Food For The Soul

Readers, get your paniers! Mornings like this call for some serious retail therapy. When its wet and grey, when an unexpected school run forces a very unpleasant contretemps with a rude and surly man in a van, when you've already drunk your daily quota of tea and feel like your never going to feel warm and dry again, a touch of shopping is just what's required.



No, we're not talking ordinary trundle round the supermarket, trolley, purse and reward card at the ready -



we're talking a gentle stroll through the Provencal streets that are so hot that you're grateful of all the dappled shade you can find. Reader, on a day like this, can you imagine that?



Against the sunbleached ochre walls of shuttered buildings underneath an azure sky, let's take some time choosing our meals today...



no need to hurry, time is on our side and there's always tomorrow as there's a market every day here in Aix.
A kilo of this and a kilo of that, a bunch of basil, multi coloured tomatoes,



baby aubergines, zingy zesty fresh mint.



How about some olives?



Spices?



Even the peppercorns are colourful today...



Some crockery to brighten the kitchen table.




Sunflowers against Provencal tablecloths, carrier bags echoing their golden hue.
The summer sunshine increases as the morning progresses so we shall wander slowly, breath in the scents and sounds and savour the delights.




A gentle nod to Autumn as we discover the stalls of mushrooms, fresh and dried.
Nothing pressing to do, just wander and taste ... some goats cheese and figs for lunch perhaps?

Ratatouille and salad for supper maybe?







Definitely an ice cream on the way home...



But don't worry, we can do it all again tomorrow (and believe me reader we did! A morning didn't pass without a trip to the market) - now wouldn't that be nice ....

Time For A Wobble?

What is it about jelly? The shape of it? The taste of it? Its texture or just simply the way it wobbles? Whatever it is it never fails to bring on a case of the giggles whenever it is served at this house. Not that it is served that often and maybe that's something I should remedy because a serious fit of the giggles is never to be sneezed at!
I heard the other day somebody mention that they were going to make a special supper for their eldest child after an exam and that there would be jelly. Big Sister who was at that time, just embarking on the long and intense timetable of GCSEs that lay before her, needed cheering up. What a brilliant idea, nothing better, she's loved jelly since she was tiny.



What could be easier than making a jelly. I've made and eaten dozens of them, I could say I could make them blindfolded but that's the point, I almost did... Never, ever make your jelly without your glasses on. The oh so simple task of adding hot water to the contents of a packet is deceptively tricky if you can't read the measurements on your measuring jug. There was I gaily adding water and stirring and pouring contents into mould after mould, wondering why a) my jelly seemed to be resembling the everlasting porridge pot and b) questioning the thermostat on the fridge as the jelly just remained as liquid as the day it was born... Several hours and watery jelly moulds later I found my glasses, emptied the bin to retrieve the jelly instructions and realised my mistake. Poor old Big Sister came home in such a mood that I daren't even tell her the story of the jelly that might have been...



Last weekend I not only remembered to buy some more jelly but set to make them with glasses and magnifying glass at hand. Do you know what? This time the jelly only filled one mould! How simple was that? Not that simple, because basking in my reflective glory and smugness I forgot to get the jelly out of the fridge and give it to anyone. It was only the next day that it was found wobbling in all its glory.


Sunday night we had our jelly. Shimmering, jewel like, resplendent in its wobbliness it sat on our table. And then the laughter began... the first little wobble, the first squelch, the sight of the little domes... need I say more?



The exams are now over here, thank goodness. I don't think I have ever seen my daughter work so hard and feel so tired. She asked me the other day if I was proud of her - I couldn't begin to say just how much. It's not the marks that matter, it's the fact that she got through it with more smiles and maturity than we ever imagined, the fact that for hours she sat revising subjects that she neither really understood nor liked and, sorry huge proud mummy moment here, that whenever I look at her I am filled with the deepest pride and love. I only wish there had been a jelly and some of her little sister's mischievous giggles to greet her after every exam.


(We have a selection of jelly moulds in our Scullery

So now the exams are all over, the summer lies ahead and I for one am stockpiling the jelly and waiting for the jelly jokes... you don't need to have an exam to have a wobble!

Food for thought

I have had my nose buried in this book for the past few days. I've wanted a copy for a while now and have been waiting for it to be published in paperback. I love Nigel Slater's writing. Here is a book full of the idiosyncracies of the way we eat, the things we eat, the way we shop and the way we cook. But it is much more than this, it's a celebration of our food, our relationships with food and the way we view our food that is so particularly English. (and yes, it does cover our peculiar fascination with afternoon tea). This book has given me so much food for thought (excuse the pun).



After I wrote a recent post about a trip to the beach and the inevitable 99 on the way home, I was emailed by the lovely Anna who asked me to explain what I was talking about. Of course I took it for granted that she would know that a 99 was an ice cream in a cone with a chocolate flake stuck in. How could something that seemed to have been around throughout my childhood not be known by everybody else. I then realised that is these food references that cause puzzlement to us bloggers. I have read countless wonderful posts from Amercian bloggers with passing references to foods I've never heard of, that sound wonderful but I have no idea whether they're savoury, sweet or indeed edible. Isn't it strange that something we take so much for granted, something that has become so embedded in our culture is not universally shared. I remember always buying my 99s as a child from the ice cream van and asked Anna if they had them in USA? A rather naive question perhaps, but I really can't remember reading about them or seeing them anywhere else than over here. Yes was the answer and in a similar way Anna says she vividly remembers the sound of the ice cream van (truck) approaching. During our emails I suddenly realised that most of my childhood summer memories have the sound of an ice cream van in the background. It seemed to be the backdrop to so many summer evenings. You would have eaten your supper, the sun was still shining (it always seemed to be sunny in my memories too) and in the distance you would hear the magical sound of the ice cream van a few roads away. This gave you just enough time to find your mum, for her to find her purse and for you to be given some coins to rush out into the road and wait, sitting on the garden wall for the ice cream van to finally turn into your road. I would queue with my friends who lived in the road and we would look at all the photos of ice lollies, hoping that they hadn't sold out, but it was inevitably to the lure of the 99 that I succumbed.



Just yesterday I was emailing a friend and we were talking about The Famous Five and ended up, as you do, imagining summer picnics and lashings of ginger beer and Aunt Fanny's fruit cake. I can't remember ever having lashings of ginger beer as a child but I am oh so nostalgic about the food that the Famous Five would get through every time they were out on their jollys.
Another favourite book, Milly Molly Mandy is full of reference to home baking, cooking, cakes, blackberry picking and egg collecting - and it's these little snippets that I love. If I'm honest the scenes I love best in Harry Potter are those huge feasts at Hogwarts or the scenes when Mrs Weasley is preparing her meals for all her family. These were all reminders of those Enid Blyton stories I devoured when I was little.



A few weeks ago I watched The Supersizers go Seventies. It made us all laugh, particularly Big sister. It brought back so many memories, not just about the food but life how it was when I was little. Gosh the food was really unhealthy, fresh food was really lacking in this programme, the age of processed, packaged food was dawning. In our home I remember my mum introducing garlic powder for the first time (fresh garlic still scarcely available), chilli con carne (she always overdid the chilli) and my friend says that no camping trip for her family was complete without a Vesta Curry. I loved Arctic Roll, fish fingers, tinned peaches and cream, pear drops, sherbet pips, Blackjacks and my mum's Christmas trifle.



Nigel Slater in his book says that Sarson's vinegar is the smell of Britain. Not sure if I would agree with this as I could think of a lot of other smells that could sit alongside it. But there's no denying it that there was always a bottle of Sarsons in our kitchen cupboard to go on our chips, just as there is in my home today, still taking pride of place on the table when the chips are served. Could you imagine sitting on the beach next to a fish and chip shop without the waft of vinegar mingling with the sea air?



I could go on forever about my food memories and this book has brought so many of them back to the surface again. So if you like teacakes, toast, toffee or tatties, have a passion for sweets, chocolates or cakes or simply just enjoy buying, cooking or eating food I'd get hold of a copy of this book, settle down on the sofa with a mug of tea and a packet of bourbons (or digestives, Rich Tea, Custard Creams, Jammie Dodgers, Club biscuits, kit kats, Jaffa Cakes, Gingernuts - I could go on ...)

Sunshine on a rainy day

Well M's been up the ladder again, trying to pick as many apples and figs as possible before they all get blown to the ground by the wind. This grey weather is really beginning to dampen our spirits and it feels more like an Autumn half term than a summer holiday. Have we bypassed summer completely I wonder, I heard that the sun is on its way, but when? Our summer fortnight break with M got off to a good start and we were able to visit lots of places but now we're just plain old bored with this weather! To top it all my oldest now seems to be suffering from some kind of virus that's affecting her ears and throat - as I said it feels just like half-term!


As a result we've spent a few days at home and my thoughts have turned to odd jobs around the house, little painting jobs etc, moving things around, playing with objects and admiring. I applied a fresh coat of blue paint to some kitchen shelves and put a new Laura Ashley jug on them. I fell in love with this little jug, the colours are so bright and vibrant and sitting in front of the blue, it brings another one of those smiles to my face!


Back to the apples and what to do with them? I spent a few hours the other day making a lovely fig and apple jam - which turned out to be delicious, sweet and the prettiest jewel-like colour - a rosy pinkish red! Then quite by accident a couple of days later I found this book in a shop - "Apples for Jam" by Tessa Kiros.

It was meant to be and it was half-price! A book that sings colour, vitality and a love for food, Filled with wonderful recipes, gorgeous photos and memories of childhood. It is a collection of recipes passed from generation to generation, from friend to friend to be shared by everyone. Looking at this book reminds me so much of what goes on here in Blogland - the way we share our thoughts, memories, photos and recipes. The way we can dip and delve into each other's lives and, above all, enjoy what we all offer and make us forget momentarily that the sun isn't shining.

Pottering and pickles

M is off work for two weeks and is now officially on holiday. We're not going away and have decided to go for 'days out' with the girls. There is so much to see and do around here that this is never a problem and judging by the size of the list that we drew up of all the places we want to visit, a fortnight will not be long enough!


For some reason though we've all been incredibly tired this week and given in to being lazy - days have been spent lazing round the house, pottering around and getting jobs done that have been hovering over our heads for a while now. I finally painted the door on what use to be the outside loo! This had been niggling me for some while now so it was good to get it done and I love the jade green which will hopefully fade and weather with time.


M has been really enjoying playing the hunter-gatherer in the garden and has spent the last few days up a ladder picking apples and figs. I think I'm going to have to keep an eye on him, if I'm not careful our whole garden could be turned into one huge veg plot!


With so many apples and figs I had to make some chutney. I'm not an expert in fact this was only the second time I'd made it, but I can recommend it. It really is one of the most relaxing things to do - once everything is in the pan - it really is a case of just giving it a stir whenever you're passing through the kitchen. The results were great and very satisfying - jars of both apple and fig chutney ready for Christmas (oops I said that word!).


My youngest wanted in on the cooking action too but wanted no part in pickle-making. Her speciallity is Delia's chocolate brownies - delicious. Soft, crumbly and chewy and the scent of chocolate finally masked the rather overpowering smell of vinegar that had filled the house all day.
Something more active today I think, depending on when the teenager gets out of bed ....

Lovely Lavender

Torrential rain again today so it seems odd to be talking about the front garden and a very summery plant. Last year M dug up our front garden which was just weedy grass and a very ugly manhole cover. We covered it in pebbles and filled it with lavender bushes, rosemary, a peony, foxgloves and a potted rose to cover that manhole cover. Last year it looked a bit like toytown as everything was so small, but the lavender did well enjoying its sunny position.

This year, despite the wind and rain, the lavender has gone mad. It's now blooming and has swamped everything else. It is beautiful but makes running up and down the garden steps for the girls a little bit more hazardous as they're petrified of all the bees that it has attracted.

I love lavender, I remember walking our family dog with my mum when I was younger and stopping by a neighbour's lavender bush every evening and rubbing some against our hands and smelling it on the way home. It's good to have some of our own to smell whenever we come home as it lines the steps up to our door.
Last year I was able to make up loads of lavender sachets to put in the bathroom amongst the towels, in our drawers and under pillows for a good night's sleep. I'm looking forward to making some more this year (quite a few by the looks of things!), once the lavender is fully in bloom and starting to dry.

I also made some lavender sugar at Christmas as presents with some of the dried lavender buds. It's easy to use and perfect to add to shortbreads, cakes and icecreams. and you can use it instead of normal sugar when making meringues (very summery). It's floral sweetness is great with summer berries. Just make sure it's lavender from your garden and nothing bought that's had anything nasty added to it (I use the lavender from the back garden for cooking as it hasn't been near any car fumes).


Lavender Sugar
Add 3-4 tablespoons of dried lavender flowers to 8oz (200g) sugar. Seal in a jar and leave for two weeks. Whiz until fine in a liquidiser or processor. Easy!
If you use lavender sugar instead of normal sugar in shortbread biscuit recipes and use heart shape cutters it makes very pretty biscuits, that smell and taste lovely.

Back to my tea cosies. Have a good weekend.

You are what you eat

I have been tagged by the very funny Anna at Thimbleanna to list my five favourite restaurants. Personally, I think it's just another way of Anna finding out more of my pet hates and teasing me with them. Ever since I divulged my complete loathing of mashed potatoes, Anna has endeavoured to post as many pictures and mentions of it on her blog as possible - I will be forever haunted by the sight of mashed potato - please no more, primary school dinners were enough for anyone!


1.My favourite restaurant of all time has to be Terre a Terre in Brighton. We're not meat eaters and this restaurant is one of the best veggies in England, even friends of ours who are diehard meat eaters count it as their fav place to eat too. This is where we go for birthdays and anniversaries and today being our anniversary it's nice to give it a mention. The most amazing and wonderful ingredients combined in an exciting and original way but presented in a very cryptic menu!! Fortunately for us, until recently one of our friends worked there and would come and decipher the menu for us, I think half the time nobody knows what they've ordered! Last time we were there our friend had left and we had the double embarassment of not only having to ask a waitress to tell us what the dishes were but also having to ask her to read the menu to us as we'd both left our glasses at home! A few glasses of wine later, it didn't seem to matter! We first went to Terre a Terre when it was in its original premises and just starting out. I was heavily pregnant with my first daughter and needed food! I can still remember the fruit and bowl of delicious chocolate dipping sauce (a very Dawn French moment)!


2. I love curry. Not hot, hot curry but aromatic, spicy curry that lets you taste the ingredients. Nooris in Brighton has to be one of my fav curry restaurants. Take away is also great on a Friday or Saturday with a bottle of wine when we're too tired to cook! NB Can't stand curry or any food with peas in it - darn it Anna there's another hate! I also remember a lovely Indian restaurant in Paris we went to on our first holiday together as a couple and it was gorgeous and romantic and completely different to the place we ate the following night where M got chronic food poisoning! Very fond too of Middle Eastern food, mezze, falafel, aubergine dip etc.
3. Good old English fish and chips. Takeaway is best! Bardsley's in Brighton is best! But eating chips on the beach is a very close second!
4.Pub lunches in the Sussex countryside, Ram Inn, Sussex Ox, The Cricketers are great, anywhere with real food, good beer and, preferably a roaring fire will do!
5. M's cooking. He's a wonderful cook and makes the most fantastic bread - all kinds. Artichokes on a Saturday are a family fav, his homemade pizza on a Sunday and everyone's happy!
One of my pet hates that I'm quite happy to mention is my inability to compile any list! I hate it because the minute I think I've finished I immediately think of at least four other things that I would have liked to have added. Here's one of them, one of my favourite puddings, recipe here for Louise at Beachyscapecodcupboard.



Eton Mess
12 meringues
2 punnets of strawberries
1 pint double cream (570ml)
1 heaped tablespoon icing sugar

Blend half the strawberries with icing sugar in a blender and sieve to make a puree. Crush the meringues into pieces, Whip the cream, but not too stiff. Chop remaining strawberries and add to meringues. Fold in the cream and drizzle over the puree. Serve immediately.
Delicious!

If anyone wants to be tagged feel free!
Have a wonderful weekend with lots of yummy food.