no.2

Lunch no. 2 is more of a communal affair. Part of the beauty was the fact that I tried to take several photos and there was always an arm or a hand reaching or passing something. it was a flurry of activity amongst the beautiful spread. As soon as I saw the main board full of goodness, I mentioned it was blog worthy. from that moment, everyone else's efforts were aiming for blog-worthiness. It' a funny standard to go for, but i definitely find myself taking a photo of something or situation with that kind of filter. 'blog that.'

Back to the main thing, lunch no.2: a board full of beetroot, spinach/baby mache, fried halloumi, cucumber, toast, pate, and a hard cheese, and of course, a pot of tea.... I love serving food this way. Maybe because it increases the communal act of eating, but I think it also just makes for a beautiful experience and increases our engagement with what we're eating as we reach for bits with our hands.

lunch no. 1

I'm meant to be making Granola which Muesli Lover seems to like! (thanks for the shout out) However, I just got distracted by a sandwich and wanted to make a note of it! yes, a sandwich. Now I would say with strong conviction that I would be quite happy to eat breakfast and tea (as in English teatime tea) for all my meals, however recently some darn good lunches have come my way. always quick, always thrown together, oh so good. Today, looking into a fairly empty fridge consisting of not much else besides coffee and spinach, I reached for spinach and found some strawberries. Easy to do, a fresh taste of summer, tasty, crunchy, juicy, pretty and a great combo of sweet and savoury all in one bite.

I'll tell you how it went:

toast, a layer of mayonaise, a few spinach leaves and a small handful of home grown rocket. Some strawberries sliced vertically and all topped with a dash of balsamic vinegar and black pepper freshly ground.

Delightful but now I'm in serious need of getting down to work!

I heart London

On a sunny warm evening, London by the river is hard to beat. I love this family of ducks, and the shoe installation that's appeared along the wall of the river.

burned

I got home this evening from a lovely 24 hours by the sea with some friends and all I could think about was a recipe I read about in the brilliant and delighful book I just finished called A Homemade Life. The idea is so simple and so delicious. It involves radishes, unsalted butter, salt and white bread (who would have thought radishes, I've never eaten them before and never would have thought to if it weren't for Molly Weizenberg's writing).

I arrived home, dumped my bag, sat for a moment and then headed out the door again, off to get the perfect bread and butter. What was rather pleasing was that I'd bought some radishes from a green grocer the day I left to go away for the weekend and had left them in a bowl of water on the counter, so when I came home they were deliciously crunchy and fresh.

Back to what I was saying. I left the house to find the perfect bread and butter. On my way, I ground to a halt when confronted with a lady sitting in a heap on the sidewalk, holding a rose, with her trousers half way down her legs, hardly able to speak from intoxication. A couple of us tried to talk to her, and the manager of the bar out side of which she was sitting offered her water. We asked her where she needed to go and she said she didn't have a home. A police van passed by and we flagged them down. They were a bit useless without any solution to offer, and asked her to 'move on please.' A strange response to someone without much dignity at that moment. They left without saying good bye, so I called an ambulance. While on the phone, Arabella, as she referred to herself approached me with a raised voice, pretty angry I'd made a call and shouted down the phone at the sweet ambulance lady. She then proceeded to shout at me for being a young stupid girl who had a house, who had no idea about what it was like to drink and sell herself and ask people for money and not have a home... I didn't know what to say. A lot of it was true and yet I couldn't help but feel a little burned by trying to help someone. I so wanted to help her, or atleast restore a little bit of her dignity. And yet, I wanted to help her in the way I saw fit. We so often want to help in accordance with how we live life. I wonder what she actually wanted in that moment, or how I could have actually been helpful? I should have at least asked if she wanted an ambulance, instead I took it upon myself to make the call.

She walked off swearing at me, and I walked off to buy my bread and butter....


Bread, Butter and Radishes

unsalted butter
coarse sea salt
white bread (Molly suggests baguette, but all I could find was soft white thickly sliced white bread)
radishes

Gather your ingredients and a pretty plate. when I bought my radishes, they felt a little tired, so I popped them in a bowl of water(not the leaves) and they refreshed beautifully, and were full of crunch when I returned to them a day later. Thinly slice a radish or two, lightly toast your bread, place a knob of cold butter and a pile of the coarse sea salt all on the plate. Layer up butter, radish and salt and enjoy.

PS. Molly talks about eating this with someone, but I found this to be a meal that I loved eating on my own. It felt special, aesthetically pleasing, fresh and was scrumptious, plus of course made for a good photo opp.. I'll definitely take radishes into consideration from now on....

PPS. I've done the same with cucumber, that is, chunky white bread, hunks of butter and of cucumber all together and yumm in the same way.

We sat in the garden on a rug, in the sun, I put horizontally sliced lemon slices in the water, someone had brought a newspaper, there was fresh chunky bread, a lilac blossom was out and it was the spring in all it's glory.

a delicious green salad for the spring (adapted from a Leon cookbook):

lightly steam about 300g sugar snap peas
steam about 300g green beans
defrost about 400g frozen peas
pick, wash and chop 2 handfuls of mint (preferably from a plant in your garden, in a pot, or on your windowsill)
cube/crumble a pack of feta cheese

combine and toss in a big beautiful summery salad bowl (I used a heavy white ceramic bowl with ceramic handles)
douse with a balsamic dressing

balsamic dressing (a dressing I"ve grown up on):
Put balsamic vinegar and olive oil in a 3:1 ratio, a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar and a sprinkle of salt in one of your favourite jars (something nice like a bon maman or pesto jar). Shake well