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TOYING IN THE KITCHEN
Not being exactly petite, I have never had a taste for the dainty: I like to wear a man's watch and were I to go in for jewellery, which I don't, I would choose a cuff over a fine-chained bracelet any day. So what explains my choice for LOVES this week? You can't see the scale from the pic here, but what it is, is a miniature stove made of painted wood. About 18 centimetres (that's 7 inches in old money) tall. I must confess that I originally bought this to give as a present to a child, but we all loved it so much at Cupcake Towers, I kept it. But it would make a fantastic present, and with Christmas coming up, that's worth bearing in mind. I used to get driven mad by wall-to-wall plastic when my children were young enough to have played with a toy stove and would have been thrilled to have found it then. Still, I've been pretty happy to find it now myself! The stove comes with four pretend burners, two saucepans, a kettle, a pan with a fried egg in it and, in the oven, a baking tray with a baguette. There's something about this that makes its cuteness charming rather than emetic. And it's not just me: since we were doing the book shoot the other week, I asked if Lis, who did the beautiful photographs for Express and Christmas too, would take a picture of the stove for the site. It's not really done to ask such things, but far from minding my cheek, Lis devoted herself to taking the best photo she could, even though I'd just asked for a snap. And Caz, the most eminent art director around, and someone not given to the cutesie-poo one bit, started filling one of the pans up with peas and tearing vermicelli into spaghetti strands for the other empty pan. As you can see, the finished effect is delightful, and as I write, the stovelet in question sits on my desk. I know I must give it to some deserving child soon, but with St Augustine I plead "not yet"!
Buy it online from Jelly and Ice Cream for just £17.50
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PERFECTION COMPLEXION
Much as I have a well documented and unashamed weakness for make up (partly on the basis that I enjoy both the frippery and the fact that no changing room torture is involved) I have never been very keen on foundation. In fact, until pretty recently I would have thought it unlikely I'd ever be lured away from my Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer. It may well be that I do return to it, but for now I am won over by Givenchy's Subli'mine Sculpt Light liquid foundation, which looks a teeny tiny bit odd the minute you put it on, but seems to glide into luminous sheerness after about half an hour. Don't ask me how, but it does. Plus it has a SPF of 20, which you might not think important now the sun has gone, but I am a firm believer in nothing less than factor 20 every day (which I boost considerably in summer) but most of all, it makes your skin just zing: at around £25, it is not fantastically cheap, but nor does it look it; think of it as a morale-boosting investment.
Obviously, you need to go to a cosmetics counter to make sure you get the right colour for the first time; I wouldn't guess by the pictures online. For store locations and to buy online in the UK from Debenhams and House of Fraser.
Or for your closest Givenchy Stockist in the UK, call +44 1932 233 842.
For Sales in the rest of the world, visit StrawberryNet.
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SNUGGLE UP AND FLY RIGHT
I have always had a weakness for the ridiculous and, more seriously, a bit of an online shopping habit, and the two - it has become apparent to me - can be effortlessly combined. My latest example of this compulsive marriage is evidenced by my most recent and risible acquisition - a Slanket. Yes, you did read right, and no it isn't as funny as it sounds. A Slanket, you see, is a blanket with sleeves (what else could it be, now you come to think of it?) and is so obviously the answer for those who plan to spend their winter weekends sofa-bound and cosily cocooned. I, however, have other plans. In December I am going on a book tour of the States, and have used this as justification for the purchase of a Travel Slanket. This is a bit shorter than the regular version (which might trail a bit in train corridors or airplane aisles), comes with its own carry-bag and is cheaper. And I can't really see that anyone other than a rather tall male would require anything bigger to be honest. I am going to try and stop myself wearing it in the house, as I fear I might never get properly dressed again if I did.
Buy it online from Firebox for £24.95.
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DID YOU SAY CHOCOLATE!
First, I'm sorry not to have bounced up and down with enthusiasm for a new 'loves' last week. With impeccable timing (ie week one of my new book shoot) my back went. And when I say went, it really went. I was hobbling around in a corset and four heat pads, without the strength even to open the fridge (see how serious it was) and unable to type. Solace was found in one of my absolute all-time fave chocolate bars, the Vosges Haut-Chocolat Barcelona Bar. Think deep, rich milk chocolate, smokey-roasted almonds and sea salt. It is a combination made in heaven - or rather, devised in Chicago by the chocolatier of genius, Katrina Markoff. Although I have found them in Selfridge's in London, what I normally do is order ten bars on line and then make someone in my house hide them so I don't eat them in all in one go. Obviously, last week I had to draw quite a few out of the Barcelona Bar Bank. I'm not saying this is a low cost indulgence, but a Barcelona Bar is a chic treat , not an exercise in cheap confectionery. And once you go Vosges, there's no turning back. You have been warned.
Visit VOSGES HAUT CHOCOLATE, and you can buy it online for $7.50.
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GREEN DREAM
I have always hero-worshipped Nigel Slater: I love his food, his writing, him. Now, I don't have a vegetable patch, I don't even have a garden, but I am so wonderfully, greedily inspired by Tender, the book that chronicles his own love for the vegetables he grows, picks and cooks. This is not a vegetarian book by any means - I am mad for a man who can write a recipe entitled 'Broad beans, herbs, bacon and its fat' - but it celebrates the vegetable kingdom as only a true prince of the kitchen can. It is a huge, huge book - running to over 600 pages and weighing in at over one and three quarter kilos - and all of
it is a delight. Sad to say, as someone with no soil to her name, I have begun to look very longingly at my Seeds of Italy catalogue indeed.
Buy TENDER: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch by Nigel Slater from Amazon.co.uk for just £15.00 and from Amazon.com for $41.38.
Have a look at the SEEDS OF ITALY website.
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HOT STUFF
If you have an aversion to the seriously spicy, turn away now! My weakness, however, is for the strong stuff! It's strange, really, as I have quite oversensitive taste-buds, and yet I can bear them to be scorched and seared by curries and condiments - the hotter the better! In fact, I seek them out. I have written before in this space about the Thai Sriracha hot-sauce, but my new find is perhaps even hotter, a sweet mango chilli sauce that has (even though it comes from the West Indies) something of that Thai fresh heat, and although it does have a sweet element, its main quality is a fruity fieriness. So while I advise you hotly to give it a go, I also warn you to proceed with caution....
TROPICAL SUN: SWEET MANGO CHILLI SAUCE is available to buy all over the UK from Sainsbury's, Costcutter and Londis stores!
The RRP 99p for the 150ml and £1.39 for the 220ml.
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A MOTHER'S PLACE IS IN THE WRONG
My mother always told me that when one gets to a certain age, one starts reading more non-fiction than fiction. Perhaps she was right: I'm someone who used to inhale novels; I find now that I'm more and more grabbed by the autobiographical. Perhaps the distinction anyway is irrelevant: all that matters when reading is the writing, the voice; but it's a obvious that we gravitate towards those books that deal with issues that touch our own lives. So naturally I had to buy a book called BAD MOTHER: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace. I have often felt that it is impossible to be a mother without a profound, even corrosive, sense of failure, or at least that's how I feel about myself. To find a book that shares that anxiety, and an author who dissects this insecurity and self-doubt with wit, honesty and proper, enquiring intelligence, is (as a reader) like being grossly dehydrated and being presented with a vat of water to drink. Some might find her honesty just a little too revealing (my children would never speak to me again if I wrote so openly about them!) but that's also what gives the book its credibility. I am sad to have finished it, and feel I want to be in the company of her frank intelligence forever. In fact, the minute I finished this (last night at 2am) I went on Amazon and ordered one of her novels, Love And Other Impossible Pursuits.
Buy BAD MOTHER: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, for just £13.57 from Amazon.co.uk and $16.47 from Amazon.com.
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DREAM CREAM
I just don't seem to be able to lose my holiday habit. A week or so after coming back from Cornwall, I have found myself inching ever nearer the come-hither tubs of clotted cream in the eat-me-eat-me-not aisle at the supermarket. In fact, I have given up resisting and am back on the stuff. It's probably about the least PC thing you could ever eat, but possibly the most delicious. Of course, dolloping on cream with a minimum fat content of 55% is not intended to be an everyday exercise, but even a smidgeon goes a long way in battling the back-to-school blues. Not that I manage to be particularly restrained: I must confess that yesterday I did dab some onto a bit of chocolate chip cookie and you know what? It was heavenly.
Buy it online from Rodda's.
Also available from most supermarkets nationwide.
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IT'S A PIECE OF CAKE
I have so many tins and bits and pieces of baking paraphernalia that I risk an avalanche and bodily harm every time I open my cupboard. So you'd think I had no excuse to buy any more tins. But you'd be wrong: that's to say I have something better than an excuse; I have a reason. Tipped off by a friend of mine, I have just bought a new - or new to me - cake 'tin' which has a ceramic base and silicon sides, that clip on and then come off in one. I may not be making myself clear, but if I tell you that you can bake cakes, cheesecakes, make mousses, whatever, and then simply remove the sides and have your creation already sitting on its plate (no stress-inducing removing from tin base to platter), you get the picture. For those of you who like freezing, you may be pleased to know it can go in the deep-freeze as easily as in the oven. It does cost more than a regular tin, but in effect you are getting a tin and a plate for your money. And, since the sides are removable and squishy, it's easy to store - even in my cluttered cupboards!
Buy it online in the UK from Amazon.co.uk for £16.61, and in the US from Amazon.com for $29.95.
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NOVEL IDEA
Sometimes, a book can be such a brilliant idea, you can't believe no one has done it before: 'The Stepmothers' Support Group' by Sam Baker is a page-turning case in point. Stepmothers, stepfathers, stepchildren: all, I think, will find amusement and comfort in its pages. The title probably gives you enough of an indication of what the book's about, and I certainly don't want to ruin your summer reading by giving away any particular plot-lines. A film or tv series must surely be in the offing....
Buy it online from Amazon.co.uk for £8.99
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NOTHING TO GROUSE ABOUT
I know it is tremendously unfashionable to have one's heart uplifted as people start shooting at small defenceless animals, but the beginning of the grouse season always have me salivating and celebrating. And be fair, better to try and shoot an animal in the wild (not that I've ever tried) than rear it intensively, feeding it chemicals and keeping it in cages. Not that anyone reading these pages would expect me to be a vegetarian anyway. For those who don't know how delectable grouse is, all I can say is that its meat is rich, tender and, at this early stage of the season, gamey only in the sweetest-scented way.
You don't need to follow any particular recipe: just roast a brace of grouse (that's 2 in shooting-speak) in a little fat or oil, breast either covered in bacon or smeared with butter (my preference) in a hot oven for about half an hour. This is not a cheap treat, but better to me than champagne and, eaten alone, my deliciously favourite of all solitary indulgences.
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A SHOT OF SUMMER
I've been wanting to write about this for ages - can't tell you how hard it has been to hold it under my hat - but now that summer is (in theory at least) here, the time seemed right. What 'this' is, is an elderflower liqueur: the scent of blossom, fragrant sweetness and the feel of summer skies ready to be poured in a glass. Mind you, it's beautiful enough, as it is, in its art nouveau bottle, looking as if you've taken it down from the back of some turn-of-the-century Parisian bar or brasserie, as indeed its name - St Germain - evokes. Add a few drops to cream as you whip it, to gooseberries anyway you cook them, or to bring seasonal sunniness to a trifle. Drink it sploshed into vodka or sparkling wine or in place of the gin with some tonic and a slice or spritz of lime, or go all out with Hettie's Cocktail of the Week!
Buy it online in the UK:
Gerry's Wines and Spirits for £18.95
The Drinkshop for £17.85
Ocado for £14.99
Buy it online in the US:
Astor Wines and Spirits for $29.99
Binny's Beverage Depot for $33.99
BevMo! for $31.99
Sam's Wine and Spirits for $35.99
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XOXO
I’ve never made any high-fallutin’ claims for my televisual habits: I am certainly not one of those deep-down insecure types who loftily say they only bother with natural history programmes and Newsnight; on the contrary, I have an unabashed appetite for all manner of TV-tat. Still, I never expected to love Gossip Girl. First, I didn’t see why I would have any interest in a melodramatic soap about teenagers, and second, I’ve never really gone in for what I think of as fashion-led programming (I’ve never even seen one episode of Sex and The City, though I certainly wallowed in the film). But I do love a box-set, of pretty much anything really, and on one holiday, I was stuck in with the children and a sheaf of dvds of the first series of Gossip Girl. After the first programme, I just felt old and out of it; by the second I was hooked. And now that the box-set of the first half of the second series has come out, I am truly in high-camp heaven. For those who have never seen it, I will just say give it a go. Explaining the premise, such as it is, will just put you off. Yes, it’s about spoilt, rich American high-schoolers, but it’s wittily written and produced with style. Besides, however old we are, it’s not as if, deep down, we ever leave the playground.
Available to buy from Amazon.co.uk for £14.98 for Part 1 of Season 2, and from Amazon.com for $65.99 for the complete Season 1 and 2 boxset.
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NEAT FEET!
A month or so ago, I was rushing to go out one evening and as I put on my going out shoes - a pair of leopardskin wedge heeled sandals to be precise - I noticed that my heels were pitifully cracked. It was too late to do anything about it, and oh well, I thought, who's going to notice?
Cut to a couple of days later when apparently a close up picture of my less than well-tended feet was printed in one of the tabloids. I didn't have the opportunity to be mortified, thank goodness. I'd never have known about it actually, if it weren't for some smart thinking from some clever PR from Scholl's who sent me, by some circuitous route, a Scholl Cracked Heel ProFile - a device that when assembled (just a matter of clicking two pieces together) looks like a long handled shoe horn. And it's the curve in the file that makes it so ergonomically efficient and the length of the handle that makes it comfortable to use. And please don't think my appreciation has been bought: grateful though I was to have been shown the way of the Scholl ProFile, I have since bought another one (for travelling) and several for holiday-bound friends....
RRP £8.99, from chemists and supermarkets. For more information, click here.
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JUST PEACHY
I am not one of those people who guards her enthusiasms jealously: I positively enjoy something more if there are more people to share it with. I have always kept quiet about my passion for flat peaches, just because for years I used to have to get them from my choice fruiterers, Michanicou in West London and Panzer's in North West London: I felt I had to keep them to myself; it seemed mean to wallow publically in something that so few had access to. Now, O joy of joys, that has changed. Flat peaches - known in the States as Donut Peaches, and I have, only once, seen them in France tagged peches beignets - are appearing in supermarkets as well as in specialist greengrocers. They look slightly squished and bulbous, indeed like a doughnut, but in fact their taste is finer, more delicate and more elegant somehow than their nobler shaped counterparts. Their skin is felty rather than fuzzy, and their white flesh is more compact somehow than normal peaches (they taste juicy but without the dripping) and the fruit itself fragrant, almost blossom-like, though others apparently detect almondiness instead. These strangely beautiful fruit don't have a long season so now's the time to go on the prowl for them.
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