Nigel's Adaptable Bean Soup

Sunday's lunch: Nigel's Adaptable Bean Soup. Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers is my favourite cookery show of all time. Such a lovely slow pace focussing on fresh ingredients and thoughtful cooking. Smelled amazing, tasted even better!

Bath

I went to Bath for a day with my friend Lucy to have a relaxing time in the thermae spa. It was a lovely day for a wander round the city.

Trying something new

'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson is my go-to baking bible. I use it for cupcakes, muffins, birthday cakes and bread, but I've never really looked at the savoury recipes in it. Today I went to look up a recipe for Blueberry Muffins and the book fell open on a recipe for a 'Courgette and Chickpea Pie'. I was in a cooking mood and was going to the supermarket this morning so thought I'd try making it for me and my flatmate for dinner this evening. I'm so glad I did, because the pie was delicious and really simple to make.

First, you cook the vegetables in some olive oil and spices, then add the rice and stock.

When the stock is absorbed and the rice is cooked, you add the chickpeas. Then you put the pie together by layering filo pastry in a springform tin and adding the filling. I crumbled some feta cheese into my mixture before filling the pie.The pie is baked in the oven for about 20 minutes, by which time the filling is nice and hot and the pastry is golden brown and beautiful.
Cutting the pie is a bit difficult as bits of pastry tend to fly everywhere but it's worth it!
This pie is delicious! I'm glad I added the feta cheese and I think next time I make it I'll add some spinach when the filling is cooking, when the rice is almost cooked. I think I need to investigate some more of the savoury recipes in 'Domestic Goddess', I'm so glad I tried making this one.

The recipe is available online here: http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=235

Enjoy!

Saturday Sewing

I've been away for the last two weekends so I wanted to relax a bit at home this weekend. I moved into a shared flat about 6 weeks ago, but a lot of my things are still at my parents house, which is only about a mile away. I need to buy a desk and some shelves for my room so I can bring my sewing machine, yarn and fabric stashes and sewing and knitting books here.

Today I spent the day at my parents' house making cushions for my bed. I am so happy with how these turned out! Both fabrics are Amy Butler upholstery weight: the smaller cushions in front are made from a fabric in the 'August Fields' collection (purchased a few months ago at Liberty) and the larger cushions are made from a fabric in the 'Love' collection (purchased this afternoon in John Lewis, Kingston). I am really delighted with these! (Although you might note that, rather than making Meg's birthday skirt, I diverted back to the 'straight line' sewing of which I have grown so fond. I have still got two weeks before her birthday to sew a present, but I think it might become an adaptation of the 'Lazy Days Skirt', also by Liesl of 'Oliver and S'. Watch this space...)

September Socks

Dad's 2009 birthday socks. Shibui Knits sock yarn (purchased at my beloved 'Stash Yarns'), knit on 2.25mm Knit Picks metal dpn's. As always on Dad's birthday, Julian the Sheep decided to gatecrash the photo. Attention seeker.

Work in Progress: Meg's Birthday Tank Top

Megan, my niece, is going to be one in a couple of weeks. ONE! How on earth did that happen?! I really don't know where the time has gone, it seems like just five minutes that I turned up at the hospital to meet her, when she was put in my arms and I looked into her eyes and fell instantly, heart breakingly in love.

I'm celebrating Meggie's first birthday with a stripey tank top which will (sort of) match a skirt I'm (hoping) to sew this weekend.

Hoping because while I love to sew quilts (all those lovely straight lines) I am yet to sew a garment. I guess that would account for the collection of uncut, unsewn Clothkits skirts I have gathering dust. They look so beautiful as they are, the thought of ruining them is terrifying.

Tea Cosy for a Tea Party

A couple of weeks ago one of friends at work decided to hold a Tuesday Tea Party one lunchtime to raise sponsorship money for her friend who is running the London Marathon to raise money for Cancer Research on behalf of her Father who has beaten cancer three times.

The least I could do to help with Becky's efforts was offer to knit a tea cosy to be raffled at the event. I looked at various lovely patterns (thanks Glittr Girl!) but settled on this pattern from Joelle Hoverson's 'Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

The pattern suggests cashmere yarn and 5mm needles, but I knitted it with less than one skein of Dream in Color Classy, on 4.5mm needles. The pattern is basically just a long rectangle of a deliciously textured waffle stitch, with is then sewn into a tube. It would be easy to modify to use a provisional cast-on and kitchener stitch or a three needle cast-off, but I was under pressure to get this finished quickly so stuck to the pattern.

I was really pleased with the end result and more importantly, so was the winner of the raffle!

A Happy Day

This photo was taken at my oldest friend's wedding on Saturday. I've known Ketna for 18 years, since we started at the same secondary school in Kingston. She lived a couple of streets away from me, just around the corner really, and so most mornings for the 7 years we were at that school, we walked there and back together.

Ketna is a wonderful friend, one of the rarest kind, who you can not see or speak to for a long while, and when you do it was like you just spoke yesterday, you talk for hours and you wonder why you didn't do it more often. Then life gets in the way and it's another few months before you meet, talk, and wonder the same thing again.

After school, I moved to Newcastle to study Architecture and Ketna stayed in London to study medicine. We kept in touch by letter (those were the days! How I loved to write a long letter rather than an email, decribing in great detail all that had been going on almost 300 miles away), phone and later email.

When I moved back to London after finishing my second architecture degree at Newcastle, Ketna had qualified as a Doctor and was posted to a job at a hospital in Cambridge. She has recently moved back to London where she's training to be a Cardiologist, so I'm hoping we will be able to see more of each other. (She's also living very near 'Loop', as if I needed another excuse to visit either her, or the shop!)

Ketna is one of the most intelligent, warm hearted, kind and loving people I know. I know we'll be friends for life.

I'm pretty sure you won't read this Ketna (too busy rushing around saving people's lives) but if you do this is for you: I love you hon, you're the best friend a girl could wish for. x

Give us this day our daily blog

Wow, my blogging this year has been diabolical! I haven't even written my New Year's Resolutions yet. Is it too late to write resolutions in March? I feel like, with the coming of Spring (soon, I hope!) it might be quite a good time to sit down and reflect on what I would like to achieve over the coming months.

One of the things I wanted to do in 2010 was get back into the habit of regular blogging. Well, I have failed spectacularly so far this year, so I've decided that I will attempt to blog every day during March. 31 posts this month. Words, photos or a combination of the two.

See you tomorrow!