Recipe | Vegetable crisps

Sweet roots turned into a wonderfully crunchy snack

Serves 6
3 large parsnips
3 large beetroots
3 large sweet potatoes
Vegetable oil
Sea salt
1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 Preheat oven to 150C/Fan 130C/ 300F. Line 4 baking sheets with baking parchment (or if short of space or trays, cook crisps in batches). 
2 In a small bowl, mix 3–4 tbsp of vegetable oil, the fennel seeds and a good grind of salt. Lightly brush the baking parchment with the oil mixture. Set aside.
3 Use a mandolin or vegetable slicer attachment on a food processor or, failing that, slice all the vegetables as thinly as possible. Use kitchen towel to pat slices dry.
4 Place the vegetable slices on your baking sheets, making sure they don’t overlap. Then lightly brush the crisps with the oil mixture.
5 Bake for 1 hour; after an hour, remove the parsnips, returning the beetroot and potatoes to the oven for another 30 mins. Cool on a rack, and store in an airtight container.

Turn to page 24 of August's The Simple Things for more of our picnic in the park menu, including:

• Build-your-own bruschetta 
• Hummus Kale & basil pesto
• Jumbo apple sausage rolls 
• Summer salad & orange dressing
• White chocolate & raspberry traybake 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the August issue:

More summer picnic recipes:

Britain's outdoor games

There is little more English than a game of croquet – flamingos and hedgehogs optional. Or for an outdoor game that allows for standing about with a pastis in one had, Pétanque is your pastime

CROQUET
A cross between bowls, billiards and marquee erection, croquet is the feminist’s friend, being the first outdoor sport to allow women and men to play on an equal footing. It’s also an unusual game in that seemingly no one knows the rules, but because whacking balls through hoops with a mallet is such fun, nobody really cares. It’s a game long associated with the upper classes, and you can turn any old patch of grass into the sweeping lawn of a moneyed Victorian simply by having a friend run forward, urgently wave a piece of paper and call “Miss! News from
London, miss”. Remember, period-detail- lovers, attitudes to animal welfare were rather different in Lewis Carroll’s time and, today, use of live flamingos and hedgehogs is generally frowned upon.

PÉTANQUE
Derived from boules, a game traceable back to coin throwing in ancient Greece; Romans refined the concept to aiming at a target and the modern sport began to take shape. Pétanque itself only arrived in 1907, when rheumatic boules ace, Jules Lenoir, could no longer run and throw. Instead, he suggested this: stand inside a circle with both feet on the ground and toss hollow steel balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball, or cochonnet. In contrast to the rolled, lawn-requiring British bowls, this throwing technique makes it the ideal game if your local open space is a little on the uneven side. Indeed, gravel or hard dirt is the customary playing surface. For extra Francophone authenticity, liberally punctuate play with exclamations of “Bof!”, “Très bon!”, “Merde!”, etc.

Turn to page 71 of August’s The Simple Things for more games, including toe wrestling, ping pong and crazy golf.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the August issue:

More school holiday ideas:

Garden hacks | Reuse cooking water on your plants

Don’t let water go to waste: it can add moisture and nutrition for your plants

Get around water scarcities. Re-use cooking water. Take out whatever you’ve been cooking and let the water cool to room temperature. You can also re-use dishwashing water, if your cleaner is organic and non-oil-based. 

Add nutrients. Whatever you’ve cooked will mean that the water has extra nutrition for plants. For example, calcium from hard boiled eggs, or iron from spinach. Just avoid using water that’s been salted.

Kill weeds. Or don’t let your water have time to cool after boiling, and (carefully!) tip it over areas with weeds.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More Garden hacks:

Camping recipe | Smoky Boston beans & armadillo potatoes

No flames are required for this comfortingly simple cowboy supper of foil-wrapped herby spuds and a casserole of sweet, smoky beans – all of which is tucked into the hot, white coals to cook.

Serves 4
4 baking potatoes
30g salted butter
Handful of fresh thyme for the beans
1 tbsp olive oil
400g smoked bacon lardons
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
2tsp English mustard powder
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp black treacle
2 x 400g tins haricot beans in water
Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Natural yogurt, to serve

1 Using a sharp knife, cut slits widthways into each potato, working your way along from end to end – be careful to only cut three-quarters of the way down. Rub each potato generously with butter and carefully stuff sprigs of thyme in between some of the slits.
2 Individually wrap each potato in a double layer of foil and place directly on white coals (when the flames have died), for 30–40 mins, turning every 10 mins.
3 Cook the beans in either a Dutch oven* on an open fire or in a large saucepan on a camping stove. Heat the oil over a medium-high heat and add the lardons, frying for 5 mins until they just start to brown. Add the onion and continue to cook until softened.
4 Add garlic, paprika, cumin and mustard powder; stir thoroughly before stirring through the tomato purée and treacle. Add the beans along with the water from their tins, then half fill one of the tins with extra water and add that to the pan also.
5 Bring the beans to a simmer and allow to cook, stirring often, until the sauce has thickened – around 10–20 mins, depending on how you’re cooking them. Before serving, scatter the parsley over the beans.
6 To test the potatoes, give them a gentle squeeze: if they feel soft, they’re ready. Carefully unwrap each one and serve with a generous helping of beans and a dollop of yogurt.

* A Dutch oven is a lidded cast-iron or earthenware casserole robust enough to cook in the coals.

Turn to page 38 of August's The Simple Things for more of our camping special.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

Camping recipes:

Make | I love my city tote bag

Make and decorate totes that celebrate what you love about where you live

You will need

For the bag:
38 x 46cm cotton twill (outer fabric) 
38 x 46cm cotton fabric (liner fabric)
1 spool thread, to match twill
2 pieces of cotton webbing (50 x 4cm), for tote handles
OR, a ready-made blank tote bag

For the decoration:
2 skeins embroidery floss
Size 4 embroidery needle
18cm wooden embroidery hoop (or smaller)
Scissors
Pencil and white eraser
Ruler and straight pins
Iron

Embroider your love letter:
1 Think of something that you love about where you live. Maybe it’s a flower seller or the view from the waterfront, a skyline, or a certain stretch of road.
2 Pre-wash and dry fabric.
3 In pencil, write the letter in the centre of the twill fabric, leaving at least 6cm at the top and at least 10cm at the bottom. If using an existing tote bag, centre text.
4 Using all six strands of embroidery floss, chain stitch around pencilled text. To chain stitch: make a small stitch on your fabric. Bring the needle back up through the fabric a short distance below your stitch. Loop your thread through the first stitch, pull through before re-inserting your needle into the same hole you came up through. Repeat, by passing the needle through the last loop you made.
5 Trim loose threads and iron out any crease marks from the hoop. If you’re using an existing tote, you’re done! If sewing your own tote bag, proceed to the next step.

Make your bag:
1 Start by making the lining: pin together two pieces of liner material with right sides facing. Using a sewing machine with a 1cm seam allowance, stitch along one side, turn onto bag bottom, and turn again, sewing up the other side.
2 Pinch corner and line up the side seams so that corner fabric makes a triangle. Measure 7.5cm from corner and draw a perpendicular line with pencil. Sew along that line, keeping side seams open. Complete both liner corners and cut off extra fabric. Keep tote inside out and pin 4cm seam from open edge of bag.
3 Then make the outer bag: pin together two pieces of twill with right sides facing. Using a sewing machine with a 1cm seam allowance, stitch both sides of the bag and the bottom.
4 Pinch corner and line up side seams so that the corner fabric makes a triangle. Measure 8cm from the corner and draw a perpendicular line with pencil. Sew along that line, keeping the side seams open. Complete both corners and cut off any extra fabric.
5 Flip fabric right-side out and pin a 4cm seam from the open edge of bag.
6 Slide lining inside outer shell and pin corners together. Pin handle fabric to twill 10cm from the edge of the bag, with 10cm between each end of the handles. Pin outer fabric to inner fabric. Be careful to tuck handle tops down into bag. Sew through all layers at the top of the bag, keeping the handles sandwiched between the lining and the outside twill. Trim any loose threads to neaten it up.

Project by Lindsay Zier-Vogel, reprinted with permission from Strange Material: Storytelling through Textiles edited by Leanne Prain (Arsenal Pulp Press).

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More weekend projects to make:

Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums are plants that just keep giving

From the moment they are planted in spring, they respond to the smallest amount of care (a bit of earth, occasional watering) with vigorous growth, lily-pad-shaped leaves and then, around about now, cheery and abundant blooms. Not only do the flowers look good in the garden as they scramble and tumble about, but they make a pretty, peppery addition to salads, and they can be brought indoors for an instant bit of summery colour. 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More floral inspiration:

Play time

There’s fun to be found in the everyday if you look for it

Listen to a funny podcast on your commute or play your favourite music while washing up

Be open to meeting new people. We tend to stick close to those we know, which is often to our disadvantage

Be curious – take up drawing, dancing, growing, anything that expresses your curiosity in a way that’s fun

Mix with happy people and benefit from what experts call ‘emotional contagion’

Act spontaneously - take a day off, do something unexpected, surprise yourself…

What would you add? And have you seen our could-do lists?

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

Recipe | Lavender and honey cakes

August is a quiet season for baking... Let these light and pretty lavender numbers tempt you back into the kitchen

LAVENDER AND HONEY CAKES
Makes 12

40g salted butter (room temperature) 
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
11⁄2 tsp baking powder
120ml milk
1 egg
1 tsp lavender essence

for the icing
80g unsalted butter (room temperature)
160g icing sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp lavender essence
Purple food colouring
Dried lavender to decorate (optional) 

you will need
12-hole cupcake or muffin tin lined with 12 paper cases

1 Preheat oven to 170C/Fan 150C/325F. Measure the butter, flour, caster sugar and baking powder into a bowl and use an electric whisk to beat until the butter is incorporated and you have a sand-like texture.

2 In a separate bowl, mix the milk, egg and lavender essence and add slowly to the dry mixture, mixing to form a batter.

3 Pour the batter into the cupcake cases, about a heaped tablespoon in each, and bake in the centre of the oven for 15 mins or until lightly golden and springy to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4 To make the icing, whisk together the butter, icing sugar, honey and lavender essence for a couple of mins until smooth. Add as much purple food colouring as you like, then put in the fridge for 15–20 mins until firm.

5 Ice the cakes using the back of a spoon and garnish with a sprig of dried lavender.

Recipe from Milly’s Real Food by Nicola Millbank (HarperCollins).

Cake in the House is our monthly recipe feature - get a cake recipe every month in The Simple Things!

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

 

More cake recipes:

Escape | A Welsh eco retreat with room to roam

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Nina Nixon heads to Wales for a weekend retreat 

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 76 of the August issue for more of this outdoors adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Nina Nixon is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk. She has a passion for photography, capturing moods and making memories. More of Nina’s work can be found on her blog ninanixon.co.uk and on Instagram @nina_nixon

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More This is Your Kingdom inspiration:

How to build a swing

Branch out with this playful addition to a garden

You will need:
Wood that’s at least 2.5cm thick, avoid pine and damaged wood
Poly twist rope
Handsaw
Sandpaper
Drill

1 Find a thick, living branch, parallel to the ground.
2 Cut your board to measure 45 x 25cm and sandpaper it.
3 Drill four holes a little bigger than your rope width in each corner of the wood, 2.5cm in.
4 Cut rope into two lengths twice the height of the swing plus 3.5 m.
5 Take a piece of rope and double it over so cut ends are together.
6 Holding the looped end, place rope over branch and then thread the two cut ends to secure the loop against the tree branch. Repeat with the second bit of rope – the same distance apart as the holes on the seat.
7 Thread lengths through the four holes and adjust for height.
8 Tie each length in a figure eight stopper knot under the swing.

More practical and playful suggestions in Miscellany, every month in The Simple Things!

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

 

More How to ideas:

A smooth sea never made a skilful sailor

More from the August issue:

More back covers:

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

Living | How to camp well

Swap bricks for canvas, early mornings, outdoor life. Body clock reset

Jonathan Cherry shares the details that take camping trips from good to great

FLOWERS FOR THE TABLE
One of the first things Gemma does on arrival at any campsite is set off with the kids to forage wild blooms for the table – picked responsibly, of course – leaving the adults to pitch the tents in peace. Display in a recently finished beverage bottle of your choice.

KUBB (VIKING CHESS)
With a handy carry bag, this game travels everywhere with us from the garden to the beach. Great as a family game with the kids but even better played late in the evening with a beer in hand. Just mind your shins!

HERBS & SPICES
Bex advises taking a ‘store cupboard’ supply of your most used herbs and spices – it’ll save your kitchen being overrun with duplicates on your return and means campfire dishes can be as flavourful away as they would be at home. Her favourites are ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika, herbes de Provence and baharat.

FIREWOK
Matt couldn’t survive a camping trip without the Firewok. Hand crafted by a small business in Bristol, this is our favourite portable fire pit and comes with great cooking accessories (firewok.co.uk).

TINDER
Logs and kindling are readily available at most campsites but we always take our own tinder to ensure dinner happens! For every camping trip, Matt brings a mason jar of cotton wool balls and tumble dryer lint which he collects over the winter – free and a great fire starter.

SWEDISH LOG CANDLE
This is a self-feeding camp fire made from one log. Cross-cut 3⁄4 of the way down and stuff the top 15–20cm with tinder and kindling. Set a small fire on top of the log. Thin sections of the log at the top will start burning, sucking air down and drawing fire into the heart of the log. At this stage, it is possible to boil a kettle or cook on top of the candle.

SOUVENIR HAIKUS
You don’t need to write a diary of your trip in haikus to camp well, but if you fancy writing one or two like Matt’s on these pages (@Matt_633)... A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem of 17 syllables, broken up into 5/7/5. They often focus on nature, and in character are simple and direct.

For example...
How to write haiku:
Count syllables, be direct
Focus on nature

Turn to page 38 of August's The Simple Things for more of our camping special.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

Camping recipes:

Recipe | Tropical lime granita

The sharpness of the lime granita is a treat when balanced with lovely sweet fruit. Tastes of tropical beaches

Makes 700ml (6–8 servings)

180ml caster sugar
A pinch of coarse sea salt
4 kaffir lime leaves, torn to release their flavour
1 stick of lemongrass, bruised
150ml soda water
350ml lime juice (1 lime usually yields 20–25ml)
1⁄2 small pineapple (about 150g), peeled and roughly diced*
100ml coconut cream, to serve

1 In a large saucepan, heat 180ml water, the caster sugar, a pinch of salt, the lime leaves and lemongrass until the sugar has dissolved and the flavours have fused together; this should take 8–10 mins on a medium heat. Discard the lime leaves and lemongrass.

2 Add the soda water and lime juice to the pan and stir gently (try not to stir all the bubbles out of the soda water). Pour into a freezer-proof container with a lid and freeze. Take out every hour and, using a fork, scrape the granita so that you end up with fluffy ice, rather than one big block. It should take about four hours to freeze.

3 To serve, put a generous portion of pineapple in a bowl, top with a scoop of granita and pour over a little coconut cream. Sprinkle with a small pinch of sea salt.

* This works well with any fresh fruit but if you find yourself near an Asian supermarket, stock up on rambutan, lychee or mangoes.

Recipe from Cook Thai by Sebby Holmes (Kyle Books). 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the August issue:

More icy recipes:

A could-do list for August

Things you might want to do this month (no pressure!)

• Get up early and embrace the quiet
• Paint your toenails pink
• Paddle in a stream
• Read a book in a hammock
• Cook and eat outside as often as you can
• Leave the housework for another day
• Remember the times you laughed so much your belly hurt and to do those things more often

What would you add? Come over and tell us on Facebook or Twitter. 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the August issue:

More could-do lists:

Make | Natural food colouring

There’s no need to rely on artificial food colourings when most colours can be created with natural ingredients found in your kitchen. Add a teaspoon at a time, increasing gradually for a more intense colour

Pink
125g pack of cooked beetroot
2 tsp juice from the pack
Blitz the beetroot and juice in a food processor until smooth. Strain if desired. Store in an airtight contained for up to two weeks in the fridge.

Purple
70g blueberries
4tsp water
Blitz the berries and water in a food processor until smooth. Strain through a superfine mesh sieve to separate solids. Store in a jar for up to a month.

Green
60g spinach
Enough water to cover it
Cover spinach in water and boil for 5 mins. Strain and discard liquid. Blitz spinach and6tbsp water in a food processor. Add more water if needed. Strain through a fine sieve, cool and store in a jar for up to a month.

Yellow
120ml water
1⁄2 tsp turmeric
Put water and turmeric in a small pan and heat for 5 mins. Allow to cool and store in an jar in the fridge up to a month.

Red
80g raspberries
4 tsp water
Blitz berries and water in a food processor until smooth. Strain to remove seeds. Store in a jar for up to two weeks in the fridge.

From The Art of the Natural Home by Rebecca Sullivan (Kyle Books).

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More natural recipes:

Mindfulness | Colour therapy

There could be thousands more colours than your standard rainbow seven, if you take a moment to consider how you might name them.

Anyone who’s ever had to choose a paint for a wall or a piece of furniture will have found themselves immersed in colour charts and sampler pots where there’s more to colour than their product codes or Pantone reference. Every shade, tone, and hue comes with its own name– chocolate comtesse, mineral grey, crushed oregano, millennial pink. In a description of just two or three words, a whole world can be conjured up or reimagined.

But what about all those colours yet to be given names? What would you call the blue the sky turns 20 minutes after a summer sunset, for example? Or the particular grey the clouds look when half the sky’s about to storm and the rest is brilliant sunshine? How should you describe the colour of your mother’s eyes, or define the shade you like your tea? Don’t let the paint companies have all the fun. It’s a mindful practice to look carefully at the colours around you and really see them.

ART PROJECT

Start a colour experiment to recreate colours you love in paint in a journal, logging what you mixed and in what proportions, and then name your colours however you like – striplight yellow, garden shed brick, bank holiday traffic. Baby’s comfort blanket, granny’s dining table, mum’s golden flecks. Colour can capture moments, memories and places as well as words or pictures.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More mindfulness:

How to improve your frisbee

Give these techniques a spin to improve your summer sporting chances

There are more than 100 possible frisbee throws (see YouTube to learn a few more), so a few sessions in the park will not a pro make. These tips, however, will teach old dogs and humans alike a few new tricks.

Master your spins

Bend your wrist, then snap it quickly to give lots of spin. The more spin, the more stable it will be and the more control you’ll have on its flight.

Elbows out

Bend your elbow during your throw to add power and increase accuracy.

Do the twist

When throwing, step towards where you’re aiming, or try moving your weight from your back foot on to your front. Twist your shoulder, hips and legs through to the point of release.

Strong and stable

Stable throws are more accurate throws. Aim to keep the frisbee level and throw from just above your belly button for optimum stability.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More games ideas:

Play | August cover reveal

Remember the excitement of the summer holidays when you were a child? It wasn’t so much where you were going but the fun you were anticipating having. That ‘school’s out’ urge is too feelgood to be just for kids. And the beauty is that you can capture it anywhere; a backyard party, ball games in the park, silly stories around the campfire, enjoying a poptail or making something funny. There’s a creativity that springs from messy play; think of it as your sunshine time. 

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here, buy back issues or try our sister mag, Oh Comely

More from the August issue:

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

Competition | Win a year’s worth of cheese

To celebrate their new range of clothbound cheeses made with Cornish sea salt, Quicke’s have come up with an irresistible prize

Calling all curd nerds! This summer, Quicke’s are excited to announce a new partnership with Cornish Sea Salt. With only four ingredients involved in cheese making, Quicke’s believe each one should be the very best. Cornish Sea Salt is both low in sodium and rich in natural sea minerals. Its purity adds a rounded brightness to the complex flavours of Quicke’s award-winning clothbound cheddars.

Enter our competition for a year’s supply from their artisanal range and see for yourself. The winner will receive a box of cheesy goodies monthly for a year. You’ll be spoilt with a selection of award-winning Quicke’s clothbound cheddars, as well as accompaniments such as delicious crackers and handmade chutneys, all delivered directly to your door.

How to enter

For your chance to win a year’s supply of Quicke’s cheese, enter below before the closing date, 13 September 2017. The winner will be chosen at random and notified after this date. The prize will be cheese-based and delivered monthly, but subject to change, as stock allows. You can’t swap it for cash either. You can find full terms and conditions on page 129 of August’s The Simple Things and at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.

Enter now

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

More from the August issue:

More competitions:

Listen | Latin fever

Tunes to make your hips swing and your summer sizzle.

Listen to our latin playlist now

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

Listen to more playlists:

More from the August issue: