Outing | Visit a Glasshouse

If you’re hankering to get out for a bit of lush greenery and a good blast of warm air, get thee to a glasshouse.

Glasshouses arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries as explorers began to bring back tropical plants. Of course, it was the Victorians who brought them to the middle-class masses, with their distinctive architecture, which you can still admire today in the palm houses of botanic gardens such as Kew and Belfast.

Dress for the environment with layers you can remove in the heat and take a bottle of water, too. If you want to make a day of it, modern versions, like the Eden Project, let you lose yourself in steamy walkways for hours. Smaller ones, like Sheffield’s Winter Garden, allow you to pop in from the grey February streets for a blast of tropical warmth.

You might see bananas, bromeliads and palms. Darwin’s Down House in Kent is home to a magnificent collection of carnivorous Sundews. Maybe you’ll be inspired to build your own small glasshouse or tiny terrarium when you get home.

This outing idea is taken from our February Almanac pages where we offer ideas for things to note and notice, plan and do each month.

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Breakfast Rules | How To Do a Full English

Photography by Alamy

Where breakfast is concerned, we think if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly. Before you switch on the gas under your frying pan, read our ‘Full English Breakfast Rules’, which, if not actually enshrined in law, are certainly on the side of right.

1. Lard not butter for cooking sausages, please. It has a higher smoke point than butter so it achieves a crispier sausage without burning. It’s also high in Vitamin D. Who knew? Practically a health food. Vegetarians and vegans are permitted to use vegetable oil. 

2. A word about food-pairing: mushrooms should be eaten with sausages; bacon should be eaten with grilled tomato. Don’t ask us why; it’s just the rules. 

3. Hash browns have no place in a Full English (ignore the photo above!). Save them for your American breakfasts of pancakes that are a bit too thick and mis-monikered jams. If you need a bit of beige crunch it can be achieved by the addition of fried bread, the English Hash Brown. Fried potatoes are permitted if they are already cooked and left over from last night’s dinner. 

4. Beans should be served in a separate ramekin. It’s not about being fancy, it’s just about not mixing your yolk and your bean juice (or frantically chasing your beans round the plate with your fork until 11am).

5. Brown sauce is the best sauce. Tomato is acceptable. Anything else really belongs with another meal. 

6. You should include one, and no more than one, fancy extra. Black pudding for meat eaters perhaps? Grilled halloumi for vegetarians? But don’t stray too far from the original or before you know it you’ll be chopping smoked salmon and chives into your eggs, and then where will we be? 

7. Speaking of eggs… Obviously fried is best, sunny side up, with a yolk that spills all over the plate as you cut into it. Other types of eggs are available, but fried is really where it’s at.

8. Stay trad with your drinks. Orange juice or a good strong cup of tea, please. Absolutely no fancy milky coffees - we are not here for smashed avocado on sourdough type breakfasts. 

9. Toast should be served in a toast rack alongside your Full English (yes, as well as fried bread) to enable you to move seamlessly into toast and marmalade for ‘breakfast pudding’ from the same plate. Use your first piece of toast to mop up egg yolk and bacon fat as a sort of palate and plate cleanser before moving on to the marmalade or jam toast course. Toast plates are for wimps anyway. And you’ll save on the washing up. 

10. Finish with a(nother) cup of tea and the crossword if possible.

In our February issue, we look at the history of breakfast from cereals and grapefruit to fry-ups and fancier fare. Turn to page 84 to read more.

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How To | Build a Nesting Box

Nesting season starts this month. If you’d like to encourage small birds to make their home in your garden, roll out the red carpet for them with a homemade nesting box.

This nesting box project by The Woodland Trust is a lovely, simple box to make that you can complete in an afternoon. Visit their page for the full instructions and to find lots more inspiration for encouraging birds to visit your outdoor space.

You will need

• A plank of untreated wood, measuring 1.4-1.5m in length, 15cm in width and at least 15mm thick for insulation

• A saw, drill, screws and nails

• A pencil and tape measure

• A strip of rubber

How to make the nest box

1. Measure, mark up and then saw your wood into the following six sections:
   • 2 Sides: one cut at 25cm x 15cm x 20cm, and another cut at 20cm x 15cm x 25cm (both pieces needs cutting at a diagonal so that the roof piece sits on a slant - this is for rain to run off)
   • Front – 20cm x 15cm x 20cm
   • Roof – 21cm x 15cm x 21cm
   • Back – 35cm x 15cm x 35cm
   • Base – 12cm x 15cm x 12cm

2. Use a drill to make a round entrance hole in the front piece. It should sit near the top and the size of the hole depends on the species you’d like to attract – 32mm is great for house sparrows, 25mm for blue tits.

3. Drill some small holes into the base to help with drainage.

4. Once all the wood is cut, sand it to ensure it’s safe for the birds.

5. Nail everything, excluding the roof, together.

6. Attach the roof using screws. Use a waterproof rubber strip as a hinge so that the roof can be easily lifted up for cleaning.

7. Decorate your box with non-toxic water-based paints to finish it or leave it as is.

If you’ve been inspired to invite more birds into your garden, you’ll want to read our feature ‘Chirp Appeal’ in our February issue, from page 106.

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Recipe | Cheese Fondue

How do you fondue? Think oozy, creamy and elastic, rather than too stringy.

Serves 6–8

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
200ml dry white wine
Juice of ½ a lemon
400g gruyère, grated
200g emmental, grated
Fondue pot with heater (optional)

1 Rub the inside of a large saucepan (or fondue pot, if using) with the garlic cloves.

2 Add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a simmer, then start adding handfuls of the grated cheese, whisking between additions.

3 When all the cheese is added, change to a wooden spoon and use a figure of eight stirring method. When ready to serve, transfer the melted mixture to your fondue pot and bring to the table. The heater should keep the cheese warm but it may occasionally need re-stirring to keep the cheese loose. If you don’t have a fondue pot, bring your saucepan to the table and place on a trivet.

4 If the cheese cools down too much, you can reheat it and bring it back to the table. Enjoy it immediately by using skewers to dip chunks of bread, veg or potatoes into the fondue, but never dip meat into a communal pot.

FON-DOS
• Only dip bread and potatoes into your fondue – veg at a push, but never meat.
• Use a fine grater for cheeses that are firm enough to grate, crumble or finely dice softer cheese and avoid ready-grated cheese as these melt less easily.
• If you’re not using an electric fondue, heat the mix in a pan on the stove and transfer it to a table-top warmer when ready.
• If the mixture begins to separate or split, add a little lemon juice.

This recipe is just one of the ideas from our feature ‘Cheese Please!’ from our February issue, which also includes recipes for side platters of roast potatoes, veg, bread and meats as well as a Beetroot Puree with Smoked Salmon, Raclette and a Black Forest Gateau.

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Recipe | Migliaccio (Shrove Tuesday Cake)

Traditionally baked in Campania, Italy, for Shrove Tuesday, its name is from the miglio (millet) once used to make it, now replaced by semolina.

Serves 12

Ingredients

400ml whole milk
¼ tsp salt
180g semolina
60g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
3 medium eggs
250g caster sugar
250g ricotta, drained
Zest of 1 unwaxed orange
Zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp orange blossom water
100g dark chocolate chips
Icing sugar, for dusting

To Make

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ Gas 4. Grease a 23cm springform tin and line with baking paper.

2 Put the milk, 400ml of water and salt in a pan and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and gradually add the semolina, whisking vigorously. Keep whisking for 2-3 mins to produce a thick paste, then take the pan off the heat and, while hot, add the butter. Stir well, then pour into a wide tray. Line the surface with plastic wrap and set aside to cool.

3 Put the eggs and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk at high speed until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture looks pale and frothy. With the mixer still going, add the ricotta, a spoonful at a time. Remove the plastic wrap from the semolina and break into chunks. While the mixer is still going, add the chunks to the egg mixture in batches, making sure each one is incorporated before adding more.

4 Add the orange and lemon zest, vanilla, cinnamon, and orange blossom water to the mixture and whisk.

5 Add the chocolate chips and fold in by hand with a spoon or spatula.

6 Spoon the batter into the tin and level the surface. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 85-90 mins, or until the edges start browning and the surface turns golden with large cracks; it’ll have a slight wobble if shaken. Leave the cake to cool in the tin – it’ll deflate as soon as it leaves the oven, but this is normal. Once cool, transfer to a serving plate and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Cook’s note: Migliaccio can be stored in an airtight container or the fridge, but it should always be wrapped in plastic wrap to avoid drying out. It’s best served at room temperature.

Taken from Giuseppe’s Easy Bakes by Giuseppe Dell’Anno (Quadrille). Photography: Matt Russell

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Outing | Hunting for Dragons

February 10th marks the beginning of Lunar New Year and the year of the dragon. Britain also has a long and fascinating dragon history. If you’d like to walk in the scaly footsteps of dragons, here are a few places you might like to try hunting one down.

● Dinas Emrys, North Wales Under this Iron-Age hillfort in Gwynedd sleep the Saxon white dragon and the Welsh red dragon, symbols of both ancient conflict and Britain’s intermingled cultures.

● Dragon Hill, Oxfordshire Legend says that St George killed the dragon on this hillock below the Uffington White Horse. Apparently, no grass grows on its top due to the dragon’s spilled, poisonous blood.

● Orkney & Shetland, North Sea Hero, Assipattle, killed a sea dragon called Mester Stoor Worm. Its teeth formed the islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Faroes, while its body became Iceland.

● The Quantocks, Somerset Legend has it a terrible lizard known as the Gurt Worm was dispatched near here – the severed halves of its writhing body now form the Quantock Hills.

● Exe Valley, Devon Not all the UK’s fantastical monsters have been slain. Every night, a dragon residing in Devon’s Exe Valley is said to fly between the Iron Age forts at Dolbury Hill and Cadbury Castle to protect buried treasure. In a fiery twist, Dolbury Hill is the remnant of an extinct volcano.

This Dragon-Hunting Guide is taken from our ‘Know A Thing or Two’ feature on the creatures in our February issue by Nick Hunt. You can read more by turning to page 69.

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Fun | Literary (and fictional) Lockets

Lockets have a long history as symbols of loyalty and tokens of love. They were also often used to secrete treasures, from memories to hair to poison! Here, we pay tribute to some famous lockets from books, theatre and film. 

1. Catherine’s Locket in Wuthering Heights

Catherine’s locket represents the two men in her life who loved her in very different ways. When Heathcliff finds Catherine’s dead body, he discovers the locket around her neck contains a lock of Edgar Linton’s hair. Heathcliff pulls it out and replaces it with a lock of his own hair to claim Catherine as his. Nelly Dean later intertwines the two locks of hair and replaces them inside the locket. 

2. Sara’s Locket in A Little Princess

When Sara Crewe’s widowed father is called up to fight in World War One he leaves her at boarding school with a doll called Emily and her mother’s locket, which he promises will keep them connected by magic. Of course, the evil headmistress confiscates the locket and Sara must retrieve it and prove that all little girls are princesses to someone. 

3. Slytherin’s Locket in the Harry Potter series

This locket was enchanted so that only a Parcelmouth (a speaker of ‘Snake’) could open it. Harry steals it from Dolores Umbrage little knowing that it is one of the horcruxes he is searching for - objects that each contain a piece of the evil Voldemort’s soul. Much wizarding angst ensues.

4. Annie’s Broken Locket in Annie

Left by her parents in a New York orphanage, little orphan Annie knows nothing of her mother and father other than the fact that she was left with a note saying they would return for her and half a locket so they could prove they were her parents when they returned. And the rest… is musical theatre history. 

5. Fantine’s Locket in Les Miserables

Desperate to raise money to pay for her dangerously sick daughter’s medicine Fantine sells first her locket and then her hair, before turning to prostitution and then destitution. (Personally, we’d have gone for the hair first, but desperate times call for miserables measures.) 

In our February issue, our Wearing Well page is dedicated to our love of lockets. You can carefully open it and peer inside on page 59 of the issue. 

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Playlist | Tender

Our latest playlist is inspired by our February 24 issue, TENDER. Take a listen here.
You can order a copy of the TENDER issue from our shop Pics and Ink.
We publish a playlist in each issue of The Simple Things – have a browse of them all here.