Just because...

...I can make a wedding cake, doesn't mean I can boil an egg!


Hatred of soft-boiled eggs (or any form of cooked eggs other than rock hard ones mashed with salad cream) + getting distracted by playing with the cat = strange alien egg formations in an over-boiled saucepan. Nice.

Back soon with a recipe for the most delicious chocolate cake ever (yep, it's the wedding cake one) and more "oh aren't I crazy to take on so much" confessions.

Too cute for words

Summer salads...

...are on their way. Slowly.

Sunday pub lunches...

...are so deliciously lazy and indulgent.

It's funny 'cause it's true

Things are manic here at the moment. I'm in the middle of a big project, with something even more exciting happening before it. No clues, yet, but I will leave you with this for the time being...

Who needs Paris?

Surprise! We've been in France for the weekend. A very quick trip to see N's folks, and a welcome one, because who doesn't enjoy coffee and pain au chocolate in the sunshine, walks along hill paths covered in wild rosemary, morning markets, and evening drinks? I've been dreaming of Paris trips recently, but this little touch of the vie Francaise, has reminded me that I don't necessarily need the capital to satisfy my whims.

Needless to say there's been no cooking this weekend, or sewing for that matter, just a whole lot of relaxing and wine. I'm itching to get back into the kitchen, but until then I shall have to leave you with a few images of the tres bon sud de France.

Stash

The things to come..

I'm in a strange position at the moment where I'm about to run out of plan. My whole life I've had one, and suddenly it's going to come to an end.

Now this is not all bad. The plan is ending because the plan will be finished, in fact not only finished, but achieved (one hopes, best not to tempt fate too early, eh!).

And so begins a summer of wild speculation as to where I might find myself post-plan. Exciting, terrifying and more than a little distracting!

I wonder if it'll involve a few of these?

When in (self) doubt, make things.

It's funny how a rejection in one area of my life just makes me more productive in others.

The last week has been a whirlwind of activity on all fronts. I not only managed to finish some work, ahead of schedule, but also managed to bake and make things.

I promise a recipe is on it's way, but right now I am supposed to preparing work for tomorrow. Until I can share some baked indulgences with you, I'll just post a few pictures from things this week.

When you have pretty flowers, you need pretty cakes.

When you have new seasons, you need a new wardrobe.

When you have a complicated quilt pattern, you need help from your cat.

When you have a busy Sunday evening, you need a lazy indulgent brunch.

Once you've had a lazy Sunday morning, you can enjoy a busy evening.

He knows me so well

Thank you N, for my beautiful flowers, for supporting me in everything I do, for putting up with me stressing and being a big silly about things. For being downright amazing.

Things to come...

Reasons I love spring weekends (part one)

un peu de la vie française

I found myself walking back from the local knitting shop not only empty handed, but also empty stomached. Not a good sign. When you take grumpy from lack of sleep, and add grumpy from lack of food. Well, that's a whole host of grump I can tell you.

I was envisaging returning home and indulging in a healthy morning snack, like a piece of grapefruit, or a glass of orange juice, when out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a pile of sourdough baguettes in the organic cafe. Before I could stop myself I was through the door and buying not only bread, but cheese and tomatoes too!

With the sun shining, and the pleasant realisation that I didn't have to frantically cobble some bread together when I got home (having failed to bake all weekend due to other responsibilites...such as knitting and to cooking a roast for six people!), I suddenly felt light and carefree. I tore off the crunchy end of the baguette and smugly chomped on it all the way home.

Ah, my subconscious wanting to go to Paris manifests itself so subtly doesn't it?!

Needless to say the grapefruit and orange juice is waiting for tomorrow. Honest.

Sprunged

I've never been a big fan of the colour yellow. It's just not very "me." But at the moment, having sunshine after the long dark winter is such a relief, and seems to have put the whole of London in a good mood, so I couldn't help but be delighted yesterday at the rows of daffodils bathing in the afternoon sunshine.

Cheerfulness

My Mum bought me these last Friday. I was amazed they survived the trek around Borough Market and the two bus journeys back (crammed in a bag with the vibrant stash of rhubarb), but they did and after a few hours in fresh water they started to open.
They are named perfectly, I love the almost excitable burst that the heads of the flowers have. It's as if they can't wait to explode into the happy world of spring. They are so wonderfully cheerful and make me grin whenever I see them.

Breakfast with Mum

I'm definitely a Daddy's little girl. Always have been, always will be. I fit very snugly into the "father's and their daughter's" cliche.But my Mum, well she's more like a best friend. A best friend with all this knowledge about making clothes, and knitting and cats (indispensable when we first got Sniff and I was on the phone every five minutes going "now's he's doing this, what do I do?!") and all sorts of useful things like that. And that's just how I like it.Yesterday we had breakfast and proceeded to shop our way around the market, buying far more that two little ladies could carry, before heading home for bread, cheese and lessons in cable knitting. It was the most wonderful of days.
I'm trying to pursude her to guest post, but it's not going that well so far. I think I need to ply her with more wine first!
But rest assured there are all sorts of exciting things to come, and not all of them involve baked goods - shock horror!



p.s. I couldn't resist taking this picture of my rhubarb travelling back on the bus, I thought it so cute the way it matched the rails.

Ready and waiting...

In denial about the end of the weekend

Ongoing

Happy Valentine's Day