The Kitchen Table Chronicles - cake and vinyl.
When doing what you want leads you to exactly what you need.
TV, film, music, books. Long overdue simple apple serving suggestions that will change your life.
The Kitchen Table Chronicles
Notes on good things shared from the place all the best conversations happen, straight from my kitchen table, to you.
Genuine conversation from the kitchen table - homework.
Did you know that there are over 7,500 varieties of apple in the world? Me neither. It is a fact that I just googled to bring some relevance to the artwork you’ll see further down this post. You see, I have been out buying records and eating cake instead of painting the cover for this post this afternoon and have found that the only suitable artwork I have “in storage” is for an apples post that I have not yet written.
I wanted to write said post in the autumn (and got stage fright, because not only not a writer, but also not a chef and definitely not a food writer), so maybe this is life’s way of nudging me along to both just write the darn apple post (because you need it, really) and also to do my homework on time. No, ahead of time.
In fact, many of our kitchen table conversations have covered such topics lately. With two teens, one being in the thick of exam / mock exam season it is something that frequently comes up. Every time I try to stifle the hypocrisy that is trying to beat it’s way out and into the world from both my own teen years (art homework always on time and done to perfection, everything else a bit rushed at the last minute) and now, where frankly, little has changed, when telling them that they really should get a head start on coursework / do homework when it is set rather than when it is due / etc rather than leaving it ‘til the last minute. Alas, I fear at least 75% of the population of our house is wired in such a way that we don’t see the deadlines coming until they are furiously knocking on our door and we are pretending not to be in and hiding to the side so we can’t be seen through the glass.
Watching
After last month’s bumper crop (here to save you searching the archives) I have fallen into a pit of series re-watches; “You”(just me) and Gossip Girl (with E), and delightful TV fluff courtesy of The Good Place (Also with E - part of a Thursday evening double bill whilst the men folk are at Explorers).
I have also started watching A Discovery of Witches. I am three or four episodes in and so far unsure of my thoughts on it. It feels mildly soapy and not quite what I thought might come from a fairly stellar cast, I’m intrigued to see where it will go. It’s also nice knowing quite a few of the locations but that is maybe detracting from the magic (no pun intended for a change) somewhat?
Lee. A biographical war drama about the life of photographer Lee Miller. To say I enjoyed it would perhaps be a bit strange given the subject matter and that some parts are, quite frankly, horrific. It’s an eye opener and very well done. Marred only by the fact that I kept getting “whatever, Andy Sam-jerk” in my head which was entirely inappropriate and off topic.
On the record player
I have had the odd realisation that I think I prefer to shop for records online. Don’t tell my 17 year old self who spends days in record shops.
Whilst I adore flicking through the racks, the chance of discovering something you may not have otherwise gravitated to and hearing what is on in the store whilst you browse, I think I really like the intention that comes with online shopping for music.
The flirtation of looking, sitting with the idea of a purchase for a while, putting it in the basket, leaving it there for a few days whilst I think whether to take anything out / add anything. Deciding on purchasing and hitting that pay button. The anticipation that builds whilst waiting for delivery (even more exciting if it is something hard to get that has to travel over a sea to get to you). The journey it makes. The verbal exchange with the postman whilst he digs the parcel out of his delivery bag to hand to me. The un-boxing of the thing on a suitable surface (lest something might fall to the floor). It is an altogether more seductive process than walking into a shop empty handed and leaving with a heavier bag and lighter bank account, done and dusted within a half hour to an hour window at most (depending on how many shops / whether cake is purchased too etc). I know that online shopping can be quite generic and fleeting, sterile even, but find myself interested, that for me, with records / music at least, it is not.
On reflection, I realise this is a pretty dismal view environmentally speaking perhaps. I’ll give it some thought.
Towering on the nightstand (because it’s perfectly normal to have a book stack that looks like The Leaning Tower of Pisa)
I have managed, I think, to buy no new books since my last time of writing. Must read everything I already own before making new purchases. Well, maybe not everything. And perhaps not allllll by the time I buy new things because Hark, Stay for Supper and the new Dan Brown are on the horizon (yes, I know Dan Brown books are not highly regarded but they’re just fun OK?!). I think I would like to wait a while for Hark and try to get it from the library. Books that have been through other careful hands hold a joyous feeling of having gained a few more stories on their way to you and that seems like it suits the book perfectly.
What’s going on in the garden?
The compost has been bought and the tomato seeds are in their makeshift bio-dome (started on soaked kitchen paper in an inflated ziploc bag - Eden Project it is not, but seems to work). It is March now and every fibre of my being wants to plant everything all at once. It will end in tears. I must not. But I so want to.
Foods on the table lately…
Chips. Fries. Whatever you call chunked and roasted / fried potato wherever you are. I’m not proud of it but this winter has seen me have a real craving for them. Or maybe it’s the copious amounts of salt they’re drowned in. Who knows? Also, salad with home-made flatbreads and hummus. And olives. I could eat olives all day right now but I think that’s symptomatic of a desperate need to be sitting in a piazza somewhere sipping something cold feeling the heat of the day radiating out of the stone beneath me.
Also, baked apples. I wanted to do a whole big apple recipe page with the illustration but I basically got to baked apples in my notebook and stopped there because they are everything.
Sweet - with any sort of fruit filling and it’s oh so simple. Wash and core them, put them on baking parchment on a tray, put a little butter in / over them and load them up with either dried fruit with a drizzle of honey, pie filling / jam or, my favourite idea that I’m now wondering why I’ve never actually tried it, just a drizzle of butter and honey, baked and then a great big chunk of beautiful vanilla ice cream whilst they’re still hot out of the oven. With a dusting of cinnamon and cardamom or whatever spice profile you like best. Now also thinking that apple crumble in there would be amazing too. I can see I need to explore some of these and report back.
Super simple. Wash, core, butter (vegan spreads probably work too or coconut oil might be quite nice) and bake. Until their skins pop.
Savoury - tray bake. My favourite “I have no idea what to cook and very few ingredients in” dinner for over winter. Chopped carrots, onions, parsnips (if you fancy them), quartered apples and sausages all roasted up with some butter and honey drizzled over and a splash of water added. Thrown in a big roasting dish and cooked until the sausages are done at the least and then however roasted you like everything else. Make sure it doesn’t dry out completely or everything quickly burns to the bottom because of the sugar content with the honey and apples. The apples elevate this perfectly, it really just isn’t the same without them. If you’re extra hungry, add a side of mash. Sweet potato and normal potato mixed together is a worthy accompaniment.
Soul nourishing
Sun light. A little bit more every day. Some days that feel like Spring, though I know there’s a few more Winters before we get to Spring proper just yet.
If you know someone who would like to join us at the kitchen table, invite them!
I’m hoping to fall back into watching a few more movies this month. What should I watch? Share your apple creations with me too, I’d love to know what variations you come up with.
What have you been watching / reading / growing / eating / listening to / nourishing your soul with? If you’ve got something good that doesn’t feature in that list, I would love to hear about that too. Be sure to leave your kitchen table talk in the comments below, conversation very much encouraged.
With love,
V.V