24/05/14: Life lately #1

'Best laid plans ' & all that has been a phrase that has rung particularly true lately - with visits home rearranged (twice in one month!) & attendance at a friend's housewarming bbq this afternoon cancelled on account of my waking up to a sore throat & blocked nose (sorry Emily!) Otherwise, things have been good lately & there've been some particularly good things going on, namely.

Lots of reading & writing

I went through a few months a couple of summers ago of reading literary biography obsessively - all of Barry Miles' oeuvre on the Beat poets, almost everything written about Virginia Woolf - & it's a habit that I had since fallen out of. That was until I happened to unearth Scott Donaldson's 'Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald' last week & promptly haul the Oxfam hardback to work & back every day, not making too many friends on the overground on the way there either. It has made me quite melancholy to read of the trauma that the two of them put themselves through, especially Fitzgerald with his chronic alcoholism, but is nonetheless a brilliant study. I have a copy of Olivia Laing's 'Last Trip to Echo Spring', another non-fiction book particularly about writers & drinking which covers both the aforementioned alongside Tennessee Williams & John Ashbery - perhaps I'll have a little space between the two whose stories evoke a similar misery.

As far as writing goes, I've been able to find the time to do some scribblings lately &, miraculously, even impose some kind of order on them so they're vaguely coherent. I've long been petitioning some of my favourite little magazines to allow me to feature in their pages & here's hoping I'll be back with some good news before long.

 These new polka dot trousers are my life & I'm OK with that

Spending time with good people

As I've said before on this little blog, Andrew & I have been adapting to each other's different schedules ever since I started working in September & I feel as if we're finally falling into a good rhythm. Even if it's just a stroll down to our local market for a pretzel & a flip through the vintage rails one afternoon, it feels good to be making time for one another, especially as our two & a half year anniversary is fast approaching! (Achem, which I may or may not have forgotten about until, err, yesterday, sorry sweet) Last night we went to see 'Antony & Cleopatra' at The Globe (neither of us, English students both, had ever been before) which was so much fun if an ache-y experience, my insisting on the five pound tickets for the standing area, yow!

I've also finally hopefully arranged to go home for a weekend after a series of near-misses, mostly involving my smaller sister's involvement in away rounders matches (she does not get her sportiness from me, let me assure you) & my graciously swapping shifts & splitting my weekends of late. It's been a little while since I've made the journey & I'm looking forward to a long bath, lots of food & a stroll around the market town that never changes much.

Being inspired & taking pleasure in the smallest of things

While I've blogged my weekly eats once before, I think that my contributions to The Beet Generation'  (previously 'Paisley & Peeptoes') are likely quite a way from being comprehensively representative of my increasing obsession with food. This has, in part, been encouraged by the free foodie supplements that I regularly collect from work but also from the burgeoning group of inspiring & inventive cooks, a fair few of them vegan as it happens, that I've discovered on Instagram, namely Ava of Guac & Roll whom I've mentioned before (& have to thank for the recipe I recently used for homemade onion bhajis, woah) &, more recently, Laura of Kitsunetsukikitchen (hope that's spelt right!) whose photography is enough to inspire devotion in any carnivore. These are the people that have made me more determined than ever to be constantly seeking out new recipes, to cook creatively & be thoughtful of what exactly it is that I'm putting into my body ,woohoo! Above is this morning's thrown together breakfast of natural yoghurt with honey, pumpkin seeds & organic (unsweetened too, praise be) apricots, most leftover ingredients from another batch of homemade granola. So yeah, thanks guys & keep it coming. 

New adventures

It is the mention of home that makes me think of new adventures, particularly my potentially becoming a cyclist in London, outside of my usual forays into hiring Boris bikes when the sun finally rolls around in August time. She, for shame, hasn't had a proper introduction on here but I was actually gifted the most beautiful mint green Pashley bicycle by my Dad a year or so ago that has been languishing in my Home Counties bedroom ever since, never ridden.You see, aforementioned parent was (rightfully, probably) paranoid that she would be stolen in London  &, trying to sell our house back home, my mother has been threatening to plant up her basket with pansies & have her as a centrepiece for the garden. I'm now faced with the decision of whether to bring her down or preserve her for posterity & buy myself a more battered model that will see me from Hackney to Hampstead twice a day in this fair weather (she types, looking out on rainclouds) & avoiding that hellish stretch of overground - exciting all the same, once I've invested in a good helmet, eeeek.

Time for another honey & lemon for me & then an hour or so of fresh air I think - lurgy be gone!

Do you cycle in London or know of anywhere to get a decent secondhand ride?

What good stuff is in your life at the moment?

Speak soon - O.

18/05/14

It is easy to resign yourself to hopelessness at the best of times, I have realised of late. Yesterday was one of those days -I had graciously swapped a shift with someone at work & thus split my weekend, finding myself thoroughly confused at my 7:25 alarm sounding on Saturday morning. That sense of disorientation & ineptness that started my day turned out to have set the tone as I was dealt a particularly generous handful of rude customers & had a hectic afternoon that was very much at odds with the otherwise blissful tone of my lunch hours amongst sun worshippers on Hampstead Heath. Luckily, it was home to a mug of green tea with honey & 'The Thick of It' reruns with Andrew that managed to rescue me from the despair that threatened. 

Making the best of a bad situation is a valuable lesson & one that has been reinforced today as the two of us had decided to stay home so my conscientious student could get on with essay writing. Instead of lamenting our limited appreciation of the sunny skies outside, we propped ourselves up by our bedroom windows & read until three o'clock - I finished reading the latest 'Granta' issue all about Japan cover to cover (I've never bought it before but now suspect that I've been missing out!) & particularly enjoyed the contributions from Rebecca Solnit & Hiromi Kawakami, the latter of which also has a novel out from Portobello Books, 'Strange Weather in Tokyo', that I am really very excited to read soon.

At three o'clock I set about making lunch for the two of us, an asparagus tart from a recipe I found on the 'Cellardoor Magazine' blog, chopping vegetables, rolling out pastry & grating (a lot of) Gruyere cheese. Reading some more of the biography of Hemingway & Fitzgerald I'm 150 pages through while the tart was in the oven, the two of us eventually tucked in with some rocket & balsamic vinegar on the side, both feeling very full & satisfied afterward.

As it happens, perhaps we are both sated from our day off on Friday when we picnicked by the Serpentine in Hyde Park for the afternoon, my having a fair few (frighteningly swollen) insect bites to the remember the meadow-y expanse of Kensington Park Gardens by. We were both certainly grateful for a more restful couple of days this weekend after two consecutive dinners out the previous weekend, the latter with my Dad in Archway, the former at mine & Andrew's friend Jonathan's house down the road from us in Hackney. I always enjoy going round to Jonathan's house as it reminds me of home back with my Mum - a house full of books & pictures with wooden shutters on the windows, rugs strewn over armchairs, back issues of 'The New Yorker' precariously stacked atop wicker tables. Oh & his noisy British Blue cat, Marco, whom I can ordinarily coax into affection within half an hour of arrival. The gentleman himself is a wonderful host as well as vegetarian cook - dishing up asparagus in butter with walnut bread to start followed by a lovely fennel bake, finished with cheese & biscuits. We stayed until two o'clock drinking wine & talking. 

I have been trying to write of late but it has not been easy -I figure that I am tired or surrounded by too stuffy an atmosphere in which to feel creative, manifested in the pretty pink & white carnations that I had to bin this morning, exposed to too much sunshine & dried out to the point of being percussive. I have been dreaming a lot of Cornwall lately where Andrew & I spent a blissful week last summer, but a moment standing in the sunshine in bare feet on the boards of our little garden, surrounded by sodden armchairs, will have to suffice for now. Andrew bought me the latest issue of 'Oh Comely' yesterday by way of inspiration & I hope that it will be enough to get me through the week that starts all over again tomorrow along with the memory of the sound of the sea washing to shore.

Have you been able to enjoy the sunshine lately?

Speak soon - O. 

10/05/14

Well, it looks as if the indecisiveness of my last post has endured, at least if this afternoon's weather is anything to go by with bright sunshine followed by torrential storms. I am quite glad to be tucked up in my kitchen, typing this post to the soundtrack of the washing machine boisterously coming to the end of its cycle & the faint whine of my flatmate uncharacteristically actually hoovering upstairs. After a lazy day lolling around Greenwich Park yesterday with Andrew, picnicking & sitting back to back with our books, I've had a comparatively productive time of it today catching up on domesticities that I have been otherwise avoiding (cleaning the bathroom is the worst) This conscientiousness has also, however, extended as far as things that I enjoy such as a morning bundled up in bed with my recipe books & an afternoon devoted to the weighing of ingredients, whisking of egg whites & frequent peeking into the oven to check that nothing is smoking or smoldering (an ever-present worry given the wonky shelf within) I have been trying a lot of new recipes of late, some from the small stack of cookbooks precariously balanced by my bed, others from devoted food blogs & some that I sneakily scribble from new arrivals at the bookshop. A handful that I have tried of late have included mushroom mapo tofu from the 'Leon Vegetarian' cookbook, an asparagus & pistachio risotto which I have made before but couldn't remember where I'd found it, wilted arugula, almond & goat's cheese pasta from 'The Kinfolk Table' & a butternut squash, gorgonzola & walnut bake also from 'Leon Vegetarian'.    

Excuse the messy hob, if you will!

As is inevitable when trying new things & with being a person who is perhaps more haphazard in her measurements than is required, there were some hits & misses. My first occasion cooking with tofu & by no means familiar with chinese spices, the mapo tofu was nothing short of a disaster - half an hour spent scouring Sainsbury's produced a packet of distinctly wobbly tofu & a packet of arbitrary Szechuan stir fry sauce which already, I should have known, didn't bode well. It was, however, the tiniest teaspoon of chilli stirred into the already disintegrating dish that meant Andrew & I were both mopping up our tears, mouthful by mouthful. Still, I'm hoping to try it again with the spices built up from scratch & perhaps a handful of green beans to add a bit of texture.

The texture of the asparagus & pistachio risotto, on the other hand, was just perfect & I was surprised to find that the stalks themselves didn't need blanching before being added. Once stirred into the rice, their hue instantly brightens & adds that lovely crunch that balances out the richness of the double cream & the almost chewiness of the toasted pistachio nuts on top. 

My making of pasta with wilted arugula, almonds & goat's cheese was a happy coincidence really having bought a box of fresh rocket from the fruit & veg stall in Hampstead to have in my cheddar cheese sandwiches, & having my copy of 'The Kinfolk Table' fall open at this recipe. I must admit that I was not exactly loyal to its instructions but I did go so far as to buy goat's cheese & try a slither before stirring it into a pot of wholewheat spaghetti - like avocado, it's a taste that I feel obliged to like, convinced that I'll grow into but just cannot bring myself to eat (sorry!) Luckily I had half a pot of ricotta lurking at the back of my fridge which perhaps didn't have the oomph of the goat's cheese but was nonetheless delicious.

Butternut squash, on the other hand, is a flavour of which I hope I will never tire, especially when it has been roasted for over an hour in olive oil & honey so it's so tender to be falling away from its skin. Cut into cubes & mixed in with lots of spinach (one of the best ways to get enough iron from a vegetarian diet), crumbled gorgonzola & roughly chopped & toasted walnuts, this was a really indulgent dish that I wish I'd found sooner i.e in the depths of our London winter. All the same, one that is so simple but certainly doesn't taste as such. 

Granola before & after baking - oh & a sneak peek at the very cheap & cheerful floral tea dress that I chanced upon in a charity shop on a lunch break, as ever.

I feel as if I've been a little in over my head with life lately, anxieties related to homesickness &, as ever, finding the time to escape myself & feel a sense of togetherness with other people, most importantly Andrew. I feel as if the rituals of cooking really give me time to think, this afternoon folding together rolled oats, coconut slices & pumpkin seeds for homemade granola (a combination of recipes from 'Smitten Kitchen' & 'The Green Kitchen') & afterward chopping tomatoes into quarters to be roasted with garlic, chilli, lemon juice & white wine for a couple of hours.

I'll leave you with a few photographs from the last couple of weeks, of moments when I've been able to feel as if everything is just fine, the view of the canal from Victoria Park, sat in the rose garden in Greenwich, although the sunshine does seem to have that effect, doesn't it.

What've you been dishing up this week? 

Happy weekend!

Speak soon - O.

02/05/14

'People are fickle things' - said some great philosopher at some point, presumably. If not, here I am saying such a thing & today feels like an appropriate time to say it - on a grey, unassuming Friday afternoon with me feeling a little aimless but nevertheless writing a blog that just reached 1000 views(!) & which I often thought I wouldn't persevere with. These days evoke the seemingly endless ones I would spend after handing in my final essays with nothing much to do aside from cleaning the bathroom & watching the dregs of BBC iPlayer. It's remarkable how easily my mind can forget my exasperation at the length of a demanding working week & resign myself to the frustrated listlessness of not having made any plans. The same is also true of the weather of the last seven days, a lunch hour spent cross-legged on my coat by Hampstead pond soon seemingly impossible as I, the following day, retreat to the basement to avoid eating soggy sandwiches. 

I've even found this sense of restlessness extend to my wardrobe lately, very few of my clothes really feeling particularly 'me' & realising that I've not bought any new clothes for a very long time. While hunting for midi skirts & big knits in charity shops is one of my favourite pastimes of a weekend (...or lunch break), my penchant for thrifting has also meant that I've acquired a handful of bad habits as well as floral blouses, namely buying clothes impulsively & often several sizes bigger than will fit me without being belted at my waist. This has, I realised only recently, cultivated a warped sense of my body shape which has changed considerably since I all but gave up eating meat & I've had to grudgingly ditch a lot of size 14 or 16 skirts & trousers that don't fit or flatter. Allowing myself to be unduly influenced by a lot of the blogs that I read & the Instagram pictures that I like, I've also lost sight of my own sense of style which culminated in a fundamentally misguided & wholly unsuccessful trip to Regent Street's otherwise wonderful '& Other Stories'. It was in this exasperated state that I decided to make my usual trip to Sainsbury's via my neighbourhood 'Beyond Retro' on Saturday & see whether the familiar smell of beesting cake from their cafe & musty would-be wedding dresses would be enough for inspiration to strike & strike it did, in the form of this little sunflower smock.

Tote from Alphabet Bags 

Sitting just above my knee with a pretty, criss-crossed tie at the front & a striking sunflower print, it has, if temporarily, soothed my dress despair & proved that I often I know myself better than I think. I call it my Ginsberg dress after my favourite poem that he wrote in 1955 & which I often read in times of doubt: 

'We're not our skin of grime, we're not our dread 

bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we're all 

beautiful golden sunflowers inside, 

we're blessed by our own seed 

& golden hairy naked accomplishment' 

Aside from spinning in circles in aforementioned dress, this afternoon I've mostly been flipping through my 

boyfriend's copy of the latest Granta magazine all about Japan (a part of the world that I know very little 

about but about which I have grown very curious of late) & reading up on recipes for the week ahead, 

namely from one of my favourite vegetarian blogs Vegetarian Ventures & a more recent discovery via the lovely 'Oh Comely' magazine, vegan veteran Guac & Roll. I've also been wistfully researching availability at probably the coolest hotel in Berlin for an early summer holiday & feeling grateful to my 'Shakespeare & 

Co.' newsletter for introducing me to this wonderful illustrated version of Frank O'Hara's 'Having a Coke 

with You' by Nathan Gelgud.

Is anyone else looking forward to another episode of 'The Trip to Italy' this evening too? I am likely Steve Coogan's biggest fan but the first series failed to hold my attention - this time around it has got my belly aching (not only due to the good looking food, either) & willing to drop everything & elope to the Amalfi Coast - any takers?

What else're you doing to avoid our belated April showers?

Speak soon - O.