Madame Guillotine

I’ve been busily writing away like a mad thing lately so haven’t done much over the last few weeks. I’ve escaped my laptop a couple of times though so it’s not all bad!

I must tell you about the night out I had a couple of weeks ago with one of my friends. We went to the Milk Thistle in central Bristol, which is a really amazing cocktail bar. You have to ring a doorbell to get in, which made me feel slightly anxious (what if they didn’t like the look of me when they opened the door?) but once I was inside, it was bliss with the kindest, most lovely bar staff I have ever encountered, deliciously unusual (and potent!) cocktails and just the sort of decadent ambience that I most love. I’m seriously considering becoming a member now and it’s top of my list of possible reception venues.

Other outings have included the Fashion Museum in Bath, where I went to have a really great meeting about future blog collaborations, which I’m sure you will all love! After the meeting, I had a look around the exhibitions and fell in love with a 1950s red silk evening dress and a quintessential Hartnell cocktail dress in sequin spangled pale mauve satin. Gorgeous. I couldn’t leave without taking a picture of the famous silver dress as well – it dates from the 1660s and to my joy, I found out the name of the lucky girl who originally wore it! I’ll be talking more about that in a future blog post…

Yesterday afternoon, my family and I braved the jolly English summer rain and ventured out to the SS Great Britain for a look around. My husband is a born and bred Bristolian and has only been there once, while I’ve lived here on and off and for years and years and have never once been onboard. I can’t wait to get back there now though as it was amazing. I’m not really one for boats to be honest but I was fascinated by its history. As one of the posters at the exhibit says about the SS Great Britain: ‘It has voyaged 32 times around the world via Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, and covered around one million ocean miles. The ship has called at more than fifteen ports around the world, and braved some of the ocean’s most turbulent seas…‘

I adore the romance of it all and wandered around in a bit of a daydream imagining those long ago voyages to far flung exotic places. They would be at sea for around six months at a time and it was fascinating to see how the passengers in all the different classes would have lived – their cabins were TINY and everyone would have lived pretty much on top of each other. It would have been both incredibly uncomfortable and also the greatest adventure ever.

The boys were particularly taken with the Victorian dressing up clothes and as you can see, I can’t resist putting on a bonnet!

Speaking of the sea, I went to see JAWS at the cinema on my own last week! This is a bit of a big deal as I have a phobia of sharks. I’m so glad I went though as JAWS, weirdly, is one of my all time favourite films and it was fantastic to see it on a big screen. It was almost like watching a director’s cut in fact as I noticed SO MANY new things about the film and highlighted some of the great cinematography that went into it. It gave me a whole new love and respect for it.

Wait, there’s a random dinosaur up there, isn’t there? That’s the Tyrannosaurus Rex that forms part of the dinosaur display living at Bristol Zoo over the summer. My boys adore them!

As for books, I’m still ploughing my way through Shawcross’ biography of the Queen Mother. It’s the book without end – it’s fortunate that I’m really enjoying it! It’s also lucky that I’m reading it on my Kindle as I can’t imagine lugging it around with me everywhere that I go!

I also bought copies of My Daddy Cooks: 100 Fresh New Recipes for the Whole Family and Wahaca – Mexican Food at Home – I cannot resist cookery books, I’m afraid. You should see my collection! I keep thinking about starting a blog to chart my progress as I cook every recipe one after the other from all of my cookery books but I fear I don’t have the stamina for such an undertaking!

I also bought the trio of Style Me Vintage books. I haven’t had a chance to look at them properly yet but am looking forward to getting some fashion and style tips. I seem to really suit more fitted vintage styled clothes and I love the whole set hair and winged eyeliner look. I’ve been thinking about getting a couple of tattoos at some point soon as well – maybe a Jack the Ripper one on one shoulder and something French Revolution on the other or maybe something relating to all of my books!

That’s all for now! Hope you’ve all had a great weekend! I’m going to finish watching this episode of Marple (I bought yet another boxed set last week as I can’t get enough vintage crime!) and then go out and water my new red potted geraniums and lavender bushes – we’ve had to postpone our Paris holiday until the autumn so I’ve brought a bit of Paris to my front garden to tide me over until we can go! We’re also talking about a trip to Rome at some point, but I’m not really sure what I can do to evoke that around my house other than the sweet mingled aroma of espresso and my favourite zuppa inglese ice cream…

As a bit of a diversion, I have a cookery post for you today! Apologies in advance for the frankly ropey photography – I hastily took photographs with my iPhone before everything was devoured!

We were supposed to go down to Cornwall at the weekend for a pre-Christmas meet up with my husband, Dave’s family but due to various stuff it didn’t happen, alas. I was a bit upset actually as I was really looking forward to visiting the Eden Project Christmas thing again as it involves a walk around the rainforest biome in the dark! We went to the Enchanted Christmas walk at Westonbirt Arboretum instead, but it wasn’t really the same! It was infinitely muddier for a start…

Anyway, thwarted of Cornwall, the plan instead became to have a Christmas lunch somewhere in Bristol which should have been straightforward except that we are vegan and Other People are a bit fussy and there was a lot of fuss about parking and stuff. In the end, I got so fed up with Dave getting upset and the suggestions that we just go to Harvester (I can only assume that anyone who suggests Harvester for a meal has never actually attempted to eat there) that I offered to host the bloody thing myself at our house.

Now, this was a bit brave as I don’t actually rate my culinary skills all that highly despite evidence to the contrary. However, I was emboldened by the fact that I spent my formative years helping my grand mother, a former army wife, cater for huge formal dinner parties, shooting lunches and so on so cooking for large numbers isn’t actually all that terrifying to me. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. Yes, that’s right, I was raised to be at least VAGUELY ladylike. It’s much more fun to forget about all of that though.

After much lugging around of cookery books, Dave and I decided on a menu and off we went to Sainsbury’s to buy STUFF and also many MANY bottles of J20 Glitter Berry drink (it’s a spiced cherry drink with gold shimmery glitter inside!) and Schloer. Dave’s father was paying and no one other than Dave and I seems to drink so I manfully resisted the urge to add a bottle of Hendricks gin and a bottle of Captain Morgan Spiced rum to the trolley. I am very good.

Yesterday passed in a blur of cooking as, like an idiot, I had failed to prep a single thing. Other than cupcakes. Anyway, this is what we had:

Spiced pumpkin and chocolate chip cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. These are SERIOUSLY DELICIOUS. Not being American, I have always been vaguely wary of the whole sweet pumpkin thing but it’s amazing how a bit of sugar and spice transforms a tin of squished pumpkin. Miraculous even.

Chocolate and peppermint cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, surely the greatest cupcake recipe book ever. These were gorgeous as well, although the icing was way too runny, which is why there is no photographic evidence! It still tasted better than good though!

For the main course, we had:

A courgette and chickpea filo pie from the Pieminister cookbook. This turned out to be a lot spicier than expected but was still very nice! I love cooking with filo as it makes me feel like I am really creative and competent but is actually a doddle to work with.

A pistachio and cranberry roast from the 2011 Jamie Oliver Christmas magazine. This was the hit of the day, I think! It was pretty simple to make – you caramelise some fresh cranberries and put them at the bottom of a loaf tin and then put the rest of the mixture on top. The actual recipe called for a mushroom risotto base to the nut roast, but as Dave loathes mushrooms, I made a sweet potato risotto instead, which worked very well. You can see the recipe online here and I wholeheartedly recommend it if you are catering for vegans and/or vegetarians over Christmas or, indeed, EVER.

All of this was served with new potatoes roasted with olive oil, sprigs of rosemary and slices of lemon (Dave was dubious about adding the lemon but was glad that he trusted my judgement in the end); stuffing, gravy, carrots and home made vegan bread sauce from another Jamie Oliver recipe (torn up bread, soya milk, cloves and some bay leaves) which turned out brilliantly and was seriously delicious.

We bought one of those Christmas puddings with cherries inside from Sainsbury’s (not vegan, alas) and I made a gingerbread and caramelised clementine pudding from the 2011 Jamie Oliver Christmas magazine, which we were all too full to eat but made our kitchen smell like Tudor Christmas while it was baking. I’ll be having that later on with some custard, I think!

And that concludes our vegan Christmas feast! The Jamie Oliver magazine is still in shops here in the UK and is brilliant if you are vegan/vegetarian and like me, enjoy his sort of rustic rough around the edges culinary style. I’d also recommend the vegan cupcake book of JOY – I thought they’d be really difficult to make but actually it’s SO simple and, BONUS, you can eat ALL THE BATTER without being scared of catching weird egg diseases (is that just me?).

(In my next post, just wait and see what my father in law gave me for Christmas! It’s brilliant.)

If you’ve been to a festival in the last couple of years then there’s a fair chance that you have encountered the awesome majesty that is Pieminister, who spend the summer months sending their mobile stall up and down the country to cheer up thousands of famished and hungover festival goers with wholesome, delicious pie, mash and gravy.

Pieminister is one of those great Bristol institutions along with cider, the Thali Cafe and dubstep and my admiration of them is already well documented. I was really thrilled therefore when a copy of their brand spanking new cookbook (which is very elegant looking, I must say) was hand delivered to my door yesterday afternoon! (Thank you!)

I’m particularly pleased about this as one of the most unfortunate consequences of going vegan is that I am no longer able to enjoy Pieminister pies any more. Oh woe. However, having their cookbook means that I am now able to veganize their recipes at home! Hurray! I ought to point out though that you won’t find recipes for all their pies in this book but now that I have their pastry recipe and a few essential extra hints and tips about the pie making process, I definitely feel confident about setting out on my own vegan versions of Heidi and Mini Amigo pies. Oh, how I’ve missed you.

However, with a nod to the fact that they’ve had many requests for a vegan pie, there is actually a vegan recipe in this book – for a courgette and chickpea filo pie which looks absolutely scrumptious. The chilli pie angles on the next page are vegan too (if you omit the egg brush on the filo and use something else instead) and look great too. In fact, many of the recipes in here would be easily converted for vegans and vegetarians alike – although you may find the rabbit and game recipes a bit of a challenge!

I really loved the layout of this book – I love organic delivery boxes and am extremely keen on ‘seasonal’ cookery books which guide you through the produce available in the different seasons and give appropriate recipes. There’s also lots of entertaining asides in here about how things like how to forage, how to survive a festival (Pieminister are experts at this!) and how to throw a successful street party.

I haven’t had a chance to make anything yet but will be tackling the homity pie, two vegan pies and pear and chocolate pies very soon and reporting back. I’m saving the lovely heart shaped Valentine’s day pie (cherry and dark chocolate Bakewell encased in frangipane) for the appropriate time of year or just as soon as I work out how to make vegan marzipan…

Also fab is a nod to fellow Bristolian institution, the Thali Cafe (oh their curries are so so good and they have an Aidan Turner sort of lookalike working in the Clifton branch, which is nice if er you like that sort of thing now that the real thing isn’t spotted wandering the streets of Bristol in an unkempt fashion any more) with a really delicious sounding Thali Cafe paneer, spinach and pea pie that is the first thing to make me think ‘Oh, I wish I wasn’t vegan’ since I made the switch from vegetarianism. Oh yum. If I ever fall off the wagon, this is the very first thing I’ll be making.

Pieminister: A Pie for all Seasons is due out on 1st September but can be pre-ordered right now and at once from Amazon and is a MUST READ for all lovers of PIE.

And once again, I’ve typed the word ‘pie’ so often that it loses all meaning.

This is me. The reason for the shark teeth may (or may not) become clear later on…

I’ve been a vegetarian ever since the age of seven thanks to a dislike for the taste, smell and texture of meat and then, a bit later, a genuine distress at the thought of eating animals. This is partially down to the vile and inedible gristle that the nasty little Scottish primary school I went to served up (hey there Oldmeldrum School, I still have nightmares about you!) and which proved too much of a challenge for my painfully sensitive hyperdentic teeth (I had dozens of teeth removed as a child thanks to extra chompers growing through and have stitches right across my top gums where some were cut out – I know, ewww). I don’t know what the correct term for ‘extra teeth’ is and can’t google it as I have a phobia of sharks…

Moving swiftly on! Veganism followed as a natural progression when I was at university and I really did love it – I was thinner, more energetic and also a lot more grumpy and with rather more spots. My love of soured cream with Mexican food did for my blossoming veganism back then but I’ve remained wistful ever since, to the point that my hatred for dairy and longing to become a vegan became impossible to ignore and even my husband suggested that I just give in and do it as after all, there’s even vegan soured cream these days so what’s stopping me?

How times have changed though! When I first attempted veganism as an undergraduate back in the 1990s, there were only a few dedicated ingredients available to me and I could only find one cookbook, which was full of unappealing recipes involving a lot of grains, nuts and pulses. I must be the worst vegan in the world as I actually can’t abide anything more beany than Heinz Baked Beans and pulses terrify me a bit thanks to a slight paranoia about the precise cooking times required to stop kidney beans being poisonous.

Nowadays though, we are spoiled for choice and a whole new and exciting vegan cuisine appears to have burst onto the scene. Back in the 1990s, vegans were considered to be a dour, smelly, preachy and miserable lot with dreads, army surplus combats and more than their fair share of facial hair – nowadays though they are likely to be tattooed, rainbow haired, sassy and in love with cupcakes, music, art and having fun.

It’s amazing and I think that there is no better time to embrace the dairy free lifestyle if that is what you have a yearning to do. In fact, it’s clearly so amazing that my meat loving husband (but not the boys – they can make their own minds up about it later on) has decided to join in! This is great for me as it means I have some moral support and also the benefit of his own rather more methodical approach to these matters – I’ve been obsessing about mayonnaise, sandals and cool American vegan cookbooks (there’s some amazing ones out there, some of which I plan to review on a future post) while he’s been busy emailing all the major UK supermarkets and cross examining them about their attitudes towards food labelling, with Sainsbury’s being the best and Morrison’s being by far the worst. No surprise there then.

We’ve been vegans for three months now and it’s been a really good experience so far. I’ve lost over two stone, despite eating better than I think I have ever done – ably assisted by the fact that Bristol, the city we live in is incredibly switched on to veganism, with a plethora of shops, cafes and restaurants that serve all manner of treats. We even have vegan cupcakes!

The thing about being vegan is that you have to be a bit more adventurous about cooking if you’re going to have any semblance of variety in your diet and at times you will find yourself doing things like having onion bhajis or beans and mash for breakfast (this happened on Friday morning at Camp Bestival). So far, my husband and I have been enjoying burritos, curries (both Indian and Thai), chilli, pasta and all manner of stuff. It’s been a bit exciting actually. I may never entirely get over my dread of beans and pulses but I’m getting there…

How about you? Do I have any vegan readers out there? I’m a bit worried about the fact that I will be a vegan next time I visit Paris – I’ve always been vegetarian during my many visits to the City of Macarons and have found that a mixed experience so this is a bit daunting as cheese, eggs, butter and cream are now all off the menu for me!

It’s a lovely sunny day here in the West Country. The toddler and I are currently lounging around after a busy morning living it up at play group and I’m half watching Poirot (and rather hideously wondering if he has ever had sex – I know, I’m sorry but he’s so finicky and there’s that moustache) while working on my latest chapter. I’d really love to be able to escape to Paris on a gorgeous day like this but as that isn’t possible right now, I’m lucky to have the next best thing although Paris was not exactly a great place to be in the summer of 1788, what with all the droughts and failed harvests and riots and stuff.

So what’s making you happy right now? I love the summer – I’m a pasty faced redhead under this pink dye so ought to hate it really but actually I love it and I can feel my mood lifting as soon as I get out of bed and see the first soft rays of sunshine peeking between the curtains.

Today is a special day actually as it is my husband’s birthday! Poor thing though – we’ve had five parcels so far this morning, three of which were for me (including two for something very very exciting I am doing on this blog) and the two addressed to him are birthday presents for our eldest, who turns six in a couple of weeks time. Oops.

It’s actually the eighth of his birthdays that we have spent together – that’s a bit crazy isn’t it? How times have changed since then…

I bought him one of these as a present from one of my favourite online shops, Twisted Twee:

It was one of those classic ‘I Saw This And Thought Of You’ moments. Luckily, he seems to really love it, so that’s good!

Also in the post was a new dress for me from Topshop. I’m still channeling Helena Bonham-Carter when I get dressed in the morning but have noticed that this can be occasionally a bit hit or miss. When it’s a hit, I think I look ace but when it’s a miss, well, it’s all a bit Plymouth Brethren. I think you might actually have to be HBC herself to be able to pull it off.

I got this book yesterday in a nice parcel of cookery books and must say that it is rather fabulous. I haven’t managed to get to any actual recipes yet, but I adore Mallika Basu’s chatty, informal writing style and am looking forward to reading more. She has a blog here, which looks great too.

I also got this book, which I haven’t had a proper chance to look through yet but looks to be full of some amazing recipes! I adore curry, I really do and am so excited about both of these new cook books as I am hoping they will give me some great new ideas! We’re a vegetarian household so I tend to just make muttar paneer – I’m hoping to expand my range a bit.

Do you spot a theme with these covers? This is the third book that I bought and I am super excited about it! Today would be the perfect time to try out something wouldn’t it? Do you think some gorgeous cupcakes would make up for the lack of birthday parcels?

I’m currently nearing the end of Secret of the Sands by Sara Sheridan, which is just wonderful and perfect for balmy summer days. It’s reminding me of the MM Kaye novels that I used to love as a girl (and still do – I have a yearning to read Shadow of the Moon now), which is a very good thing indeed and I really recommend it if you love fabulous stories about forbidden romances set in exotic climes. I’ll be writing a proper review when I’ve finished!

Flora by Gucci is currently at the top of my perfume wish list. I tried it on the other day and oh, it made me feel so cheerful and summery and elegant. I’m also a bit smitten with the new special edition of Marc Jacobs’ Daisy – Eau de Fresh. It’s really gorgeous. I always want to buy new scents in the summer, do you?