It's been a while again... April has probably been the craziest, busiest month in years, full of visitors, birthday parties, gigs and deadlines.
Since late March, I've all nerded up about gardening and am trying to make our little space resemble an actual garden. At the moment, we're still somewhere in between a suburban jungle and public cat litter tray. I hope that in the next few weeks, I can get some nice pics.
For today, I bring you something incredibly rare on this blog of mine: a cat!
Yes, as I said, my garden is the new in spot for all cats of the neighbourhood. I'm not a cat person to be honest, but not mean enough to chase them, although they poo all over my garden.
For now, I have scattered some rose bush cuttings around the flowerbeds, which has helped a little, but not completely. What is your trick to keep them away?
I'll try to take pictures of all of the criminals. If you have seen the cat above, please let me know. We have named it Three-Coloured-Cat. It likes to lounge on the fire ladder outside my room and its favourite toilet spot is between the radishes and carrots.
On a more delicious note, I have fallen in love with our Mediterranean box again. As I am typing, I am waiting for this weeks' box which will hopefully bring me lovely asparagus.
Another find is Celtic Bakers... they do amazing, organic rye bread that is all... well, Germanic.
Yes, there you have it. I said I would never be that clicheed German bread snob but the 'selection' of 'bread' in British supermarkets makes me weep. Yes, even the fancy shit from Marks & Sparks und Waitrose (although they have quite nice focaccia).
So, Celtic Bakers are awesome, and they have stalls on quite a few of London's farmers markets. I buy their bread at Earth in Kentish Town, although Bumblebee in Tufnell Park and that tiny shop on Holloway Road stock their bread too, at least sometimes, if you're quick. And that's only my neck of the woods.
I'm in a bit of a French food mood recently, and was amazed to actually find tomatoes that tasted like tomatoes at this time of year. What to do if you're out of basil for a killer tomato salad but have some sad looking filo pastry in the fridge? Quick tomato tarte! Rub the pastry with a little olive oil and half a clove of garlic, add sliced tomatoes and bake for about 15 mins. Don't share.
The other day, I made onion and red wine gravy for the first time in my life, inspired by a fellow blogger (and I forgot who made it, gah! sorry!). With extra sticky onions. Why has nobody told me how amazing this is? How daft was I, putting red wine into everything but never even thinking about this? And: what's not good when served with sausages and garlicky mashed potatoes?
