Bookmarks: Our Isles

One of life’s simple pleasures is taking a bit of quiet time with a cup of coffee, a few biscuits and a good book… and we’ve been enjoying this wonderful little tome over the last few days.

A few weeks ago, we featured printmaker, Lilly Hedley in our Designer Desire series. While researching her and her work, we discovered that she and her partner, Angus D. Birditt, recently collaborated on, amongst many other things, a book. Our Isles is a lovely project which interweaves Angus’ poetry with Lilly’s illustrations.

The heart of home is where they flee
Amongst their thoughts to unwind and see,
At one with self, content to be
In space to find and wander free.

Having both spent their entire lives in the countryside, the pair direct their attentions towards many of Britain’s rural occupations, pastimes and craftspeople.

There’s the butcher, the baker… alas, no candlestick-maker! I think ‘The Printmaker’ may be an autobiographical addition!

Our Isles is divided into sections according to types of occupations; for instance, ‘With Tool in Hand’ encompasses tradespeople such as the potter, the thatcher and the farrier.

‘Amid Tides & Water’ includes professions such sailor, fisherman and salt harvester.

All of Angus’ poems take the form of double couplet AABB rhyming quatrains. They’re absolutely charming – and very accessible to those not overly accustomed to reading poetry. They perfectly capture the traditions, inspirations, routines and skills of the people intrinsic to countryside life.

Lilly’s monochrome linocut prints are absolutely beautiful. Some have a very contemporary look, others, an almost medieval feel.

At the rear of the book is a short glossary; it explains terms particular to the different trades. For instance, a ‘yealm’ is a bundle of organised straw in the thatching industry. And, ‘Goddes Good’ or ‘God is Good’, is an archaic term for yeast that is added during the brewing process.

[ Many thanks to Pavilion Books for the review copy of Our Isles ]

For the Love of Colour

You’ve all heard of Movember and Dry January – but this month we’re celebrating Double December. That’s right, we have two competitions running this month! Yesterday, we launched our £100 gift voucher comp; today, we’re giving away a copy of Love Colour by Anna Starmer, published by Quarto in October. We do spoil you!

Followers of our blog will know that colour is often at the centre of what we write about. We published a long-running series entitled, ‘Tuesday Huesday‘ and we have a ‘Colour Combos‘ board on Pinterest that gives us interior inspiration.

Love Colour is a beautifully illustrated book that offers guidance and inspiration on how to effectively use colour indoors and out. It’s an especially useful source of information if you lack experience in interior decoration. Additionally, if your previous decorating activity consisted of painting everything magnolia or off-white, but you yearn to be more adventurous, this book will give you the confidence to take the plunge.

Starmer includes colour charts showing ranges of hues and shades available; I don’t think I ever just refer to something as ‘yellow’ or ‘orange’; that’s never descriptive enough! It’s always ‘saffron’, ‘buttermilk’ or ‘tangerine’. My favourite colour is purple, but that’s too simple a statement. I favour the bold ‘violet’ and ‘royal’ end of the spectrum rather than the softer ‘mauve’ or ‘lavender’, and I’m not too keen on the dark, reddish ‘claret’ or ‘plum’.

If you’re interested in décor, you’re probably aware of the current huge popularity of using grey and black in interiors. Farrow & Ball’s ‘Railings‘ and ‘Downpipe‘ are bestsellers; but what accent colours and objects do you team them with? Love Colour lets you know.

Even if you want to stick to simple neutrals and naturals, there are so many options and ideas. Starmer offers this tip:

Layer upon layer of surface and texture happily blend within this gentle set of colours… They serve as strong foundations on which to build… Keep your highlight colours within the natural spectrum, using autumnal yellows and oranges, or orange-hued reds and terracottas, to complement the natural browns within a scheme.

To win a copy of Love Colour, comment below saying what some of your current favourite matching/clashing colour combos in interiors are. Me? I love splashes of hot pink with lime green and tangerine orange in a living room but prefer more calming shades in a bedroom!

This comp is open to UK, EU and US residents. Good luck!

Love Colour – Choosing colours to live with

We’re going Stir Crazy!

This Thursday, instead of our usual Cakes & Bakes offering, we’re sharing a cookbook review.

It’s Stir Crazy by Emmy-nominated TV chef, Ching-He Huang. Born in Taiwan and raised in South Africa and the U.K., Ching shares 100 healthy stir fry recipes in her recently-published book.

In addition to the recipes, Ching sheds light on helpful wok-cooking methods. She reveals some of her ‘stir-fry hacks’ and explains the order in which ingredients should be cooked off and why. And, if you’re on a special diet – she’s got you covered – each recipe helpfully sets out the nutritional information of the dish.

As a veggie, I was thrilled to see that there are 80 pages of purely vegetarian and vegan recipes. Furthermore, in the meat and fish sections, she give lots of helpful tips as to how to convert them to veggie dishes, if so desired.

Not only is this a book review, it’s also a food review; along with Stir Crazy, we’ve been sent a selection of dried and ready-to-eat noodles from Yutaka to try.

The only way to properly review a cookbook AND noodles is to try out one of the recipes using some of the ingredients sent. I chose Ching’s simple spicy spring onion salsa verde with kale and noodles. However, instead of using egg noodles as her recipe called for, I used the pack of the gluten free and organic konjac noodles (called shirataki in Japan).

In addition to being gluten free, the root vegetable Konjac is vegan, low in calories, low in fat and high in fibre. It’s extremely low in carbs, so if you’re following a ketogenic diet this is a fantastic product to include in your meals.

My usual trinity of flavours for wok cooking are chilli, garlic and ginger. However, This recipe didn’t use garlic but a couple of spring onions. The smell of the flavours combining when they were being fried off together were divine.

If I hadn’t been stopping after each stage to take photos, this recipe could have been rustled up in under half an hour. Quick, healthy – and most important of all – tasty!

There are so many other recipes in the book that I want to give a go – Kung Po tofu, vegetable chop suey, egg foo yung, aubergines in a spicy peanut sauce, spicy coriander chickpea fried rice… are you drooling yet?!

All this talk of stir fries is making me hungry – here’s the recipe…

Spicy spring onion salsa verde with kale and noodles

2018-10-03 13:15:56

Serves 2

Prep Time

12 min

Cook Time

5 min

Total Time

17 min

Prep Time

12 min

Cook Time

5 min

Total Time

17 min

Ingredients

200g pack Yutaka konjac noodles
2tsp toasted sesame oil
120g curly kale, sliced
2tbsp rapeseed oil
pinch of sea salt flakes
knob of fresh root ginger, peeled an grated
1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced at an angle
pinch of dried chilli flakes
2 spring onions, finely chopped
50ml cold vegetable stock
1tbsp low-sodium light soy sauce

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Instructions

Drain the liquid from the konjac noodles using a sieve and rinse under a cold tap
Put the noodles into a bowl, drizzle over the 2tsp toasted sesame oil and toss. Set aside
Pour 1 litre of water into a pan and bring to the boil. Add the kale and blanch for 3-5 seconds, then drain and set aside
Heat a wok over a high heat until smoking and add the rapeseed oil
Add the salt and let it dissolve in the hot oil
Add the ginger, fresh chilli, dried chilli and spring onions in quick succession to explode their flavours in the wok
Add the vegetable stock and stir-fry on a medium heat for 30 seconds
Add the kale and noodles and toss all the ingredients together to warm through
Season with the light soy sauce and give it one final toss, then transfer to serving plates and eat immediately

By Ching-He Huang

Adapted from Stir Crazy

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

You are invited to Treasure Hunt House

This month, we’ve got a competition prize that we think the kids will love! Treasure Hunt House is a newly-published, hardback book that will make the perfect Christmas present for inquisitive boys & girls who love to read and explore.

No ordinary children’s book, Treasure Hunt House is lavishly illustrated by Becca Stadtlander and involves solving riddles and finding hidden answers concealed behind over 50 flaps.

Author Kate Davies leads the reader around Great-Aunt Martha’s sprawling old house, room by room, on a journey where they learn about history, geography, science and the arts. Discover facts about fashion and food, literature and transportation.

Like all good mystery stories, there’s a twist in the ending… but we won’t give it away here!

To enter, comment below letting us know if you’ve started any of your Christmas shopping yet and if you have, tell us what you’ve bought! (Please try not to simply answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’).

[Many thanks to Lincoln Children’s Books for the review copy]

Treasure Hunt House children’s book

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