Morning all!
It is wet, cold and grey today, much as it has been for the last week. Or two, or three, in fact. In truth, it's really quite depressing! This is the time (and season, I feel) to surround yourself with as many friends as you possibly can, in order to enjoy their company and the shared body heat!! I plan on having a thanksgiving party soon, and treating my lovely American friends to a British twist on their home food. I have never celebrated thanksgiving before but it certainly seems like a wholesome sort of thing to do and as the days grow shorter and the darkness creeps in, I think it's safe to say that all of us crave a little piece of home; at least, I know I do.
Going home is one of the best things about holidays - my parents have a lovely old cottage in a very picturesque town and it's filled with childhood memories, dog fur and my (little) brother - the little has to go in brackets because whilst he is only 15, he is a man-mountain, pushing six foot with a goatee some of my friends will never be able to grow in their lives! We have a golden lab called Muffin - small and silly, and then there's my favourite thing about the whole house - the Aga!!
For those of you who don't know, an aga is a giant gas fuelled oven which you not only use for cooking, it heats the whole house! It has two settings - hot and really hot. Moving in to my flat meant the discovery of gas ring cooking, which I have to say is helpful, but some how a little less soulful than the giant green aga sitting at home. It does have its downsides, though, as my father discovered when trying unsuccessfully to cook my mother a 40th birthday cake (burnt edges and a soggy middle). 14 cakes later and an SOS message sent to the best cook we know, we had something to present at pudding eventually, after we'd stopped laughing over Dad's cremated baking.
Anyway, eventually I plan on posting the recipes for mustard and orange chicken pasta, chicken and bacon with a white wine and gorgonzola sauce and my mother's lasagne, but first let me exclaim over two food fuelled excursions: going to see Julie and Julia for the first time, and buying the American edition of Jamie's magazine.
Julie and Julia was charming. My flatmate and I went to see it on Sunday evening, via Peckhams (a gourmande's heaven if ever there was one) and bought a slab of Victoria sponge, a coffee and pecan muffin and a bottle of pink lemonade - all lovely and girly, like an afternoon picnic tucked up in the back of the cinema. The film itself was lovely - although Meryl Streep wore on me a little by the end (there are only so many exclamations in bad french I can take!) and the shots of Paris were beautiful. I was suffering from serious house envy. It was charming, entertaining, amusing and an all around feel-good film, although the ending lacked a little bite (pardon the pun). Certainly not a film to watch when hungry, however, as it is easily imagined that you could come out with a dangerous boeuf bourginon craving. Which reminds me, I must make that sometime.
Jamie's Magazine (Jamie Oliver the TV chef, is the Jamie in question) was a surprise find in WH Smith's, searching for reading material having been disappointed by this month's edition of Vogue. How glad I am that I was! The edition features family breakfasts, autumn treats, risottos, pies, burgers and cocktails. Oh, and also the ultimate guide to chilli! What more could anyone really want from a food magazine?
The next update I do will hopefully inundate you with recipes, as my French Culture lecture is creeping ever-closer. I recommend you go searching for your Autumn jumpers! Keep yourselves warm!
Oh, and if you're ever in need of quick cheer, I recommend 90s girl duo Salt 'n' Pepa - so bad it's good. Learn the lyrics and then play it loud - instant buzz!
Have happy days,
Love,
Eloise xxx
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