ALMOST SUMMER

We went to London for the weekend to see Brian, to look out of the window on the train, to drink iced coffee, to eat Vietnamese food, to go to the new St John hotel restaurant, to see the blossom, to do a little shopping, to kick off our shoes and eat a picnic from Ottolenghi. It almost felt like Summer and I wanted more.

BEFORE THE MOVE

I started this film in the weeks before we left London. I finished it a couple of months ago on one of the first sunny days of the year when we headed to Anstruther for fish and chips. So nice to be reminded of a lunch outside with friends, a day in Bosham when the tide was all the way in and the road completely submerged, and apples in a beer garden where we sat and had a drink with my parents while looking out to the Downs.

LUNCH

I've been trying to make my lunch a little more regularly. Of course, I say this having just eaten a sweet potato falafel wrap from Pret followed by some sweet and salty popcorn (have you tired that stuff? Crack). But, at least I can remember the last time I brought my lunch to work and, even more impressively, it was in the last week. Compared to London this is a very good thing (although Pret and M&S may disagree with me).

I've never been able to get very excited about making sandwiches so when the mood takes me I'll try to make a little extra for dinner and, when we don’t just decide we are extra hungry and eat what should be the leftovers, I pack a small pot.

So once there were leftovers of this and the garlic nearly blew my head off.

Then there was a little braised fennel and a cold sausage mixed with half a can of chickpeas.

But more often than not it's some variation on rice, quinoa, squash, beetroot and feta which we eat for dinner embarrassingly regularly (although I think we may have found a new favourite this week with fennel, carrot and kale roasted with cumin seeds, caraway seeds and aleppo pepper).

Usually I just spoon my lunch into a plastic container that can be thrown into my bag with a fork and a piece of kitchen towel but if I was in the market for something a little more stylish I think this would do very nicely...

ZOË

It's my sister's 34th birthday today and apparently when you've known someone for almost 32 years thinking up new ideas for birthday and Christmas presents can be tricky.

As teenagers there were baskets from The Body Shop filled with bottles, soaps, lotions and bath pearls. We picked the basket and the things to fill it and took it to the counter where they would nestle everything in shredded paper and wrap it in cellophane. First there were animal shaped soaps, later dewberry everything.

On her 30th there was a silver charm bracelet with a small heart charm and in the few years since gifts inspired by summer holidays to come. A Greek cookery book, a beach bag, and some trashy beach reads. A Spanish cookery book, paprika, paella rice, saffron.

But this year I was struggling.

I decided to send a cake.

A cake I have been meaning to bake for a long time now.

A cake that I baked and wished I could taste.

This cake.

A cake that was wrapped in foil, baking parchment and bakers twine before being placed inside a tin, inside bubble wrap, inside a box and taken to the post office.

A cake to be eaten with whipped cream or ice-cream. A cake so rich it should really just be for adults but a cake that I suspect will be greedily devoured by a certain seven year old and a certain eleven year old.

Happy birthday Zoë.

MY BIG FEET

I'm tall so I suppose it was inevitable that I would have big feet.

My Mum says that Taid, my Grandad, would say to her 'If your feet were any smaller you'd fall over all the time'. This is no consolation and also not true.

I have evidence...

Falling over in Tesco with a full basket of shopping. A small child pointed and laughed. Mortifying.

Falling over outside a lecture theatre while a few hundred fellow students streamed out.

Falling headfirst down some steps while Chris looked on in horror. And then laughed once it became clear that I was fine.

Falling down a hill wearing 4 inch heels and bloodying both knees in the process. I had ballet pumps in my bag.

Falling over on my parents patio, dropping my camera and smashing the lens.

Is that enough proof?

Big feet clearly do not help my balance.

Maybe they aren't big enough?

And what exactly has prompted this foot related outburst?

These...

Too small in a 41, out of stock in a 42. Sigh.

But, just as I started to write this these arrived.

Too big in a 42 but just right in a 41.

Apparently my feet like to keep me guessing.

I'll be cooking this weekend. In fact I'll be baking. Possibly twice. Hell, if I go crazy maybe even three times. I have the recipes lined up so you just never know.

END OF AN ERA

It was the last Radcliffe and Maconie evening show on Radio 2 last night.

What will we listen to when we eat dinner now?

SPINACH

The other day I was thinking about catching up here and thinking about what to write but for some reason I felt like there wasn't much to say.

It's silly really. That implies that I haven't been cooking, haven't been making new recipes, haven't been doing this thing that this space is supposed to be about but that just isn't true. In the last few months I have cooked more new recipes than I have for a very long time. I've been braising fennel and chicory and cabbage, making curries from cauliflower and chickpeas, eating quick soups with sourdough from my new favourite place. I've been boiling kale to eat on toast with a fried egg, wilting spinach with onion and aleppo pepper for Saturday lunch, making basic salads to bring to work.

So why, with all of this going on have I not been coming here to say look, look at this cauliflower which I didn’t think much of before now, look at this red kale that made our toast go purple, look at the fennel with its caramelised edges so perfect for serving with sticky sausages?

I'm going to put it down to the end of Winter. It's been my excuse for everything lately but gosh it was starting to drag with its cold and its darkness. But this week, we have seen some sun, real sun with a hint of warmth, and now I can imagine long, bright evenings. I can almost even imagine Summer.

So, for now, I will continue. I will continue opening up The Art of Braising to decide what to make for dinner, continue perusing blogs for new ways with vegetables, continue reading, continue waking up to the idea of Spring. And, for now I'll just give you this...

CLICIAN SPINACH
Serves 2

Clicia is a small restaurant in Stoke Newington. We would go for breakfast and I would order the breakfast of fried halloumi, garlicky sausage, olives and cucumber while Chris ate two poached eggs on toast with a side of spinach. In our last weeks in London I started to order the spinach and, when our flat was full of boxes we would go most lunchtimes to spend a little time enjoying eggs, spinach and toast. That spinach was good but I didn't think about trying to recreate the taste until we made Molly's boiled kale and it all clicked into place. We ate spinach with caraway seed bread and scrambled eggs for lunch that Saturday.

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 small onion
a pinch of aleppo pepper flakes
250g of spinach, rinsed

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion and allow it to cook until tender and translucent. Now add the pepper flakes and the spinach and allow it to wilt in the pan. After a minute or two the spinach will be cooked through. Serve with eggs and toast.