Top 5: New York Fashion Week, Autumn/Winter 2013
I know. I know. May is an extremely random time in which to be commenting on autumn/winter collections, especially when those collections were presented back in February. Essentially, I’m either three months too late or four months too early with this post. But you know what? Screw it. This was my first fashion week as a genuinely interested and fascinated observer, and if I wanted to spend a little (ahem) extra time on making sure my top five was perfect, then so be it. And now that I have finally settled the hundreds of arguments raging in my mind (hey, I take these things very seriously), there is no way I could have waited until September. That would just be silly. So, here we go: my top five collections from New York Fashion Week.
(Oh, and now that I’ve finally figured these out, I may finally be inspired to get my lists from London, Milan and Paris down to five each, and posted, too…but, given the nature of my poor, wild mind, I’m not going to make the mistake of promising anything)
(all photos taken from Style.com)
5. Rag & Bone
The picture above is not an example of why this collection was so good. In fact, I’m not keen on any of the pieces in this outfit (shoes aside). The colours are awful, and those leather-slash-sport trousers are inexplicable. They literally make me want to cry. Why include it, then? Because this is really the only bad mark I can find against a collection that is, on the whole, stunningly gorgeous. Take this look out, and Rag & Bone could well have been my number one. The knitwear is to die for, the coats are glorious, and don’t get me started on the purple shade that popped up midway through, because I could honestly discuss its splendour for hours on end. Pretty much every look just made sense, and all in all, it is a wonderfully cohesive and wearable collection. It’s just a shame those bloody pants had to sneak in there.
4. Ralph Lauren
Now, if I’m honest, I didn’t actually realise Ralph Lauren was still a ‘thing’. I thought he was a retro designer whose heyday was long gone, and who really had nothing to offer modern fashion. There was no reason behind me thinking this, you understand; it was just a random prejudice I had. But boy, was that blown out of the water with this collection. The clothes contained here genuinely made my heart beat a little faster, such is their beauty, and the absolutely magnificent way in which they were styled. I admit, I am incredibly biased towards anything even remotely Russian-themed, but even if I wasn’t, I think I would have fallen in love with this. If Ralph Lauren girls are as magical and romantic as they were portrayed in this show, then sign me up right now, because I want-no, NEED-to be one.
3. Thom Browne
I normally prefer collections that are wearable. That I can see myself in (in my wildest dreams, yes, but still…). Sometimes, though, and especially during this NYFW, a girl just wants a little bit of extra fantasy. It has to be said that, while I adore the collections I’ve chosen for this top five, this year’s New York Fashion Week wasn’t all that exciting. It was all very grey and sombre, with little whimsy or flair. So, thank goodness for Thom Browne, who was quite happy to buck that trend and just take us on a bit of adventure. It’s not remotely wearable (though I want some of these tights for my own right this very second), but it’s exciting and intriguing. It makes me want to know more about Thom Browne, and, really, isn’t that one of the points of a fashion show anyway?
2. Red Valentino
There are some who have said, possibly quite fairly, that this collection verges way too far on the ‘costume’ side of things. That it isn’t fashion, it’s fancy dress. Well, if that is the case, then I really, really, really want to go to whatever party orders me to wear these outfits (and I don’t do parties, ever). This collection is ridiculously endearing, all sweet and lovely, and I honestly can’t choose one piece that I wouldn’t kill to wear. I’m just obscenely in love with the whole darn thing.
1. Anna Sui
You’ve probably realised something by this point: I am in no way technically minded when it comes to fashion. I don’t know that much about silhouettes and fabrics and all the fancy new techniques being shown off my designers. I just want to see beautiful clothes that make me smile. And woah, woah, woah, did Anna Sui give me that. There was not an item of clothing or an accessory that I didn’t instantly fall in love with and desire with every fibre of my being. I’ve pored over these pictures, and the full show on Youtube, a million times by this point, and still my love for the looks on show has not dimmed. These are perfect autumn/winter looks: a little fantastical, and designed to bring brightness to cold, dark days. Anna Sui: I salute you.
Friday Moment: I’m Not Your Hero
New, hopefully regular, probably occasional, Tiny Magpie feature: Friday Moments! I used to do a Best of the Week post on a Friday night, but I got out of the habit when I took a blogging break last autumn. Since then, all things Tiny Magpie have started to take a backseat, as my anxiety has been pretty much under control (thanks, Sertraline!) and I’ve been working like crazy on my fiction writing. I really, really, really am determined to get things back on track though, because even if I’m not struggling now, I may well be again at any point in the near future, and should that happen, it would be nice to know I have this to focus me. So, to this new Friday feature: it’s essentially Best of the Week, but a shorter, lazier version (how’s that for a sell?), and will usually involve me posting a video, photo, excerpt or whatever, of something that I’ve enjoyed through the week and want to pass on for other people to appreciate…and appreciate these things you will, because, let’s face it, I have excellent taste.
First up…
In my Liebster post last week, I mentioned my current love for all things Tegan and Sara, and since my mention of them has not resulted in worldwide adoration, I’ve decided to try again. Yes, basically, I wish to use Friday Moment to shove things down the throat of the human race until everyone is in complete agreement with my beliefs and desires. I think that’s fair enough, right? Tegan and Sara have, I believe, released a few albums, but sadly, on the orders of my OCD counsellor, I am not allowed to research this. I am under orders to just enjoy them ‘in the moment’ without learning every little thing about them, and sadly, I doubt “but…but I needed to find out for Tiny Magpie!!!” would cut it as an excuse when I next see her. So, maybe they’ve been around for a while, or maybe I’m wrong and this is their debut release (oh, you have no idea how much it tortures me not to know this). Whatever. The simple fact is, they are really, really excellent. They produce modern, beautifully-constructed, catchy pop songs, the likes of which make you want to pretend you’re twelve again, skipping down the street with your favourite tape in your Walkman. Listen to the tune above, then find the recorded version, which is just as wonderful, and then download the album and listen to it on repeat all week. You won’t regret it.
PS: I discovered Tegan and Sara through the absolute joy of a website that is Popjustice. If you’re a fan of pop music, it can’t be beaten.
Photo Happy!: Breakfast Woe
Since I was ten years old, if not before, my breakfast has consisted of a big bowl of cereal and two slices of thick toast…at least. Up until last year, I also had two chocolate biscuits, a habit that I finally got out of after an extremely arduous Lent period. No more, though. Thanks to *spit* Slimming World (yeah, I’m not handling this well), this is my new breakfast. One-ONE!-slice of toast, a fried egg (no oil) and blueberries. Some would say that is a delightful breakfast, but I am not one of them. I am distraught. Still, it’ll be worth it when I’m thin, right?
Right?
Liebster Award
I got nominated for a Liebster award! Thanks, Hannah!
Now, normally I don’t do these things, but as all my inspiration seems to be going into fiction writing as opposed to blog writing lately, this seems like a good opportunity to waffle on aimlessly in true (if old) Tiny Magpie fashion. I admit that I won’t be able to get into the spirit properly, as I never seem to have the time to read other blogs regularly (and of those that I do make a special effort for, I know that some have already had their Liebster award, and I don’t wish to force this on them again!), but well, I’ll do my best.
So, here goes with the rules:
1. Thank the Liebster Blog presenter who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Post 11 facts about yourself, answer the 11 questions you were asked and create 11 questions for your nominees.
3. Nominate 11 blogs who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen. (Apparently this is supposed to apply to those with less than 200 followers, but I don’t know exactly how many followers other blogs have got – nevermind how many of those are “real” followers and the other are just spambots or semi-spam-bloggers who follow tons of people in the hope of getting more people to look at their page – so I am ignoring this.)
4. Display the Liebster Award logo (well, it saves you finding another image, I suppose).
5. No tag back thingies.
…and here goes with my part in proceedings!
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1. Hannah, of the excellent What Hannah Read, nominated me, and I would urge anyone with an interest in reading to check out her blog. Where she finds the time to read AND review all these books, I will never know…but I’m glad she does!
2. 11 Facts About Myself
I should state that I haven’t thought about this at all. I am literally just going to write the first 11 things that come into my head, because if not, I will overthink things and I’ll be here for about four days.
1. I have started running. My sister-in-law pretty much forced me into it almost three weeks ago, and to my absolute surprise, I really enjoyed myself. I’ve been running almost every day since, and while I’m pretty rubbish (three weeks in, and I can still barely manage 2.5km), I feel good about myself, AND have noticed my anxiety diminishing to almost nothing in this time.
2. As recommended by my counsellor, I am not allowed to get obsessive over my new running hobby. I am finding this extremely difficult. The thinking behind it is that my OCD brain has been trained to obsess over pretty much everything, good or bad. So, when I get a new interest, I want to learn everything about it, which is good…but then when something is worrying me, I want to research that too, and that is NOT good, because it just feeds my anxiety. I’m therefore not allowed to google running, look at books on running, or do anything that might make me obsess. I admit that I have cheated a tiny bit and got a running app on my phone, but I’m using that solely to measure how far I’ve ran and nothing else. Honest.
3. As the running has made me feel so good about myself, I’ve also decided to take the probably insane, and very disappointing, step of joining Slimming World. I’m writing this here because then I will be less tempted to bottle out of the first meeting on Monday night. I happen to quite like my figure, and I know my body is very good at hiding its fat (everyone is usually pretty surprised on hearing just how much I weigh), but I have a ridiculously high BMI, and for health reasons, I feel like I should do something about it. I don’t like diets, and I don’t like being an ‘annoying type’ when it comes to food, but SIGH. I know it has to be done. Besides, I was told a few weeks ago that I will never be thin, and that’s the sort of challenge I can’t resist.
4. I am obscenely competitive. Obscenely. Part of this comes from my low self-esteem, and my absolute terror of being seen to be wrong about anything (because, of course, when you’re wrong about something, all those who witness it will be judging you and your idiocy on a constant basis from then on). The other part comes from…well, it’s just nature, I guess. That, plus I’m a Newcastle United supporter, and I have enough failure to deal with there than to be able to cope with it in any other part of life.
5. I slant very, very much to the left when it comes to politics. I therefore hate myself entirely when my new Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar arrives, complete with terms such as ‘prole-friendly’, and recommendations on what to wear for the summer polo tournaments. I feel like I’m betraying my class, my region, and myself. My husband refers to them as Tory rags, and he’s right, but OH, JUST LOOK AT ALL THE BEAUTIFUL CLOTHES!! I just enjoy looking at fashion and models too much to consider giving them up. So, yeah. I hate myself.
6. My favourite models are Daria Werbowy, Kati Nescher and Vanessa Axente. Daria is huge already, Kati is almost there, and Vanessa is going to be. She is astoundingly good. I also have high hopes for Mackenzie Drazan, who hasn’t gone a whole lot in print work yet, but has been rocking the catwalks for a few seasons.
7. I think everyone should buy the new Tegan & Sara album. Tegan & Sara are another thing I’m not allowed to obsess over, but oh, how I want to! I cannot believe I only just discovered them.
8. It’s totally, eye-rollingly, corny, but I know for an absolute fact that I was put on this earth to be Lily’s mammy. There’s a lot more that I want to achieve-having a novel published, for example-but I’ve already made a success of my life, because I have it Lily. And she is awesome. She’s probably going to win the Nobel Prizes for Literature, Peace AND Economics, all while being the head designer at Chanel, and Prime Minister. Mark my words.
9. I am devastated that the film The Wrestler got made before I had a chance to write my own wrestling novel. I love The Wrestler, but my book would have been amazing.
10. When I was doing my GCSEs, I got ill just before my Physics mock exam. I SUCK at Science, but with a bit of hard work, I still always managed to get good grades. I ended up revising for that Physics exam on three separate occasions, only to be never asked to retake it. I assumed I had been forgotten, and so forgot about it myself. Then, about six weeks later, I had the Physics exam sprung on me by my total arse of a teacher, and given that I had done no revision for weeks, I managed a total of about 20%. Awful, yes, but I just wasn’t ready. To my great distress, and despite the fact that I managed an A in Biology and a B in Chemistry, I was moved from the top set to the third set for the rest of the year. I have already mentioned how competitive I am, and the fact that I am still whining about it thirteen years later will tell you just how distraught this made me. I was made to do foundation Science in the final exams, an exam so ridiculously easy that one of the questions actually involved COUNTING A PICTURE OF COWS. I got 99%, but thanks to the nature of the grading, I was unable to get higher than a C. I will never, ever forgive my old school, and no, I do not think that is an overreaction at all.
11. I met my husband when I was sixteen years old and pulled a wrestling book out of my bag. He couldn’t believe his luck that the girl he had already singled out as the hottest in the class (no, honestly!) was also a wrestling fan…and five months later (yeah, he’s a slow mover), we were a couple. Twelve years later, and we’re one of those couples you hate who know each other’s thoughts. We love it.
11 Questions From Hannah
I’m very aware that this is getting long, so I’m going to try my best to speed things up…promise!
1. Describe, or share a picture of, the view from your kitchen window.
Right now, it’s a picture of darkness punctuated by a streetlamp. During the day, though…well, look down, and you can see our front garden which is pebbled and in horrible need of weeding (my job!). We live on a fairly busy road, and my house is three steps up, adjacent to a mini roundabout, so directly opposite is a very long street stretching out as far as you can see from kitchen window level. I can also see houses belonging to some very unsavoury characters, as well as some very groomed and lovely gardens (yes, my street is a very interesting cross section of society!).
2. Do you like board games and if so which ones?
Not really. Being horrifically competitive, board games tend to be more stress than they’re worth!
3. When you were growing up, what kind of vehicle did you imagine you would drive when you got your license?
Same as now: a VW Beetle. One day I might actually get around to getting a license and buying one!
4. What do most people do that you don’t?
Go to bars. I have been on literally one night out in my life, and that was with my husband’s workmates, and therefore not my choice!
5. What assumptions do others often make about you and are these correct?
Because I’m very talkative, I think most people assume that I’m also very confident. I’m extremely good at hiding my self esteem and anxiety issues, and it’s usually only after meeting people that I fall into a pit of despair about what a fool I made of myself. So they’re very wrong, but I do understand where they come from!
6. Share a link to a song you’ve been listening to lately.
New Mariah! Like I would link to anything else…
7. What were your favourite toys when you were a child?
I wasn’t really into toys…just books. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I slept with a book instead of a soft toy!
8. What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Give birth to Lily. Induction, a forced epidural, an emergency C-section…it’s very little wonder that I’m quite content with just the one child!
9. Do you organise your books and if so, in what order?
I actually don’t, which is absolutely terrible for me as an ex-librarian. I probably made it that way because I was always very strict about books being ordered correctly at work, and it was nice to just have a mish-mash at home!
10. What was your first computer like?
A big chunky laptop which I’m sure I paid way over the odds for because the salesman saw me, a naive student, coming a mile off!
11. What are you going to do after writing this post?
Go to bed!
11 Questions From Me
These are honestly going to sound very boring, but I would put a lot of thought into these answers, so to me, they’re good questions!
What is your…
1. Favourite adult book?
2. Favourite song?
3. Favourite album?
4. Favourite food?
5. Favourite sitcom?
6. Favourite TV drama?
7. Favourite film?
8. Favourite memory?
9. Favourite city?
10. Favourite children’s book?
11. Favourite shop?
3. My Nominated Blogs
I’m going to list as many as I can, but I’m afraid I won’t reach 11. I’m a bad blogger. Sorry!
Five. Five! I’m awful! Sorry, again, blogging world.
Review: Rent 20th Anniversary Concert, Newcastle Tyne Theatre
You wouldn’t have to spend very long in my presence in order to discover that I’m a huge Rent fan. Like, huge huge. You could spend just five minutes with me, five minutes in your whole life, and chances are you would be made aware of this fact. I’ve written about my adoration of this wonderful show before, right here, and I’m not going to go into it ALL again, as I think I explained it all pretty well there. But, if you really can’t be arsed to read that, then I’ll be kind and give it to you here in summary:
I REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE RENT AND THINK IT’S THE BEST THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD EVER!!!111!!!
To a lesser extent, but still to pretty obsessive levels, I also love Wicked. I love Wicked to the point that I’ve seen it live five times, from New York, to San Francisco, to Sydney. I was meant to see it in Tokyo too (and in Japanese!) but alas, it closed in that city mere days before we arrived in the city. Devastated. Now, my favourite Elphaba out of all my experiences seeing it live was Kerry Ellis in London. Kerry Ellis is a phenomenal singer, and her Elphaba blew me away, and pretty much the rest of the world too; a fact that is proven by the fact she was invited to reprise the role on Broadway at the end of her West End stint.
So, here we are. I love Rent. I love Kerry Ellis. Now, imagine this: I’m sitting at the laptop a few months ago, when someone tweets that the comedian Stuart Lee is coming to Newcastle. ”Oooh!”, I think. Both me, and to a larger extent, my husband, are fans of Stuart Lee. We’ve seen him perform live before, and had a great night, and I know John would love to see him again. So, I think to myself that I’ll head over to the Tyne Theatre website and book tickets as a surprise for him. Cos, you know, I’m a great wife like that. As it turns out, though, I’m actually a pretty shit wife…because what happens when I log onto the site? I’m confronted by the words: ‘Rent 20th Anniversary Concert, starring Kerry Ellis!’. OH MY GOLLY GOSH. Well, I think we all know that I was going to book tickets for something that night…and it most definitely was not that grumpy old arse Stuart Lee. Thankfully, John didn’t mind. He’s rather fond of musicals himself, you see, and he is definitely partial to a little bit of Rent action. So, it was sorted: I would be seeing Rent again!!
However, once that initial high settled down, I had to admit to having some doubts. Kerry Ellis, a white, extremely polished, stage performer in her mid 30s, was going to be playing Mimi, a 19 year old Latino drug addict. That seemed a little odd. And a concert? What did that mean? Were they just going to be standing around singing the songs, a la Les Mis, and therefore removing all of the raw energy from the show? I really had no idea. Of course, I was still extremely excited-this was Rent, for goodness sake-but fear was creeping in…fear that this wouldn’t turn out to be the show of my dreams after all.
As it turns out, my fears were realised. Did I enjoy it? Of course I bloody did. You would have to go a looooooong way to screw up Rent too badly for me. However, I’ve seen amateur productions that were more polished and impressive than this. The show wasn’t in fact a concert, but rather a slightly cut down version of the stage show (albeit with glitzy flashing screens that added very little to proceedings). Elements of dialogue were cut out, which, especially in the case of La Vie Boheme, meant that the songs didn’t flow easily, and things felt a little messy. This probably wasn’t noticeable to everyone, but superfan over here was very aware of it, and it didn’t sit right with me. Secondly, Kerry Ellis was, I am gutted to say, a bit of a disaster as Mimi. As suspected, she just did not fit the role at all. She either overplayed the whole drug addict element to the character, or she was just severely lacking in energy throughout. It was extremely distracting. Also, the fact that she is an extremely experienced, classy, Broadway star just did not fit Rent one little bit. Rent is supposed to be raw, and energetic, and a little bit ‘off’. She wasn’t any of those things, and that’s not too great when you’re playing the lead female role. Rory Taylor, meanwhile, playing her love interest Roger, was also a bit of a disaster. Not edgy in the slightest, and he forgot his words entirely during the second verse of One Song Glory; a disaster of epic proportions to someone like me, who knows the whole thing by heart, and something which took me completely out of the ‘moment’ for a good chunk of the first act. Finally-and this is something which I found particularly odd-almost the entire cast, including all of the women, were white. This was supposed to be a definitive 20th anniversary celebration of Rent, but that is going against pretty much everything that Rent is about. I mean, really, in a national production, there are absolutely no excuses for a show being set in the East Village in the early 90s, and having that area populated by pretty much all white people. And when it comes to a point where you’re actually changing references in the songs to the characters’ races and backgrounds? That just doesn’t work for me in any way. Maybe it’s just me, and my crazy obsessive idea of what Rent should be, but like I said, in a national production, there are no excuses for that in my personal view.
So, it sounds like I really disliked the show. I didn’t. I swear. If you’re coming into Rent without being a crazed lunatic, then it would have gone down very well…in fact, it did go down very well, if the standing ovation was anything to go by. There were some hugely talented people in the cast, with the girls playing Joanne and Maureen (a very hard role to get exactly right, in my opinion) particularly impressive. Was it worth the money (£28 a ticket + booking fee, and these were not the most expensive seats)? Probably not, when you consider those amateur productions I mentioned above cost about £8. It didn’t move me in the way that a Rent production should do, and there were many lighting and sound issues (again, no excuses, given that the tour has been running for a few days now), but it was entertaining, and the cast were, on the whole, excellent, if not always right for the roles they had been given. It just wasn’t perfect. And when it comes to a musical as special as Rent, that’s the only thing that will do in my eyes.
Photo Happy!: Breakthrough
In a session with my counsellor yesterday, I was essentially blithering out a stream of consciousness (as I so often do), and in amongst all the nonsense, this came out. It might seem like an obvious statement, but I have OCD. I deal with pretty much everything, both good and bad, in terms of obsession. For almost my whole life, this has most definitely NOT been an obvious statement. Yet now, after twenty years, I’m suddenly beginning to see the value in it.
Like the title says: breakthrough.
I’m a Knish? You’re a Knish!
I am not a Jew. I do, however, have a rather intense fascination with Jewish culture and history. And so, when I came across the book ‘Warm Bagels and Apple Strudels’ in my local WH Smith, there was really never any chance that I wasn’t going to add it to my ridiculously large cookbook collection. Not only does it have a stack of brilliant recipes, but it also shares a lot of information about Jewish food customs, and the history behind them…in other words, it’s a cookbook sent from heaven. It isn’t cheap, but I highly, highly recommend it.
I haven’t done a food post in a while, mainly because I was away in Budapest, and since I got back, I’ve been cheering myself up with far too many takeaways and supermarket pizzas. I’m starting to get back in the swing of things though, so they should be coming regularly again from now on. As you’ve probably already guessed, tonight’s main feature is a recipe from my very wonderful Jewish cookbook: Delicious Knishes. I was in the kitchen for the best part of three hours today preparing these (God bless you Toy Story for keeping children occupied in such a magnificent way), but it was well worth it, as they were quite delicious.
Ingredients:
(Dough)
500g organic strong white bread flour
1 tablespoon dried yeast
1 tablespoon dark honey
225ml warm milk (or water)
4 tablespoon light olive oil
2 large organic free-range eggs
1 teaspoon salt
sesame/poppy seeds to sprinkle
(Filling)
4 large organic potatoes
225g washed spinach
2 large onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 organic free-range egg
25g fresh chives OR parsley
1/2 teaspoon paprika OR nutmeg
Ground salt & black pepper
Despite the time taken, and the fairly long list of ingredients, this is not a particularly difficult recipe. The measurements above make 24, though I halved them to make only 12 (they do apparently freeze well if you’d rather go the whole hog). First up, the dough: in a small bowl, combine the yeast, honey and warm milk with 1tbsp of the flour, and whisk til smooth. Leave to ferment for around 15 minutes. Mix the olive oil with the eggs, and then add to a large bowl with the remaining (sifted) flour and salt. Pour in the yeast mixture, and mix, either by hand or with an electric mixer (dough hook attached) to a soft dough. When ready, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and then knead until smooth, before placing it in an oiled, covered bowl until doubled in size (this should take about an hour).
Now. Once that’s done, you’re going to want to get cracking straight away on the potatoes. They need to be placed whole, with skins on, in a pan of water until tender. Remember, these are large potatoes, so that’s going to be a slow process! When they’re done, which should be close to the end of the allotted hour, drain them, peel off the skins, and mash them up very thoroughly. Then, stick the spinach in another pan, wilt it gently over a medium heat, before draining (make sure to get as much liquid off as you can, as you don’t want them to soak the dough), and then chopping. I just used scissors to snip them up as small as I could.
At this point, just before you get back to work, you can preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5 (170C if you’re using a fan assisted oven), and line two baking trays with baking parchment. Then, time to finish off the filling. Gently fry the onions in the olive oil, until they’re just soft, then add the potato, spinach and half of the egg. Stir in your chosen herb (I went with chives), and then season with the salt, pepper and paprika/nutmeg. Push the mixture to one side, and tip the dough back out onto a floured surface. Roll out to a thin sheet, and then cut into circles using a 7.5cm pastry cutter. Place a teaspoon of the filling onto each circle, wet the edges and then fold over and seal. Pop them all onto the baking trays, and then leave them to prove for half an hour. Then, brush with the remaining egg, and sprinkle over the seeds, before popping into the oven for 20-30 minutes until nicely golden.
I admit, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I used less seasoning, given that I have a two year old with a penchant for bland food, and no seeds, as I was hoping to convince her that she was just eating a funny shaped sandwich. I’m not entirely sure I folded them correctly either, but, well, it’s a pretty time-consuming recipe to begin with, and I really just wanted to make things as easy as possible for myself. I’ve also never even seen a knish before, never mind tasted one, so I was working a bit blind. Anyway, they were delicious, so who cares if they weren’t presented perfectly? And if you follow the seasoning recommendations in the recipe, I’m sure they’re even better. The book also recommends that you serve them with a watercress salad as a main course, but that just wasn’t going to hack it with my family, so I used the knish as a stuffed dumpling type of thing, and served it with mince in gravy instead. Delish!
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Onto my other latest baking achievements…not that there’s many, given the slight issue of my lifelong wanton addiction jumping to new heights. Last week brought my first attempt at a cheese souffle, and it didn’t turn out too badly at all. The picture below was taken when it had sunk a little, but trust me when I say it rose exactly as it should (which was rather a surprise to me, I have to admit). I served it with a potato, apple and black pudding salad, with both recipes coming from Rachel Khoo’s Little Paris Kitchen book.
And, with the leftover gruyere cheese from the souffle, I made biscuits from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake. They were divine, especially when accompanied with a fruity chardonnay. So divine, in fact, that I think I just used the word divine for the first time ever. I’m a working class girl from Newcastle, so that means you KNOW they must be good!
