The Sneaky Magpie

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.

Things that kept me company this month:

Masterchef Professionals – always a sucker for cooking shows

Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers – got few inspirations and I really really want an allotment, or at least a garden, or both!

Emma – BBC series and the book, very amusing. Johnny Lee Miller is excellent as Mr Knightly

Sandra Juto’s beautiful photos

Kevin McCloud’s Grand Tour – I wanna go and travel to all those beautiful places in Europe

My summer wardrobe is nicely coming together but where is the sun? After wonderful April we are being punished with pretty bad May. I do understand that we have TWO bank holiday weekend so the temperatures were bound to drop and some rain was necessary but come on, give us something!

This is my summer hit list. I have got the stripey skirt already, a Vivienne Westwood wondeful ebay hunt; I also have got the Anya Hindmarch canvas bag, such a great purchase. The next item has got to be the Toast sandals, I will go for brown ones not gold me thinks…. The leather jacket is All Saints, it’s called Daria, not my first choice which is Feathers but it seems to be sold out! The two tops are also All Saints. The blue dress is APC and I truely love it, the other dress is See by Chloe. Little basket is from Toast and would be perfect for farmers market. The military jacket is from Jigsaw and pretty pricey, not sure whether I should risk it and wait till sales. Jewellery is by Zoe&Morgan. Add some basic tees, converse trainers and H&M boyfriend jeans and I am prepared…well till I see another object of desire.

To improve my mood I will start the self tanning process and make some summer food like the sea bass recipe by Nigel Slater. Sigh.

*EDIT the clothes came out all stretched upwards once uploaded, weird.