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Taking Time to Live Well
Seasonal tracks chosen by The Simple Things team
Listen to our December playlist: Christmas songs
Image: Unsplash
Turn to page 16 of December's The Simple Things for our simple party toast ideas – moreish morsels that won’t linger for long at a festive do. Use this red pepper jam as a topping for goat's cheese toast
Makes 2 x 500ml jars
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 red peppers, roughly chopped
2 red onions, roughly chopped
4 long red chillies, chopped
250g cherry tomatoes
100g sugar
50ml fish sauce
1 Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium–high heat. Fry the peppers, onions and chilli for 5 mins, or until softened and slightly caramelized. Add the tomatoes and cook for 6 minutes, or until soft. Stir in the sugar and fish sauce, and simmer for 30 minutes, until thickened.
2 Leave to cool slightly, then whiz to a purée in a food processor. Ladle into sterilised jars and seal. The jam will keep in the pantry for 6–12 months. Refrigerate after opening and use within 1 month.
Recipe from In the Kitchen by Simmone Logue (Murdoch Books)
Image: Alamy
They say life is a journey, not a destination. Turn to page 68 of November’s The Simple Things for a look at how to make motoring from A to B more of an adventure. Here, we pick four classic British road movies
If lagging behind Hollywood, which teems with cinematic hymns to the American highways from Two-Lane Blacktop to Thelma and Louise, Britain has produced a few great movies that have put our B-roads on the big screen.
The Open Road (1926) dir: Claude Friese-Greene
Made by a pioneering cinematographer using, then highly experimental, film stock, this recently restored groundbreaking travelogue presents a colour from-a- moving-car portrait of Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
Genevieve (1953) dir: Henry Cornelius
This gentle British comedy classic, starring Kenneth More and Dinah Sheridan and replete with an infectious theme tune by the harmonica-virtuoso Larry Adler, finds two couples locked in an increasingly unsporting race from London to Brighton on the veteran car rally in order to settle a ‘friendly’ bet.
Withnail and I (1987) dir: Bruce Robinson
Infused with a similar end-of-the 1960s melancholia as Hunter S Thompson’s drug buddy American road epic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Bruce Robinson’s much-loved and oft-quoted cult movie turns on the decision of two underemployed and over- imbibing actors to drive from the squalor of their Camden Town flat to a holiday cottage in the Cumbrian countryside in a clapped out Jaguar MK2.
Radio On (1979) dir: Chris Petit
Shot in a luminous black and white and featuring songs by Kraftwerk and Berlin-era David Bowie on its soundtrack, Chris Petit’s debut film is a meditative road movie that follows a London radio DJ as he journeys to Bristol in a temperamental old Rover. The journey takes us through a post-punk Britain poised between the aftermath of the Winter of Discontent and the arrival of Thatcherism, peopled by various waifs and strays – including Sting, who appears as an Eddie-Cochran-obsessed caravan-dwelling petrol pump attendant.
Image: Katharine Davies
A really pretty, colourful party piece for any get-together. The autumnal colours feel just right for this time of year
You will need:
Seeds from 2 pomegranates
2 x 750ml bottles prosecco, chilled
1 x 750ml bottle sparkling
apple-pomegranate or apple cider
1 Make an ice ring by tipping the seeds from a pomegranate into a Bundt tin, topping up with water and freezing overnight.
2 Mix the prosecco and sparkling cider in a small punch bowl or large mixing bowl. Just as your guests arrive, add the ice ring, as it can melt quickly. Sprinkle over some extra pomegranate seeds to garnish.
Recipe and photography from The Forest Feast Gatherings by Erin Gleeson (Abrams).
Image: Unsplash
No surprises here – it’s a perennial plant with exposed roots. Available from autumn to mid-spring, often by mail order, plants are dug up while dormant, roots washed, then shipped.
Once in the ground, bare-root are exactly the same as container-grown plants, only cheaper. As this is the traditional way to plant roses, you’ll also and more varieties. The key thing is to soak the roots as soon as you can, before planting (if the ground is frozen or waterlogged, plant them temporarily in pots). The planting hole should be deep and wide enough to ensure roots aren’t bent or broken and are covered by at least a centimetre of soil.
Perhaps if you were shopping in spring or summer, when only container-grown are available.
With hundreds to choose from, picking the best is a tall order. Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, a scented shrub variety (pictured above), was once voted the Nation’s Favourite. The RHS suggests ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ for a north wall or shady spot; ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ to clamber into trees, and ‘Pink Perpetue’ for covering pillars and trellis.
Photography: Andrew Montgomery
Nature’s bounty is all around us; in the woods, fields, moors and sea. Gill Miller serves up some culinary inspiration to help enjoy the best of it
This is preserving at its simplest. You dry the fruit purée until there is no moisture left, intensifying every single element of flavour. With the bite of sweet fennel seeds, the resulting crab-apple leather is insanely good.
Makes 2 sheets
1kg crab apples, stalks removed and roughly chopped
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 Cook the crab apples with a splash of water in a large, heavy-based pan set over a gentle heat. Stirring regularly, cook for 45–60 minutes until the crab apples are very soft and broken down (if the fruit isn’t really pulpy, continue to cook until it is). Add more water if at any point the pan looks dry.
2 Remove from the heat and push the pulp through a mouli with a fine gauge into a clean bowl. (If you don’t have a mouli, you can rub the mixture through a sieve.) Add the honey, then the fennel seeds and stir well to combine. Taste for sweetness, adding more honey if you need to.
3 Heat the oven to low – around 60C/ Fan 40C/140F is good. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Divide the mixture equally between the two baking sheets, smoothing it out as evenly and as thinly as you can.
4 Place the baking sheets in the oven for 12–14 hours until the thin layers of pulp are completely dry, even at the centre. Remove from the oven and allow the trays to cool.
5 Lay out two clean pieces of baking parchment, each slightly longer and wider than the pieces of leather. Peel each leather off the baking sheet and lay it onto a prepared piece of clean parchment. Take one end of the first piece of clean parchment and roll it up with the leather inside. Repeat for the other piece of parchment and leather. The leather will keep in an airtight container for 4–5 months.
Turn to page 38 of November’s The Simple Things for more recipes from the land by Gill Miller, including Barley, squash and mushrooms with herb and crème fraîche dressing, Malted wheat loaf, Rabbit with pappardelle, Salted pollock with potatoes, cream and marjoram, and Cobnut, prune & chocolate tart.
Gill Meller is head chef at River Cottage and a food writer, and teaches at the cookery school. He lives in Dorset with his family. This recipe is taken from Gill’s first book, Gather (Quadrille), which is out now.
Image: Unsplash
Massage this fragrant balm into skin for a relaxing treat
MAKES: 130ml
KEEPS: Around three months
INGREDIENTS
For the lavender-infused oil:
30g dried lavender flowers
180ml olive oil
180ml grapeseed oil
1tsp grated beeswax
Essential oils:
10 drops lavender
10 drops sandalwood
10 drops cedarwood
10 drops bergamot
1 Make your infused oil in advance. Fill a jar with lavender flowers and cover with the oils. Leave to infuse for 3 to 4 weeks, strain and bottle.
2 Melt the beeswax into 125ml of the infused oil in a double boiler or bain-marie.
3 Add the essential oils and pour into a container.
Found in The Domestic Alchemist: 501 Herbal Recipes for Home, Health and Happiness by Pip Waller (Leaping Hare Press).
Image: Unsplash
Lucid dreaming enables you to be the director and star of your own dreams. Think of it as a mindful and life-enriching way to sleep
How often have you woken up, groggy from sleep, unsettled by a dream that is rapidly drifting from your memory? During the night your consciousness has produced images and sensations that may have been pleasurable but could just as easily have been disturbing. Whichever it is, these dreams are mysterious and intriguing but out-of-reach.
What would it be like, then, to be able to control your dreams and instead of passively being caught up in them, to direct them according to your own whims? You could explore new countries, fly over your neighbourhood or into space, defeat enemies, return to a favourite haunt, or even engage in something intimate with a favoured person.
This ability to consciously observe and direct your dreams is called lucid dreaming and is, according to Charlie Morley, co-creator of Mindfulness of Dream and Sleep (a holistic approach to lucid dreaming), a state available to all of us. “It’s safe and natural, not spooky or paranormal, and you can wake yourself up any time you want,” he says.
“Lucid dreaming means that you are consciously aware that you are in the dream as you are dreaming. You may be snoring, fast asleep, but part of your mind has woken up and is thinking: ‘I’m dreaming’. Everything you see, hear, taste, smell is as authentic as real life. It’s super-cool.”
Turn to page 84 of November’s The Simple Things for more on lucid dreaming, or read on for five pointers on how to lucid dream.
Sort out your bedroom
Looking at electronic devices or the TV is not compatible with a good night’s sleep. Restrict all of that to the living room, and clear your head instead. Then your bed will become a platform to launch you into a calm, uncluttered dream state.
Keep a dream diary
This is easier said than done when the urge to drift back to sleep or propel yourself into the day kicks in, but it is vital to enable lucid dreams. As soon as you wake up, write down everything you remember in as much detail as you can. This alerts you to ‘dream signs’ – situations which only happen in dreams, patterns and repeated images.
Ask yourself, “Am I awake?”
Hold your nose and attempt to breathe. If you can’t, you are awake. If you can, you are dreaming. This ‘reality check’ alerts you to the fact that you are in a lucid dream, and allows you to control it.
Incubate a dream
Tell yourself what you’d like to dream and picture it in your imagination before you fall asleep. There’s a greater chance then that it will manifest.
Disrupt your night’s sleep
This is for the hard-core would-be lucid dreamers. Go to bed at 10.30pm, then set the alarm to wake you at 4.30am and 6.30am. Each time, record your dreams before returning to sleep. This will give you more opportunities to lucid dream.
Image: Stocksy
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.
Turn to page 118 of November’s The Simple Things for more sleep ideas and home truths.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
Words: Laura Rowe
Illustrations: Vicki Turner
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).
Extracted from Taste: The Infographic Book of Food by Laura Rowe, illustrated by Vicki Turner (Aurum Press).
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).
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.
Recipe: Lia Leendertz
Photography: Kirstie Young
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.
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:
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.
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
View the sampler here.
Image: Katharine Davies
Illustration: Joe Snow
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.
We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.
