Things to wake up and want: the Valentines edition

This 14th February treat your Valentine to something extra special whether it be homemade chocolates or a simply stunning scent...

Light bulb vase by London Garden Trading (available on Not on the Highstreet)

Mini heart-shaped bowls by Golemdesigns

Rose 31 by Liberty London

Follow your heart coin www.kutuu.co.uk

Big Love Valentine timbergram Anthropologie

Hazelnut macarons and chocolate truffles: both recipes are found in The Simple Things issue 3 available here.

A love letter to London

My dearest London,

You look so handsome today. The sun is making you all shiny; warming you up after you shivered for a while under the snow. I like seeing you like this. It reminds me of all the reasons we’ve stayed together over the years. The golden cityscape you treat me to every morning from the top of the hill; your ability to pleasantly surprise me, like when I first heard classical music being played at Clapham North tube station or learned you were home to a family of flamingos; and the way you rally everyone together when times are hard.

I might not always show it, but I want to make things work between us. There’s a lot going on underneath your often tough exterior that I love. There’s your markets; your mews; your green spaces and Victorian trees. There’s your guerrilla gardens, like the Edible Bus Stop in Stockwell, and your inconspicuous jazz bars, like the Hideaway in Streatham.

Then there are your many characters. The lovely Sara who taught me how to keep hens in the city; Steve the London Honey Man, who makes your urban bees very happy indeed, and the elderly gent I see regularly on Portobello Road carrying a Jack Russell on his shoulder like a parrot.

The past eight years have not been easy; we’ve gone through our fair share of testing times. I blamed you when things were going badly – the redundancy, and those early days when your rents left me broke, when I questioned why I was still with you and felt I could find a better life back up north. But you didn’t abandon me. You taught me the tenacity I still see in you everyday - in your unwavering desire to grow skywards, and in your leafless apple tree at my local station that refuses to let go of its fruit.

Living in each other’s pockets was always going to be volatile. You really do have a tendency to overcrowd me at times. When distance is called for it’s always me putting those 200 miles between us, as I escape to a quieter place. Those early days were especially feisty, remember? I’d go from feeling excitement and awe to having my bags packed ready to leave in a matter of days.

Then often against my will I begin to miss you. I think about your beauty at night, and about finding your organic coffee shop in Notting Hill that’s been serving me flat whites well before the world put a name to them. And I think about all the other little things I haven’t even discovered about you yet.

It’s fair to say it wasn’t love at first sight, but we’ve grown together and mellowed over the years. It’s on days like today when the sun is shining and you’re beckoning me in that I feel we’ve got something special – let’s hold onto that.

Yours, Rachel

Friday night dinner for two (behind the scenes)

As it's a Friday and only 7 more days until Valentines,  we thought we'd share a few more captured moments from our dinner for two special (p104 - p111) in this month's The Simple Things.

Duck with spinach and pomegranate recipe found in this month's magazine.

MENU

Aubergine with pistachio

& sesame seed crumbs

*

Duck with spinach

& pomegrante

*

Poached pear with

gingerbread biscuits

Have you tried any of these delicious recipes? Leave a comment below or hop on Facebook and share your perfect romantic meal menu with us.

Happy Friday all!

Get the look: mimic the style of the Fat Radish in your home

In this month's issue of The Simple Things Alice Gao visits the Fat Radish in New York for lunch and picks up some of her favourite recipes to share with us (found in the mag on pages 34-39). Just as Alice did on her first visit we instantly fell in love with the restaurant's charming farmhouse vibe, and wanted to show you a few simple ways to recreate the style in your home.

Hang a vintage map

Food and travel go hand-in-hand, so hanging a map is a great way to inspire you in the kitchen. You can find antique and modern maps all over the web, but we're particularly fond of these two we found on Etsy.

North Pole antique map: artic sea exploring expeditions 1914 available from Carambas Vintage

Antique map of the World 1777 (high quality digital image) available from Patterns n Prints

Create a modern chalkboard

At the Fat Radish you'll find chalkboards painted directly onto the exposed brick walls, such an easy and quick way to transform a bare wall into something useful and beautiful. We found the perfect DIY over on A Beautiful Mess to save you spending a fortune on chalkboard paint, with this tutorial and a little imagination you could transform pretty much any surface into your own chalkboard, cupboards, table tops even your own coffee cup! (See pg 114 of this month's mag for details)

Here are some of the chalkboard ideas that caught our attention, we particularly like the wedding chalkboards from Her Majesty's Pug - a great way to upcycle scratched or unused silverware!

Wedding chalkboards from Her Majesty's Pug, antique framed chalkboard: Nixey and Godfrey, Barkboards available from Olive Manna

Build your own floating shelves

The restaurant also uses floating shelves to display an impressive wine collection, simple, stunning, and perfect for adding a more modern feel to a kitchen. Vintage revivals has a fantastic tutorial on how to make your own.

We've shown you how to get the look of the Fat Radish in your home, now make sure you have a go at mimicking the taste on your plate with the exclusive recipes found in this month's issue.

Win a wine tasting class with The Simple Things and Inntravel (closed)

Love the grape but have trouble telling your Chablis from your Chardonnay? Want to learn the difference between old and new world wine? Well, we've teamed up with our friends at Inntravel to offer you the chance to win a full day wine school experience for two at Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchant Berry Bros and Rudd. Perfect if you wish to condense all your learning into just one day, and also indulge in a mouthwatering luncheon where your new-found knowledge is put to immediate use with the wines served with lunch.

To be in with a chance to win this fantastic prize worth £490 simply click on this link and 'Like" Inntravel's page: http://on.fb.me/YkRIAw - good luck!

(Please note: Competition is open to UK residents only)

Michel Roux Jr recipe: authentic lamb tajine

Warm-up your weekend with this tasty recipe for an authentic lamb tajine. 

We've got the perfect recipe from two-star Michelin chef and slow food movement advocate Michel Roux Jr. A chef who  has won numerous awards for his cuisine and understands the importance of  appreciating food and respecting where it comes from.

Lamb Tajine

1 boned lamb shoulder

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 onions, chopped

2 teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges

1 tablespoon honey

300ml chicken or vegetable

stock (page 208)

50g whole blanched almonds, toasted

Serves 4-6

Preheat the oven to 140°C/Gas 1. Cut the lamb into 3cm chunks. Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron casserole dish and pan-fry the lamb until golden. Add the garlic, onions and spices to the dish and continue to cook and stir over a medium heat for about 10–15 minutes.

Add the lemon, honey and stock to the dish and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook in the oven for 1 hour.

Stir in the toasted almonds and serve in traditional tajine dishes if you have them.

If you liked this recipe you'll love Michel's exclusive recipe booklets which come free with this weekend's Telegraph (one on Saturday and Sunday), that's 40 of Michel's favourite dishes to inspire you in the kitchen - our mouths are watering at the thought!

Visit The Telegraph to find out more and for a chance to win dinner for two at the infamous Le Gavroche!

5 ways to keep your feet warm

Ward off chilblains and irritability with our five ways to keep your plates of meat warm.

1. CARDBOARD BOX When seated, rest your feet inside a newspaper-lined box. Ideal for homeworkers rationing their radiator use. Pros: Cheap, simple. Cons: Tragic-looking.

2. MICROWAVEABLE SLIPPERS These exist! A foot-shaped version of a wheat bag, they stay warm for hours, and are paradise for the poor of circulation. Pros: Immediate, failsafe. Cons: Impossible to walk in.

3. FOOT EXERCISES Boing up and down on your tiptoes, flex your feet, point your toes, and so on until sensation returns. Pros: Healthy, free. Cons: Tiring, takes ages.

4. MULTIPLE SOCKS Wear all your Christmas socks at once, in order of thickness. Pros: Easy, cost-free. Cons: Sweaty, fiddly.

5. DEEP HEAT Apply a mentholated topical treatment for instant unclenching. Pros: Fast, low-cost. Cons: You’ll smell of rugby and groin strain.