Rain and Flowers

We've had rather a lot of rain here lately. I'm not complaining - it's good for the garden! - but it's not very seasonal, what with the chilly winds and grey skies. If it hadn't been for the fact that it's the middle of June I think we'd have switched the heating on last night. When I returned from a wet dog walk last week with soaking wet shoulders, I realised that my showerproof jacket was not really doing the job and that it was time to buy a proper rain coat, so I hopped online and found a jolly yellow one with deep pockets and a big hood. I like it a lot. I'm my own little ray of sunshine. 

But despite the leaden skies, there's a lot of cheer to be found this wet week. This little fig tree, moved from my parents' garden over the winter, is already producing fruit. I had no expectations from it so this is a nice surprise.

I found the most gorgeous peachy-pink peonies in the supermarket last week. They are some of the best I've bought and have opened beautifully.

Over the last few days the're opened even more and faded to a pale apricot. I should think about composting them soon but I can't quite bring myself to.

One our the pillowcases actually ripped in two as I was changing the sheets last week. They were quite old, perhaps ten years, and although good quality had definitely come to the end of their life, and I so talked John into buying some new bedding.

We chose linen bedding instead of our usual cotton, and I can't tell you how much I love it. I've read that it's more sustainably produced than cotton, is warm in the winter, cool in the summer and softens with washing and age. We also deviated from our usual plain white and chose deliberately mismatched colours which tone together really nicely.

A freshly made up bed is one of life's simple pleasures and one I never tire of. Another is the receipt of a new book or, even better, two. My lovely mum surprised me with Nigel Slater's new title, Greenfeast, a collection of mostly vegetarian recipes for spring and summer. I've been flicking through it over the last couple of days and am itching to get cooking, of course, but it is making me wish the weather would warm up a little - it would be nice to have dinner in the garden sometime soon.

I treated myself to a new book too: A Year of Embroidery by Japanese designer Yumiko Higuchi. It is exquisite and I want to sew everything in it.

The designs are seasonal and can be stitched in one colour or many.

I especially love the effect below of sewing in white on a dark coloured background, and that's something I'd love to try.

The purchase of this book was prompted by a sad event: while cleaning, I spilled bleach on my favourite pair of blue Seasalt cords. I could have cried, I only got them at Christmas and they are so comfortable. The stain was on the right knee and it was large, about the size of a fifty pence piece. My sister suggested covering it up with an embroidery of some kind, what a great idea. 

I forgot to take a photo of the tragic stain before I started sewing, but here you can just see the horrible pinky-orangey-purple that the bleach has died the blue fabric. I chose spring flowers, from the above book, in a palate of white and yellow. After sewing the first, I thought I better keep going so that the effect was a bit more intentional, a bit less random.

The effect is summery and light, and they look great rolled up a little at the ankles and worn with sandals, white t-shirt and chunky mustard necklace. They're not perfect but they are at least wearable now. I guess I can also wear them with wellies and my yellow raincoat too if the rain continues...

Now that those are finished, I can make a proper start on crocheting these socks, which have been in my project basket for a month or two. I didn't think I'd want to make socks in the summer, but then I am sitting here with a blanket over my knees while I type this, so I think they will be alright.

Despite never having been in my life, I found myself visiting Legoland twice in the last week. We don't really go in for theme parks much (the prices!) but, back in the winter, were able to secure unbelievably cheap tickets to go last Saturday.

It was brilliant fun, as you'd expect, and we had a great day, although goodness I was tired when we got home. My favourite part though, a million times over, was the Miniland part of the park - a whole area of miniature world monuments, landmarks and buildings built from Lego bricks. You know I like things in miniature and this was no exception. The level of detail is phenomenal.

My second visit was yesterday, on a school trip. It was just as much fun as Saturday, definitely more tiring, and gave me an opportunity to look at Miniland again.

Finally, proof that is in in fact June and not March, we made it to the beach on Sunday afternoon for a walk. It was blowing a gale and not really that warm but Angus and Bella paddled and Ziggy ran and sniffed and I thought, as I still do, how lucky we are to be able to do things like that as a family at the weekend. 

 I enjoyed Legoland, but give me a trip to the beach over a theme park any day.

Edited to add:

The raincoat is from John Lewis, this one: Hooded Raincoat in yellow. I like it because it is very light weight and so rolls up really small in your backpack if you're not wearing it, plus so far it does seem to be genuinely waterproof not just showerproof.

The bedding is also from John Lewis, from their Croft Collection. The duvet cover is Blue Grey and the pillow are Loch Blue. The pink pillowcases are these ones.

(Not sponsored, all bought with our own money.)

May's Cookery Book

This book has been sitting on my shelf, intimidating me, since I was given it for Christmas a couple of years ago. I don't know why I was reluctant to cook from it; perhaps is the incredibly long ingredients lists, the dishes I just knew the children would look at in horror (aubergine!), or the fact that it seemed like a book full of salads and sides, rather than meals. I'm delighted to report that I was wrong. I love this book, the follow up to Yotam Ottolengi's hugely successful Plenty, and have been busy making up for lost time. Plenty More is a collection of vegetable based recipes broken down (rather cleverly I thought) into styles of cooking - steamed, simmered, baked, cracked, mashed etc. 

The first two recipes I tried were salads, made on a Sunday to be taken to work with me for lunch during the week. I like these salads, because no-one eats them but me and so I can totally please myself with my choices.

First, we have Rice Salad with Nuts and Sour Cherries, except I omitted the almonds and, when I saw the price of sour cherries, swapped them for cranberries. It's an assembly job really, and while the recipe has a lot of stages and uses a lot of pans, it does not require much concentration. You cook - separately - wild and basmati rice and quinoa then set aside to cool. Next, toast some pine nuts then, when they're done use the same pan to fry sliced onions. You mix the whole lot together with chopped herbs, the cranberries, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and seasoning. (See what I meant about the long ingredients lists?!)

It was not quite the lunchbox heaven I'd hoped for, it just didn't have quite the punch of flavour I was anticipating, but it was tasty and I felt smug for not having a cheese sandwich every day.

Salad number two was a huge improvement, I mean it really was amazing. The title put me off a little initially - Mango and Curried Chickpea Salad - because, well, mango and chickpeas? Again, lots of ingredients, lots of pans, but actually very relaxing Sunday morning cooking. 

You are supposed to start by cooking the chickpeas but I just opened a can, drained them and put them in the bowl. Next, dry fry coriander, cumin and mustard seeds in a hot pan then grind them in a pestle and mortar, before adding curry powder and frying with lots of sliced onions before adding this to the chickpeas. 

Then you quickly boil, blanch, then fry cauliflower florets before adding them to the chickpeas and onions and spices. At this point, I could have quite happily just stood there at the kitchen worktop eating the whole lot out of the bowl. 

To this fabulous, smoky, earthy mixture you add zing: diced mango, chilli, coriander, lime juice and spinach.

The contrast between the spice and the fresh herbs and fruit is out of this world. Definitely one I will make again, but when I have time to potter in the kitchen in a leisurely fashion.

Last bank holiday weekend, I made posh beans of toast, otherwise know as Slow Cooked Chickpeas on Toast with Poached Egg. You cook the chickpeas for five hours. FIVE! This is why it's a bank holiday dish, although it's all slow cooking so it's actually a very easy dish to assemble.

This time I bought dried chickpeas, soaked them overnight then simmered them before putting them to one side. Next you blitz oil, onion, garlic, tomato puree, paprika, cayenne and a red pepper in the food processor before cooking for a few minutes. 

To this bright red mixture you add chopped tomatoes, water and the chickpeas and then just let it simmer away for five hours, with the lid off for the last hour.

I was hungry after three hours, so that's when I toasted the bread and poached the egg.

It's amazing, as you would expect.

Finally, an actual dinner that we made for the whole family: Baked Orzo with Mozzarella and Oregano. It's a pasta bake, but a really, really good one. 

You fry aubergine, celery, carrot onion and garlic. 

To this you add the orzo and some tomato puree, followed by oregano, stock, mozzarella and parmesan.

Place sliced tomatoes on top and then bake.

I just loved the appearance of those tomatoes arranged on top. 

The kids were not impressed by the aubergine and I felt the vegetables could have done with a little more cooking time, but it was packed with flavour and the cheesy, tomatoey sauce was perfect comfort food. A win and definitely one to go back to. It reminded me how much I like orzo, and that I should cook it more, although next time I might try different vegetables. 

So that was May's choice. Today we've had hours of glorious rain and I can almost hear the garden breathing a sigh of relief. Wishing you all a happy and relaxing weekend.