So, whilst around me London went insane, I stayed in, drank Earl Grey and made stuff whilst being glued to the news. I have recently purchased the new Simon Hopkinson cookbook ‘The Good Cook’ and already made the ginger chocolate pots and the ham and cheese fried sandwiches.
All I can say is mmm….they were lovely!
Cooking from Hopkinson’s book has been a real joy. To put it into perspective, whenever I cook from ‘Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals‘ I always feel really stressed. I don’t know if it’s the pressure to get the meal ready in 30 minutes or the frenetic style that the recipe is written in but I always come out of the kitchen a nervous wreck. In contrast, cooking from Hopkinson’s book is a calming experience. You ‘quietly’ melt chocolate rather than bash at rosemary; all I needed were a few cartoon woodland animals to be the picture of Disney domesticity.
Apart from trying new recipes, I have also been doing lots of DIY as the good old British summertime has, true to form, not been sunny enough to venture outside. Part of this has involved a lot of tidying up. I have discovered that I have clothes that span 4 different dress sizes and a larder stuffed with bags of a million different types of sugar and flour. The clothing triggered a nicely profitable eBay clear out whereas the larder led to me spending a disproportionate amount of time labelling storage jars using paper, fabric and (my new favourite thing) Mod Podge.
I don’t really like the pastel colours of the paper as I am more of a primary colour girl, but I wanted to label them on the cheap and this was all I had. To differentiate between the different types of flour/sugar, I wrote this on the first letter of each jar using a permanent marker before sealing.
I also used some spare fabric scraps I had tucked away in a drawer to cover the lids and brighten up the jars a little. I really should be doing bigger, grander things than labelling a few jars so this is a typical use of my time to avoid doing the things I dislike (sugar soaping the walls, painting the ceiling…). To be honest, I’ve never been this busy during a summer holiday. I have had a few health issues and found that the best way to carry on is to keep myself occupied. So far, so good!
I don’t really want to provide any kind of social commentary of the riots as so many have already done this and my main feelings about it are disappointment, disgust and a glimmer of hope in the strands of humanity and kindness that rippled through the bedlam. So, my only real comment on the riots is this, my favourite piece of advice from Neil Walker.
Retro Geek Girl 