Wish list

I have been coveting this framed poster on Etsy for ages. It strikes just the right tone, falling safely into the category of being charming rather than overly twee.

My mind is lingering more and more on household decor these days, both because I am planning a move in the new year and because my dearest friend is moving far, far away to set up her new home and has a far greater budget than I to decorate with.

Therefore I get to shop both for myself, with a hit list of Ikea and the local market, and also for my friend where I indulge in the great pleasure of perusing Heal's and Habitat.

From Etsy seller Bread and butter shop

A fortnight in pictures

Exhausted, horribly hungover and deliberating some big decisions today.

Therefore I give you a short picture update, an apology for my recent absence and a promise to do better.

Book shelf below seen at Terence Conrad shop - I just adore it.

Other than that a sample of what I have been consuming over the last few days, including a meal at my beloved Grand Bazaar.

Recipe: Sausages with Chorizo and Lentils

• I made this Nigel Slater recipe this weekend. It is taken from The Kitchen Diaries, one of my all time favourite recipe books. I substituted the salami that Nigel recommends for chorizo which I know is pretty naughty, but I just love chorizo and it added such a smoky punch that I forgave myself. I made steamed asparagus with melted butter and sea salt for starter, simply because the asparagus was on offer rather than due to any natural synergy between the light, summery starter and the warming, winter main. Still, the whole thing was pretty sublime. I do hope that Mr Slater won't mind my tinkering with his wonderful recipe.

  I served this with a small amount of rice, which wasn't actually needed, and buttered toast to scoop up the sauce.

  P.S It is my 100th blog post today, which I couldn't let pass without mention. I am greatly enjoying sharing this little journal with you. I hope you are too.

  
  

  Prep time:

  20 mins
  
  

  Cook time:

  45 mins

  
  
  
  
  
  
  2 onions
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 200g salami, in one piece (I USED CHORIZO)
• 350 g Sausages
• 500g crushed tomatoes, or tomato passata
• 150g green or brown lentils
• 3 bay leaves

Method

1. Peel the onions and cut each one in half from tip to root, then cut each half into four or five pieces. Warm the oil in a heavy-based casserole, add the onions and let them cook over a moderate heat until tender.

2. Meanwhile, peel the garlic, slice it thinly and add it to the onions. You'll need to stir them regularly.

3. Peel the thin skin from the salami and cut the inside into fat matchsticks. Add this to the softening onions and leave for a couple of minutes, during which time the salami will darken slightly.

4. Start cooking the sausages in a non-stick pan. You want them to colour on the outside; they will do most of their cooking once they are in the sauce.

5. Tip the crushed tomatoes into the onions, add the washed lentils and stir in 500ml water. Bring to the boil. Remove the sausages from their pan and tuck them into the casserole with the bay leaves.

6. Cover the pot with a lid and leave to simmer gently for about half an hour, until the lentils are tender. Stir the lentils and season with black pepper. You may find it needs little or no salt.

Meals for the masses

To celebrate this New Year's Eve, some friends and I will be descending on my parents home in Devon to enjoy some country air and some good food.

My parents are going to be away, so I will be mistress of the house and responsible for a group of about 12 people for several days. On New Year's Eve there will be a few more of us, and I want to feed them a great meal before the celebrations get going.

I really need ideas for feeding a group this size. From the 12 people around the table in the run up to the New Year, to the 20 who will be there on the big night.

Anyone have any ideas for filling this many hungry mouths? All I have so far is sausage and mash (yawn) and a delicious chorizo, sausage and lentil stew which I cooked on Saturday and I think could definitely be done on mass.

I'd love to hear your go to dishes for feeding a hungry crowd...

A-List

On a lighter but still Christmas related note, I have begun compiling a list of gifts for myself. The gathering of just some of the items I am coveting in a serious way. These are not fleeting desires but rather the pieces I have spent the year trying to justify buying, but haven't quite been able to.

Maybe it's a little indulgent to put a big old list of things I want but don't really need (other than the puppy of course) however I think the reality is that those who can do like to give and receive. I already have my Christmas gift buying trips sorted - one in London, the other in Paris - and I really do love finding the perfect things for my friends and family. I think this is a time to go for quality over quantity, invest in key pieces which will last a long time and to shower those you love with items they will always hold dear.

Derek Rose Woburn Silk pyjamas

Diptyque candle (multiple)

heal's Cashmere Cable knit throw

Lemon tree

Michael kors perfume

Pasta cutting machine

Pinhole drawing on vintage photograph from Etsy seller Restless Things

Malti-poo puppy (yes, I know that creating an uber cute designer dog by crossing two different breeds is considered ethically dubious, but in this instance I have to ignore this in favour of this utterly gorgeous creature which seems perfectly happy to me - cue the angry comments)
Holga camera (and a polaroid too please, now that it's back)

May we all be together next year

I am a strong believer that Christmas is a time to gather with family and friends to take stock of the year gone by, and the one ahead.

A time for amazing meals gathered around an enormous table where everyone has to loosen belts and undo buttons to make room for the excess of food. With lots of good wine and fantastic cheese and no holding back. Where families and friends can debate and laugh and unwind together, often gathering all in one place for the first time in a year.

I am well aware how truly lucky I am that I enjoy a Christmas like this. A celebration without family feuds, toasting good health and happiness - I count my lucky stars every day. Last year was not like this; my darling, wonderful Granny had died less than a fortnight before.

We gathered in grief and sorrow, not that my family would every really call it this. There was no funeral, or memorial, at my grandpa's insistence. Instead my mother, auntie, uncle along with their partners and children (myself included) stood in a sad looking crematorium on a bleak day in Newton Abbot, cried a few awkward tears, sung a strange sounding children's nursery song that had been a favourite of hers and left.

Our grandparents (we only ever knew our maternal granny and granpda, my dad's parents died before I was born) typically didn't join us for Christmas, preferring their own company and the home comforts of their little cottage in Sussex. So last Christmas was no different, in theory.

We laughed and ate and drunk too much - like any other year - but there was a deep, lingering feeling that this was not how it should be.

Throughout her life, whenever my granny was asked to make a wish she would always quietly say "may we all be together, safe and sound, next year", and this time we were not. We went through the motions but there were no gifts, no Christmas tree and every time we lifted our glasses to toast one another we only thought of her.

This is the first time I have written about her, and it won't be the last. Having had no funeral I never got to talk about how incredible she was to anyone but my friends. It just isn't really the done thing with my family, we prefer to quip and argue and tease and outwit each other- and I like it that way.

Needless to say this Christmas will, I hope, be different to the last. Gathering all together for the first time this year we will indulge and celebrate and toast each other...and crack open the most expensive and delicious bottle of bubbly of all in celebration of my darling, darling granny Katy.

Simple pleasures

Treating myself to indulgent alternatives to tea and coffee makes the dark nights so much easier to bear.

Sadly I have been hit with the worst bout of toothache and until I can get to a dentist I won't be able to enjoy my warming treats.

Until then, it's nurofen and a lot of whining for me!