23/10/14: Life lately #3

Life has slowed down a lot here lately & not only in terms of the frequency of posts over here at 'The Beet Generation' (previously 'Paisley & Peeptoes') Considerably fewer seven thirty starts & miserable commutes, considerably more cups of tea & pages of reading at my desk until gone eight o'clock. While I'm still in a period of transition between a five & two day week, I'm being sure to take the time to appreciate just how lucky I am to be able to read Proust for three full days & feel the same invigoration as I write sheets & sheets of A4 notes on secondary sources (a method I can wholeheartedly recommend if you too have been banging your head against Nietzsche's 'Birth of Tragedy' for the best part of the week) All the same, I've been trying not to succumb to cabin fever too much & have had a few outings in the last couple of weeks. Here're some highlights (alongside mandatory Instagram mugshots) when I've managed to leave my pyjamas neatly tucked at the end of my bed & thumb on some shoes other than my furry moccasins.

Eating:

Emboldened by adventures in making my own pesto from scratch & regular batches of granola, as I admitted that the weather was finally turning towards autumn, there was only one thing on my mind...SOUP! A fortuitous encounter with my very favourite 'readers' recipe swap' in the weekly 'Guardian Cook' involving ever-faithful tinned tomatoes seemed to conspire in my first foray into some very messy hand blending last week during a leisurely lunchtime. I followed this super simple recipe for sun-dried tomato & walnut soup with plenty of texture from chopped walnuts & just the right amount of kick from the mustard & coriander seeds, absolutely 11/10. This was followed by Kitsunetsuki's milder curried cauliflower & coconut soup that made up for in flavour what it lacked in the former's particularly decadent                                                                                                  appearance.

Reading:

While I've been really enjoying having the time to sit & read for concentrated periods at home (ordinarily under several blankets & with a half empty packet of raw cashews somewhere nearby) my lifelong habit of always having a bookish companion while journeying prevails. Some course reading such as the adjacent (& brilliant) 'The Immoralist' by Andre Gide have proved absorbing enough for me to almost miss my overground stop for although I must admit that most Walter Benjamin/heavy literary criticism doesn't always make the transition. Often I've been plugging the gaps with the short story volumes that have been languishing of late alongside old favourites, Lydia Davis' 'Can't & Won't for one & 'Binocular Vision' by Edith Pearlman for another. What women.

Wandering:

I've been spending a lot more time with the boy (couple library trips, yay!) & while that's always a good thing, it also adds to the temptation to watch 'Have I Got News For You' reruns all day & eat pasta all night every night. We decided on some more outdoors-y plans on the windy Sunday just gone, swinging by one of our many local coffee shops for the very-very-last of the iced coffees (have you weaned yourself off of iced espresso yet? if so, what's your secret?) to accompany us on a winding route to Clapton & our new favourite pub, 'The Clapton Hart', of course, to flip through the papers & indulge in yet more nut roasts. I can tell that they won't be able to keep me away come mulled wine season, oh man, sorry (not sorry) bank balance...!

Watching:

While it's been difficult parting company with our newly acquired boxset of 'The Trip' & 'The Trip to Italy' ('I will not bury you, Batman', kudos if you get that reference & extra points if you can give me the next line), I was very keen to watch this film of Miranda July's having been unbelievably lucky to root it out in a charity shop for a mere two pounds. I've always been a fan of her & all of the amazing creatives she's been associated with (namely Sheila Heti, Lena Dunham, Leanne Shapton & the like, swoon) but hadn't seen any of the films through which she made her name. I would encourage you all to watch this sweet, kind, funny & wise film as soon as possible, Andrew & I just adored it - we were both sobbing & laughing at each other sobbing by the end of it & were quite a sight, I'm sure.

Gee, that's just about all that's happening in my corner of the internet.

Otherwise I'm just enjoying being back in education, being able to talk earnestly about interesting books & having access to the intricate minds of my university tutors. 

Oh & anticipating the beetroot almost done roasting in red wine vinegar for the last hour to be shortly accompanied by puy lentils. They're always something to look forward to.

What've you been up to lately?

Do you similarly worship at the altar of Miranda July?

Speak soon - O.

08/10/14: Easy like Sunday morning(s)

Sleepily contemplating gnocchi while gazing at the rain darkened pavement outside my bedroom window on this Wednesday night, it seems like a good time to be looking back at the last couple of leisurely Sunday afternoons that I've enjoyed in a similarly languorous fashion. Sundays have not always been the highlight of my week, in fact, up until recently, Sundays often signalled the start of my working week rather than the breakast-in-bed-athon as they are known to most. On the rare occasion that I swapped a shift, I would almost always be found pedalling down to Columbia Road for a cup of coffee from Lily Vanilli & a bunch of blooms before it was time to head home for tea. Now that I'm working just two days a week (a development I enthusiastically blogged about very recently) the potential for my Sunday plans has been infinitely increased. I'm pleased to say that over the past couple of weekends, Andrew & I have been able to make the most of the tail-end of the weekend with some thoroughly Sunday suitable activities.

Finishing my last week of working full time last Saturday, I felt that the occasion needed to be marked & that it was only right that Andrew & I should celebrate. The two of us falling through the door at almost seven o'clock, however, quite quickly agreed that neither of us could actually, errr, be bothered to. At least not that evening. A long lie in the next day, however, found us restored & sufficiently tempted by sunny skies outside that we were, admittedly against our habit, ambling East on Dalston Lane. Swinging by The Hackney Peddler, The Russet & over Hackney Downs, we found our way to Clapton Pond & (eventually) the right end of Lower Clapton Road for The Clapton Hart. Frequently name dropped by one of my favourite blog writers Ava of Shake, Guac & Roll for its occasional vegan roasts & toad-in-the-hole(!) amongst other things, I trusted in her judgement that it would be the perfect venue for my first London Sunday roast. Yes, I admit it. Despite often walking past our local pubs en route to weekend markets, their pavements outside full of picnic benches of people having their fill of yorkshire pudding soaked in gravy, every week agreeing 'we should really do that one day', almost three years together & we've never quite well, err, got it together. This Sunday was different. Eagerly settled at a seat in The Clapton Hart's vast beer garden at its back with pints in hand, we impatiently flipped through Sunday papers while waited for our veggie roasts. Napkins in laps & sleeves rolled ready, it was worth the wait. A pistachio & apricot nut roast alongside crisp roast potatoes, new potatoes, a monstrous yorkshire pudding, a pile of shredded greens & roughly chopped carrots. Scoffed in sublime sunshine for just over a tenner alongside (alas, reasonable by London standard) £4 pints, it was an afternoon better spent no other way. Winding up the day with a circuitous walk down to Shoreditch for a friend's gig at the Old Blue, it is a Sunday that we will (really this time) repeat soon although I suspect sadly sans beer garden weather.  

Succeeding in my aim to enjoy more breakfast food since I'm not working as much  (not the absolute extent of my ambitions, I can assure you, employers), this Sunday just gone also got off to a splendid start. Perhaps predictably following a recipe from my much-loved 'A Modern Way to Eat' cookbook (that I nothing short of waxed lyrical about in my full review of it in my last post), that morning I let a few handfuls of oats & amaranth simmer with a pint of oat milk in a saucepan while my tea brewed nearby. Adding a swirl of honey & a scattering of blueberries to the porridge as it thickened, it was enjoyed back in bed with the first volume of Proust that I managed to re-read in a dizzying three days this week, phew. With Andrew at my side, we made good on another long term promise of paying a visit to the Tate Britain south of the river to see the late Turner on there until the New Year. Leaving late, we picnicked on pretzels & raspberries on a bench outside the gallery before making it around the exhibit in the last couple of hours before closing. There was some sentimentality to these plans as one mine & Andrew's first 'dates' was to see some Turner canvases at Tate Britain by way of research for one of our university courses. Still, I've always had a fondness for Turner's seascapes & sunrises, struck by his delicate but commanding use of colour & light in particular, extended further to include the unusual pictures that incorporated myths & legends, circles in square frames. Shortly after our tour of its six rooms, both stocked up on postcards, we buttoned up once more & walked up to a rapidly darkening Westminster to get a train home again for more episodes of 'Mad Men' (I'm besotted) & getting back into bed.

This week has been, I suspect, making up for Sunday's laziness but I'm making sure to appreciate the pleasure of days spent on course reading, how spoilt I am(!) Tomorrow my Grandy is coming down to London for the day so I'll be able to show her the sights outside of my bedroom & blog about it for you. As for now, having survived my first seminar this afternoon (thanks for being friendly, fellow students!), I think I'll be getting something of an early night in preparation for Andre Gide & a certain Friedrich Nietzsche this time next week, yikes.

How do you like to spend your Sundays?

Speak soon - O. 

01/10/14: 'A Modern Way to Eat' review

I had heard the story a number of times before from numerous different people to the extent that I came to consider it the norm. All of them professing their love of cookbooks while simultaneously confessing their lack of devotion to the ones that they already owned - 'you find one or two recipes that you like & the rest of them languish on the shelf, eh?' I was determined not to fall into this trap when I began my burgeoning collection a year or so ago, focusing on quality over quantity & while I can still count their number on one hand (just) I must admit that it's not been altogether successful. Aside from occasional impassioned weeks of trying new recipes to dispel my guilt at having to blow the dust from their covers, I too have earmarked a few favourites from my cookbooks & very rarely looked beyond those that I've tried & succeeded at. I was mulling this over while hopelessly poring over Yotam Ottolenghi's new book 'Plenty More' last week (I've always associated him with long lists of obscure ingredients but these new recipes look significantly pared back) when I realised that I was being too hard on myself. There has been one cookbook that has captured my heart, that I've spent afternoons just reading through & that I've cooked from almost every night since I successfully smuggled it underneath my boyfriend's beady eye & into the stack with the rest of them. In writing this review, I've tried to put my finger on what exactly it is that makes Anna Jones' 'A Modern Way To Eat' just so brilliant &, well, un-put-down-able. I've decided on this: everything.

As an object to hold in your hands, to smooth down the pages as you go from recipe to recipe, to use & refer to even as a smear of tomato sauce renders the first two points of the method illegible - it is beautiful. It is minutely styled, thoughtfully put together & infinitely alluring in its presentation of the food therein. The balance of photographs & instruction is perfect - I personally don't like centerfolds full of photographs to mix & match with the recipes & those that are particularly sparing in their instruction - & Anna's writing style is personable & funny. Food, the act of cooking & dishing up have long been sociable acts & the stories behind the recipes in this book (Anna's boyfriend's love of chilli con carne or her afternoons spent sunburnt but victorious in finding the best banana pancake) are what makes them feel so appealing as additions to everyday routines. Anna is also stupendously good at no-fuss explanations of the health benefits of eating certain new-to-most ingredients such as chia seeds & amaranth, there is no sense of a holier-than-thou attitude that some vegetarian & vegan cookbooks can fall victim to, only a genuine interest in broadening the palates of the culinar-ily curious. Reading Anna's own introduction that doubles as a manifesto of sorts, it shouldn't come as a surprise that all of the food in 'A Modern Way To Eat' is simple, fresh, thoughtful & encouraging of creativity. The mint green pages that intersect chapters have been a particular revelation, offering numerous variations on staples such as roasted vegetables, pesto sauces & morning fruit according to the season in which you're eating.

I have found everything that I've made from Anna's book to be easy to put together at the end of a working day but no less fulfilling for it - a stir fry of sugar snap peas & cashews particularly light & lively, a wonderfully creamy textured avocado & lemon spaghetti, slivers of honey-roasted radishes stirred through a dish of puy lentils & potatoes, a wholesome breakfast of nutty & warming amaranth porridge topped with gooey will-definitely-stain-all-wooden-utensils-permanently-purple stewed blueberries. Larger labours of love such as Anna's sweet potato & puy lentil pie & unbeatable 'proper chilli' I found to be even more rewarding & a joy to watch coming together, head in the pot as I stirred crushed cumin seeds into one, bulgur wheat into another. I think I've almost resigned myself to my oven just not being quite hot enough for completely crispy sweet potato fries but ho hum. The reason why I knew, ultimately, that 'A Modern Way To Eat' wouldn't be an impulse purchase was that at whatever point I opened it, I was greeted by something that I would gladly cook any night of the week. As a long-time vegetarian Anna has an intimate knowledge of what us veggies eat every day (lots of nuts, seeds, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, greens) while also introducing additional ingredients that easily find their way into this line-up (a multitude of grains have already found their way into my cupboard & tummy) Most revealingly, however, I've owned this book for weeks now, have cooked a fair few of the recipes & I'm still excited to try more - I'm particularly looking forward to cauliflower crusted pizza, homemade veggie sausages & Anna's take on mushroom burgers that'll be compared to the 'Green Kitchen Stories' halloumi burgers that featured on my table this week. Oh & anything featuring beetroot. Or those super little chia seeds. *****!

Have you picked up a copy of 'A Modern Way To Eat' yet?

Speak soon - O.