This Weekend ...

Breakfast at Katie & Kim's Kitchen

... I tried out a new cafe.
It's called Katie & Kim's Kitchen and can be found in Picton Street.  I don't know where I first heard of it.  Maybe Twitter, where I discover most interesting things.  Anyway, it's run by two young former art students (Katie & Kim!) who won the British Street Food Awards in 2013, and have served food from a converted horsebox and a local pub before opening a cafe cum restaurant with a constantly changing menu of soup, bread, scones, sausage rolls and cakes.  It's a long walk from Bedminster to Montpelier so I ordered a plate of sourdough with ewe's curd, thyme and Greek honey to go with my coffee.  The curd was delicious and, as ever, I wondered why my sourdough isn't as holey as anyone else's.

... I bought a new pair of trainers and a pair of trousers.
I've somehow damaged my plantar fascia and have been advised to wear trainers to support the ball of my right foot.  The cheap and nasty trainers I bought for my short-lived experiment with jogging have come to the end of their life and needed replacing.  I search in vain for something attractive but ended up with a pair of fairly boring black trainers that will have to do.
The trousers are from the M&S Sculpt and Lift range.  Heads will be turned!

... I took the opportunity to walk down a few new streets and was rewarded for my efforts

Parish boundary in Bristol's Old City

Colourful facades in Montpelier

Bristol from the top of Spring Hill

... I took part in Bristol's Festival of Song.

The Gasworks Singers sang in St George's on Saturday and around the harbourside on Sunday.  I was also treated to some inspiring singing and was particularly impressed by Kettle of Fish and Original Sing both of whom have gigs coming up in The Folk House.

That's all!

 

Summer 2014: My To Do List

In my experience, the longer the holiday stretches, the easier it is to fritter it away.  So, when faced with 5 1/2 weeks this summer, I thought I'd best draw up a list of things I would like to have achieved by the end of them.  Maybe I should have added 'publish list on blog' as it's taken me over a week to do so.  But here it is:

(NB  Having decided that I was going to devote the first few days to recovering from the end of term, I based my list on 5 weeks - 7x5=35)

1. Cycle to Bath along the railway path
2. Hold 5 dinner parties (ie have 5 friends/sets of friends round for a meal!)
3. Day trip to Oxford
4. Bake 5 pies from my new Pieminister Pie book
5. Visit Tyntesfield
6. Make tomato ketchup
7. Visit the M Shed
8. Go to Bristol Balloon Fiesta Night Glow
9. Make falafels
10. Walk: Snuff Mills
11. Read 5 books
12. Create a sourdough starter
13. Get up early to watch Bristol Balloon Fiesta Dawn Ascent
14. Shop for clothes for work
15. Bake 5 new breads
16. Swim in Street outdoor pool
17. Make icecream
18. Picnic at Bristol Zoo
19. Visit the Jeremy Deller exhibition
20. Walk: Blaise Castle
21. Crack Prashad's dhokla recipe
22. Visit St Werburgh's City Farm, eat meatballs @ Ikea and shop at Bristol Sweet Mart
23. Make rhubarb & ginger jam
24. Take advantage of podiatrist appointment to window shop in Cotham/Clifton
25. Preserve lemons
26. Swim and lunch at th Lido
27. Make a start on a recipe folder
28. Make pizza
29. Walk: Leigh Woods
30. Make lemonade
31. Picnic on Brandon Hill
32. Have a BBQ
33. Finish crocheting my daughter's quilt
34. Walk: Bristol Old City
35. Bristol Packet ferry boat trip to Beese's Tea Gardens

It's an eclectic mix of cooking, eating, walking, culture and fun.

I'm under no illusion that I'll get through it all and am therefore not going to beat myself up over it if I don't, but it should stop me waking up in the morning wondering what to do with the day!    

On the Second Day of December

Today's chapter was all about presents.

There were several suggestions:

Give everyone the same present:  I did this on a couple of occasions.  Each time it was a book for families with young children.  The first was Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage Family Cookbook and the second was Jostein Gaarder's The Christmas Mystery.

Make your presents:  I've been doing this for several years now.  Not all of them, but the ones I give to friends.  They've all been edible - truffles, florentines, stollen, lebkuchen, chutney etc.    I'll be doing the same again this year.  I just haven't decided what it will be.

This year I'm trying to avoid the big stores and buy presents from independents and local artists/crafters.  Bristol offers an incredible array of Christmas markets (in addition to its usual galleries).  This weekend alone I visited three and picked up a couple of items in each.  And there are plenty more to come between now and the big day.

How do you choose your presents?  Do you make your own and, if so, have your any suggestions for me this year?

PS  Today's photograph has nothing whatsoever to do with presents.  It's just that today being the first Sunday in Advent I got to eat my first mince pie!  It was well worth the wait.

What I did this Weekend

University applications require extensive travels.  When my elder daughter was looking for a place we headed north to Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Aberdeen.  With her younger sister we've been concentrating on the south, from Falmouth to Brighton via Cardiff, Plymouth and Winchester.  However this weekend we ventured a bit further afield - to Norwich.

Here are a few random photos of our visit:

Urban art

Full English at Chez Dennis

They say Norwich has a church for every week of the year ...

 ... and a pub for every day!

Monuments to God ...

... and mammon!

The open air market

Caerdydd

I accompanied my daughter to Cardiff School of Art & Design's Open Day yesterday.  Here are my observations:

• that the people of Cardiff are the friendliest and kindest people I have met in a long time
• that, although I cannot understand it, I am pleased that the Welsh have held on to their language
• that, delivered by someone with a sense of humour, a talk on student finance can be the highlight of the day
• that there is a lot more to illustration than meets the eye
• that, despite their ensuite facilities, modern student residences are completely soulless
• that Victorian/Edwardian shopping arcades are infinitely superior to the ones we are building today
• that people will pay good money for hideous nylon hats as worn by my great aunts 
• that I wish the day had been longer
• that I will be back

Image courtesy of the University of Cardiff

Sunday Lunch

Asparagus from this week's Riverford box brushed with olive oil and griddled on my cast iron pan, egg soft boiled to Heston Blumnthal's directions and fresh Bordeaux Quay Pain de Campagne from this week's sodden Tobacco Factory market.  Delicious!

Life without The Big Four

On 2 March 2011, following the second application for permission to build a Sainsburys megastore at Ashton Gate was approved by Bristol City Council, I vowed never to darken the door of any of the Big Four (Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda and Morrisons) again.  Although there had been no conflict of interest in my campaigning, the arguments revolving round the scale of the development, I finally decided that I no longer wished to support businesses who I believe exercise a detrimental effect not only on our high streets but on our way of life.  One year on and I am pleased to report that, with one exception (when helping my daughter to stock her cleaning cupboard in Glasgow) I have succeeded in my resolve.

Does this mean that I no longer frequent any supermarket?  No, I'm afraid not, but I have switched my loyalty to those whose ethos is more acceptable to me and where I try to restrict my purchases to items I can't easily find/afford elsewhere.  Every couple of months I place an internet order with Waitrose and in between times I pop in and out of our local Co-op and Aldi.   

So where do I buy most of my food?  Well, I'm fortunate enough to live within walking distance of two thriving high streets.  My meat comes from a butcher, my vegetables from an organic box scheme, my milk is delivered by a milkman, my bread comes from one of three bakers, my coffee is bought and ground in the deli where I also refill my cleaning product bottles.  A weekly market keeps me in fish, local cheeses and speciality sausages.

There have been compromises and a way to go before I'm happy with where all my food comes from, but I'm satisfied that I'm heading in the right direction.

To read Henry Porter's damning indictment of supermarkets in last week's Observer click here.

Essential Trading for a Greener Lifestyle

Yesterday evening I attended the inaugural meeting of a local food buying co-op. It's the brainchild of a local green shop keeper who has enough space to sort and store the orders when they are delivered. Members will pay an annual fee which will allow them to order from a catalogue and take advantage of the wholesale price plus 10% to cover expenses.

I'm very excited by this project as I'm hoping it will enable me to reduce my dependence on supermarkets. I've been trying to cut down on my visits to Tescos et al, in favour of local shops, markets and a weekly fruit and vegetable box, but I'm invariably forced to return to the supermarkets for store cupboard essentials. If the co-op can plug this gap then I shall be very happy indeed.

I can hardly wait to place my first order.

When Every Little Doesn't Help

This week I was reminded of just how much I've changed over the past few years.

About 10 or more years ago, when my eldest daughter was very young, Sainsburys opened a new superstore on Winterstoke Road in Ashton. I remember being very excited by the prospect and looked forward to my first visit. Our existing Sainsburys was small and didn't offer the range of lines the new store promised.

This week I learned of Tesco's plans to open a superstore on the old Ashton Gate football site and my reaction could not have been more different. Instead of looking forward to its arrival I intend to do all I can to oppose it. I've started by emailing my Labour councillors, the local Green councillor, my MP, my MEP and the prospective Green MEP.

So what's changed? Climate change and the regeneration of North Street.

Supermarkets have a enormous impact on the environment - food miles, energy consumption, waste generation, car usage etc. They are vast impersonal retail outlets in comparison with local shops which are friendly and helpful and more likely to source local produce. There is, in my mind, no comparison and I've been delighted by the gradual transformation of North Street into a vibrant shopping centre with a wide variety of shops, including a long awaited fishmonger.

Now before you ask, I'll come clean and confess that I do of course shop in supermarkets, both online and in person. Nor do I have any immediate plans to stop doing so. I have nevertheless been consciously and deliberately trying to reduce my dependence on them - by shopping local. It's better for me, for the community and for the environment.

Suddenly all this is threatened by the proposed arrival of Tesco at Ashton Gate. I'm afraid that the competition will prove too much for some of our local shops and that they will be forced to close. I suspect that, once they're through the doors, shoppers will be tempted to pick up all the items on their list under the same roof. I'm worried that there will be an increase in the level of traffic. I fear the relentless progress of the multinational retailers.

Besides which, with a Sainsburys, a newly expanded Asda, an Aldi, a Lidl and two Tesco Expresses, why on earth do we need another Tesco?

So thank you, but no thank you, Sir Terry.

Organic Food Festival

On Saturday I visited Bristol's Organic Food Festival. I love this annual event which gets better and better every year. My personal highlights were:

• Listening to a talk by the West Country's very own Self Sufficientish duo where, amongst other things, I learned how to make an insect house using a plastic bottle and corrugated cardboard. They were so reassuringly down to earth and unpretentious.


• Watching a cookery demonstration by Sophie Grigson, she of the amazing ear rings. On Saturday she was wearing ones that looked as if they had been made from a tin of pilchards. She prepared a selection of 'white' dishes - a chowder, a Thai soup and junket.


• Being given samples of organic recyclable female sanitary products and discovering that I can buy them locally


• Watching another cookery demonstration by Xanthe Clay, whom I had never heard of, but who created several dishes from one duck including confit, which my daughters loved during their recent exchange visit to south west France, and which I would like to recreate for them at home.


• Discovering Dove Farm's Ezekiel Bread Mix and picking up two packs for £1 each. It's a savoury loaf which apparently goes very well with cheese.

My only reservation about the festival is the amount of waste it must engender but I was pleased to note that most suppliers appeared to be using recyclable containers and utensils and the site was well supplied with recycling bins.
PS If the mention of Sophie and Xanthe's dishes has tickled your taste buds then you will, hopefully soon, be able to access the recipes on Bordeaux Quay's website. However you'll have to wait as they are not there yet.

The Tate Bedminster

I mentioned in my birthday blog that I had received a card from my younger daughter which I was going to stick up on my kitchen cupboard door. So I thought I'd lead a guided tour around my existing collection.

I'm starting with the corner cupboard. Top left is a list of Riverford organic fruit and vegetable boxes, out of date as they now offer many more than the three boxes featured. They have an excellent website from which I order online. A couple of weeks ago we ordered our first meat box. Some of it's still in the freezer but what we've eaten so far has been excellent, the porchetta being particularly delicious.

Immediately below is a Corn Street Market postcard which I will deal with later.

Bottom left is our refuse collection schedule. Bristol's making serious attempts to reduce the amount of refuse that ends up in its landfill sites. We have a weekly kerbside collection (paper, cardboard, glass, cans, kitchen foil, battery, shoes, rags) and a kitchen waste collection. All other rubbish is collected fortnightly. Christmas trees are collected in January. Plastic bottles have to be taken to collection points in supermarket car parks (why do they make it so difficult for pedestrian recyclers who have to take their lives in their hands to reach the bins?). A recent development is the tetrapak recyling point in the Asda car park. The recycling website is reasonably helpful.

Bottom right is a flyer for St Nicholas Market. This is a vibrant shopping centre in the heart of Bristol. Running right through the centre is a row of stalls selling the most tempting food from around the world - pasta from Italy, olives from the Mediterranean, pies from Bristol, Jamaican curries, fresh soup and salads, wheat grass juices, North African couscous, local sausages, Portuguese stews and Welsh cheese. Oh and round the corner there are more curries, this time from India, and a whole food cafe. I sometimes pop in for lunch on Wednesday and am spoilt for choice.

On the open cupboard door is a picture of Nelson Mandela, one of my heroes, about whom I blogged on his recent 90th birthday. What more can I say? The man is truly a legend. I keep his picture here to remind me to continue to strive to be one of that great generation.

The two postcards below were picked up at Bristol's recent Ethical Expo. They advertise Fig1 a shop in Totterdown which sells fairly traded goods. I'm very rarely in that part of town so I can't claim to have shopped there but I liked the artwork and the messages they illustrate.

So there it is. Part 1 of my collection. Part 2 to follow.

Brushing for the Planet

Ever since I read Amost Mrs Average's blog about her wooden toothbrushes I have been worrying about the impact my dental hygiene routine has been having on the planet. I almost certainly don't change my toothbrush as often as is recommended, but when I do it eventually ends up in our local landfill. I use the word 'eventually' advisedly as we keep a supply of old toothbrushes to help in cleaning things with grooves and other inaccessible recesses. Mrs A had discovered wooden toothbrushes and had just ordered one for each member of her family. I wonder how she is getting on with them. I admired the concept but baulked at the price tag of £4.25.

So I continued using my nasty plastic brush until today when I came across the Preserve toothbrush in our local Sainsburys. This brush is made from recycled plastic including yogurt cups from a nearby supplier. It comes with a reusable travel case with ventilation holes. When it's time to replace it you can send the brush and its case back to Preserve to be recycled into plastic lumber for picnic tables, boardwalks and decks. And it only cost £1.99 (although I seem to remember it being on special offer at the moment).

To be fair Mrs A did mention the Preserve brush in her blog but was put off it by the need to ship it back to the States for recycling. Well she need worry no longer because the bush and case can now be returned to an address in Haverhill.

I bought two brushes for the girls for their trip to France. I shall be buying another for myself as soon as my current brush is too worn out to be any longer effective

Our Daily Pinta

This afternoon I answered the door to a man from Dairy Crest trying to drum up trade for doorstep milk deliveries. I was able to tell him that we not only use this service but are also very pleased with it.

Our milkman's called John Mills. He delivers a daily pint of semi-skimmed milk and a weekly pint of pink grapefruit juice. The milk costs 54p per pint and the juice 91p per pint. We could buy our milk from our local Tescos where it is considerably cheaper at 42p per pint. However for various reasons we have decided to stick with John. It gives him a job, saves us from having to venture out in the mornings, is fresh, local and flexible and uses electric powered floats and recycled glass bottles instead of plastic cartons. While researching for this post today I discovered that I can amend/cancel my order online and have a sack of compost delivered along with my daily pinta!

Doorstep deliveries have declined dramatically over the last couple of decades. According to DEFRA only 7% of milk is delivered to our doorsteps today, compared to 30% in 1984. 65% of milk is bought from supermarkets and 23% from convenience stores. In order to boost sales milkmen have set up a website (http://www.findmeamilkman.net/) which allows visitors to discover whether their address is covered by a milk round.

The truth is that we do not buy all our milk from John. The girls drink 2-3 pints of full fat milk a day, which we buy in 4 litre cartons from a supermarket. We also have 2 litres delivered by Riverford along with our organic fruit and veg box. We can't(?) afford to spend £2 per day on milk so we compromise. That's life, I guess.