Home truths: Things to help you sleep

This month in our series on what really goes on in a home, we curl up under the duvet and have a good night’s sleep

Insomnia is a mean and unhelpful thing. Anyone who has woken up at 4am, eyes wide and mind racing, knows how hard it is to get back to sleep. It can also be hard to get to sleep in the first place. There are, however, things that can ease your passage into the Land of Nod.

• Essential oils: lavender, chamomile and marjoram are known to aid relaxation and help you sleep. Add a few drops to a warm bath before bed or sprinkle some on your pillow.
• Music: small children know the restful power of the lullaby. Adults can do similar by rocking themselves to sleep with soothing tunes or with the sounds of nature. (Try the British Library’s free recordings, including gentle lapping waves, at sounds.bl.uk.)
• A good book: reading (or listening to an audiobook) until you slump into slumber is one of the best ways to get to sleep. May also produce dreams.
• The right curtains: your bedroom needs minimum light for maximum sleep. Lining your curtains with black-out fabric (137cm wide, £7.50 per metre, John Lewis) helps.
• An electric blanket: wrap-around toastiness guaranteed when you slip between the covers on chilly nights.

Turn to page 118 of November’s The Simple Things for more sleep ideas and home truths.

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Sponsored post: Herbs to help you sleep

Many conventional sleeping tablets actually inhibit REM sleep and should only ever be used short term. Natural relaxants, such as herb-based teas and supplements, are safe and will help to calm a restless body and mind as well as encourage undisturbed and refreshing sleep.

Nature’s natural sedative

Valerian is a strong nervine and sedative to the central nervous system, relaxing tense muscles while also encouraging an undisturbed sleep, healthy sleeping pattern and ameliorating stress. It promotes relaxation by enhancing GABA neurotransmission; it relaxes the heart, treating palpitations, tightness and high blood pressure, reduces the time to sleep onset and improves sleep quality. Valerian can also help with withdrawal from conventional medications used to treat insomnia. Valerian is the key ingredient in Pukka’s Night Time capsules.

GLOSSARY

REM: A kind of sleep that occurs at intervals during the night and is characterised by rapid eye movements, more dreaming and bodily movement, and faster pulse and breathing. REM sleep is important because it is the restorative part of our sleep cycle. 
Nervine: A plant remedy that has a beneficial, calming effect on the nervous system.
GABA: A type of protein that helps suppress the circuits in the brain (neurotransmitters) that cause anxiety. 
Melatonin: A hormone found naturally in the body that influences you to feel sleepy.

Turn to page 87 of November's The Simple Things for this month's Pukkapedia and more on sleep. 

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Salt and coriander roast roots with smoky yogurt

Roasting roots on a bed of spiced salt intensifies the vegetables’ flavour and brings a touch of theatre to the table. The salt doesn’t have to go to waste afterwards, it can be re-used as a seasoning, or even to bake more roots. A smoky yogurt dressing sets off the sweet veg beautifully.

Salt and coriander roast roots with smoky yogurt

Serves 6-8 with salad
3kg rock salt*
Finely grated zest of two unwaxed lemons, plus 1 tbsp juice
4 tbsp coriander seeds, roughly crushed
Handful of thyme sprigs, plus thyme leaves to serve
1.5kg baby or small root vegetables in their scrubbed skins, such as multi-coloured beetroots, multi-coloured carrots, parsnips, orange and purple sweet potatoes
300g mild Greek yogurt
1 small garlic clove, crushed
2-3 chipotle chillies in adobo, crushed, or 2 tsp chipotle paste
1⁄2 tsp hot smoked paprika
Cold pressed oil (olive, hemp, rapeseed, pumpkin) to drizzle
Salad leaves, to serve

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/ Fan 180C/400F.
2 Combine the salt with the lemon zest, crushed coriander seeds and thyme sprigs. Spread half this mixture out across a very large roasting tin (or divide between two smaller tins). Nestle the roots into this mixture, making sure any larger ones aren’t touching to give the heat a chance to circulate. Spread the rest of the salt on top, mounding it up to cover every vegetable.
3 Roast in the oven for 50–60 minutes, until a skewer slides easily into even the largest root. Spoon the top layer of salt away, but keep the roots nestled in a bed of salt to serve (everyone can peel or split their own veg).
4 In a serving bowl combine the yogurt with the crushed garlic and lemon juice, and season with ground black pepper. Swirl in the chipotle and dust with paprika. Drizzle with the cold-pressed oil, shower with thyme leaves and serve alongside the roots and salad leaves.

Recipe from The New Vegetarian by Alice Hart (Square Peg); photography by Emma Lee

* Yes, really that much...

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Staple foods: 5. Salt

This essential seasoning is also vital for our bodies to function. It really is worth its salt

Some ingredients we might claim to be ‘essential’ (chilli sauce, mayonnaise and cheese – preferably all together – being in my top three), but few are actually necessary for us humans to exist; except, that is, for salt. Whether mined hundreds of metres beneath us and chucked back on our roads to prevent ice, or hand harvested from the sea and sprinkled in snow-like flakes over our scrambled eggs, salt has the same chemical composition. The sodium and chloride in salt (neither of which we produce naturally) are crucial in muscle function, nutrient absorption, fluid regulation and sending nerve signals to the brain.

But, of course, aside from its health properties, salt is also vital for enjoying food. As one of the five key ‘tastes’ we experience (the others being sweet, sour, bitter and umami), salt makes things taste better. From reducing bitterness to enhancing sweetness, it provides balance. It can also be used as a preservative, to improve texture and colour, and as an abrasive. And that’s without even touching on the hundreds of ways it can be applied to your beauty or cleaning regimes, or even its powers to ward off evil spirits (a quick pinch chucked over the left shoulder should do it).

• On average, we each have approximately 200g of salt in our bodies – that’s 2–3 salt shakers’ worth!
• Salt contains a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride.
• The World Health Organisation recommends no more than 5g salt per day (that’s just under one teaspoon).
• Get beers colder, faster, by adding salt to iced water.
• Salt wasn’t always just a seasoning: it was currency, too. Roman soldiers used to be paid, and slaves bought, in salt.
• Make extra-smooth garlic purée by adding a pinch of coarse salt – it acts as an abrasive and seasoning.

Extracted from Taste: The Infographic Book of Food by Laura Rowe, illustrated by Vicki Turner (Aurum Press).

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Homemade lip balm

Ward off winter lips!

Dry and cracked lips are often a sign it’s getting colder. One of the best remedies for this perennial problem is a restorative mix of a few simple ingredients even the barest kitchen will have stocked. Use this homemade scrub in conjunction with lip balm to keep lips smooth and ready for even the boldest of lipsticks.

Things you’ll need:

2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil

Whisk all the ingredients together.
Apply to your lips and give them a gentle scrub until they feel like new.
Rinse the scrub off with plenty of water and apply a moisturising lip balm.

Why this works...

Sugar works superbly as an exfoliant. Honey has wound-healing, anti-microbial and antibacterial properties. Olive oil is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and protects and nourishes skin.

From All Natural Beauty by Karin Berndl and Nici Hofer (Hardie Grant). 

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Weekend project: Woven wall hanging

Weave your way to create unique home accessories

As with macramé, weaving is a skill that’s being hauled out of the 1970s and back into your home. And, also like macramé, it’s a pleasing way of adding homespun cosiness to your space. The techniques are as simple as they were back then, although the colour palette and styling may have shifted. The materials are easy to come by, too. You will need a loom though – follow the instructions below to make your own, or try eBay and Amazon for beginners’ lap looms. 

To make this wall hanging, you will need:

A simple lap loom
Various shades and thicknesses of wool
Doweling
String
Scissors
Wool shuttle or embroidery needle

1 Using the string, tie a knot around the top of the loom. Making sure it’s tight, start to warp up your loom. To do this you will need to feed the string up and down, looping around the notches on either end of the loom. Make sure your tension is tight as this will be the base of your weave.

2 To create tassels for your weave, cut your wool to a length of roughly 20cm. You will need to cut quite a few of these. Taking 3–6 strands of wool (depending on the thickness of your wool), lay the strands over the top of two warp threads. Twist the threads under the warp and pull down. Carry along the length of the loom.

3 To start weaving, take the wool and wrap around the weaving shuttle or an embroidery needle. To weave, take the wool up and over alternative warp threads all the way across the width of the frame. Do the same for the next row, but weave the opposite way – taking the wool under the warp threads it went over in the previous row.

4 To create knotted tassels, follow step two again but, before you thread the wool under the warp, knot all the pieces of wool together.

5 Carry on weaving using different thicknesses of wool to create texture. 6 Once you are happy with your weave it’s time to take it off the loom. To do this, cut the top warp threads but leave the bottom warp threads (under the tassels) as they are. This will just lift off the loom. Tie the top warp threads, and then tie around a piece of doweling all ready to hang. Don’t forget to tie a piece of string so you can hang your weave up on the wall.

Turn to page 110 of November's The Simple Things for another weaving make.

Project by Lucy Davidson. Lucy Davidson runs regular weaving workshops around southern England. Check her blog peasandneedles.co.uk for details and more woven inspiration.

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Recipe: Apricot, almond, cardamom and honey Chelsea buns

Warming cardamom plus golden apricots equal autumn in a bun

Makes 10

300ml milk
40g butter
500g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
1 egg, beaten
20 cardamom pods
60ml runny honey
250g dried apricots, chopped
100g almonds, roughly chopped For the glaze
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp caster sugar

For the icing
2 tbsp icing sugar

1 Gently warm the milk and butter in a pan until the butter has melted. Set aside to cool a little. Put the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Pour in the warm milk mixture and beaten egg, and mix to a dough with your hands.

2 Start kneading in the bowl to bring the dough together, then transfer to a floured surface and knead for a further 5–10 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl and set aside to rise for 20 minutes.

3 Knead the dough again briefly in the bowl to knock it back to its original size, then tip it onto a floured surface. Stretch and push it into a rectangle, pulling and pushing until the dough is about 1cm thick all over.

4 Using a pestle and mortar, lightly bash the cardamom pods until they crack and release the seeds. Remove the papery cases and grind the seeds to a powder.

5 Turn the rectangle so the long edges lie widthways. Drizzle honey over the rectangle of dough, then sprinkle over the cardamom, apricots and almonds evenly.

6 Put both hands at the bottom of the longer side and roll away from you. Cut the roll into ten even pieces with a sharp knife, and place on a baking tray, space a little apart. Cover with
a tea towel and leave to rise for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C/375F. Bake the buns for 20–25 minutes, until golden brown.

7 Meanwhile, make the glaze by heating the milk and sugar in a pan until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is starting to bubble. Paint the buns with the glaze as soon as they come out of the oven, then leave to cool.

8 To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with 1 tbsp water. Drizzle over the cooled buns and tear apart to eat. 

For the rest of our afternoon tea menu – including Lapsang souchong tea bread, Crumpets, Smoked cheddar and chocolate stout rarebits, Coffee and walnut cake, and Orange and lemon battenberg – turn to page 24 of November's The Simple Things. 

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Competition: Win a luxury stay for two with Taylors of Harrogate

Taylors of Harrogate’s range of six great tasting fruit and herbal infusions, in partnership with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, brims with vibrant flavours and fresh aromas, Spiced Apple, Sour Cherry to Sweet Rhubarb.

This autumn, make the most of the colder weather by cosying up with the fruit and herbal infusion range from Taylors of Harrogate. The Spiced Apple variety blends delicious apple pieces with the warmth of punchy ginger root, cloves and star anise to make a sweet and spicy flavour infusion that is perfect for the run up to winter.

To celebrate the turn of the seasons, we’re giving you the chance to win a snugly two night break with dinner for two at Grovefield House, Buckinghamshire, as well as your own personal stash of Spiced Apple speciality tea. 

For your chance to win, answer the following question:

ENTER NOW

Taylors of Harrogate Fruit and Herbal infusion range is available to buy from Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Ocado and Morrisons, RRP £2.99 for 20 teabags. For more information visit www.taylorsofharrogate.co.uk.

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Gather: November cover reveal

Abundant autumn brings much to savour, in its rich, earthy colours, in nature’s bounty, admired on crisp, sunny walks or on adventures behind the wheel. A fireside tea awaits, complete with cake, crumpets and pots of tea. Take time to regroup. Curl up on the sofa to craft woven treasures. Roast colourful roots. It’s the season for cosy polo necks, for daytime naps and early nights. There are no worries, only sweet dreams, when you relish The Simple Things 

On sale today. Get hold of your copy of November's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

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The tallest oak was once just a nut that held its ground

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How to make a corn dolly

Turn over a new sheaf with this traditional harvest custom

1 For this basic neck or sheaf dolly, gather some undamaged, hollow straw. Any straw will do (wheat is the most popular) – try practising with paper straws.
2 Dampen straw so it’s easier to work with. 
3 Bundle together some waste stems to make your core: it should be around the size of a biro. Tie into place.
4 Tie five straws of roughly the same width around your core. Tie them near to the wheat heads as you can. Bend each stem at right angles so they’re each pointing in a different direction, like the points on a compass; with the last one pointing just to your left. 
5 Take the fifth stem and bend it up, before bending it right so that it reaches over the next two compass points. 
6 Turn a quarter clockwise and repeat, using what’s become the new ‘South’ straw.
7 Repeat, each time turning a quarter so that the circle builds. With broken straws, just slide a new one over it.
8 Once finished, tie with straw or ribbon.

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The Curator: Teapot Island

Welcome to the wonderful world of Teapot Island in Yalding, Kent 

Teapot Island is the first in a new series – The Curator. Turn to page 114 of November's The Simple Things for the full interview. 

Who doesn’t enjoy the quirks of an independent museum? They alone celebrate aspects of life other institutions may choose to pass over. This series asks curators of the UK’s most unusual galleries and collections to share their highlights and take you on a private tour, and perhaps persuade you to visit in person.

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Listen: Dreams playlist

I close my eyes, then I drift away... Songs to help you dream sweetly 

Listen to our soundtrack to November: Music for sweet dreams

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Recipe: Roasted chestnuts

You don't have to wait for Christmas if you fancy chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Lia Leendertz shares her recipe for roasted chestnuts as well as a bit about the history of these festive treats

Despite their comfortable presence in the landscape, chestnuts are native to the Mediterranean and north Africa, and were only brought to the UK by the Romans. So happily have they adapted to our conditions though that they are now regarded as ‘honorary natives’.

Although many have naturalised and can be found growing in woodlands and copses, they were beloved of the aristocracy of the 18th and 19th centuries and were widely planted in parkland, and this is where we should set off now to find the biggest and most productive trees from which to forage.

Don’t get them mixed up with horse chestnuts (conkers), which are really not so nice to eat, roasted or otherwise. Sweet chestnuts have cases with long, bristly prickles, whereas those of horse chestnuts are smoother with short spines.

Chestnuts roasted on an open fire, perfectly softened and with a light charring at the edges are delicious, but this is surprisingly tricky to perfect. My chosen method is to cheat and start them off in the oven to ensure that they are well cooked through, before finishing them off with a spell on the fire.

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Use a small sharp knife to make a cross in the skin of the curved side of each chestnut, leaving one or two untouched.

Place them in a baking tray, cover tightly with foil, and bake for about 30 minutes or until you hear one of the uncut ones pop. Then wrap them in a few layers of foil and pop them onto the embers of a fire for fire minutes, before eating them hot and freshly peeled with butter and a pinch of salt.

Lia Leendertz is currently crowdfunding the creation of The New Almanac, a reinvention of the rural almanac which will cover seasonal food, traditions, folklore, the moon and stars each month, and more.

Support Lia by buying a special first edition of the Almanac ahead of time, and see your name in the back of every book - buy The New Almanac by Lia Leendertz now.

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Be a kitchen witch!

Introducing a little magic into your cooking can be great fun: it’s exciting to go to the shops or garden and gather ingredients to bring love, luck or health to those you cook for. 

Start with these pearls of witchy wisdom:

• Pick parsley for parties. It’s said to bring eloquence and extra charm, helps reduce drunkenness and is a proven breath freshener! Serve with potatoes as they are grounding.
   
• Share a jasmine tea with someone and it will help you bond. Jasmine is a vine and represents the intertwining of people.
   
• Make an autumnal soup with leeks, squash, carrots, potatoes, fresh sage and chives. Prepare with love and serve to friends and family to bring warmth and happiness for the new season.

For more spells, recipes and magical meals read The Book of Kitchen Witchery by Cerridwen Greenleaf (Cico)

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Staple foods: 4. Squash and pumpkins

So much more than a Jack O’Lantern in waiting, make the most of your pumpkin this Halloween

The symbol of a season on the turn, a tool to ward off evil spirits and the fodder of fairytales – pumpkins are probably the most famous of all the winter squash, but are they the most delicious?

Related to cucumbers, courgettes and melons – and technically a fruit – these hardy squash come in a spectrum of shapes, sizes and colours, from dusky blues and creamy yellows to egg-yolk orange and moss green.

Pumpkins, which are native to America, are best known for their part in the Thanksgiving tradition (puréed with warming winter spices, as the filling for a sweet pie) or disembowelled and carved for Halloween.

They can be brewed into beer, grated into cakes, or simply mashed with butter – even the leaves and seeds can be eaten. But would you recognise the right squash for the job?

Extracted from Taste: The Infographic Book of Food by Laura Rowe, illustrations by Vicki Turner (Aurum Press, £20)

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Halloween: Pumpkin carving

What better way to see in the season than by gathering friends, family and a pile of big pumpkins…

Once pumpkins arrive you know autumn is really in full swing. Throw a pumpkin party: ask people to bring a small pumpkin as well as the one they’ll be carving.

Carve off the pumpkin tops and fill them with tea lights, votive candles or dried flowers and seedheads from the garden. Send everyone home with their pumpkin vase.

Tell stories as you carve of fancy dress disasters, maybe a ghost story you once heard or simply what the word ‘pumpkin’ brings to mind.

Eat pumpkin*, too – a pie is the obvious choice. But pumpkin and sage lasagne or pumpkin soup make for filling savoury dishes, especially accompanied by a mug of hot cider or two.

How to carve a pumpkin

YOU WILL NEED

Carving tools (a variety of spoons, knives and other tools for decorating
Cookie cutters (use a mallet to pound them through the pumpkin flesh)
Carving pumpkins 

TO MAKE

Place newspaper over a large table. Pile carving tools in the centre, plus a communal bowl for seeds and filling. 

When it comes to carving, there are no rules, just decorate whichever way you fancy. 

Extract from Handmade Gatherings by Ashley English. Photography by Jen Altman (Roost Books)

*Carving pumpkins are an altogether different prospect to eating varieties. Come back later this week to find out which types are best in which dishes.

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Nourishing chickpea and turmeric face mask

This mask is tempting to eat, but refrain from doing so and let your skin soak up all the goodness. 

Great for skin that's had a bit too much sun – and you’re likely to find all of the ingredients in your kitchen cupboards. 

You’ll need:
1 tbsp chickpea flour (gram flour) 
2 tsp almond oil
2 tsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground turmeric

1 Mix together all the ingredients and stir well to form a paste.

2 Apply a thick layer onto clean skin and rest for 15 minutes before rinsing off the mask with tepid water.

(Don’t worry about turmeric colouring your face; the mask washes off easily without a trace.)

Extract from All Natural Beauty: Organic & Homemade Beauty Products by Karin Berndl and Nici Hofer (Hardie Grant)

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Recipe: Cabbage, beetroot and date salad

This brightly-coloured, no-cook Persian salad makes a fun and flavoursome accompaniment to a roast chicken. 

Crunchy raw cabbage is an everyday feature of salads in Iran and here red cabbage is combined with raw beetroot and dates for a sweet and healthy take on a winter ’slaw. Quicker, lighter and less fuss than your usual roast dinner veggies, a salad means less time in the kitchen and more time for autumnal walks.

SERVES 4 AS A SIDE 

2 medium, raw beetroots, peeled and grated
150g red cabbage, finely sliced
65g Iranian or Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
20g bunch parsley, finely chopped

FOR THE DRESSING
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
1⁄2 tsp salt
1⁄2 tsp black pepper

1 Tip the beetroot into a large bowl, followed by the red cabbage, dates and parsley.

2 Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Just before serving, drizzle over the salad and give it all a good toss

Recipe from The Saffron Tales: Recipes from the Persian Kitchen by Yasmin Khan (Bloomsbury) Photography: Shahrzad Darafsheh and Matt Russell

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Hirameki: Download our ink blot doodles

Every blot’s an inspiration, every line is free, unlock your imagination and draw what you see! Try your hand at Hirameki - ink blot doodling where you draw what you see

If you’ve ever doodled, then you can turn your hand to a bit of Hirameki. The word means ‘brainwave’ or ‘flash of inspiration’ in Japanese and it is the art of turning a seemingly random paint blot into a picture by adding a few dots and lines. Artists Peng and Hu realised that the tiniest blot could be easily turned into something amazing; even the most inexperienced doodlers can make something from a blot. 

“It is simply about drawing what you see,” says Peng. “All you need is a pen and a dash of imagination.”

On the subject of pens, they recommend the following: “A Hirameki pen should be no longer than your arm and no shorter than your little finger. The ink should be coal black or midnight blue, never shrieky yellow or shrinking violet. Calligraphy brushes, quills and charcoal are all acceptable. Best of all, though, is a fine-tipped felt pen.”

This new take on doodling is a fun version of the famous Rorschach inkblot test, created to reveal unconscious thinking.

Peng says: “It’s creative and a little bit anarchic for those who are bored of drawing inside the lines. And it’s a delight for hand, eye and mind, giving you an unexpected sense of satisfaction.”

Have a play with the blots on our Hirameki download PDFs or splatter your own. Just enter your email below and we'll email you with the Hirameki sheets and our fortnightly newsletter.

About Peng & Hu 
Artists Peng, from Austria, and Hu, from Germany, discovered Hirameki when they saw a cow with a splotch that looked just like a film star

Taken from Hirameki and Hirameki Cats & Dogs (Thames & Hudson) by Peng & Hu