Homemade nut butters

All you need is a blender and a bag of nuts and you can make your own homemade nut butter in no time. Delicious spread on hot toast or oatcakes, stirred into porridge or sneakily licked off a finger.

Hazelnut butter

Makes about 150g
130g hazelnuts, skins removed
1 tbsp neutral-tasting oil, such as grapeseed or sunflower
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa or cacao powder (optional)

1 Blitz the hazelnuts in a food processor for 8–12 mins, depending on your machine. First you’ll get a fine powder, but continue blending until you get a denser, softened nut butter.
2 Add the oil, vanilla, salt and cocoa or cacao powder (if using) and blitz to combine for 2–4 mins until smooth. Store in the fridge in an airtight jar for up to a month.
 

Cashew butter

Makes about 250g
240g raw cashews
Pinch of sea salt
1 tbsp neutral-tasting oil, such as grapeseed or sunflower

1 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Place the cashews on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake in the preheated oven for 6–9 mins until lightly toasted.
2 Allow the cashews to cool completely before transferring to a food processor. Add the salt and blitz. Once you have a rough paste (after 6–7 mins), slowly add the oil with the motor running. Blend for 8–12 mins in total. Be patient: you will get a nut butter eventually! 

Cook’s notes: You’ll have to scrape down the sides a few times between blitzes. Store in the fridge in a jar for up to a month.

Recipes from The New Porridge by Leah Vanderveldt (Ryland, Peters & Small).
 

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Nest | Pilea

Once a rare sighting, the round, glossy leaves of pilea are now seen increasingly in our homes. This is largely because they are so easy to propagate.

Plantlets that spring up around their base can be snipped off and potted on in a twinkling, with the resulting plants dispersed among friends.

“They’ll lean towards the light,” says Alice Howard of Botanique Workshop, artisan store and flower shop, “so keep them out of direct sunlight. Otherwise, they are as easy to care for as they are to propagate.”

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A could-do list for April

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

• Open the window and breathe deeply
• Express gratitude, don’t just feel it
• Read a book of poetry and copy out your favourite poem(s)
• Start a new collection of things you love
• Keep a dream journal
• Walk with a little more pace and purpose today
• Write down five things you’re proud of

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

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Grand days out

Think stately homes - think splendid architecture, immaculate gardens, tempting tea rooms and the chance for a good nose around

Easter is traditionally the date in the calendar when stately homes, dormant over winter, come back to life and open their doors for us to visit. 

Recognise any of these great houses of literature?

Manderley 
‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’ The evocative first line of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca sets the tone for this atmospheric story. And while the house was based on Milton Hall near Peterborough, the longing was taken from du Maurier’s own desire for Menabilly near Fowey in Cornwall. 

Thornfield Hall 
Who hasn’t been haunted by the idea of the mad woman, hiding the attic at Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre? Many believe Charlotte Brontë based her fictional house on Norton Conyers, near Ripon. 

Satis House
The faded grandeur of Miss Havisham’s house in Great Expectations is chilling, with its grand gates and dark, dusty rooms. Restoration House in Rochester, Kent – a beautiful Tudor building – lays claim to being Dickens’ inspiration. 

Glamis Castle 
Most of the action in Shakespeare’s Macbeth takes place at Glamis Castle. The castle isn’t fictional, and neither is the story of the killing of Duncan by Macbeth, but the bard did take some poetic licence in placing the murder at the castle.

Turn to page 64 of April's The Simple Things for more of our Grand Days Out feature.

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Think | April cover reveal

There’s no better time than spring for fresh thinking. But often good ideas arrive when you least expect them – usually when you stop trying so hard. Being absorbed in doing a jigsaw or going for a run makes space for clearer thoughts. And who knows what a chance encounter could spark when you’re taking a wander in the woods. Whether you’re trying to make the pieces fit together or to plant a clever thought, there’s inspiration out there if you take time to note and notice. Then feel those new shoots flourish.

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Lemon posset pots with ginger crunch

Easy to make ahead, and refreshing with orange and mint

Serves 8
600ml double cream
150g caster sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
150g stem ginger biscuits
1 orange
1 small bunch fresh mint

1 Place the cream, sugar and lemon juice into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for 4 mins, stirring constantly to avoid it catching on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

2 Once cooled, tip the mixture into a jug and pour into small vintage glasses (you could also use pretty china tea cups, ramekins or wine glasses). Chill for at least 4 hours in the fridge to firm up.

3 Roughly crush the stem ginger biscuits using a pestle or heavy-duty rolling pin and scatter on
top of the possets.

4 Finely slice the skin of the orange so you get a flat piece of orange peel. Cut it into thin strips with a sharp knife and arrange the strips of zest on top of the biscuits. Top each glass with a couple of small, fresh mint leaves and serve.

Turn to page 22 of the April issue for more from our salon Gathering, including Beetroot & horseradish dip, Mixed olives with lemon zest, Asparagus spears with parma ham & toasted almonds, Spring lemon & cardamom chicken, Rainbow roasted carrots with cumin and Jewelled couscous with watercress, peppers & pomegranate.

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Competition | Writing microfiction

Fancy having a go at writing a story in 100 words? The theme is summer, the closing date, 30 April 

We’re full of admiration for a good microfiction: the format may be short, but there’s a wonderful sense of economy, every word polished and shaped with care. In just a few sentences, authors capture fleeting moments – the look of a flower in sunlight, say; the emotional weather in a relationship, or a tale of intrigue, filled with plot and peril.

If you fancy having a go, let our competition be your cue to action. It’s really just for fun, although the winner will receive a parcel of books to say well done. We’re looking for stories on the subject of SUMMER, with a feelgood vibe. The word count is 100 maximum (not including the title) and the work should be all your own and not previously published.

Email your microfiction to: thesimplethings@icebergpress.co.uk. Include your name and phone number and use the subject heading: MICROFICTION.

We’ll print our favourites in the June issue of The Simple Things, just in time for National Flash Fiction Day (nationalflashfictionday.co.uk). The closing date for submitting stories is 30 April 2018. Good luck!

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What I treasure | My hand-written recipe book

Among my collection of recipe books is a special one with a plain, blue cover. It’s filled as much with unforgettable moments as it is with edible delights. Whenever I flick through its pages, I find myself back in 1986. I’m 17 and living with a family in Belgrade in what is now Serbia. At that time, it was the capital of the ‘non-aligned socialist republic’ of Yugoslavia: neither Western nor fully behind the ‘Iron Curtain’.

My strongest memory is of sitting at the table in the hallway that doubled as a dining room in my host family’s flat, noting down recipes in my notebook. Most were ones my host mother, Marija, taught me to cook. We had little shared language and cookery was an activity we could do together without words. Weighing, chopping, stirring, and rolling could all be done by watching or gesturing to each other.

I wrote down some of the recipes in English, others in Serbo-Croatian, occasionally a mix of the two. Many only detail rough quantities: three cups of flour, two cups of sugar, one of oil and large amounts of eggs (10 or 12 is not unusual). There are smudges and stains showing where ingredients strayed onto the page.

Marija’s cooking was different from what I knew from home, restricted by shortages imposed by a communist state. Food was strictly seasonal and local. Special dishes stood out because they were a rare treat.

On birthdays and important holidays, Marija would spend hours making cakes or savoury bakes from scratch. Filo-pastry filled with spicy ground meat or salty cheese; a strawberry cake with whipped cream that will forever be the best I’ve tasted; and plum dumplings so juicy that they burst in my mouth at first bite.

I still make these dishes, and just looking at the list of ingredients sends me back to a specific moment in time. The little chocolate, cream-filled išleri biscuits Marija made for my 18th birthday. The cinnamon-scented apple cake she baked to celebrate her son’s return from military service. The simple delight of a pile of pancakes filled with rosehip jam on a cold winter’s night.

I treasure my recipe book for many reasons – for the memories it contains and the fact that, woven into every page, are recipes for a good life as well as fabulous food.

We’d like to know what you treasure - whether it’s a sentimental artefact, a person, a place or something else. Tell us in 500 words what means a lot to you - email thesimplethings@icebergpress.co.uk

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History of the t-shirt

The t-shirt evolved from 19th-century underwear. Light, well fitted and easily washed, it became popular as a bottom layer of clothing for workers and those in the armed forces, and made its first written appearance in 1920, in F Scott Fitzgerald’s debut novel, This Side of Paradise. The first printed t-shirt ever worn publicly is believed to be an Air Corps Gunnery School t-shirt, which appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1942. While in 1938, an American marketing campaign argued that “you don’t need to be a soldier to have your own personal t-shirt”, the style really took off thanks to film appearances on Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and James Dean in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause. They’ve been worn by everyone, from heartthrobs to more normal types since.

Turn to page 80 of the March issue for more on the T-shirt and how much it says about who we are, what we believe and where we belong. 

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Nest | Succulents

We’ve all bought succulents expecting them to be a breeze to look after, only to find they bolt or simply perish. 

“Most succulents are killed from over-watering,” says Alice Howard of Botanique Workshop, artisan store and flower shop. “Wait until the soil is completely dry, then water. They need constant light to prevent straggliness.” 

Hang them in a pretty planter, like these, to keep them in your eyeline for daily pleasure and monitoring.

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Competition | Win tea for a year

TEA INDIA IS OFFERING ONE LUCKY READER A BUMPER PRIZE OF THEIR SPICED BLENDS TO KEEP YOU IN CHAI ALL YEAR!

Steeped in boiling water or simmered in milk to make a latte, chai has been served in India for centuries and is said to ‘warm the heart and heal the soul’. Tea India’s master blenders, Chirayu Booroah and Jimmy Jal Medhora, have created a range of authentic chai tea blends inspired by their motherland, India, for you to enjoy.

These blends capture some of Chirayu and Jimmy’s favourite flavours using fine assam black tea and spices in a teabag. The Tea India range includes four chai blends – Masala, Cardamom, Ginger
and Coconut – all delicious, warming and invigorating; this is chai made easy, for a ‘soul-healing’ moment every day.

Tea India’s chai blends can be enjoyed made with freshly boiled water and milk or dairy-free alternatives added to taste, or as a latte, by simmering the teabag in milk or a dairy-free alternative. They’ve even included some serving suggestions online, to inspire you.

COMPETITION TIME!

Tea India is giving away a brilliant prize to tempt tea lovers everywhere. Enter our competition for your chance to win a bumper set of all four Tea India chai blends, including seven packets each of Masala, Cardamom, Coconut and Ginger. You may never run out of chai again!

Tea India is available in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Co-op and Morrisons; you can find your nearest stockist online at teaindia.co.uk.

 

How to enter

For a chance to win, enter below before the closing date of 9 May 2018. 

ENTER NOW

Terms & conditions: Our competition prize is 28 packets of Tea India chai (7 packets of each blend), sent to the address of your choosing in a single delivery. You can’t transfer the prize or swap it for cash. The winner will be selected at random from all correct received entries after the closing date of 11.59pm on 9 May 2018.

Full competition terms and conditions are on page 129 and at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.

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Competition | Win a year of flowers

ONLINE FLORIST BUNCHES IS GIVING ONE LUCKY WINNER A BEAUTIFUL BOUQUET A MONTH, PLUS 20% OFF FOR EVERY READER

Every day, all over the UK, Bunches prompts moments of happiness with its hand-tied bouquets and gifts.

What started as a stall in a shopping centre has turned into an online business, still family-owned, delivering long-lasting fresh flowers with as much care for customers as the company has for its blooms.

FAIR TRADERS

Care is at the heart of Bunches’ business model, too. Each year, 10% of its profits go to charitable projects. Flowers are chosen to minimise environmental and ethical toll, sourcing blooms from suppliers who support the Fair Flowers, Fair Plants initiative, and using wholly recyclable packaging. Bunches doesn’t believe in hidden costs either – all bouquets include free delivery.

 

How to enter

For a chance to win a beautiful, hand-tied bouquet every month for a year, worth £400, enter below before the closing date of 9 May 2018. 

ENTER NOW

Reader offer: Bunches is also offering readers 20% off all orders until 30 April, using offer code SIMPLE20 - visit bunches.co.uk. The only things you can’t use it with are monthly flower gifts and Flowers for a Year. 

Terms & conditions: You can redeem our reader discount at Bunches until 30 April 2018. The offer excludes monthly flower gifts and Flowers for a Year. Our competition prize is a hand-tied bouquet of Bunches’ choosing, delivered to you each month for a year. You can’t transfer the prize or swap it for cash. The winner will be selected at random from all correct received entries after the closing date of 11.59pm on 9 May 2018. Full competition terms and conditions are on page 129 and at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.

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Listen | Songs from the movies

Our favourite songs from the movies.

Listen to our movie soundtrack playlist now.

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Guide to eco cleaning

Green alternatives to environmental and health damaging chemical-based cleaners

For doing the dishes: 
Method’s Pomegranate washing-up liquid is free from chlorine and phospates and smells delicious; £2.25 for 523ml, biggreensmile.com

For floor mopping: 
Dr Bronner’s Organic Liquid Castile soap is free from synthetic dyes, fragrances and preservatives and is as good for floors as it is for bodies; £10.50 for 473ml, ethicalsuperstore.com

For kitchen cleaning: 
Kinn Living’s Eco Friendly Kitchen Cleaner’s essential oils disinfect naturally; £4.25 for 500ml, kinn-living.com

For scrubbing dirty plates: 
LoofCo washing-up pad is made from natural loofah and coconut fibres and is biodegradable; £2.75, greenbrands.co.uk

For cleaning glass: 
Good for Glass, harnesses the cleaning power of lemon oil to bring the sparkle back to glass and mirrors; £5.60 for 500ml, mangleandwringer.co.uk

For cleaning the toilet: 
US company Seventh Generation’s Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner smells sweetly of cypress and fir;
£3.83 for 946ml, evitamins.com

Turn to page 115 of the March issue to read more on our love for a clean and pleasant house.

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Build and fly a kite

For first-time kite makers, the diamond is a classic design and the simplest to build

1 Find a thick plastic bag at least 50cm wide and 1 metre tall. Lay it out, open end at the bottom. Starting just below the bag’s top-left corner, mark three dots for the top, bottom, and right- hand corners of your kite.
2 Connect the dots using a ruler and pen. Cut along these two lines on the bag; set aside off- cuts. Open bag out to reveal your sail’s outline. 
3 Place a length of 5mm diameter hardwood dowel down the sail’s centre line, lining it up with the top sail corner. Saw off at bottom and fix to the bag with installation tape. Do the same for the other dowel, horizontally.
4 Pierce a hole where the dowels cross. Thread with flying line (ideally nylon) through this hole and secure around the cross of the dowels.
5 Using plastic off-cuts, make the tail, roughly 5cm wide and five times as long as the kite. Tie one end around the base of the vertical spar. 

Adapted from The Wild Book: Outdoor Activities to Unleash Your Inner Child by David Scarfe (Trapeze)

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What it's really like to live in the woods

Jessica lives in the middle of a wood in Kent with her husband, Paul, an oak framer, and her daughter. Previously a graphic designer, Jessica now chronicles her outdoor life spent living slowly with her family, and in tune with nature and the seasons, on her blog, thewoodlandwife.co.uk. 

Turn to page 106 of the March issue for more about the joys and the hard work of life beneath the boughs.

What it’s really like to live in the woods

• You never get bored
  There’s always something to do, whether for pleasure or out of necessity.
• Woods are a daily inspiration
  Nothing inspires me more than the smallest things I see here; from morning birdsong to the gentle rustle of the trees.
• Daily routines have built-in health benefits
  Pushing wheelbarrows, shifting timber, running chainsaws and swinging the odd axe involves a lot of physical labour. While the monotony of the work can get testing, it has a great pace which does its part in keeping us all fit.
• We live simply
  We also live with a lot less than others – owning somewhere like this in the South East of England comes at a price. But we are more than happy, as this gives us more freedom.

Buying woodland is a dream held by many, with numbers of private owners growing year by year. According to the Forestry Commission, there are more than 40,000 small woods of less than ten hectares in England, and these make up 17% of England’s woodlands. 

Once you have decided on the area and what acreage you can afford, it is relatively easy to buy woodland as there is no chain and most are freehold. 

Run by small woodland ownership evangelist Angus Hanton, woodlands.co.uk is a good place to find one. 

Managing woodland is less simple, as Jessica points out. The Forestry Commission’s Land Information Search (forestry.gov.uk) produces a useful free booklet, ‘So You Own a Woodland’, which has advice. 

Small Woods Association (smallwoods.org.uk) offers courses on managing a woodland and is a generally useful resource.
 

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Cucumber, matcha and lime face mask

This refreshing, zingy mask can be made with ingredients that you may already have in your kitchen.

Makes approx 380ml
1 green tea bag or 5g (1 tsp) Matcha green tea powder
75g cucumber
2.5g (1⁄2 tsp) vegetable gelatine powder, such as Vegeset
20 drops lime essential oil

1 Pour 300ml hot (not boiling) water on the green teabag or matcha powder in a mug or jug (follow the packet instructions for ratios of tea to water). If using powder, stir to combine or leave the teabag to infuse for 10 mins. Leave to cool a little.
2 Chop slices of cucumber and whizz in a blender with the green tea until cucumber is fully blitzed. When completely cool, add gelatine to the liquid and stir to combine (check the ratios of gelatine powder to water on the packet (typically 1 tsp per 600ml).
3 Place mixture in a pan over a low heat, stirring all the time. Once it has reached boiling point, remove pan from the heat and allow to cool to around 40C. Add the lime essential oil. For 300ml use 20 drops.
4 Pour into a bowl and allow to cool before placing in the fridge to set.
5 Spread mask over face and neck and relax while the antioxidant, anti-ageing green tea and cooling, soothing cucumber get to work. Leave for 5–10 mins before removing with warm water and a muslin cloth.
6 Use straight away ideally, but can be stored in the fridge for up to two days. 

Taken from Handmade Spa by Juliette Goggin and Abi Righton (Jacqui Small).
 

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How to be happy

The theme for our March issue of The Simple Things is HAPPY. Free with every issue - one of four Happiness patches (find out how to get yours). Meanwhile, here are a few everyday actions that can enrich your life

Be active
Climb a hill. Or go for a walk or run. Simply stepping outside will have a positive impact. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good, so discover which physical activity you most enjoy and that works for your level of fitness.

Connect
Gather friends. Spend time and share good food with those around you. Think of home, work and your local community as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing relationships there. These connections will support and enrich you every day.

Keep learning
Make a campfire. Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things is a confidence booster – and is fun.

Take notice
Watch clouds. Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

What makes you happy? Come over and tell us on Facebook or Twitter. 

Plus - enter our competition! Design our fifth patch and you could win a VIP experience to The Good Life Festival 2018.

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A reading list for March

Books to make you literally (and literarily) LOL. As loved by The Simple Things team

How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson
An about-to-be-50 mother juggles her return to work with teenagers, ageing parents and hormonal hell.

Nomad by Alan Partridge
Steve Coogan’s creation travels in the footsteps of his father to Dungeness power station while trying to secure a TV series.

Love, Nina by Nina Stibbes
The (real) letters written by a nanny to her sister as she’s plunged into the midst of the London literati in the 1980s. Even more hilarious for being true.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
A series of essays following Sedaris’ attempt to learn French after moving from New York to Paris.

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

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Recipe | Nettle & seed crackers

Spring brings tender new nettle shoots. Harvest them to bring a punch of flavour to these delicious, seedy crackers. These crunchy, tasty crackers are great for dipping, loading with toppings or just eating alone

Makes 16–20 crackers
50g sesame seeds
50g linseeds
80g sunflower seeds
80g pumpkin seeds
20g chia seeds
50g buckwheat flour
2 large tbsp dried or fresh nettle tops (blanched)*, plus extra to scatter
Pinch of xantham gum
31⁄2 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil or good olive oil
150ml boiling water
1⁄4 tsp salt
Flaky sea salt, to taste

1 Preheat oven to 150C/Fan 130C/Gas 2. Take two baking sheets and line with baking parchment. Add all the ingredients (apart from the sea salt and extra nettles) to a bowl and stir well.
2 Split the mixture in half and place one half on each lined baking sheet. Place another piece of baking parchment on top (sandwiching the mixture between) and roll out the mixture thinly and evenly to fit the baking sheet.
3 Remove the top layer of parchment and scatter with more nettles (for a stronger flavour) and some flaky sea salt, to taste. Repeat with the second batch of mixture. 
4 Bake for around 50 to 60 mins – do keep an eye on them to check the seeds don’t brown too much – until they are completely cooked and dry. Then turn the oven off and leave crackers in the oven while it cools down, to ensure they are completely dry. Break it up into smaller pieces and store in an airtight container.

Taken from ScandiKitchen Summer by Brontë Aurell (Ryland, Peters & Small).

 * If using fresh nettles, harvest in spring. To remove the sting, immerse in boiling water and 16 make sure you press all the water out before use or the crackers will be too wet.
 

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