Picking Time

My head is still buzzy over the release of my book and I have more photos from it that I'd like to share. For each shop feature I could only choose a handful of photos for the spreads, and for some shops, like Loop, I had about 75 that I would have liked to include! It was sooo hard to choose the final photos. I thought I'd do a few posts on some of my favorite shops in the book and post some of those photos that didn't make it in. But there is life for us outside of my book! A few weeks ago we went fruit picking and all had a great time. How could you not have fun fruit picking?

ACE Camp Days

I had a great time with my friend and chef Alison Bell hosting an ACE Camp London culinary tour. The group was great and we ate and ate and ate! We went to soooo many good places: St John, NOPI, Borough Market, Maltby Street Market, Marylebone farmer's market, Neal's Yard Dairy, lots of exploring in Shoreditch, Soho--where we had a great tour by Jenny Linford--and Everyone had plenty of time to explore and venture out during free time. Lots of campers went to the V&A, Selfridges, and plenty of other shops and restaurants that weren't on the itinerary specifically. One highlight was going to Alastair Hendy's home, where he has an amazing kitchen (the whole place is amazing, but the kitchen in particular is dramatic because you can look down into it from the upper floor where his living room is). Above is my delicious lunch at his house. He gave a talk about his food styling and photography work and then he cooked us an amazing lunch, which he let us all style. So much fun! Now I want to take an ACE Camp. I'm looking forward to seeing what camps Angela Ritchie has planned for the rest of the year and 2016. Here's a look at our London culinary tour.

Workshop Update

I've only just realized how long it's been since I wrote a blog post! But here I am again now. We've packed a lot into these last weeks of summer. After my mom's visit, we went to Cornwall for a week, then after coming home just a few days, we went to San Francisco for two weeks and Baltimore for one week. I also managed to do a good bit of sewing before we left to go to the US. I made another pair of trousers and two dresses. But more on all those subjects later! Before it's a distant memory, I wanted to share some photos from the food styling and photography I assisted Béatrice Peltre with at Hawthbush Farm in June. We had a wonderful time, and all the students did as well. We could not have asked for better weather! I was soooo happy the weather was beautiful. And Hawthbush Farm is amazing. It's a beautiful glamping destination on an organic farm about an hour and a half from London in East Sussex.

Workshop Update to Come

I'm just back from Hawthbush Farm where I assisted Beatrice Peltre in one of her food styling and photography workshops. We had an amazing week, and of course I have so many photos to share! Today though I was rushing around getting our house ready for my mom, who's coming in town tomorrow. Not much time to rest! I'll sort though my photos in the next few days and write a longer post later in the week. Until then, here's an Instagram pic of mine, a sweet peek of a pavolva our amazing chef, Alison, made for the group. In the photo it may look like it's small, but it's actually quite large with a huge serving spoon from Zara Home's picnic line. More soon...

Making Time

It always seems hard to make time to do everything I want and need to do (I'm sure I'm not alone here in feeling this way). I'm a fairly productive person but I still often feel like a rat running on a wheel, leaving me frustrated at the end of the day for not having gotten more done. It puts me in a panic sometimes feeling time slip away! I'm glad that yesterday I decided to stop and smell the roses, or rather document the daffs and granola, as it were. It's been a while since I pulled out our macro lens. It's really fun to use. Ah, I love it! I should use it more often. I also used our 50mm 1.2 lens, which is wonderful as well. Much more lens for me really, but I'm very grateful to have it. Lately we've been eating lots of granola. Yum! I love homemade granola. I've been using the recipe in La Tartine Gourmande, which is delicious, but Beatrice also has a version here online. Though that one is a bit different and includes millet puffs, rice puffs and chocolate, everything else is about the same but also the one in the book includes pecans and walnuts. I like the idea of the puffs for cereal though, so I might have to try that one. I often eat quickly in the morning and usually just standing at the counter as I'm cleaning at the same time. Always busy, busy in the morning it seems. And messiness kind of makes me feel crazy so I'm pretty much constantly cleaning. But it's nice to look out the window and see the little daffodils blooming while I eat, even if I am standing and eating quickly. The last few times I made granola and stared out the window I thought, "I really should be taking a picture of this pretty sight!" But then it's rush, rush, rush and I don't get to it. So yesterday while Ellie napped I made afternoon granola and took time to take photos of it as well as flowers in the garden. Then I took some photos of Miss Ellie after she woke up. She's also long overdue for some proper photos. It reminded me of my blueberry breakfast with Lois when she was about the same age. How time flies! Here's a bit from our granola afternoon in bloom...

The Making of Kedgeree

This week I received my copy of Pretty Nostalgic in the mail (a wonderful British magazine) and was especially excited about this issue because I have two articles in it, one of which is on Kedgeree, a delicious indian inspired British dish. Ah, kedgeree is sooo good! It has smoked fish, rice, coriander, lime, egg, cinnamon, and onions among other things. Sound strange or delicious? I had not heard of it before moving to London, and it's one of those dishes I wasn't too sure about after hearing the ingredients, but then once I tasted it, I became a kedgeree devotee!

Food Styling and Photography Workshop with Beatrice Peltre

What a beautiful photo, don't you think? It's one of many incredible photos from food stylist and photographer Beatrice Peltre, a great inspiration to me and writer of one of my favorite cookbooks. The last few months I've been working with her to put together a food styling and photography workshop this summer here in England and I'm so excited to be able to share that today! We will be staying at lovely farm to host the workshop. How amazing is this kitchen we will be using?!!

(photo above from farm)

Weekend Market

One thing I really like about our neighborhood is our little Saturday market. It's on Northcross Road in East Dulwich, a few blocks from us. Although it's small, with only a handful of vendors, it has a good variety of food, crafts, and vintage treasures. When we first found this neighborhood, the market was a big selling point for us. Here are some market pictures from when we first moved here.

Brixton Outing

Earlier this week I went to one of my favorite places near our neighborhood, Brixton Village Market. I've been fighting a cold (actually, I think I've had a series of colds and I'm so tired of them!), but I decided to go anyway because I needed to get out of the house. I've also been wanting to test out our new little camera, a Sony DSC-RX100. We have a nice SLR but it's massive and now with 2 kids, it's just one more big, heavy thing to carry, which is why I've become so accustomed to using my iPhone (that and filters are fun!).

Greetings from San Francisco!

This week we're in San Francisco! We'll be here for a week, then we head to the east coast to spend the holidays with family. I meant to mention it before leaving but didn't get to it with all the other things I needed to do before we left. I'm so excited to be here! We got here on Saturday and have already gone to a number of places we love and miss. Here are a few snapshots of what we've been up to. From left to right... Tartine's bread pudding, the best!; a fun open air tram we were lucky to ride on; flowers at Bi-Rite market; the menu at Emmy's Spaghetti Shack (the best spaghetti and meatballs!); lil' miss kicking back, wearing my shades in Dolores Park; Lo's hot chocolate and lavender marshmallow at Craftsman and Wolves (the hot chocolate promptly covered her dress shortly after this photo); a sunrise photo in Dolores Park (we're a little jet lagged), tasty goodness at Craftsman and Wolves; a photo of Mission High School with birds. More to come soon from San Francisco!

Yum! Brixton Village

If you're in or anywhere near London, and you love to eat (who doesn't?), you should definitely put Brixton Village Market on your list. We've been to the outdoor Brixton street market before and somehow passed Brixton Village without notice, though it was just under our noses. We love to eat and check out new places to eat, especially places that are convenient with kids, so we're not sure how we've lived here more than 2 years without knowing about it. A new friend in our neighborhood told me about it, and it's just as she described: an indoor market in an old arcade with little bitty wonderful restaurants with some shops (many with vintage clothes and handmade goods) and also with produce, meat, and fish vendors dotted between. But mostly it's filled with restaurants. The restaurants are very, very small. Some just have 4 tables inside and maybe a few outside. I think all of them have open kitchens, which I love because eating out is just more entertaining that way, and you can smell the yummy food! We've been 3 times so far, and yesterday I had a GREAT burger at Honest Burgers and a terrific latte at Federation Coffee (Lois loved her burger and hot chocolate too). We're looking forward to eating our way through the entire village! I don't think their web site is updated because there are many more restaurants than are listed here, but here's a peek at what's available at the market. 

France Photography Workshop Update

I'm back from France now but had a nice time at the photography and food styling workshop. Unfortunately the weather was a real drag. It was rainy, windy, and cold for 4 out of the 5 days of the workshop, which threw off the itinerary and prevented us from getting outside much. It was a shame in such a beautiful place (southern France, in the Languedoc wine region) where the weather is normally sunny and about 75 degrees most days this time of year. Alas, we can't control weather, so nothing could be done about that but make the best of our indoor time. But it was great to meet and learn from Beatrice Peltre and Lara Ferroni, and I met a lot of nice people who came from all over the world for the workshop. Here's a peek into our workshop days.

Props

This weekend I'm headed to France for a 5 day photography and food styling class. We're instructed to bring some props, and since all our kitchen stuff is in storage, I decided to hit the Anthropologie sale table. I got a few fun plates, bowls and linens. Here are a few. I'm very excited about the class! The weather forecast isn't looking too great, but I'll take France rain or shine. Rolling green hills, a chateau, beautiful food and photos, interesting new people to meet... I'm ready! See you soon from southern France.

Paris Days with My Mom

I've been having a great time with my mom. So far we've done lots of walking, browsing shops, eating, and really just taking it all in. Above is a bit of Paris through our eyes. Macaroons, flower shop petals, petit dejeuner (breakfast the French way), window shopping in the 3rd, Stroher pastries to take home, La Droguerie craft shop, more deliciousness from La Grand Epicerie, and Au Petit Bonheur La Chance. 

More photos coming soon from La Droguerie and Au Petit Bonheur La Chance--two of my favorite Paris shops so far. 

Fall Already?

Often you'd find me standing at the kitchen counter eating leftovers out of a tupperware container or eating something delicious chef dad has made, but sometimes I actually make dinner myself and even dessert. And of course that's a happening so I sometimes document it too. (I even pulled out our Canon for this, though most of these pictures are with my iPhone.) Today it was so chilly when I walked Lois to nursery school that I thought it would be a good comfort food day. Pot roast. Being from the southeast US, I almost can't believe I made pot roast in August. But I did, and it was yummy, so were the little heart tarts. Well, the pot roast was better, but the tarts were still pretty good. I did something wrong with the pastry dough. Pastry dough is a beast. I've never gotten it right, though I've only tried a few times. It's all about the butter I think, or mostly anyway. The heart tart recipe is from The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket, a wonderful book for anyone who values, cooking, crafts, family, and home. Now to clean up this explosion that is our house. Everything looks pretty in neatly cropped photos, but around the edges, woah, what a mess!

The finished pot roast tasted much better than it looked in pictures! Tea and tarts looked better. 

Blueberry Breakfast

Well, the dumpster chairs are finished, and we celebrated their makeover with a pretty breakfast! Here's Lois modeling one of the shabby-turned-chic chairs. I rinsed them off, scrubbed them, painted them a creamy white, and made seat cushions for them. I'm also working on throw pillows for them, but have just made one so far. Blueberries were on sale at the grocery store, so I thought we'd have a true blue celebration with one of my favorite breakfast treats--blueberry muffins. Here are some pictures from our true blue breakfast.

The chairs before and after. I used ticking on the top for the seat cushions and a yellow floral print for the undersides. Then I made this pillow with part of a vintage tablecloth on one side and a vintage pillowcase on the other. 

The chairs before. Yikes, up close I could see why they were in the trash, but the still had good bones. Wish the person who threw them out could see them now!

Garden Party

Andrew's out of town so on Thursday night I was thinking about taking Lois out on a date, but the weather was so nice and the first rose in the garden was blooming, so I decided we'd have a date at home in the garden. We got dolled up, made things pretty, had a nice dinner, and watched the sunset. It was a carpe diem sort of night. I couldn't just let leave the house and miss out on that rose blooming! I knew in the next day or so it would be withered. It made me think of a classic carpe diem poem by Robert Herrick, "To the Virgins, to make much of Time." The first stanza is...

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles today

Tomorrow will be dying 

So we gathered our rosebud and and made the most of it. It was one of the best dates I've ever had.