The Sneaky Magpie

Saturday was super busy with all sort of chores but Sunday turned to be bit wet and staying indoors sounded like an excellent idea.

Having finished Cranford which I enjoyed immensely (and I am even more impressed with Sue Birtwistle who managed to transform it into such captivating TV drama) I reached for a book that was waiting for me for few days, a fresh Amazon purchase skipping the queue of the long overdue books to read: Adrian Mole, The Prostrate Years. I almost devoured it in one go, as every other book from the series it is hilarious and heartwarming, it manages to capture all the things people get obsessed by. This is the first Adrian Mole book I read while actually living in UK which definitely does help in understanding a lot of the cultural references.

Books were not the only things I devoured, as the courgette gods keep giving I decided to bake Clotilde’s chocolate and zucchini cake (thanks Laura for pointing it out). It was delicious especially when cooled in the fridge overnight. I will be baking this one again!

The new season beetroots seem to be abundant as well and I made a classic Polish chilled soup which has got the most amazing color.

Now I can only look forward to the long weekend ahead, hopefully the sun will shine!

This weekend was not the hot summer weekend I was expecting, the fact that my house doesn’t get much sun and is bit cold in general, didn’t make me think that the weather was ok to go out. On top of it my tube station was closed for maintenance so I got kind of stuck in Clapham. I could of course cycle but if going to East End markets I prefer to take the public transport. And I don’t have patience for buses, they make me nauseous when I try to read. So it was a weekend at home, well, almost.

I got a bit of reading done. My boss gave me On Chesil Beach (we shot in Weymouth some time ago just next to Chesil Beach hence the gift) by Ian McEwan and I actually enjoyed it. I never liked McEwan but this strange story of two people who despite loving each other very much are not able to stay together managed to suck me in.

I am also reading Séance and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. This collection of bizarre folky Jewish stories is taking up all my free time. Singer is so engaging with his writing it’s hard to put the book down. I have a couple of his novels waiting for me too.

Speaking of books waiting to be read, somewhere between car boot sales, charity shops and gifts I have managed to accumulate quite a sizable new pile so I really should not buy anything for a while.

On Friday evening hubby was working late and I happily settled to watch An Education. From the start I knew I will enjoy it, the imagery was pleasing, the acting very good especially Alfred Molina and Carey Mulligan, the dialog was clever and natural and the storyline in general simple yet engaging. It wasn’t a massively thought provoking film but it definitely had a lot of good values and messages.

I am really really looking forward to Sophia Coppola’s new film Somewhere. It looks good!

I continued to watch Sopranos and I even channeled my inner Carmela when I whipped up a very good tasting lasagne and salad for dinner (I skipped all the 5 other dishes she would usually make keeping her fake nails intact).

I did some baking of course, this time it was chocolate and nut banana bread, a kind of left over ingredients cake. I had some odd amounts of various nuts, flours and sugars to use and it all married together well.

The recipe is dead easy:

150g of sugar (cane, caster, brown)

2 eggs

80ml of olive oil

1 tspn vanilla extract

3 -4 ripe bananas

260g flour (rice, wheat, tapioca, almond)

1/2 tspn baking soda

1/2 tspn baking powder

1/2 tspn sea salt

100g chocolate

100g nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, macademia)

Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, prepare 2 small loaf tins.

Cream eggs and sugar until smooth, add vanilla, oil and combine. Add mashed bananas and mix until smooth leaving few chunks. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the egg mixture. Add chopped chocolate and nuts and mix well. Split between the tins and bake for 40-50 minutes or until the knife comes out clean.

A great afternoon snack.

I did manage to drag myself out on Sunday, wrapped in a scarf and a jacket I soon discovered that it was in fact a very nice day outside! My flat is so misleading. Hubby and I wandered down to Wandsworth Common which is much nicer than Clapham Common with its bits of wild. We gathered some wild flowers and had a cup of tea in the park café. Then it was back home for more Sopranos and reading.

Nigel Slater is one of my favorite food writers and so are his recipes, so simple yet so utterly delicious. When I opened one of my birthday presents and found it to be his latest book Tender I almost shrieked.

I have been wanted a garden (or an allotment) for a very long time so I devoured the whole book in one evening admiring Nigel’s city garden, his experiences with London wildlife, struggling with compost and figuring out what grows best and where.

It’s amazing to think that a medium sized garden can make you nearly self sufficient, from humble onions and potatoes to several varieties of tomatoes, pumpkins and all the fresh herbs you can ever wish for.

Here are few things I will be making this summer:

Baked aubergines with yogurt and cucumber.

A salad of carrot thinnings.

Broad beans with white cheese and radishes.

Goat’s cheese and beetroot salad with seeds.

The book is bursting with recipes be it for fresh salads, warm winter stews and soups or wonderful cakes. It’s a gardener’s year on a plate.

Today we took our bikes on a train and headed for Chawton, a picturesque little village in Hampshire where Jane Austen spent few years of her life before she got ill and moved to Winchester where she died soon after. In Chawton she reworked Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Sense and Sensibility and wrote Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion.

Jane Austen House Museum is a 17th century house which gives a great insight into the author’s life. The house itself is beautiful and it is surrounded by a large flower garden where Jane and her sister Cassandra would sit.

The trip starts in the bakehouse and kitchen.

The interiors are very simple and humble, Mrs Austen and her daughters were left with very little money and the only help came from Jane’s brother who married well.

The desk.

To my delight the house was full of costumes from last year’s adaptation of Emma.

A quilt made by Jane, her mother and sister.

The house is full of paintings, illustrations, manuscripts and things found under the floorboards. It is also decorated with simple flowers throughout which makes it look alive and fresh.

Flowers of course came from the garden.

The museum shop is pretty impressive with a unique editions of Austen’s novels. I am contemplating purchasing these.

Opposite the house there is a lovely little tea room, Cassandra’s Cup.

A charming little place serving lunch and tea. I could not resist the Victoria sponge and a glass of refreshing lemonade.

The tea room has got a charming yet wacky interior with over 200 cups hanging off the ceiling.

Feeling refreshed it was time for a country walk which inspired many of Jane’s novels. Walking through it takes you right back to her vibrant descriptions of nature and taking exercise.

We met some pretty horses.

Chawton has got some intellectual vandals.

The village itself has got a large manor house, a rather spectacular church and a lot of houses have thatched roofs creating a perfect English scenery.

A truly lovely day out of town.

Lately I have been reading a lot about Utility design and rationing, a very fascinating topic.

Utility Furniture and Fashion 1941-1951 is a great little book explaining all the stages of the rationing era: how the utility furniture was designed, what pieces of clothing were allowed, there are examples of fabric design and the best posters ever. Simplicity is a must, but simplicity makes those things aesthetically appealing to me.

The Dig for Victory campaign is probably one of the best pieces of advertising ever made, clear message and striking imagery.

Fabric patterns:

Posters:

When I visited Imperial War Museum back in January I almost screamed for joy when I saw the poster for the upcoming Ministry of Food exhibition. So yesterday I paid a visit.

To start with I wanted to buy everything from the exhibition shop, there were recipe books, candles, aprons to name a few, all very attractive looking.

The exhibition shows all aspects of food making process.

We start in a gardening section with a shed and accessories that wouldn’t feel out of place at Labour and Wait.

We had rationing books and examples of food rations – it was not a lot! There was also a shop with the most amazing packaging display, a lot of the brands are still available now.

There was a kitchen with very little on the table.

I will take this as a house inspiration.

I saw few examples of the most popular dishes and I can only imagine how dull it must have been with a Woolton pie being the most exciting thing on a plate. But I admire people for creativity, I remember potato stamps which used to amuse me as a child and got chucked afterward, back in the 40s after having a creative afternoon the stamps were cleaned and cooked for dinner.

The exhibition ended on a high note in a sweet shop.

The fashion was pretty amazing too, corduroy jodhpurs, shirt and a preppy v-neck worn with socks and lace up boots. Chic Land Girls are my new style inspiration.

This is one of the most informative, interesting and inspiring exhibitions I have ever seen.

Yesterday was a very exciting day, I got to meet Miranda from Skirmishofwit. We met in Hamspstead and headed to Ginger and White cafe for a blissful afternoon of tea, cakes and wonderful conversation. It was great to meet you Miranda and I am really looking forward to see you again soon!

Ginger and White serve everything on Poole two tone crockery which I absolutely adore.

Later on I met hubby in China Town and went to see A Single Man. I didn’t love it so I will try to dissect it a little. The acting was very good, especially Julianne Moore and Nicholas Hoult, Colin Firth was not bad either. The story is very interesting, exploring a day in life of George Falconer who decides to kill himself after loosing his partner in a car accident. I thought Tom Ford didn’t show enough of George’s pain, the film is edited with way too much focus on beauty shots which make it look like a perfume commercial, and not much on George’s feelings, there are nice touches where the colors change as Falconer is happy or sad but I could not see his real suffering. It is definitely worth seeing but it left me a bit disappointed.  What didn’t disappoint is the set designing which was absolutely amazing as well as Hoult’s mohair jumper. I’d like to read the book as I really believe the story is too good to be judged by Ford’s film.

Time for dinner, we found a real gem in Lisle Street, a cottage – like Taiwanese place which had steaming dumplings in the window and a queue outside, always a good sign, it is called Leong’s Legend. After waiting for 5 minutes we were lead up a very narrow staircase to our table. The atmosphere was lovely with dim lights and wooden interior.

The food was delicious: steamed bao with pork, crab and ginger with a tiny bit of roe on the top, Beijing dumplings, duck pancakes with plum sauce and squid with ginger, chillies and garlic. A real feast for very little and they serve beer in bowls!

I have finished Gaskell’s North and South which I enjoyed enormously. She is so good with describing characters and places. The South was all warm, sunny and described with yellows and reds while the North had depressing grey and blue-ish feel to it. The story is beautifully written with a lot of detail making a precise picture of a Victorian industrial town. There is a bit of humor in the novel as well, the author calls the northern county Darkshire. I cannot wait to reach for Wives and Daughters next.

Today we cycled to Tate Britain, mainly to see Henry Moore exhibition. We meandered through the main gallery rooms and discovered a Francis Bacon room. I really believe if you get lost you can always learn something interesting. What we learned today was that in the 1920s and 30s Francis Bacon was a very talented interior decorator, inspired by the Cubists he designed a screen and few very attractive rugs.

The Henry Moore show was truly amazing, from early sculptures of primitive masks and bodies through reclining women, mother and child series to war time sketches of miners and people in underground shelters. By walking around the works you can discover the real angle and see the shapes of human bodies. He was very respectful of his materials, he carefully carved shapes out of stones till the real shape got revealed. This is a must see show, the curators did an excellent job by bringing all those wonderful works together.

As we were at Tate we decided to see Chris Ofili’s show too but this turned to be so underwhelming after seeing Moore’s and Bacon’s works that we left promptly.

I woke up to a rather grey Saturday morning. The sun is still a bit shy but it is definitely getting milder outside. Snowdrops and crocuses are everywhere making the dull wet grounds colorful and the daffodils are nearly in bloom.

I got a lovely parcel from my friend in Amsterdam – a box of Easter eggs. The Dutch Easter eggs are especially nice, hopefully they will survive the next 3 weeks.

The worst thing about this part of the year is lack of good fruit and vegetables. I am so fed up with all the roots, cauliflowers, cabbages and apples that lost their sweetness. It is still some time before we have all the lovely spring peas, chives, radishes and strawberries.  I decided to re-subscribe to Abel&Cole and my first seasonal box is arriving on Friday, hopefully this will stimulate my imagination as they often have things I am not even able to find at my local farmers market.

Last week I got some Jerusalem artichokes and decided to make a warm salad.

The artichokes were roasted for 45 minutes at 180°C with thyme, bay leaf, olive oil and some salt. In a separate tray I roasted some hazelnuts for 10 minutes to make the bitter skins fall off. The artichokes and hazelnuts were combined with rocket, fennel and vinaigrette dressing. I suppose there is still a tiny small room to get creative.

And of course we baked bread again, this one was spectacular, the best one so far. It’s so important to keep going and experimenting, making mistakes is a part of the learning process after all. We made 2 large sourdough loaves, I think our work colleagues will be sampling it on Monday.

The bread was slightly moist, chewy and full of big air bubbles, the nutty flavor was there and the crust was superb. Long proofing time is really the way to do it.

I truly don’t think we will go back to buying bread ever again. Baking is a very enjoyable process and I love feeding the starter, it is like my pet. I had a bit of a comedy moment this morning when the starter fermented so much it popped the tupperwear lid up and spilled out of its container. It is a living creature.

Today is the first proper spring day, the sun is shining and I could feel its warmth on my face. In our bid to discover as much of South West London as possible we cycled down to Tooting Bec Common.

It’s a fantastic common with large green spaces and little bits of wild, lots of brambles and gorse, duck ponds, an outdoor café and the wonderful lido.

When I walked in and saw colorful changing rooms and a blue sheet of water reflecting the sunshine I was speechless.

Dating back to 1906 when it first opened it is the 3rd largest lido in Europe, the largest in England, open to members every single day of the year and to the public from the 24th of May till the end of September. I will be sure to go this year.

I used to go to an open air swimming pool in Amsterdam every week, it didn’t matter if it was cold or rainy, once I was in the water it felt wonderful.

Back at home I am having a fantastic Gaskell time. Two exciting books just hit the shelves: David Eggers’ Zeitoun and Nancy Mitford’s Wigs on the Green. The latter has landed in my mail box already.

Somehow my book pile has managed to grow again and as work is busy (animating dog food and shooting commercial with UK’s favorite pop princess) I don’t get that much time to read. Better get back to it!

I really wish for warmer weather, this morning my fingers and toes got frozen and I almost skidded on ice on Oxford Street and went against the traffic cause I was not able to take a turn. On top of this the heating in my office is broken again and I am sitting under two layers of jumpers plus a water bottle. Brrr.

But it is sunny so I should not complain too much!

This weekend was very nice.

More bread making. Sourdough rye, a much lighter rye than last week, superb crust. I am using Richard Bertinet’s book called Crust, very easy to follow and all the bread comes out amazingly well.

A quick look at Carnaby Street exhibition followed by a delicious lunch of Italian tapas at Polpo.

Afterward I was off to National Portrait Gallery to see a wonderful selection of Irving Penn’s portraits. The photographs are very striking with a fair dose of humour.

More baking was done: caramelised apple, hazelnut and almond cake accompanied by a hot beverage in my new Portmeirion cup, thank you Lisa!

The baby plants are doing very well.

I got three Elizabeth Gaskell books, it was very hard to decide which one I should read first. I recently watched BBC’s North and South so decided to start with this one. Absolutely smitten with Richard Armitage BTW. Gaskell’s writing is very engaging, realism with a bit of humour, I feel we are going to be very good friends. I am enjoying it so much I actually get up early to do a little bit of reading before work.

I also watched few films:

Up in the Air – all I can say, thank God the DVD broke half way in, it was dreadful

Where the Wild Things Are – very charming and beautiful

Paris je t’aime – a great selection of 18 shorts about Paris, each by different director and star studded. Some nicer then others but lovely to watch. Ps We booked another weekend in Paris in June, cannot wait!

We had another go at making baguettes, we followed the same recipe as last time from Chocolate&Zucchini but replaced some of the strong bread flour with rye flour.

We ended up with four delicious baguettes and a bun. It’s such a enjoyable process and it tastes so much better than a shop bought bread. Sourdough bread will be the next thing to master.

The baking didn’t end there. I have been meaning to try another of Clotilde’s recipes – pecan mudslide cookies. I actually made pecan and hazelnut cookies, they were very rich and scrumptious. So rich I froze half of the batch.

We went for a walk and errands in Balham, we bought some more of good quality bread flour and other bits.

We visited Trinity Stores, a wonderful little deli and tea shop.

Shelves full of great products.

And produce.

Next door, also in Balham Station Road, there is a second hand book store, it’s a mess so it’s good to go there with lots of free time. I had to restrain myself from buying books as I have just ordered three Elizabeth Gaskell novels.

We decided to take a different route home and explore the neighborhood.

Back home I settled for a very large cup of tea and some cookies while reading Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey. It was a blissful afternoon.

Then I got very busy organising various cupboards in the kitchen while M built shelves to improve our storage space. The kitchen is looking very good now.

I finished the day watching Katalin Varga. A dark drama of crime and revenge.

I was supposed to go out of town on Sunday but the weather was so dreadful I decided to stay and see what London has got to offer.

First stop was The British Library to see Points of View exhibition. The exhibition covered 19 century photography from William Fox Talbot’s beginnings through documenting the first hippopotamus in Britain, practical and spiritual use of photography to Eadweard Muybridge’s motion pictures and the birth of Kodak.

Talbot’s early picture and the famous hippo.

Everyday life.

Exotic travels.

Portraits.

Science, medicine, criminology and progress.

Journalism.

Every area of life got examined, new animals and lands were seen by all, people became travelers from the comfort of their own sofas, ‘ghost pictures’ were all the rage along with séances, catching criminals got easier, world became a smaller place.

A very good and broad exhibition, well worth a visit.

Next stop was Wellcome Collection, the current exhibition is about identity however it failed to engage me, I was much more into Medicine Man which is a bit like a smaller and tidier version of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. It had a selection of various medical objects as well as curiosities like Darwin’s walking stick, Napoleon’s toothbrush and King George III’s lock of hair. I had a lot of fun and highly recommend it.

I really must mention the cafe at Wellcome Collection, it’s run by Peyton and Byrne and the cakes were amazing. They also have the nicest crockery and glasses with embossed bees.

Both exhibitions are free.

I also read The Diary of a Nobody. Mr Pooter, the protagonist, is the Victorian version of one of my favorite literary characters – Adrian Mole. He leads a happy life, doesn’t like changes, makes a lot of jokes and finds them hilarious, offends his friends and makes up, gets into uncomfortable situations and struggles to understand his son, he is a middle class city clerk desperate to be recognised by the upper class.

The tone of this book is very light and funny, it’s a satire on all the Victorian diaries that became so easy to publish everyone did it, it is also a satire on people who take themselves too seriously. I enjoyed it tremendously.