Nature In The Village

Let's a break from the rest of Europe and revisit Portmeirion, shall we?

For such an artificial construction, The Village is certainly surrounded by an abundance of natural beauty.

Summer Safari Dress

The fabric for this dress started life as a duvet cover, before I chanced on it in the op-shop. Imagine that, someone had a zebra print duvet cover! I want to meet that person and talk to them about our mutual love for animal print furnishing fabrics! They probably didn't love it that much though, since they gave it away. 

 I was going for a simple 1960s-inspired shift dress look, and decided to draft the pattern myself. It's a simple sleeveless bodice, with two slanted pockets on an A-line skirt. The whole thing closes at the back with a vintage metal-toothed zipper. I'd also drafted a Peter Pan collar for the bodice, but decided to forgo it due to the print's busyness. 

 

Dress - selfmade, Scarf - market stall in Krakow, Black tights - random, Shoes - market stall in Stalowa Wola

In A Pickle

What do you do on holiday? Well, sometimes you get pulled into the kitchen for a good pickle-making session. Making these sour little Polish pickles is a relatively fussfree process - gather your containers and ingredients, assemble them in the jars and then pour some hot, salty brine over it. Put the caps on, leave the jars aside for a few weeks, and you've got a stash of tasty gherkins to accompany every meal (maybe not breakfast).

Dill umbels in clean jars. 

Garlic and fresh horseradish for a tasty pickle. 

Most important ingredient - fresh, washed gherkins. 

No vinegar is added to the brine at all, just lots of salt and water. The sourness comes from the alchemical combination of salt, water and bacteria...yummy!

Whistle Stop Tour

Where have I been? Well, the last couple of weeks have been spent whirling through 4 cities in 3 countries, on planes, trains, automobiles and even a ship! Here are some highlights (in no particular order):

- a visit to a salt mine,

- lots of food,

- impressive buildings,

- and a wedding cake with bells on.

More to come!

The Haul

I've been spending a bit too much this fortnight, but I've g a bunch of treasures to show off! As well as haunting the usual op-shops, I've also been checking out Bermondsey Antiques Market. The market can be a bit hit-and-miss, and prices are certainly higher than at a car boot sale, but there are still some lovely items to be found, such as...

3 bags of assorted watch parts, including some lovely enamelled watch faces

and some faceless bracelet watches, which I'll be wearing stacked on my arm, kind of like those jelly bracelets I used to wear as a teenager. 

I also picked up a little round photoframe, a heartshaped spoon, a mid-19th century candle snuffer as well as this Coronet box camera loaded with film (below) from the markets.

These were found hiding in dark corners of various op-shops -

a lovely pale green and gold teacup and saucer, sitting in a box under a table. The cup has a faint crack, but I still love it anyway.

An 1820s Crown Derby plate! Possibly the oldest things I have at home at the moment!

And...a 'Lochs of Scotland' from Wedgwood, with 6 soup plates, 6 plates and a lidded veggie bowl! It weighed a ton, which is why I have a Manbacon around to carry stuff for me!

Quick and Easy Pear Tart

So, you really, really feel like dessert, but you just don't have to energy to head to the shops, and the thought of baking something is more than enough to drive you under the duvet. I was feeling that way a couple of nights ago, when this pear tart came to the rescue!

This tart takes hardly any time and effort to throw together, doesn't require any fancy ingredients, and is endlessly customisable, so you can always whip up a few if you've got unexpected guests coming over, or a last minute invite to...well, any occasion where you're likely to want stuff your face.

Easy Pear Tart (serves 4)

Ingredients 

1 ready rolled puff pastry sheet 

3-4 medium pears

about 2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

a knob of butter

Directions

- Defrost puff pastry sheet (if frozen). Preheat oven to 220C.

- Place puff pastry sheet onto a greased or lined baking try. Quarter, core and thinly slice pears; you can skin them if you prefer. 

- Arrange pear slices on the puff pastry sheet, leaving about 1cm empty on all sides so the pastry can puff up and form 'walls'. Sprinkle cinnamon, ginger and brown sugar all over the pear slices, then cut up little chunks of butter and dot them around the pears. 

- Place prepared tart in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and puffed up on the sides, and the pears are soft and browned. Let it cool down slightly, then enjoy it!