One a penny, two a penny.......

This week I kept chilly spirits up by going to see.........

Dreamthinkspeak's, In The Beginning Was The End, at Somerset House, well underneath Somerset House. They create site-specific theatre and if you've never seen a production don't think, don't pause, don't hesitate for one minute just book tickets.......utterly amazing.

Then I went to see Sinead O'Connor and her band, perform a rousing show. I haven't seen her live since New York back in the 90s and it was lovely to see her looking so well and in such good voice........ electrifying.

Then today the sun shone and I went to buy the best hotcross buns in town at Ottolenghi's and bumped into the great Yotam himself. So, I came home.....

....... and I created Still Life With Buns...........Happy Easter.

Top tip: keep warm by dancing round the kitchen to Sinead O'Connor's, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?

Oh no it looks like..........

What can I say........
Stay in, stay warm, stay well.......

Top tip: rhubarb is in the shops, go crumble.

Spring to mind......

This week I dog-sat Olive the baby whippet........

The sun shone........ 

 Spring began to spring......

 and I made a Mother's Day card.........

4 years at art college not wasted............

'People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.'
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Top tip: homemade cards are the thought that counts....... we are all only ever 10' away from a Pritt Stick.

A shoe in.........

I’ve never ever bought a pair of white shoes ….. before. Wearing white is, as I’ve mentioned previously, not something I do naturally. If I try to wear anything white other people’s ketchup lands on me. I have experimented with the crisp white shirt and the fact that I don’t iron does hamper my crisp appeal. I once bought a pair of white jeans and I wore them on a 6 week trek around Mexico with a 2 year old in tow……. my 2 year old I hasten to add, not one I just found. Why did I wear white jeans? Who knows. It was the 90s and I think I had some brightly coloured poncho'n'white-trousered fashion faux pas thing going on, born about by watching too much High Chaperral as a kid. And then going to art college. Anyway, I ended up just another Gringo in dirty trousers. 

But recently I saw a pair of very expensive Prada shoes that I liked a lot. And then I saw a pair of much, much cheaper, but most definitely inspired by Prada, shoes from Office, in Harper’s Bazaar magazine, that I liked a lot. And so dear reader, I bought them. 

Going white one step at a time……

Top tip: give or get a monthly subscription to a magazine……. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Homemade gift no.29

Can there be any greater gift than the gift of homemade baked goods? Well yes there can: a trip to Paris, a pair of Dinny Hall tiered smokey quartz earrings, dinner at The Wolseley ....... the list is endless. However, if funds are restricted and birthdays are booming, a tin of Nigel Slater's soft bake chocolate and hazelnut cookies, lovingly baked by you can go a long way. I like to half dip some of them in white chocolate for a few extra calories...........

200g dark chocolate at least 70% cocoa solids

75g butter

225g light muscovado sugar

2 eggsvanilla extract

50g skinned hazelnuts

150g self-raising flour

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a small pan of simmering water, with the base of the bowl not quite touching the water. Allow the chocolate to melt. Turn off the heat as soon as the chocolate has melted.

Cream the butter and sugar till smooth and creamy. Whisk the eggs lightly in another bowl just enough to break them up, then add gradually to the butter and sugar with a couple of drops of vanilla extract, beating constantly. 

Toast the hazelnuts in a shallow pan till golden, shaking regularly so they colour evenly. Grind the nuts coarsely to the texture of gravel, remove half and continue grinding the other half until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the flour, melted chocolate and both textures of nut to the mixture. Stop beating as soon as everything is combined.

Place large, heaped tablespoons of the mixture on to a baking sheet lined with parchment. You should get 12 large biscuits. The mixture can wait for a few minutes if you are baking them in two batches. Don't flatten the cookies, they will do so in the oven.

Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will have spread and be very soft to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool a little. As soon as they are cool enough to move without breaking, slide a palette knife underneath and carefully lift them on to a cooling rack. Then try not to eat them all before you have handed them over........

Top tip: a little of what you fancy does you good....... it is still February after all.