Back to reality

I took a short break from blogging over the last fortnight in some part due to my attendance of a short course at the London College of Journalism.

The 3 day "Introduction to Journalism" course was run by a charismatic and hugely experienced news and features writer called Tony Padman. He was a fantastic teacher, striking the all important balance between being positive and encouraging while not holding back on giving honest and constructive feedback on our work.

I met some fascinating people on the course from a young Nigerian journalist who works for This Day to a charming middle aged solicitor who is planning to write features in his free time.

Best of all Tony managed to introduce us to the basics of news and features journalism, help us sharpen our writing style and gave us a real sense of what life is like as a features journalist.

I spent last weekend in the Cotswolds, for those outside the UK this is a particularly beautiful expanse of the British countryside around Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire famed for its quaint villages and sweeping landscapes. Surrounded by three of my favourite children in the world I enjoyed horse riding (watching, NOT doing), a glorious massage at Daylesford and, best of all, more Roald Dahl stories than I knew existed.

Much more to come this week so watch this space...

Indulgence

This weekend I had a real craving for poached eggs, potato waffles and baked beans.

Saturday was a grey day and as I was making my way into town to begin some Christmas shopping I had a moment of clarity. I was not going to force my way down crowded streets in the pouring rain among thousands of irritable shoppers in central London...no I was going to go back to my bed, watch an old movie and eat a poached egg.

So I did exactly that and enjoyed the brilliant House of Games while eating perfectly poached eggs under a warm duvet. Perfect!

A fortnight in pictures

Exhausted, horribly hungover and deliberating some big decisions today.

Therefore I give you a short picture update, an apology for my recent absence and a promise to do better.

Book shelf below seen at Terence Conrad shop - I just adore it.

Other than that a sample of what I have been consuming over the last few days, including a meal at my beloved Grand Bazaar.

Recipe: Sausages with Chorizo and Lentils

• I made this Nigel Slater recipe this weekend. It is taken from The Kitchen Diaries, one of my all time favourite recipe books. I substituted the salami that Nigel recommends for chorizo which I know is pretty naughty, but I just love chorizo and it added such a smoky punch that I forgave myself. I made steamed asparagus with melted butter and sea salt for starter, simply because the asparagus was on offer rather than due to any natural synergy between the light, summery starter and the warming, winter main. Still, the whole thing was pretty sublime. I do hope that Mr Slater won't mind my tinkering with his wonderful recipe.

  I served this with a small amount of rice, which wasn't actually needed, and buttered toast to scoop up the sauce.

  P.S It is my 100th blog post today, which I couldn't let pass without mention. I am greatly enjoying sharing this little journal with you. I hope you are too.

  
  

  Prep time:

  20 mins
  
  

  Cook time:

  45 mins

  
  
  
  
  
  
  2 onions
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 200g salami, in one piece (I USED CHORIZO)
• 350 g Sausages
• 500g crushed tomatoes, or tomato passata
• 150g green or brown lentils
• 3 bay leaves

Method

1. Peel the onions and cut each one in half from tip to root, then cut each half into four or five pieces. Warm the oil in a heavy-based casserole, add the onions and let them cook over a moderate heat until tender.

2. Meanwhile, peel the garlic, slice it thinly and add it to the onions. You'll need to stir them regularly.

3. Peel the thin skin from the salami and cut the inside into fat matchsticks. Add this to the softening onions and leave for a couple of minutes, during which time the salami will darken slightly.

4. Start cooking the sausages in a non-stick pan. You want them to colour on the outside; they will do most of their cooking once they are in the sauce.

5. Tip the crushed tomatoes into the onions, add the washed lentils and stir in 500ml water. Bring to the boil. Remove the sausages from their pan and tuck them into the casserole with the bay leaves.

6. Cover the pot with a lid and leave to simmer gently for about half an hour, until the lentils are tender. Stir the lentils and season with black pepper. You may find it needs little or no salt.

Catch up

I failed in my daily updates. I do have an excuse but it is a rubbish one so I won't bore you.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks to make up for it.

October has been a beautiful month in London. Bright, sunny, cold and crisp days which are my favourite kind. Lots of cooking (I made my first pie last night), gorgeous meals out and seeing friends. Being completley broke has meant I have travelled far and wide to see friends who are generously cooking for me, and I'm very grateful for their kindness and culinary skills.

I also offer you a recommendation, a little bit of an insight into my mind which is sort of what I promised. This is my favourite blog in the world. It puts mine to shame, so I expect to never see you again - and I understand. She is, without doubt, one of the funniest writers out around and I was so thrilled when she featured my friend Max as one of her cute boys last year. He got an overwhelming reaction -and believe it or not it wasn't me over and over!

Good Morning

At this moment I am lying in the bed you see above. The builders began their work on the scaffolding outside my window at 8am this morning, ensuring I didn't get the much needed Saturday morning lie in I had been longing for.

This has been yet another odd week. My itchy feet are pushing me to make plans to go away and shake things up. But my love of security and fear of change (there, I said it) are keeping me from committing to anything.

All this is not helped by an almost entirely new team at work who are making me feel wizened and cynical; as if I don't really have a place there. I feel a bit like I'm being made to question why I'm staying. I know the answer, there is a huge amount of potential for change and it would be a complete waste of the last two years to leave at this point. But I know I am right when I see them wishing for an entirely new slate. It's an odd feeling to go from the person bursting with fresh ideas and grand plans to change the world to feeling like you're not being listened to and as if new and different is better than experience and insight. Surely both are good?

Must snap out of this indulgent mood for my weekend. I am going to pop down to the Cabbages and Frocks in Marylebone with Jo, have an exciting party to go to on a barge boat on the canal tonight (Can I wear high heels?) and tomorrow am going to try and watch my friend run the Royal Parks (if I can drag myself away from the only chance of a lie in this week - no building work on Sunday).

Now for coffee...and a strong word with myself.

Preparing

The past week and weekend has been spent preparing for my 2 week trip to Rimini. As such I have spent it:

• Twittering the Rimini tourist board for a daily weather report (the BBC says rain for the next 5 days - not happy at all)
• Purchasing excessive amount of sun cream (25 for day 1, 15 for first week and 10 for second week). So far I have spent £35 on sun cream. Perhaps someone should suggest to our Health Secretary that it may be advisable to subsidise the price of sun cream and as such decrease the colossal amount the NHS pay every year to treat those with skin cancer.
• Spending a hot Sunday inside the Westfield centre buying sandals and satin shirts and white shorts with floral detail.
• Catching up with friends I haven't seen for a while. This included: eating and drinking at Andrew Edmunds on Lexington St, getting snap happy as my friend danced the Lambada, having a delicious salad and wine from a Starbucks plastic cup in Queen's Park, sitting outside the Sun in Splendour in Notting Hill and drinking white wine spritzers.

I saw these 3 cats prowling outside a flat opposite mine as I stumbled home the other night. I love how their eyes glow as they watch me pass.

A quiet weekend

So far this weekend has consisted of; muggy heat, recipe reading, lemonade, cooking new things, an enormous storm, catching up on sleep, having my favourite bag pummelled by hail stones (as I stupidly left my window open in the storm), cleaning, washing, ironing and replacing thick, heavy duvets with thin, cool sheets and a lot of dancing around the Michael Jackson songs in tribute to the great man.

We also had one of those amazing experiences you hope for in a city as big as London. Wandering through Liberty on Thursday evening we met two of the most charming and stylish Parisians. They ran a section of the shop where there are 3 large canisters, big enough to stand in, which are actually tunnels to sample perfume. The company is called Editions de Parfums, and my basic understanding is that they invited the top Perfumers in the world and asked them to make their dream perfume regardless of cost or restrictions or others peoples opinion or ideas. To sample the perfume they put a couple of spritzes in a canister and you put your head in, close your eyes and are giving a rundown of what you are smelling by one of the staff. They both have the most beautiful voices, and it is more pleasurable than I imagined being lulled into an almost hypnotised state by the dulcit tones of a beautiful Parisian man running you through what your senses are experiencing.

We spent a while talking to the store manager Peggy and her colleague and got a recommendation for a place in Soho we had never heard of. Unbelievable for us all knowing Londoners. The place is called Bob Bob Ricard and in a strange coincidence Susie Bubble also mentioned it on her blog yesterday. Apparently it is wonderfully French, and it was recommended as somewhere to go to wile away a few hours without the pressure to drink. Both of them commented on how shocked they were to come to London and realise there really were not many places you could go in the evening in London where drinking was not the main activity. I agree with them, and I am looking forward to visiting Bob Bob Ricard soon.