Table of contents for November 2017 - Issue 65 in The Simple Things

PROUDLY HOMEMADE REAL RAGU It may take more effort than a staple spag bol, but this slowcooked brisket is well worth it Serves 4 1kg rolled beef brisket 2 tbsp olive oil 50g unsalted butter 200g smoked pancetta, finely chopped 1 onion, finely chopped 2 carrots, finely chopped 2 celery sticks, finely chopped 3 tbsp tomato purée 1 tbsp mixed spice 500ml red wine 500ml milk 2 dried bay leaves 2 sprigs rosemary TO SERVE 500g dried tagliatelle 75ml extra virgin olive oil Small handful parsley, roughly chopped 100g parmesan, finely grated 1 Preheat oven to 200C/Fan 180C/400F. Put the brisket into a small roasting dish and roast for an hour. Remove and allow the brisket to cool. Cut into small chunks. 2 Meanwhile heat the oil and butter in…

When it comes to dinner, saving time and eating well can prove to be conflicting desires. That’s where Abel & Cole recipe boxes come in handy. Each box contains everything you need to create stunning suppers at the drop of a hat. Only want one meal? That’s fine, too: Abel & Cole has now introduced the single-recipe box. TOP-NOTCH INGREDIENTS For almost three decades now Abel & Cole has been packing only the finest organic food into recyclable boxes, and whisking them into the hands of food lovers up and down the country. It all started with bags of spuds, but as these food explorers have found more and more like-minded farmers, makers and bakers to work with, they’ve come up with swimmingly good ideas to make eating healthily more…

BUTTER-GLAZED RADISH POTS Lucchetti Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi 2015, £13.50 The name ‘Verdicchio’ indicates the green colour of the ripe grape, which translates into a wine with good structure. Aromatic and dry, it has bright lemon and bitter almond notes – just right for cutting through the butter glaze. DILL, CARROT & CHICKPEA CURRY Cave Orschwiller Les Faîtières Pinot Gris 2015, £13.50 A fantastic choice for spicy dishes, this aromatic Alsace white is weighty enough to hold its own, with a suggestion of sweetness on the palate, and a long, fresh finish. CHOCOLATE MOUSSE Famille Laplace Maydie Tannat 2015, £22 This fortified red wine has powerful aromas of black and red fruits and nuances of nuts. On the palate, the delicacy of its fruitiness balances the tannins. Drunk chilled,…

Seeds are the life force of every plant, herb, flower, fruit, vegetable and wholegrain we eat. Versatile and delicious, they bring colour and flavour to our meals and snacks, while providing protein, essential fats and other nutrients. Of course, seeds are readily available to buy and eat straight out of the packet, but if you find them uninspiring, they can be much tastier and more nutritious when carefully sourced and home soaked or sprouted. Sprouting your own seeds is not only satisfying, it’s really quite simple and a great way to keep growing during the winter. WHAT ARE SEEDS? When it comes to the seeds you sprinkle on your salad or add to your smoothies, do you really know what you’re eating? Seeds are plant embryos: their fertilised ovules. Think…

PARSNIP & MAPLE SYRUP CAKE WITH PARSNIP CRISPS 175g butter, plus extra for greasing 100ml maple syrup 3 large organic eggs 250g self-raising flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp mixed spice 250g parsnips, peeled and grated 1 eating apple, peeled, cored and grated 50g pecans or hazelnuts, roughly chopped Zest and juice of 1 small orange Edible flowers, to garnish (optional) FOR THE PARSNIP CRISPS 1 large parsnip, peeled Sunflower or groundnut oil, for frying FOR THE FILLING 300g cream cheese 2 tbsp maple syrup 1 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/350F. Brush two deep 20cm sandwich tins with a little melted butter and line the bases with baking parchment. 2 Melt the butter and syrup in a pan over a gentle heat; set aside to cool slightly. Whisk in…

The full collection of images can be found in Landscape Photographer of the Year Collection 11 (AA Publishing).…

Q : Can you recommend a tree that looks good in winter? The only trees in my garden that have any sort of colour are conifers and they’re so boring. A : With all the bustle and activity during the run-up to the winter solstice/Christmas/the holidays/ call-it-what- you-will, trees only look noticeably lean in the first two months of the new year. This is when fruiting trees prove what good value they are, especially when they are overlooked by birds. Amelanchier is a good small garden tree with lovely autumn colour. Its only downside is that, in spring, pigeons tend to eat its blossom when no-one is looking, and gulp down whatever berries there are in autumn. A better tree for winter, but just as useful in terms of size is…

Much has been said about the relaxing properties of a long, hot soak and the pleasures it brings, and rightly so, but isn’t it time the shower got a shoutout? Often dismissed as a utilitarian part of the daily routine – something to be ducked in and out of for a quick sluicing before work – its invigorating benefits are often forgotten. But something amazing, almost magical, can happen when warm water hits naked skin. In the morning, a hot shower can wake up a sleepy mind, reboot a sluggish body, and cause creative thoughts to surface. After a bracing outdoor swim, little is as welcome as standing beneath a poolside shower and feeling the warmth percolate from your core to your fingertips. Coming home after a run, a shower…

Answer in brief: be stealthy. Start with a warm shower, then turn the temperature down to chilly. You are right, there are indeed many, many benefits to showering beneath cold water. So many, in fact, that you wonder why we don’t all do it. Then you remember the wince-inducing, intense shock to the system that it entails and turn the tap up to maximum heat. To encourage you to take the necessary step, here is a reminder of those benefits. When cold water hits the head and skin it sends a jolt of electrical impulses from the peripheral nerve endings to the brain. This can boost your mood and startle you out of gloominess. It also quickens circulation of the blood, which then rushes towards the organs, giving them a nutritional…

“You are glowing,” my mother cries happily, darting past me into the kitchen. “I’ve brought supplies!” I glower. As I close the front door, I catch Mrs Etaine taking my photograph across the street. I wave. “I can see you, Mrs Etaine!” She doesn’t care. The camera opens and shuts like the pincers of an insect. I sigh and shut the door. My mother is unloading things onto the kitchen counter one by one. A stethoscope, multivitamins, knitting needles. She holds up a book called What’s Cooking? “This says we can measure your stomach in different directions and then cross-reference that with palmistry to try and guess the species,” she grins. “But—” “I am not knitting clothes until we know how many limbs,” she tuts, pulling wool from her handbag.…

Do you realise how happy you seem to make our Inntravel customers? Wow – I’m speechless. I’m so glad they enjoy the service I provide, and I’m happy to be able to show them my passion and love for the Aurora. It’s this that keeps me going, and inspires me to do an even better job in future. Where did you first ‘learn’ about the Northern Lights? It started when I was a kid, with all the legends and local myths my grandparents and parents would tell me; and when I got older I started reading up on everything from the physics to the folklore. I have taken courses about the Northern Lights, and I always read up on the new discoveries and science that researchers around the world are…

There’s something magical about crisp snow-covered landscapes glistening beneath a deep blue sky – a scene worth savouring. From the grandeur of the Alps to the wild drama within the Arctic Circle, you’ll always find time to relax, re-energise, restore and refresh the senses – on a Slow Holiday with Inntravel. Christmas markets and more We’ve chosen some wonderful places for our festive city breaks. Wander through charming Christmas markets and make time to enjoy some heady glühwein or hot chocolate along the way. Pick up pressies in Prague, go the full Scandi option in Gothenburg or Copenhagen, or sample the gingerbread in Salzburg. What better ways to kick-start Christmas? All aboard the Glacier Express Experience one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world – a trip through…

Considering the heritage of corduroy trousers, it takes a leap of imagination to think of them as fashionable. The last time they were widely worn, the Seventies, they were the uniform of the fustier country-dwelling gentleman who might have accessorised a pair of jumbo cords with an elbow-patched tweed jacket and a black labrador. Other, more famous corduroy wearers included Jeremy Corbyn and Robin Williams in The Dead Poet’s Society. Corduroy trousers were bought at C&A or in small town boutiques. Cutting-edge they were not. But alongside the dowdy wearers of corduroy were those of an antiestablishment bent – college students, beatniks and surfers* – who also sported this comfortable and robust fabric, worn loose and wide, and often teamed with Hush Puppies and a knitted tank top. Later still,…

Through one window of Mandy Pullen’s cottage in the Forest of Dean, a tall tangle of ragged robin shifts in the breeze, its frayed pink flowers dipping in and out view. “I like to watch it wave around, see the bees land on its petals, and the feathery seeds fly from it,” she says from the depths of a sheepskin-covered armchair. “I absolutely love it. It’s a bit of a teacher.” As well as her garden, which wraps around the cottage and is filled with a jumble of vegetables, wild flowers and fruit trees, Mandy ‘caretakes’ a large area of land nearby. She sees this mix of woodland, pasture and quarry as her place of work, and her classroom: “I know the nature spirits there,” she says, “and where all…

I am re-reading Cider With Rosie, but it is ‘how’ I am reading it that is pertinent. Earmarked at chapter three, the memoir has been sitting on my bedside table since summer’s end. At a time in my life when working from home presents opportune slots for a 30-minute daytime read, sitting down with a good novel somehow feels like a luxury of time I can’t afford. My current inability to finish a book could be a tiny example of a wider reading pattern. In December 2014, leading academics in the US identified a new ‘nonlinear’ method to the way we read. When we’re engrossed in a book, we stimulate the neural pathways of the brain by merging the imaginings of the story in front of us with our own…

Few today would go to war for the fields, woods, and brooks of Britain. Or, rather, what is left of them. We have become de-natured and u?ber-urban. Contrast us with the men of 1914–18; a single paragraph from EB Osborn’s 1919 collective biography of gilded youn this fair and fortunate island.” In our divining of the reasons why men volunteered to fight in 1914, one motive is persistently blind to us, which was their wish to preserve inviolate, to borrow Osborn’s words, rural Britain’s “fair sights and sounds and perfumed airs”. For that generation, love of country meant, as often as not, love of countryside. Nature mattered. What is the emblem of the Great War? A wildflower. A Flanders poppy. If nature inspired men to volunteer, the Briton on service…

Calathea No one puts a calathea in the corner. This most flamboyant of houseplants with its dual-tone leaves – stripes on one side, deep purple on the other – deserves to be centre stage. As long as it’s kept out of direct sunlight, that is: “Its natural habitat is the jungle floor,” says Alice Howard, owner of Botanique Workshop, artisan store and flower shop, “so direct light will scorch its leaves. Mist regularly and water consistently, so the soil doesn’t dry out.” Do all of that and a pot of tropical lushness will be yours.…

Not that we need bribery, but the pleasure of opening an advent calendar each day is an extra reason to look forward to getting out of bed in December. The first commercially produced advent calendar dates to 1903 but our project harks back to the very first, 18th-century versions, which were handmade. This easy-to-make design combines natural foliage, a bit of festive sparkle and a little treat in each envelope to be opened in the countdown to Christmas. Who could resist? And, on that note, it’s as easy to adapt for grown-ups as children. IDEAS FOR TREATS • Chocolate coins • Mini playing cards • Lip balm • Hair slides • Cinema tickets • Badges or patches • Bookmarks • Temporary tattoo • Teabags Envelope advent calendar Makes 24 days…

1 Shower wiper, £44.95, black-by-design.co.uk 2 Arena bamboo shower mat, £55, black-by-design.co.uk 3 Tavistock Kinetic Shower, £595, purebathroomcollection.co.uk 4 Kotra waffle towel, £9; Champa storage baskets, from £35; Amuntai storage basket, £49; Ambon rattan mirror, £69, all urbanara.co.uk 5 Supreme bathrobe, £69, christy.co.uk 6 Retro soap dispenser, £15; beaker, £10, habitat.co.uk 7 Dream shower column, £675, frontlinebathrooms.co.uk 8 Oak towel rail, £94, limelace.co.uk 9 Hammam towels, from £15, loaf.com…

Making a fire is the “right side of deliciously dangerous” according to Sally Coulthard, who celebrates the heartwarming properties of the hearth in this engaging little book. She tells you all you need to know about making and tending a blaze – from an outdoor bonfire to the slow, warm glow of a fire in a wood burner – and how to keep yourself safe while you doing it. She lists the woods that are good for kindling, and which trees burn best, describes how logs need to be seasoned and stored, gives a recipe for homemade firelighters and explains what works best as emergency tinder – lint, crisp packets, tampons or plants with fluffy seed heads, such as catkins or dandelion clocks. (Anima)…

Tim Hayward casts his eye over kitchen objects that are “so ordinary that they seem insignificant and near-invisible” and carefully teases out their history and utility, revealing that our choices are “neat illustration of our beliefs, tastes, aesthetics and aspirations”. He studies all kinds of everything; from the heavy, brisk, old-fashioned whisks, which “when operated by a brawny servant will produce reliably stiff meringue, time after time”, to the straightforward appeal of the potato peeler. Other desirable objects include the garlic press, wooden spoons, jelly moulds and the pepper grinder, from its prehistory pestle and mortar origins to the “table-side theatre” of the giant restaurant mill. Brilliant stuff. (Quadrille)…

A bit of art, history and nostalgia Art and ice-skating Head to London’s Somerset House and you’ll catch new exhibition ‘North: Fashioning Identity’ (above), a display of cult fashion and art from the north of England (from 8 November). Follow with an evening skate (the ice rink opens from the 15th and remains our favourite rink in the capital). somersethouse.org.uk Centenary poppies Wear your poppy with pride this month. Also available are Passchendaele poppy pins made from shell fuses collected from the battlefield. Each of the limited-edition pins comes in a box containing a certificate with details of one of the 60,083 soldiers who lost their lives in the battle 100 years ago. poppyshop.org.uk A feelgood film Winter blues? Warm yourself up from the inside out by watching Paddington 2,…

Crumble and custard is the mothership of puddings. The combination of fruit with something creamy and something crunchy is found in many classic forms – cheesecake, pavlova, sundaes – but crumble is the one we all return to. Crumble should almost not need a recipe – a little flour, butter, sugar, something rubbly and crunchy – and once you’ve made it a few times, your eyes will judge the measurements, and your fingertips know the texture. This is as it should be. It is a rough and ready dish to have to hand for any moment when there’s a glut of fruit. And custard: we’ve all grown up with instant custard, which has now been replaced by the freshly made, vanilla specked version in the supermarket chiller aisle. And there’s…

* There’s no better way to get to the heart of a city than through the people who live there. Every month, we ask someone, clearly in love with their city, to take us on a personal tour and tell us what makes it so special. You may feel inspired to visit one day or to rediscover the charms of a city closer to you, but for now just sit back, relax and enjoy some armchair travel. How long have you lived in the city? I was born and raised in Aarhus. I have a strong feeling of belonging here and love to watch the city develop and see how it has grown into a cultural capital. Tell us what makes your city unique. We call ourselves the smallest metropolitan…

Camomile Tea Katherine Mansfield Outside the sky is light with stars; There’s a hollow roaring from the sea. And, alas! for the little almond flowers, The wind is shaking the almond tree. How little I thought, a year ago, In the horrible cottage upon the Lee That he and I should be sitting so And sipping a cup of camomile tea. Light as feathers the witches fly, The horn of the moon is plain to see; By a firefly under a jonquil flower A goblin toasts a bumble-bee. We might be fifty, we might be five, So snug, so compact, so wise are we! Under the kitchen-table leg My knee is pressing against his knee. Our shutters are shut, the fire is low, The tap is dripping peacefully; The saucepan…

“ALTHOUGH BATH IS A BUSTLING CITY, IT DOESN’T OVERWHELM YOU” “Once you move to Bath, it’s hard not to love it,” says Jane Campbell-Howard of the city she, husband Adrian and children Kitty, 14, and Max, eight, have called home since 2011. “It’s the only place I have lived where no one talks about moving. We just feel lucky to be here. Feeling settled is really good for the mind.” Jane and Adrian chose Bath to put down roots after years of roaming the globe. They met in San Francisco when Adrian was running a restaurant in Hong Kong and Jane was travelling the world working for Formula One. Prior to their move to Bath, they had spent a couple of years managing Vanessa Branson’s riad, El Fenn, in Marrakech,…

There’s no sensible reason to light a candle. We have electricity, after all, which has been doing a perfectly good job of lighting rooms since Edison patented the first light bulb in 1879. You no longer require “a candle to light you to bed”; a mere flick of a switch provides all the illumination necessary. Chances of power cuts are slim these days, so there’s not even the need to have a box of candles on standby. Nevertheless, we still can’t resist candles, and buy them in quantity and in various forms, from tea lights to pillar candles. Luckily, the variety of candlesticks has never been so wide-ranging, nor so alluring, so there’s plenty of ways to indulge our love of the naked flame. The appeal of candlelight isn’t hard…

Shower curtains divide opinion. There are those who resist them, favouring a glass screen; others appreciate their cheer and affordability. Here are three ways to bring one into your home. MAKE The only really tricky thing when making a shower curtain is the grommets (metal eyelets), but once you’ve bought a grommet kit (£9.52, drapertools.com), you’ll be away. First, choose your fabric – vinyl, polyester or a polyester/cotton blend fabrics are ideal. An average curtain measures 190x190cm but you’ll need to add 40cm for the hem and 20cm on either side to turn in, so you may need to stitch two pieces together. Fold the top edge over twice (10cm each time) and stitch. Repeat for the bottom and sides (5cm each side). Mark position of grommets (a typical curtain…

A snow holiday doesn’t have to mean aching thighs, busy bars and crowded slopes. You see, there are two sides to every mountain and while you could just follow the crowds merrily downhill, why not explore Europe’s magnificent snow-covered scenery in your own way? But please, while you’re off racing huskies, eating local food, skiing through silent forests and chasing the Northern Lights, spare a thought for the others, stuck in the same bar, on the same slope, with the same old view. Or not. Welcome to the quiet side of the mountain. It’s a kind of magic OUR AIM IS to help you enjoy the snow amid some truly idyllic locations. And we don’t just mean the beautiful valleys and villages: all our hotels are specially hand-picked, and whether…

Pertisau is perhaps the ideal place to try out a number of different winter activities amid the enchanting surroundings of the Austrian- Tyrolean Alps, and a particularly good place for cross-country skiing if you’re new to the sport. The friendliness of fellow skiers and the feeling of being close to nature make cross-country skiing here a really enjoyable activity. What’s more, it’s suitable for just about everyone, regardless of age, as it doesn’t normally take long to master the art of the gliding slide – a little practice and it does come quite easily for most. And steering? That’s easy too, thanks to the ‘tramlines’ cut daily by a special machine. There are some gentle trails through the village to help you get into the swing of things, and three…