Category: tfr

Finding tea

I’ve never been much of tea drinker. That’s until a couple of weeks ago. I finally got round to getting a teapot to go with some teas I bought late last year, oh and of course I couldn’t resist popping a couple more teas in the shopping trolley as I clicked away on the internet.

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So here they are: White Silver Tip from Rare Tea Co, Green Jasmine and Rosey White from Lahloo and Phoenix Eye Jasmine White from teanamu.

And a lovely For Life teapot and two cups which I got from Lahloo.

I haven’t decided which is my favourite tea yet but I can’t believe it took me all this time to find that there are wonderful delicate teas out there. I shan’t be giving up coffee any time soon but I am pleased to have added tea to my day.

Easy peasy cheese

I really rather like cheese. A lot. Its very high up my list of foods I wonder what I would do if I was told I couldn’t eat it any more. Fingers crossed that never happens.

I’ve considered trying to make cheese at home for quite a while and even went as far as buying a really comprehensive book about home cheese making. But I never seemed to get around to it. Well, that is until recently when a couple of conversations made me think I should at the very least experiment.

I looked in the book I’d bought way back and pretty much everything required proper cheese starter culture. I wanted to go simpler than that and I tracked down a recipe in Casa Moro: The Second Cookbook.

I scaled down and used just one carton of milk and hey presto 12 hours later I had a wonderful fresh cheese like this:

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The recipe is as follows (as adapted by me):

1 tbsp essence of rennet (note that essence of rennet has already been diluted if you use undiluted rennet you must dilute it first)

Warm the milk to roughly 32-37C.
Add rennet and stir.
Pour into a bowl and cover with cling film.
Leave in a warm place for 30-45 minutes.
The curds will have set so cut them into about 3cm cubes whilst still in the bowl. Be gentle.
Leave for a further hour in a  warm place.
Strain the curds into a muslin lining a colander.
Leave for about 6 hours for the whey to drain.
Et voila you have a lovely fresh soft cheese.

Use the whey to make bread instead of milk or water.

I’ve since made this with goats milk, also delicious but the curds are more fragile.

Next up cow’s or sheep’s milk. Yum.

More than just a good read

I like books and I’ve always been an avid reader. I particularly like books that are well designed and a delight to hold as well as being great to read. It’s probably very old fashioned but I can’t see me getting the same pleasure reading a book on the Kindle or the Sony eReader or the Apple iPad. I’d miss the nice paper, the cover and, in the case of the book below, the lovely end-papers with matching bookmark. The enjoyment would surely be more than halved.

So for all those who like books not simply for the contents but for the paper, the well designed cover, the look, the touch, I give you this Persephone Book:

I love the smooth muted gray covers Persephone use, the creamy paper and particularly the end papers and book marks which are usually prints of old fabrics.

I am also a big fan of Dorothy Whipple’s writing. Its careful and poised but not overly complex. The stories are always tinged with a sadness that feels unpleasantly real. They unfold with a certain inevitability that small choices can have large consequences, she makes the day to day seem quite fascinating.

Want one (or several): look on Persephone’s site or if you are in London visit one of their delightfully quirky shops.

Who ate all the pies?

The other day I was lucky enough to get a package in the post containing 2 pork pies from Brays Cottage.
Lucky because these pies have a great reputation and double lucky because they had sent them to me in return for a favour I did them, how kind is that?

I’m a bit of a fan of pies of many types and am especially fond of pork pies. Sadly it’s not that easy to get great pork pies these days most of them are bland and claggy.

But not these ones. Oh no. I knew they were going to be good when I lifted the lid to a lovely pork pie aroma. The pastry was crispy and tasty and not too thick, the filling was moist, porky and spot on. And a great pocket size pie. It’s not called the perfect pie for nothing.

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My only complaint – I wasn’t allowed to eat both of them, husband snaffled one for himself!

Next time I think I shall order a larger size.

Fancy one yourself: http://www.perfectpie.co.uk/

Want to read about pies of many types: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pie-Edible-Janet-Clarkson/dp/1861894252/ref=sr_1_1?ie…

(Note)pad

So the Twitter wires are buzzing with views on the launch of the Apple iPad and as usual things are split down love it/hate it lines.

So instead I bring you a range of notepads that I found out about the other day when I won one in a Twitter competition.

Its fair to state here that I am a bit of a stationery junkie. Ordning & Reda, Moleskine, Clairfontaine, Smythson just let me at them. But I can see this range from Whitelines joining the fold, because, well, the lines are white – like it :)

I know you can’t tell that in this picture but trust me they are and very nice the whole thing is too.

Want one? Admire them here: http://www.whitelines.se/

Buy them on Amazon (and various other good stationery stockists)

Coffee time

Yesterday on Twitter I was talking coffee with various people. I quite often talk coffee as it’s an important part of my day. I don’t drink gallons of the stuff but I do like to have one or two really great cups a day.

We were talking coffee machines and several people were surprised that I didn’t have a fancy machine like you see in a cafe. Well, thats mostly because I don’t have enough work surface for all the gadgets I’d like, so a coffee machine has never made the cut so far. Instead I use a cafetiere or this little beauty, a Bialetti Moka Espress, it’s such an iconic design and it makes great strong coffee. I think I’d quite like a variety of sizes…

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For the record I take my coffee black, strong and unsweetened.

Want one? Get them here: http://www.johnlewis.com/230134058/Product.aspx

Or admire all the possibilities here: http://www.bialetti.it/uk/catalogue/scheda.asp?id_cat=24

Chase away the Monday blues…

Last week I spotted that some random semi academic bloke claimed that there was such a date as Blue Monday, the day of the year when we all apparently feel at out most glum. He has a formula to calculate the date (which always seems to be in January). His formula must be flawed because Wikipedia are claiming its today (25 January) but the Daily Telegraph said it was last Monday (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/wellbeing/6995281/How-to-beat-Blue-Monday.h….

Regardless of when it is some days feel a shade more blue than others. So to chase away any Monday blues I’ll be drinking coffee from one of my favourite mugs.

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Because life’s simple pleasures are worth celebrating.

If you want a mug like this then here’s where you need to be: http://www.emmabridgewater.co.uk/Black-Toast/Black-Toast-Happiness-12-Pint-Mu…

Pssst there’s a version for tea drinkers to :))