The Year of Living Gorgeously

Mothering Sunday Simnel Cake

The origins of Mothering Sunday, before bastardised by good ol' Hallmark are around Mid-Lent Sunday. It was on this day that the devout parishioners went to the Mother Church of the parish, or the Cathedral of the diocese, to make their offerings. Sometime during the seventeenth century the day became the festival of human motherhood when the whole family met together and apprentices and servants were given the day off – probably the only holiday in the year – and took flowers gathered from the hedgerows and, sometimes, the gift of a simnel cake to their mothers from their employers.

Simnel-style cakes are now also eaten at Easter when eleven balls of marzipan are placed around the top layer to represent the eleven true disciples but the really good cake (like mine!) has a layer of delicious sticky marzipan in the centre.

I used good ol' trustworthy Delia for my version. The marzipan was a bit of a mess on the top so I used some fondant icing from the cupboard on top and roped some other marzipan for an edge. Not traditional but I'm pretty pleased.

What are you giving your mother for Mother's Day?

DVD of the Month - The Queen

This is such a refreshingly old-fashioned movie.  No whizz-bang special effects, no gorgeous costumes, no tricksy camera work and no overblown sex scenes.

Just one old lady on the horns of a dilemma, a lesson in power politics,  an excellent script and one humdinger of an acting performance.

I was intrigued to see this film, having been living very close to Kensington Palace at the time of Diana's death and witnessing at first hand that whole extraordinary week in London.  But I put off seeing it for the longest time as I just couldn't fathom how anyone could produce a whole movie about that week - a short television drama perhaps - but not a movie.

That this film rises above a mere TV bio and becomes an extremely riveting movie, is due mostly to Helen Mirren's incredible performance.  While the other actors around her deliver caricatures - curmudgeonly Prince Philip; weak, paranoid Charles; batty old Queen Mother; ruthless Alistair Campbell and earnest Tony Blair - she delivers a nuanced, subtle, totally believable portrait, as finely detailed as all the painted portraits the Queen has sat for over the years.

Aided by a witty, intelligent script, which delivers real laugh-out-loud moments, and a light directorial hand, you never once think that you are watching an acting performance, she absolutely becomes the Queen.  And while you never end up totally understanding her, you do end up sympathising with this old lady, whose world view, built up over years of deference and duty, crumbles to dust in a week, as she tries to make her way in the brave new world of spin and soundbites.

Check out queenly gossip here on Leela's blog.

Training and Trekking

I think the beginning of Spring must now prevent my procrastination and excuses any longer. Already booked before I embarked upon a year of Living Gorgeously, in eight months' time, I will be beginning what will probably be the hardest eight days of my life. For eight days and nights I will be walking up 2,300 metres above sea level to reach the iconic peak of the Inca tribe at Maccu Piccu in Peru.

 

I have always been fascinated by South America and after years of hmming and haaaing about not going I decided to bite the bullet and sign up to a trip. Sadly (or, happily, depending on your point of view) in my current financial state, the only option available to me was to find a subsidised trip and so I will be travelling with the fantastic British charity associated with the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. I have to raise £2,500 by November, £1,500 of which goes to the charity.

No doubt I will keep you informed of my progress. At the moment, I possess boots and a book of walks within train journeys of London. Neither of these have been opened. It's early days...

You can join me on the Virtual Inca Trail when I go, but in the meantime, I invite you to drop by my site and say hello. If you have any fundraising ideas or suggestions, please let me know.

Have you ever done anything grand like this? Have you ever had to raise this much money for charity? Have you been able to remain Gorgeous throughout!!?

International Women's Day

March 8th is International Women's Day. 

The day celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women and is variously a big deal or not depending on what country you're in (and particularly how Socialist its past).

Far be it for Living Gorgeously   to grind any political axes - though we are all for celebrating a day which proposes the giving of gifts to women, or, as they do in Italy, a sprig of yellow mimosa.

However, it might be worth sparing a thought today for the struggles so painfully undertaken in the past and still to be undertaken in the future. And for acknowledging just how very, very fortunate most of us Western women today really are.

Photo Competition - March

No prizes for guessing that the theme of this month's photo competition is 'March'.

What does the month mean to you? Spring springing? Spring cleaning? The beginning of autumn?  Mother's Day? 

The Flickr group for entries is here and we've got a FANTABULOUS guest judge lined up, though we'll announce her formally next week when she's back from her Parisian holiday (that's a clue, folks!)

 

 

 

               MARCH IN SEATTLE

We've also got an amazing prize.  In honour of the new leaves of spring we will be giving away a box of beautiful leaf-shaped guest soaps by Parisian parfumeurs Creation Mathias.

As always we're much looking forward to everyone's entries. The closing date is midnight GMT on the 29th March to give our judge some time to do her judging, and as usual you can enter as many photos as you like, as long as they were taken by you.  It would also be great if you could indicate somehow where in the world the picture was taken.

Good luck!

Household Hints

When the inside of an aluminium saucepan becomes dark and stained, put a weak solution of vinegar and water in it and let it boil for some time. Then scour with a damp cloth dipped in an abrasive powder.

If you sprinkle damp tea-leaves over a carpet before sweeping it, this will lay the dust and make sweeping easier.

To clean a carpet, first brush up until it is free of dust. Then put a teacupful of ammonia in a pail of hot water. With a clean heavy floor cloth or a brush, rub this well into the carpet. After it is dry it will look clean and the colour will be brighter.

After removing a frock, let it hang in an aired room overnight. This takes out the creases and obviates frequent pressing.

After a knitted jumper or pull-over has been washed, thread tape through the sleeves and hang up the garment by tying the tape onto a clothes line.

Grease spots on upholstered furniture can sometimes be removed by rubbing over with a piece of hot stale bread crust. The heat melts the grease and the bread absorbs it.

If you put a damp cloth on an upholstered chair and then beat the chair over the cloth, it will effectively be remove the dust without causing it to be distributed all over the room and it will also help to freshen the fabric.

If you moisten (ie wet slightly) string before tying up parcels for the post, this will prevent it from slipping and stretching.

Fur will not form in a kettle if you keep a small stone marble in it.

If you place a pail of cold water in a room which has just been painted this will help to remove the odour.

If a ceiling is discoloured from smoke apply a thick starch to it and when the starch is dry, rub it off.

A heavy jar or vase filled with flowers makes an attractive and practical doorstop.

 

 

 

The Bride's Book, Edited by Dorothy Stone, March 1938

Cauliflower Cheese

Perfect March food.  Quick and easy, warming and comforting, in season and full of vitamin C and antioxidants.  And sometimes rather boring.

Inspired by cookery writer Lindsey Bareham and others, I  like to jazz up my cauliflower cheese to make the perfect end of winter supper.

Firstly you need to add a bit of flavour.  Crisply cooked bacon is sometimes added to the cauliflower before the cheese sauce is poured over, but I like to roast cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil and then stir them into my steamed cauliflower.

An easy way to make the cheese sauce more interesting (and less calorific) is to make it using a large glass of the water in which you steamed the cauliflower.  This adds flavour and means you can reduce the amount of milk used.  I also throw in a large slug of whatever white wine I happen to have hanging about in the fridge and half a teaspoon of mustard.

Experiment with the cheeses.  I usually use a combination of Cheddar and Swiss cheese, such as Gruyere or Emmenthal. This time round I found a pot of ready-grated Fontina, Asiago and Parmesan in the supermarket and threw that into the mix.  I've also made it before using a slab of feta which is different but equally delicious. 

Finally Lindsey Bareham suggests adding lots of chopped flat-leaf parsley.  I didn't have any to hand when I made mine this evening, but I've used it before and it's a great addition, adding freshness and colour to the finished sauce.

Serve the cauliflower cheese with small baked potatoes.  We had ours with baked purple potatoes from Washington state, which were beautiful and utterly delicious.

Comforting Granola

My lovely almost-mother-in-law makes the most amazing granola oaty mix I've ever had, and fills it with pumpkin seeds, nuts, dried blueberries and cranberries. She gave me the most enormous bag of it for Christmas and I finished it by the middle of February. Woops. She is not the most willing of cooks, so asking for recipes usually gets 'oh it's so easy: just a handful of oats on a tray in the oven and you're done'.

Good thing, then, that Little Birds Handmade provided just the recipe I was after. I got my ingredients together and got mixing.

As is usually the case with my projects, the quantities that I had were a bit off. I only had half the rolled oats that I needed, so I upped the quantities with some muesli I had festering in the cupboard (the type of thing I always feel I should have but never quite manage to convince myself to eat) and added some chopped nuts before roasting. I've heard the dried fruit can dry out a bit too much if you put that in the oven with the rest, so I left the bits that came with the muesli and added some more to beef it up when it was cooling after baking.

Easy peasy comfort food, which I am liberally sprinkling over cereal in the mornings, yoghurt and honey in the evenings, and even adding to the top of crumble for extra brownie points. Get stirring. Honestly, the satisfaction factor is out of this world.

I used normal sunflower oil in place of Canola oil and it tastes just fine to me.

February Photo Competition - The Result!

Once again, the quality of the photo competition put Paola and I to shame. Maryam did a fantastic job judging for us: here are her comments and decisions!

I would like to thank Helen and Paola for asking me to judge the Year of Living Gorgeously February photo contest. I was surprised and flattered to be asked and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. I also would like to thank those people who took the time to submit their photos - every single one was special in its own way. I found myself reflecting on the instant rhat caught the photographer's eye, imagining the reaching for the camera and the clicking of the lens. Thank you for sharing that moment with all ofus.

Now onto the judging -- also known as: "And now for the hand wringing of your judge in Marrakesh:"-)

Winner:  snow-covered bike in Helsinki. 

I selected this photo because perhaps more than any other image it really made me think about the meaning of February.  February is not usually a favorite month - so many of us have tired of Winter come February and are longing for Spring.  The image spoke to me of what we were missing during this month -- the bike rides, the picnics, the long strolls.  I also liked the sculptural quality that the
snow gave to the bicycle - transforming it into something else with the
addition of Winter.

Honorable Mention: Rachel Catherine Regency Park. 

I liked the timelessness of this image made all the more apparent by the black and white film and the old fashioned nature of the benches; an enduring image of
February, it might have been taken a 100 years ago.  Again, the picture spoke to me of the constraints of the month - in warmer weather, these benches now empty and snow covered, would be filled with young lovers, friends and families.  I also liked the balance and symmetry of the photo and the photograph's receding perspective.

Honorable Mention - Close-up view of reed.  Magnifying and interpreting
Winter for us at a microscopic level, this image gave me the ant's
perspective of February.  In addition to the photo's obvious artistic
merits, I felt it demonstrated real technical know-how.  Lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honorable Mention - Hadassah squirrel tracks. 

I liked the graphic and contemporary nature of this image, with the purposeful squirrel tracks in the snow, cross hatched by the precise shadows.  A marriage of straight lines of very different kinds, I think it took an artistic eye to see the image's potential, before capturing it on film.

And that concludes my role as judge.  ~Sniff.  Nonetheless, with the
February contest under my belt, I can't wait to see the March entries!  I am
sure they will be inspired and, of course, gorgeous.  But then again, what
else would you expect of a contest hosted by the Year of Living
Gorgeously?;-)

Very best,
Maryam in Marrakesh

Many congratulations to Jii - we'll send you an emailed request for your address shortly so that we can send your scented rose sachets to their deserving winner. Comiserations and thanks to all other entrants. I really am learning so much about photography, light and shade and composition. No more point and click for me!

Which brings us up to date. Looking forward to seeing 'March' themed photographs: details will follow shortly. Thanks again to Maryam and all entrants and happy snapping!

March

In like a lion... out like a lamb...

Today, the light in my kitchen at 8am was luminescent but with a grey quality, and, sure enough, within minutes, my windows were rattling at the sudden and torrential downpour which had all but passed by the time I had finished my cereal. By the end of the month, wooly scarves and opaque tights will have given way to light jackets and possibly even open-toed shoes. The mind boggles.

March is the the proper, real, honest-to-goodness start to Spring. In the UK, the burgeoning daffodils and crocuses are a sweet placation to losing an hour's lie in next Sunday when the clocks go forward for spring.

I'm waiting for the warmth... I'm waiting for the warmth on my face.