At the moment my stitching life is composed of practising samples.  They always take longer than I think they will and I always hope for perfection and at the moment, for my critical eye at least, I’m not getting it.  Some samples get closer to perfection than others, but I need to reliably hit the mark, so that when I am playing with my next jacket pocket I can feel proud and not weep into my tea.

I’d like to say that these were my very own courgettes, grown in my London pad, but they are not.  My courgettes failed miserably, the plants were great, kept producing a huge amount of tiny courgettes, but as soon as they grew they rotted away, I think they were just in a too tight a corner and needed more ventilation – you live and learn.

Anyway getting back to these courgettes.  I picked up a bag for a pound and some cheap feta cheese and wondered what to do with them when I turned to my trusty Greek cookery bible, Vefa’s Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou who had an excellent idea.  You basically stuff them, or try to, its quite difficult, but you get the idea.  

You mix a dressing of garlic, oregano, salt and pepper with olive oil and slit the courgettes so that they can take the dressing and try to put the feta cheese in and roast covered for about an hour and then uncover to allow it to colour, it will depend on the size and thickness of your courgettes.

It was very pleasant, fresh and pleasing is probably how I would describe it and went very nicely with our home grown beetroot and some plain boiled rice.

The wonderful thing about studying for a creative type of degree in London is that there are lots of opportunities for research.  One still has to do a fair bit of travelling, I work on the premise that if I know where I am going it takes about an hour, if I don’t I’d best allow an hour and a half, it seems to work!..  Getting back to the story, as always there is research to do this term.  We have been asked to look at details of jackets.  Which for me, based on other research I’m doing means taking photographs of suits in a department store.  Which can be easy or tricky, depending on who’s on the floor. 

I have worked out a plan though.  I used to use the honesty method, it doesn’t work.  I still need the research even if they say no and it all becomes exhausting.

So my method of choice these days is to find myself in a space without shop assistants.  The emptier the better.  Start snapping.

The flash gives it away but with a fair wind, bright department store lights and work fast, you can get thirty to forty photos very quickly.  Then I act surprised, apologise profusely and offer up that I am a student in need of primary research from the University up the road and they’ll normally let you carry on and trot off at that point.  Be under no illusion, this is a trap and it is generally short lived.

Keep snapping, do not stop as before you know it, someone more senior will arrive and ask you very gently if you could stop.  By that time you should have more than enough research under your belt and you can smile sweetly, thank profusely and leave.

During the summer I went to see War Horse. I can’t remember where I eventually tracked down a very cheap ticket but I did check out exactly where I would be sitting and if this would be a good seat – it was.  Theatre Monkey have an amazing website that lists best seat info for practically every seat in a London Theatre.  It also has seating plans and day seat information and how to go about getting a cheap ticket at the last minute, not as easy as you might imagine, but at least you stand a small chance with this sort of information at your fingertips.

I loved War Horse, as soon as young Joey clip clopped onto the stage, I knew we were in for a real treat.  He breathed.  His rib cage went up and down as he was breathing – he was alive.  It was wonderful, his ears moved and twitched, he had that new born foal way of trying to control his unsteady legs and he was a lovely, lovely character, in a natural way, not a Disney way.

And when the actors are perched astride the huge horses who are careering around the stage, you are under no illusion that you are watching puppets, they are real horses up there.

I would go and see it again and again and again…  Its an emotional story, the story line keeps your attention.   Its on at the New London Theatre in Hoborn, which is a modern build Theatre, meaning there isn’t really a bad seat in the house, the seats are more than big enough and row E has amazing leg room, although you do have actors racing past,  which can be both a bit startling, but also make you realise how right in the middle of the action your seat is.

After a hard day’s primary research we wandered over to our favourite chinese restaurant in Soho, we haven’t been here for a quite a while.  It was nice to see the place and meet up with the staff we know so well and who know us – thank goodness! 

We had our favourite sweet chilli lobster and had a really nice time.

All I’m saying is this…

there might have been alcohol involved!!!

This is just a very quick snapshot of Tuesday morning spending a few glorious hours with the wonder that is Marie Wallin teaching us all the beauty of fairisle, at the Campaign for Wool Exhibition. 

I Know I’ve forgotten to take photographs of everyone’s fairisle, I was rushing for a class the other side of London, but I am so glad that I managed to spend a few hours of my life chatting to Marie and other wonderful knitters, some of whom have become my new best friend – you know who you are!

I love these vibrant sheep, they were scattered everywhere, and no two were the same colour.

And to see the blanket in real life is always a treat.  Now all I need is a really good friend to knit it up for me, ‘laughs’.

I’ll have to pick this post back up later in the week, I am now fast turning into the Mad March Hare, I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date….’

Year 2 begins, excited, nervous, anxious, elated, giddy will all be followed by exhaustion.  Onwards…

I had a rather fine cauliflower sat in my fridge for a while and I’ve been tempted by various recipe ideas, should I make a nice potato and cauliflower curry, how about a simple cauliflower cheese, maybe make some lightly pickled cauliflower reminiscent of a brightly coloured piccalilli, or stir fry with garlic and sesame seeds to enjoy with some Thai rice.   And then I noticed the cheese and I knew what was called for. 

A tiny piece of cheddar, the end of some Parmesan which was too hard to grate and a small piece of Stilton.  This was going to be interesting. 

So I fried some onions for flavour, added some potatoes, the amount will vary depending on how thick you like your soup, I like mine to stick to my ribs, so quite a lot.  If anybody has noticed I don’t put too many details of weights and measures in my savoury recipes, I think savoury cooking is about what you have in the cupboard, what your taste buds like and not what you think you should put in.   And then added that cauliflower without any green bits, two stocks cubes,  (mine were chicken, but we are putting this on the meatless monday because they could so easily have been vegetable) plenty of water and about half a pint of milk.  And not forgetting to add the hard crusts of the Parmesan, they will impart flavour and you will be able to rescue some of the cheese from the rind.  And then simmer until everything is softly cooked.

See how the cheese goes soggy, you can cut those bits off.  Then added all of the cheese and whizzed with my trusty hand blender.

And finished with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper and a scattering of just harvested from the plastic tub on the kitchen windowsill, cress.   It was a thing of hot cheesy beauty, the cauliflower and potatoes being the perfect foils to allow the cheesy flavours to come through.