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Saturday, 2 February 2013
I am about to change your life .(scribbled at 22:03 )
Admittedly, that post title sounds a little big headed but I think it can be justified. I’m beginning to regret stumbling across
The Instructables, an online manual for innovative and fresh ideas on how to do just about
anything. After browsing through a few DIY tips involving redundant IKEA furniture, I ventured onwards to its food ideas section…
BIG MISTAKE. I am now doomed to a lifetime of being morbidly obese after reading the recipe for ‘Instant Brownies’. I wish I could have photographed my creation, but it was so incredibly moreish that instead of getting out my camera to take a few snaps, I made a second batch of brownies. And a third. In fact, I kept on repeating this recipe until my pot of Green and Blacks cocoa had been entirely used up. It is
so ridiculously addictive that I am actually experiencing my first sugar high, something which feels not so different from getting drunk on M&S Banoffee liqueur at Christmas. I warn you that this recipe is not for the weak willed. I know there is no such thing as a healthy dessert, but this takes the utter biscuit.
Instant Brownie (Serves 1)
-4tbsp plain flour
-4tbsp sugar (any sugar will do, I tried it with both brown and white. Each are equally delish’)
-2tbsp cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
-2tbsp oil (I opted for grapeseed, but as long as it’s not something with an overtly distinct flavour like Olive Oil you should be fine)
-2tbsp water
-Pinch of salt
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl until fully combined. It should resemble your average chocolate brownie batter.
2. Microwave for 1 minute.
That, is the entire recipe. It’s so easy to adjust too- just add chocolate chips/cinnamon/nuts/banana as you wish, and if you want a less cakey result, just microwave for a few seconds less.
Anyway, hasn’t January just flown by? After a sleepless night with HTML, I have amended my blog template slightly and shifted a few things around. Sometime last month, I read that it takes the average person an entire
66 days to create a new habit. That’s just over 2 months, 9.4 weeks or 1584 hours. Although a depressingly long amount of time, it does sound fairly realistic in terms of having a good new habit (or breaking a bad one, if you wish). If you’re a fellow blogger then I imagine you’ve seen countless of posts from others discussing their resolutions for 2013, which seem to vary from “Spend more time blogging” to “Losing weight” (…from their already emaciated figure, ffs).
Anyway, as someone who works a 40hr week and possesses an increasingly concerning addiction to patisserie, I’m afraid I can’t commit to either of these usual resolutions; I have no desire to reduce my portions of cake anytime soon, and I’ve became rather content with my intermittent blog posts anyway. So I’ve adopted a different approach; of setting myself a To Do list for every month between now and December. By being specific, they’re far more realistic and achievable. Also, by putting it on my blog it
might actually give me the incentive to cross off the list. I recommend this wholeheartedly if you blog; I’ve already crossed off ‘Make Puff Pastry’ for February: (see the "Liste de Tâches" tab at the top of the page)
Yes, this was my first time in baking puff pastry. Prior to becoming a
GBBO addict, I’d always written off puff pastry as being far too difficult to bake from scratch. With the exception of short crust, I’ve always used the shop bought stuff when it comes to baking. But now,
thanks to Gordon Ramsay’s deceptively simple-lookingrecipe on the BBC Good Food Website, I am now a tiny bit closer to the lifelong dream of running a Parisian patisserie:
After last night’s sugar fix, I decided to play it safe this afternoon with a savoury Tomato Tarte Tatin. I’m going for coffee tomorrow with my friend Damien who’s from France so I’ve practically done nothing apart from speak French all day as a means of prep’, which feels absolutely amazing but now I have a desire to bake nothing but French patisserie. I would have opted for a tasty pear-based tarte tatin, but I think eating pudding for each meal of the day would be somewhat socially unacceptable.
I don’t have a recipe for this tart I’m afraid; I pretty much just baked a tin’s worth of cherry tomatoes (600/700g worth)with a dash of black peppercorns with olive oil drizzled over it for about 10 minutes, then threw my puff pastry on top for an addition 30 minutes until it had cooked.
Anyway. I feel sick right now as I ended up eating the whole thing, and using the remainder of my puff pastry mix to make miniature tartlets. At this rate, I’m going to be too heavy to even board my plane to Amsterdam. I’m telling myself that it’s too cold to eating salad and light desserts, ha.
With payday yesterday, I ended up making an impulse purchase in the V&A shop. I will undoubtedly be giving it to my younger sister next week, as I believe now that I’m in my twenties, I should have passed the child-like phase of drawing on myself ages ago. Even though its packaging would dictate otherwise, this is essentially the L’Oréal Superliner, albeit a few quid cheaper. It’s meant to last for a whole two days, so I’ve only tested it out on a tiny portion of my arm; a Barcelona Chair, an Ionic Column and I’ve drawn a Juicy Salif on my wrist.
I finally saw Les Misérables when I was in Liverpool last weekend, which was absolutely amazing. Even if musicals aren’t your thing, the abundance of tricolore waving at the end, combined with Anne Hathaway’s rendition of Dreamed a Dream even brought a tear or two to my eyes.
The Artist came quite close, but this is definitely the best film I’ve seen in the past 5 years. Pretty damn sure that even Victor Hugo himself would have fallen a little for Hugh Jackman’s achingly-hot performance as Jean Valjean. I’ll probably waffle on about this some more in my next post, which is going to include an abundance of Liverpool photographs that I have yet to upload.
Happy February!
X
Labels: Baking, Barcelona Chair Tattoo, Instant Brownie Recipe, Ionic Capital, Juicy Salif, Overreating, Puff Pastry
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
neigé dans/new amsterdam moleskine. .(scribbled at 21:40 )
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A fleeting visit to Somerset House last weekend.
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Well, if 2 weeks back in Midlands over Christmas didn’t bring me to insanity due to an excessive amount of boredom, then 48hrs spent snowed in did. Armed with only a Moleskine sketchbook and my new Chloé dupes (see previous post), I travelled all the way up for what was going to be a weekend of champagne, pizza and other classy birthday shenanigans. Here in
Grande Bretagne, and especially in obscure Midland towns, we generally have a rule of halting all public transport once someone has spotted a single snowflake falling from the sky, which resulted in Friday afternoon being spent trapped in my childhood home, forcing me to endure my younger sister’s addiction of
Jeremy Kyle.
Luckily, I still get all my post sent to my mother's house, so I arrived back to a stupid amount of parcels from a wee bit of online shopping, as well as this gift off Glamour Magazine. I've been a member of their reader panel for years and I honestly can't rave about it enough. Providing you submit a decent review to them after, they'll send you a plethora of items to trial for them. From endless boxes of Special K to yet-to-be-released make up, it's always
useful things too. They sent me through a bottle of Rimmel foundation not too long ago and I've actually been quoted word for word on their advertising campaigns, haha. Anyway, for those fellow blondes out there, this is by far the best shampoo I've came across for maintaining colour. Evidently, my eyebrows tend to give away the fact that I am
obvs not a natural blonde, so getting my hair colour to stay platinum blonde without turning into a horrific shade of grey can be somewhat a laborious and expensive time waster. The smell's not too amazing, but this conditioner is the best thing since buttery sliced bread. Okay,
nothing beats buttery sliced bread, but I've spent loads on hair products to maintain the colour, and this is by far the best coloured hair conditioner I've come across yet.
I'm also doing my bit to make sure that Moleskine aren't affected by the economic climate by continuing to spend stupid amounts of my salary of stationery. I just
had to get one of these bad boys for my trip to Amsterdam in 6 (!!) weeks time. For what is essentially a small notebook with a street map, these are a tad overpriced (rrp is £12) unless like me, you're planning to actually go on holiday without an enormous guide book. No one actually uses their
entire guidebook on holiday, do they? By having a dedicated notebook for the city you're visiting, you get to pick and choose recommendations from books, friends and Google and compile them into your own tailor made city guide. What's more, it's encouraging me to research into the city more and plan it out properly. Previous holidays have always been on a whim, which is great now and then but with a mere 4 precious days in the Netherlands, I really want to make the most of it. You create your own tabbed pages in the notebook too, so in addition to the pre-made 'Restaurants/Cafés/Shops' tabs in the Moleskine, I've made my own little 'Museums' and 'Galleries' tabs too. Yes, even in my twenties, I
still have an obsession with well designed stationery.
I'll try to keep Amsterdam-related waffling to a minimum over the next few posts, but I am so excited about Vermeer, Rembrandt and those adorable little houses that sit along the canals. Yesterday's tube journey consisted of drawing my own little Amsterdam house, which was quite an impressive feat, given the usual Monday morning claustrophobia that occurs on the Victoria line.
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| I wore trainers to a Valentino exhibition. Ultimate sartorial fail, I know. |
Fortunately, before this minor blizzard hit us all, I managed to catch up on gallery visits. Tim Walker: Storyteller and Valentino: Master of Couture at Somerset House are amazing. The glass cabinets in the latter exhibition are held up by these beautiful Louis chairs. After an endless amount of beautiful sketches and dresses, I’m not ashamed to admit that my personal highlight of the exhibition were the chairs- if I don’t get round to writing a Chair Lust of the Month post before February comes along, just assume that I’m still dreaming about the masses of creamy upholstered Louis ones that are currently sitting in the basement of the Embankment galleries.
If Walker’s photographs of Alber Elbaz in sets of bunny ears
weren’t enough to float my boat, then Valentino’s sketches certainly were. Meandering
through those shows was such a lovely treat for a wet and windy Sunday
afternoon in grim London. I find fashion illustration so beautiful, and
somewhat depressing as well. As a fully-fledged short arse… (I was under the
impression I was 5’ 4” until I saw my GP last week, who politely informed me I
was a whole inch shorter. It put a
downer onto the beginning of 2013, I assure you.) … anyway, as much as I like
looking at designer sketches, they’re a pertinent reminder of my non- altitudinous legs. Regardless of this, I’ve now covered my 2013 diary
in Valentino-inspired sketches where my weekly ‘To Do’ list would normally go. Whoops, there goes
space to focus on productivity this year.
I pondered over doing an OOTD (that's an 'Out of The Door' for you non-blogging folk) about what I wore to the Gerard Byrne Private View at Whitechapel Gallery last week, but instead wasted my tube journey this morning by sketching it instead. Okay, so this sequinned skirt and leather t-shirt from Zara didn't quite coordinate brilliantly, but it's January and I'm clinging onto any festivity left within me before it gets any colder this month. Everyone needs sequins.
I'm jumping on the first train to Liverpool after work on Friday and for once, it's actually going to be
warmer up north. Mental!
Labels: Amsterdam, Architecture, Cinnamon, John Frieda Sheer Blonde, Moleskine Amsterdam City Notebook, Overreating, Snow, Somerset House, Tim Walker, Valentino
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Un très Joyeux Noël .(scribbled at 13:07 )
So, it’s that time year again already. The party season in full swing (December in itself is one big hangover), this Christmas period is turning looking fairly similar to all the others I’ve previously experienced…I’d rather not divulge just how many kilograms of cherry infused Green and Blacks I’ve consumed in the past few days (yes, kilograms) but my god, it’s enough to make any gym bunny recoil in terror.
I can’t quite get over the fact that we’re edging that little closer to 2013 either, so I’m going to skim over the past few weeks.
Waitrose Christmas cake tastes much better than anything homemade. Seriously.
So, starting with mon très Joyeux Noël, I’d already mentally gone through it in my head on my homebound train from Marylebone last week, preparing to blog endlessly about a time spent pulling crackers with my siblings whilst Shakin’ Stevens pumped out on the radio in the background.
Of course, the harsh reality of all of this is that come 1 o’ clock in the afternoon on Christmas Day, 'twas very much a different picture to one I had envisaged; with me downing my fourth glass of Baileys whilst listening to my mother sporadically swearing numerous insults at the Turkey. It was a really great day though, my mom bought this Christmas Pudding Wine from Marks and Spencer which was essentially a bottle of pricey sherry, but it made a nice addition to the Christmas cake.
This is a very poor photograph of what I wore. But considering how much Baileys and mince pies I’d gotten through before I’d even given into the artery-destroying Christmas lunch, it’s probably for the best that I don’t display any full length photographs for a while. I mean, after an absurd portion of Christmas pudding and half a tin of
Quality Street later, who actually wants to think about what they look like in clothing?
Anyway, so I wore this emerald green dress from Zara that was quite loose fitting pre-party-season. Along with half a Lancôme counter’s worth of mascara and lipstick and vertiginous heels, to hide how fat (igued) I felt that morning.
As my 2 younger siblings played around on their swanky new tablets, I took delight in some of the more simpler things in life. Now that I am in my twenties, family have resorted to drowning me in wine, chocolates and paperbacks. My Liverpool-based bezzie bought me the Design Museum publication ‘How to Design a House’. When a much anticipated stroll to the village of Kinver fell through when it started pissing down on boxing day, this proved quite inspiring. I’m currently working through a major blueprint of my dream house and it’s going fairly smoothly so far:
Speaking of the Design Museum, I took a visit to Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery. I really like this Ron Arad bracelet:
And whilst I was there, I revisited the utterly amazing Swarovski and Designers in Residence exhibitions. The enormous Swarovski chandelier is worth paying the entry fee for in itself.
Oh, AND I SAW MARY KATRANTZOU AT THE V&A THE OTHER WEEK. It was absolutely amazing, I actually can't quite describe how beautiful she is.
Eum, where did I get in my ramblings? Right, so I made my first attempt at fancy dress in this year’s staff Christmas party. This is Marilyn on a shoestring here… my dress was a fiver in the H&M Summer sale. We all went out for lunch to the Hand and Flower on Kensington High Street that afternoon. If you find yourself over that end of the city, do give their vegetarian Wellington a taste. The smoked salmon starter I had came in Michelin-star proportions, so I was a little relieved to see a generous dose of pastry later.
And whilst I’m on the subject of stuffing my face with food, I spent an entire week in Salisbury last month doing exactly just that. Although I did do an immense amount of work whilst I was staying over there, I managed to squeeze in a visit to Stonehenge one evening, and a walk around the Cathedral grounds before work. This meant paying a visit at 6 in the morning, but my hotel was right opposite the cathedral so it wasn’t too bad. They have an endless supply of fresh chocolate croissants at The Cathedral Hotel, which is enough to make me book a return visit next year. I also remember having some mulled wine in a pub where there's a severed hand in the corner. The folk of Wiltshire never cease to amaze!
Before you shut your browser window through this incessant talk of food, I recommend a visit to Greenwich market for their pesto and mozzarella focaccia bread. I went on a department day out for a walk across the 02 Arena, which was preceded by a visit to the Maritime Museum and The British Music Experience. For a mere couple of quid for some freshly baked lunch, it’s a no brainer really. Normally, I’d have had Borough Market as the go-to place for street food, but I don’t think the (extortionate) prices are fit to anyone’s budget, really.
Standing on top of the 02. In some rather fetching climbing gear.
and the week before last, I ventured up to Birmingham for Winterfest at Warwick Bar.
The last blurry photograph is of a card I’d written on for part of the Black Dogs installation. Inside, was a cosy little room with Christmas cards hanging everywhere, and each divulging its own tale of an unwanted gift at Christmas. Invited to write my own card, I spoke about a certain someone who has bought me earrings for the past 3 years, but has failed to realise that I don’t even have one piercing. I feel a little smug right now, as I didn’t receive any earrings, baths salts or ill-fitting jumpers this year. In fact, all my gifts have been fairly practical and useful (see earlier mention about only getting wine and chocolate)
I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas, and like me, feel full enough to vomit if you see another mince pie again.
Xx
Labels: ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Calories, Christmas, Christmas Pudding Wine, Design Museum, Greenwich Market, How to Design a House, Overreating, Sartorial, Swarovski, Warwick Bar Winterfest
