Summer in Sicily

I am waking each morning wanting to be back, to open the door of our little farm house and to breathe in the fragrance of figs, green, earth and distant sea, to say good morning the skinny cats mewing at my feet for sweet milk from the cereal bowls. I want to be thinking about what to wear to the beach, where I left the sunscreen, how long we have until it gets too hot to bear, to wake and be in Sicily again.

Absence and presence

I have been working so much this blog has been impossible to find time for, but  to let you know, I am travelling to Sicily in 10 days staying on an organic farm. I fully expect to come back with many food ideas and images and will put a Sicilian post up on my return.
In the meantime, check out my other blog work, for Phood Studios.
happy summer to you!

Dawn raiders and raspberry ripples plus pretty portfolio pics

I made ice cream! The first time in years and years, since we used to make it at De Los Santos, where the richest chocolate icecream was served with petite little cinnamon churros.

Amazing, the quality and amount of food we prepped in that small kitchen now that I reflect. We made an unctuous cheese dough for cheese balls that were sprinkled with smoked paprika salt when fried, I gutted buckets of squids every second day, pulling whole fish from their bellies sometimes, before skinning and preparing them for calamari, sinks full of spiky shrimp needed veining and shelling, fillets of salmon had their bones delicately tweezered out for curing, an orchard of lemons were preserved in cinnamon and bay leaves, rabbits came delivered whole for boning to be cooked for hours in stews.

Powerhouse Phood

On the work-front, thought I'd show some photos I did at Powerhouse back in winter, with Andy Goodfellow. Powerhouse have branched out and now have a fully-fledged food specialist photography business Phood. I am lucky enough to be working with them in developing this business as a food consultant and stylist. Many thanks for the opportunity guys!.

Andy loves moody shots, texture and not-perfect, rustic food. I have to pay tribute to my influence - the fabulous food blog What Katie Ate. The more I grow as a stylist the more confident I am to take a reference and go somewhere else with it. Perhaps one day people will be referencing me!

It hails, Jeff wails, but Spring is on my plate

The thing I like about shopping at my organic grocer (find it here) is that I can actually tell what season it is - which is more than I can say about the weather. I was delighted to find spring garlic (looking like dwarf leeks), spring onions and sorrel, lovage and a mad arrangement of salad leaves on my Saturday shop. While I was in layers of leggings and leather, dashing from the car park to the trolley bay, shaking the hail from my hair, inside was SPRING, in the bright and delicate freshness of her green bounty. I made a lovely light lunch from some leaves, an avocado and chickpea salad, coriander and creme fraiche on corn tortillas.

An accidental Lent

April, and a budget month in our house.

That one glorious week of sun turned foul just in time for the Easter break, spoiling everyone's fun.

Hope springs

Daffodils punctuate the grassy strip between the motorway, their bright little heads swishing violently as the bus whirs by. The sky is still grey mostly but sun peeks out some afternoons and my ankles dare to bare themselves to the breeze. Sunglasses can be spotted on some all-too-ready-for-shady-glam mums on the school run and I have made salads instead of steamed veg to balance childrens' meals of pizza. The trampoline has been cleared of puddles and decaying leaves, my daughter's head up and down, smiling at me as I wave from the kitchen, the door ajar. Spring! (Nearly)

Here's some food from a shoot I did with Andy Goodfellow at Powerhouse Photography in Leeds - a great team of super chilled but talented people who I hope to do much more work with in the future in their exciting new venture dedicated wholly to food photography. Watch this space...

chocolate and sour cream bundt cake