Cornflower

Two ladies of Berlevaag

 

    "In Norway there is a fjord - a long narrow arm of the sea between tall mountains - named Berlevaag Fjord. At the foot of the mountains the small town of Berlevaag looks like a child's toy-town of little wooden pieces painted gray, yellow, pink and many other colours.

    Sixty-five years ago two elderly ladies lived in one of the yellow houses. Other ladies at that time wore a bustle, and the two sisters might have worn it as gracefully as any of them, for they were tall and willowy. But they had never possessed any article of fashion; they had dressed demurely in gray or black all their lives."

    That is the opening passage of the Cornflower Book Group's June book - full details are here, and if you'd like to join in and read it with us, you'd be very welcome.  

Flatbread

    I've just tried this recipe for flatbread (that's one cooking there, 2-3 minutes per side in the griddle pan on the fast hob) and the results are very good indeed. I used the suggested mixture of plain and wholemeal flour but I added some sesame and poppy seeds, too, and I'd certainly do that again as the breads were full of flavour and perfect with our supper of roasted vegetables and grilled halloumi.

More links

    Further links have been added to the list, but let's not stop there as the more the better (any topics at all), and if there's something you're particularly looking for, just say and we'll see if anyone can give us a recommendation to suit.

Books and cakes - 41

    Back in Oxford, at the end of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall, Paul Pennyfeather goes to tea with Stubbs at Hertford* and eats "honey buns and anchovy toast".

    The book has little else to offer by way of food - the boys at Llanabba complain of their pudding, there's pêches Melba at the Hotel Metropole (slight shades of the wonderful Majestic in Troubles?), a perpetual cocktail hour at King's Thursday, and a dinner of bouillabaisse and Meursault for Paul in Marseilles, so honey buns it had to be for our Cornflower Book Group virtual afternoon tea. Luckily, I found a good recipe, and even better, a short video of Valentine Warner making these delicious little things.

    Similar to rum babas, the yeasted buns are drenched in a sugar syrup - this one flavoured with orange zest, Cointreau and a flowery honey. You can eat them warm, or do as Valentine suggests and pack them into a Le Parfait jar and refrigerate for up to a month. Serve with whipped cream!

(There's more on the book itself here, and for a comprehensive biographical note on the Hertford alumnus Waugh, see the *college website).

Recommended and sought

 

    Quick links gathered together from yesterday's post - I know it's a collection of random items, but why not? Please do keep your recommendations coming and I'll add them to this list, likewise anything you're particularly seeking, as someone may know just the product, place, etc.

Recommended:

By me: Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation SPF15.

By Curzon: BaByliss 2775U Big Hair Rotating Styler.

By Juxtabook: MyTights.com and Firebox.

By Linda, in response to my request for a book on meditation: The Miracle Of Mindfulness (and though fiction should be on the other site, for continuity's sake here may I also recommend Linda's novels, particularly Star Gazing and the recently released House of Silence).

By Dark Puss: Mehron Makeup.

By Oxslip: Natio skincare and cosmetics, Peony and Thistle notebooks and journals, ceramic artist Adam Buick, Fox's Mini Party Rings!

By rj: Hové Parfumeur, New Orleans, carnation scent.

By Geranium Cat: Green Tea Fine Hand Lotion by Heyland & Whittle, Burt's Bees Hand Creme, Crabtree & Evelyn La Source Hand Recovery.

By BR Wombat: Real Foods (free delivery for UK orders over £5).

By Kate/Massachusetts: Books on the Knob.

By Adèle Geras: Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation (and again, may I recommend Adèle's novels - it's hard to choose just two, but let's say Facing The Light and Made In Heaven). 

By Nicola: Clinique sheer lip colour (was it specifically this one, Nicola?).

By Pamela: Mario Badescu Bee Pollen Night Cream.

By Canyda: Chocolate Mama by Helen Bradley Hall.

 

Sought:

By rj: good hypoallergenic lip colour (not gloss).

By Dark Puss: a UK source of men's jackets and trousers (full details and size requirements in his comment here).

By Birdie: wellies with arch support (or simply very comfortable wellies).

    In answer to Birdie, I've worn Hunter wellies for years and have found them to be comfortable and give more support to the foot than other makes. At the moment I have neoprene-lined boots by Toggi (they were a gift) and they are very cosy in cold weather, but for my next pair I might be tempted by neoprene-lined Hunters like these!

By Oxslip: suggestions for holiday reading. See her specific requirements!

 

Cornflower readers recommend ...

    I was thinking just now about how good it would be if we could harness the combined power of this website and its readers and do a sort of recommendations post, encompassing anything and everything, sharing what we have found to be good.

    For example, I posted recently about my new iron because I'm happy with it and thought that information might be of use to someone, but there must be all sorts of things that we like especially that we could mention here, and conversely, if you're looking for advice on, say, a book on a particular subject or a make or model of something, why not ask in the comments and see if anyone can suggest one?

    I'll start us off with a commodity which I don't think has featured here before, and that is makeup - let me commend to you (and this is unsolicited, I hasten to add) Bobbi Brown's Skin Foundation SPF15, which is excellent, and Nikki at the BB counter in the Edinburgh branch of John Lewis who advised me. I've used Bobbi Brown products for quite a while but that one is new to me, and a few minutes of Nikki's ministrations left me positively glowing in a very natural way!

    So there's a tip for those who can use it, and what I'd like you to recommend to me, if you can, is something completely different, i.e. a good book or website on simple, straightforward meditation for inner calm and clarity (I want that glow to be more than skin-deep, if poss.).

    Anyone want to ask for suggestions and/or offer recommendations on anything at all? Please go ahead.   

PS. If you have any fiction to recommend (or ask about), here's the place to do it.

Sturm und Drang

    What with the Grimsvötn volcanic ashcloud causing considerable disruption to flights, and severe gales felling trees and power lines here, there's plenty of dramatic weather about.

    This poor tree is one of several brought down on Monday in our local park, but further north, my parents lost a huge willow which was the centrepiece of one half of their garden. Our only casualty was a substantial fence, snapped off at the roots and broken like matchsticks.

    For an evocation of rather calmer weather in the (albeit) rain-soaked woods, listen - if you have a few minutes to spare - to the first section of Arnold Bax's Spring Fire, available here (at 6 mins. 28 secs.) but for just a few more days, or on CD. It's lovely.

To scale

    I'm weighing my wool to find out how much I've used so far in an effort to calculate how much longer I could make these socks if I wanted. I'm knitting the smaller size of the Red Wine and Port Socks from Jane's book so I've got scope for some extra length anyway, but I'm wondering how far I can go - I'll check them again after another pattern repeat and see how many more grams I've used (ah, the joys of at long last having variable scales accurate to a tiny unit), but if anyone knows any canny formula for this, please say!

    Another revelation with these socks has been using 3mm needles (as specified) for the most part; all the other socks I've made have been on 2.25 or 2.75mm, but with these I'm flying along, and that obvious progress is gratifying. Here's a thing though, do you knit your socks right side out or outside in? I've always used the latter method and am doing so again with these, though I turned them out for the picture, but I'd never twigged there was an alternative until I started on the Fair Isle scarf (knitted in the round, of course) and discovered how to arrange the work to see the developing pattern. This is what comes of learning things from books rather than being shown techniques in person!

Le crumble

    +

    =

    I've been trying Raymond Blanc's crumble recipe, as given in Kitchen Secrets, because I'd never have thought of pre-baking the crumble topping, but that is what he advises for optimum crispness.

    Of course, his method has more to it than that, for example, the making of a very pale blond caramel in which to cook the apples (dessert varieties); the blackberries are then added and it's all left to cool. The crumble mixture itself comprises equal quantities of flour and butter, and two types of sugar, and in both taste and texture it resembles really good shortbread. When baked again, crumbled over the fruit, it is biscuity and crunchy and rich and extremely good - so good that I may never make it the old way again.

Aga-ish

    I'm not sure I see the point of the new version of the Aga that's just been unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery in London - Aga Total Control the cooker for all seasons. If I've read the description correctly, you'd have it switched off a lot of the time, which seems to me to be the antithesis of 'Aga living'. One of the great benefits of having an Aga is constant warmth in the kitchen, and ovens always ready for cooking, no matter how hot or cool you need them. The new one is programmable - and sophisticatedly so, by the sound of it - but having it off and on like a conventional cooker means it's ... well, like a conventional cooker (though not in terms of price).

    My Aga - which is on 365 days a year - helps with the drying of dishes, dogs and clothes. It 'irons' things, turns milk into yogurt overnight, encourages my bread dough to rise, and makes the best toast. All the baking on this website has come out of it, and it helps with the prep., too, such as softening butter or melting chocolate. I do all manner of cooking on it every day, and I love it, but I also like the jazzy little video they've made for the new one (see above)!

If at first you don't succeed ...

    Not only did I unravel yesterday's attempt at the cabled sock, I had a re-think about the yarn. The red stuff I was using, good as it is, didn't have quite the heft for the cables and just wasn't behaving as it should, so I looked to see what else might do.

    The intended recipient of the socks chose something from The Yarn Yard - this is Moondance, and when Natalie dyed it what she had in mind was the colours of Edinburgh's slate roofs, especially when rain-washed, and though it's not too obvious from the photograph, it's a really lovely mix of greys and blues and mauves, with the stellina giving a little sparkle.

    It's knitting up beautifully, as you see, so as long as I don't make a mistake...

Ripping yarns

    Some time ago, I started knitting a cabled sock, and all was fine until I got to the heel and then my improvisations (because I'd just added a cable to a basic pattern) made my stitch count go awry. Despite the old 'a blind man in a hurry wouldn't notice' reassurance, I knew it wouldn't do and the only thing was to start again. So, when I saw the lovely Red Wine and Port Socks in Jane's new book - cabled socks exactly as I'd wanted them - I duly rattled back the first attempt and cast on with enthusiasm.

    This time, all was fine only as far as the first cable row. Goodness knows what I did wrong, but it went to pot and had to be ripped out. Thinking I would salvage some of the 20 'good' rows I'd done, I contrived to pick up stitches and continue, but no - I have managed to misalign them, and the leg pattern doesn't flow from the ribbing as it should. This is all my fault and nothing to do with the pattern, but there's nothing for it but to rip out and try again.

    Deep breath ....

In life as in books

 

     "Dessert was a bowl of fruit served with a mixture of cream and yoghurt, with a layer of burnt sugar on top, one of Grandma's classic combinations, made by Bronwen before we'd arrived."

    That passage is from Tim Pears's novel Disputed Land, which I've just finished and can recommend, and reading it reminded me of that effortless and very good pudding it describes, a version of which I posted here. I went back to the recipe my own grandmother used to make it today (it's in Claire Macdonald's Sweet Things, should you happen to have that book), but as it's just two parts double cream, whipped quite swiftly, to one part Greek yogurt, folded in, put in a bowl with a layer of Demerara or Muscovado sugar sprinkled on top and left to chill for an hour or two, you hardly need written instructions. (I've photographed it here just made, not ready for serving, so the sugar has yet to dissolve). 

Un petit peu de tapenade

    As soon as we got a copy of Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets, Mr. C. appropriated it and has been cooking from it at weekends, turning out dishes such as lamb with a herb crust and ratatouille, the excellent tomato salad I referred to before, and lately, a very simple version of tapenade.

    M. Blanc serves this as an accompaniment to Assiette of lamb, but we just had it on good bread for lunch: in a blender or food processor, whizz together 100g black olives (ideally kalamata, RB says) pitted, 60ml extra virgin olive oil and 30ml water (at room temperature). Purée until smooth and refrigerate 'til needed. Given that we wanted the resulting paste to be spreadable but still stiff-ish, Mr. C. altered the proportions somewhat, using 150g of olives to the prescribed volume of oil and water. This is not the most photogenic of foodstuffs, hence using the book cover to illustrate the post, but it tastes very good indeed.

What the postie brought: 4

          Not an instructional video, as some members of the family thought, but a film I've never seen before. Is it good? Is there lots of sewing in it? I'm unlikely to get to watch it before next week, so your views would be welcome.

         Honestly, that's all I'm expecting the postie to bring for now (apart from some more additions to the in-tray), but in relation to my recent acquisition of craft books and in answer (enfin) to the question posed by Dark Puss the other day, all the skills I have - such as they are - have been picked up from books. My mother taught me the basics of knitting when I was a child, but everything I've learned since has come from a book, and I've never had a lesson or taken a class of any kind. That's certainly not down to deliberate avoidance, just natural inclination and practicality up to now.