Photo diary: weeks 36 and 37, project 365

Last weekend was super hectic, and I haven't had a chance to do a weekly post of photos, so today it's a double portion of our news.

Walking through the flood fields into town, the Sun was bright, stretching its rays like arms towards the Earth.

Last week I had to write two book reviews. One was for Nadine by John Steinberg, a story of the tragic French ballet dancer Nadine (if you fancy reading my review, see the link above).

We finally watched the Endgame on DVD, and enjoyed it very much. Eddie takes all the Marvel business seriously, and watches a lot of YouTube videos on the merits of different characters, actors' insights and gossip on filming the Avengers.

I have an antique carved wooden board for pryaniki (Russian spiced cookies). Ever since reading the proof copy of The girl who speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson, I wanted to bake some old-style Russian spiced cookies. As Thursday was the official publication day of the book, I baked the cookies the day in advance, so that I could make a post to celebrate the event.

I'm a big fan of Sophie Anderson, and loved both of her books, which are inspired by the Russian folklore, but present a completely unique interpretation.
These are the pryaniki (spiced cookies) I baked the day before.

Walking through the fields, and admiring the red colour of hawthorn berries.

Eddie and I were planning to go to the book-signing event with Sophie Anderson at Oxford on Sunday. She saw my spiced cookies online, and I wanted to bake a new batch for her. I bought a bear cookie cutter in Lakeland, and did a template for a girl. The cookie dough was exactly the same as I used for the bird-shaped cookies. I also used cake pens which you can buy in Tesco. 

This was meant to be a surprise gift for Sophie.

Meeting Sophie Anderson was the highlight of my week. She is as charming, sweet and endearing in real life as she is on social media.
The event took place in Blackwell's book shop in Oxford. It was all about myths, retelling of myths and even creating a new one, involving the ideas from the audience. It was such a fun event, and Eddie and I enjoyed it very much.
We met Sophie's family too, including adorable baby Eartha.
Candy Gourlay, the author of Bone Talk, was the second speaker. It was wonderful to watch these two talented creative women who've elevated the banter to the next level.

Monday: Back to school, back to the prose of life. The day was rather dull and grey. I took the photo of the birds resting on the roof in the town centre, as if they were having an important meeting.

We watched too many Marvel movies, and now see "Marvel" symbols and things around us, like this Hawk-Eye's bow and arrow in the sky.

I found this little gem of a book in the charity shop. This copy of Jo's Boys by Louisa M. Alcott was presented to a girl named Margaret Beckley for Arithmetic standard VI by South Oxford Girls' School Council in July 1926. What a splendid colourful dedication!
There were around ten vintage books, signed by Margaret. It's clearly a collection which has been donated to the shop by the family, who doesn't want these much loved books.

We spotted this funny-shaped cloud on the way home from school.
As we watched the Black Panther the evening before, we thought it does look a bit like a panther.

St Mary's Church is my favourite "model". I take its image in all weathers and seasons, and its spire looks like the guardian of Witney.

It's so warm today, it feels like summer. I suppose, it is the Indian summer. My tomatoes in the greenhouse keep giving plenty of fruit, and I've picked a little bowl for dinner today. They're so sweet and smell lovely.

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Cashew apricot slice

I  can never resist the book shelves in the charity shops. Cook books hold a special place in my heart, especially of the vintage variety. Last year I was lucky to get a copy of The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits (The Australian Women's Weekly, 1982 edition) for a princely sum of 20p. I have bookmarked quite a few recipes from the book, as they look so tasty.

One of the bookmarked recipes which I had an eye on for a long time is an apricot nut slice which uses peanuts and a mix of flours. I have adapted the recipe, changing the nuts, and adding ground nuts to the base to make it even nuttier. The base of this traybake is similar to shortbread. It's short and crumbly, and not too sweet. The topping is a mix of chopped and ground cashews, with cocoa, coconut and apricot jam. Basically, it's a recipe for fans of nuts.

Cashew apricot slice
Ingredients:
50g cashews, ground
130g plain flour
1tbsp caster sugar
1 egg yolk
90g butter
for the topping:
55g apricot jam
1 egg white
60g caster sugar
30g coconut
1tbso cocoa, sifted
150g cashews (1/3 chopped, 2/3 blitzed)

Blitz the cashews and add to the mixing bowl with the flour. Add sugar, egg yolk and chopped cold butter. Make crumbs, using hands, then combine together to form a rather stiff dough.
Take a brownie tin and line with the foil or parchment paper, spray with the oil. Press the dough evenly in the tin, and bake at 180C for 10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl mix together the apricot jam with caster sugar, dissicated coconut, sift in the cocoa powder. Chop 1/3 of the cashews roughly and blitz the remaining nuts. Add to the jam mix.
Remove the tin from the oven, and spread the jam mix on top of the biscuit base evenly.
Place the tin back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

Allow to cool in the tin before cutting into slices.

It's a tasty traybake, which goes well with tea or coffee.

In this recipe I used Whole Cashew Nuts from Whole Foods Online. They have a wide selection of nuts, whole and chopped, in different sizes, from 125g bag to 22kg.
Cashews make a great all round snack, they are high in protein and healthy fats which could assist in controlling cholesterol levels. They also contain a host of vitamins and minerals, essential for daily boidly function.
Whole nuts from Whole Foods Online are raw, unsalted and unroasted. They have a crunchy exterior and a creamy texture.

They are such a versatile ingredient, great in baking or in ethic recipes, from curry to stir fry, from ramen to nachos, and many more.

What is your favourite recipe with cashew nuts?

Disclosure: I received a bag of cashews for using them as an ingredient in a recipe post.

The Fourth Victim by John Mead

Three deaths
Two grieving families
One murder investigation team
How many killers?

As a subgenre of a crime fiction/detective story the police procedural puts the emphasis on the investigation, conducted by the police department and its officers.

The Fourth Victim by John Mead gives a good insight into the police procedure.

We follow an elderly lady with the shopping trolley, as she walks through the park and sees a body lying amongst the trees. It is a young girl, who was killed minutes before her body is discovered.
Her Mum, in the meantime, is pacing the room, waiting for her daughter to return from jogging in the park. Instead of her daughter, she opens the door to the constables and Detective Inspector Merry.
And in a matter of seconds, her whole world collapses.

Detective Sergeant Julie Lukula is assigned to the case together with Merry. She doesn't dislike him as such, but doesn't think too high of him either. They are an odd team.
Looking at the death in the park, is it the mugging gone wrong?

But then the older case, very similar in many details, is being revealed. And a new murder, of another young girl, takes place.
Is it a work of a serial killer, or are several killers involved?

The most absorbing plotline is that of a young woman with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). Her inner world is split into different personalities, who are often unaware of what each of them are doing. She is a survivor of childhood abuse, and has learnt to live with the effects of her disorder.

Dr Alima Hassam is helping with the investigation. Leanne is her old patient, and she has met most of her personalities and can give an insight on the condition.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The procedural side of the story is riveting, and insightful, but there are such glaring breaches of boundaries committed by the police.

I couldn't warm up to the main protagonists who conduct the investigation. Merry is married, but keeps having extramarital affairs without second thought. He's not exactly an Adonis, but for some strange reason women jump at him.

Lukula's also sleeping around quite indiscriminately. And there are too many references to her sexuality. OK, we got it the first time.

Their casual sex is so joyless, that I thought why even bother at all? A fumble in the dark alley behind the pub sounds gruesome.

It's a rattling, unsettling, gripping thriller with a deepening sense of apprehension.


This review is part of the Book Birthday Blitz. Check out what the other bloggers think about this book at the following stops:

Many thanks to John Mead, The Book Guild Ltd and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Pryaniki for Yanka (Russian spiced cookies)

Ever since finishing The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson, I wanted to recreate one of the Russian recipes and foods mentioned in the book.
Inspired by the Russian folk tales about the human-bear child, flying ship, warrior princesses, evil dragons, Baba Yaga, and talking animals, Sophie writes with imagination and mastery.

This is a story about Yanka the Bear, who is big and strong. She lives with Mamochka, who has found Yanka outside the bear cave.
"I love living with Mamochka. She's the best mother I could have wished for, but I often wonder about the bear. I wonder if she remembers me. Maybe even misses me. I wonder about the bear almost as much as I wonder about my real parents. The ones who must have lost me - or left me - in the forest".
One day Yanka wakes up only to find out that she has got bear legs...

It's a magical tale of self-discovery, self-identity, our uniqueness and differentness, of what a family and friendship, and true love mean to us. It's a beautiful story, and a future classic.

Sophie Anderson did it again, she has created a story of perfect balance. She's a true tsarina of the reinvented Russian folk tales.

Sophie's descriptions of the Russian food always "taste" good.
"Mamochka pours Anatoly a cup of tea with lemon and passes him a basket of pryaniki - soft spiced cookies with a glaze as white as the snow outside".

Pryaniki are the Russian honey and spice-based cookies. The word itself pryaniki is derived from pryanyi, i.e. spicy. They are often glazed, with a nice crunch on the outside, but typically soft inside, unlike the British gingerbread (It always amuses me when the judges on the GBBO complain that the gingerbread should snap, as if the soft gingerbread is an anomaly).

This is a festive food, rich and spicy. The authentic pryaniki are made with the rye flour. You might find lots of recipes online for the Russian spiced cookies, and many of them use the standard wheat flour, mixed sometimes with cocoa powder to add the colour. But do try making them with the rye flour, the taste is very special.

Pryaniki medovye (honey spiced cookies)
Ingredients:
220g honey
2tsp+ mixed spices (ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, star anise)
80g caster sugar + water
450g rye flour
80g butter, melted
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2tbsp lemon juice
1tsp baking powder
120g icing sugar + 1 egg white for icing

In a small pan heat up the honey with spices. Set aside.
Make caramel in a small frying pan, stirring caster sugar with a dash of water. The caramel should be liquid and not too thick. Once dark in colour, set the caramel aside.
Mix the honey with caramel in a deep mixing bowl, then add half of the rye flour and mix.
Melt the butter and add to the dough. Once it is cool to touch, beat in the egg and egg yolk, lemon juice, baking powder and add the remaining flour.
Mix the dough, using hands. If the dough is too stiff, squeeze a little bit more of lemon juice.

Roll the dough on a clean working surface to the thickness of 6-7mm.

To create authentic Russian pryaniki, I used a special wooden carved board. You can use either a carved board for shortbread, or a rolling pin with deisgns, and then cut out the shapes. Or just use cookie cutters, like stars.

If using a board with a carved design, place a piece of dough over the carved design (you need to oil the wood first), gently stamp the dough, and use the rolling pin over the dough, then carefully lift the stamped dough.
Cut out the shapes around the stamped image with a knife. This is how the uncooked pryanik looks.

Place the cookies on a big tray, lined with parchment paper. Put the tray in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. The cookies should be slightly browned, and will still be soft to touch. If you keep them longer in the oven, they will be crisp.

Unglazed pryanik

Once all the cookies are cool, prepare the glaze, using the icing sugar and the egg white. Mix them gently together, but don't overbeat, you don't want a meringue.

Using a brush, add the glaze over cookies. Let the glaze set. Ideally these cookies should rest for 24 hours, but in our case, they were flying off the cooling tray even before I managed to glaze them all.

They will keep in the tin for a long time. In fact, in the "olden days" pryaniki would be made weeks in advance of all major holidays and feasts. They just need to be kept in a tin or box with a lid.

In this recipe I used a Raw Wild Flower Bulgarian Honey from Whole Foods. It's a delicious honey, rich in vitamins and minerals. "It is made from the nectar of a wide variety of wild, pollen-rich flowers, which is why it has a distinctive and unique herbal flavour".

A few days ago I applied to the Bloggers Required assignment to test some products from the Whole Foods Online range, and this delightful honey was one of the products I agreed to try in a recipe (watch this space for more recipes to come!).
As I wanted to make the Russian pryaniki, I thought this was the most wonderful coincidence.

Happy publication day to The Girl Who Speaks Bear!

What Empty Things Are These by J.L.Crozier

"Wandering from room to room, I felt myself a child again, examining the spaces about me and imagining their history, though there was no history here save that of a loveless marriage".

Adelaide Hadley is engrossed in her book, when her husband arrives home unexpectedly and catches her unawares. In a fit of temper - he disapproves of her choice of a book, it being Mr Collins's The Woman in White - and raises his cane to hit her, when he suffers a stroke and falls into a coma.
"There lay he who raised his voice at the notion of women reading sensation, at this literature's stirring of imagination among the weak, at the distraction from duty, at the wanton tempted away from their virtues..."

Thus begins a dark, complex novel by J.L.Crozier - What Empty Things Are These.

The story is set in the 1860s Britain, when women and children were considered as mere possessions of the man of the house. Rigid Victorian laws, rules and customs enforced a male-centred dominance.
The man "disciplining" his wife was a totally common phenomenon in the Victorian era.

Adelaide has to leave her dark, tight cocoon of dependency and begin to change her life, step by tiny step. The newly found freedom is frightening and intoxicating at the same time.
While her husband is in a state of coma, slowly deteriorating and rotting, Adelaide has to re-evaluate everything she knows about running the house, and take steps to make her future a bit more secure.

And it's not only her own future that is going to be affected. Her maid and confidante Sobriety and the other womenfolk who serve in the house, depend on her change of fortune.

The title bears its name from the discussion Adelaide has with the family solicitor, when Mr Hadley's will is disclosed. The widow will be left with only a small annuity, which won't be even enough for the upkeep of the house. Bypassing his wife entirely, everything will go to their son when he becomes of age to be the owner.
"Mr Gordon laid his metaphorical parcels before me and I thought, idiotically: What empty things they are".

Locked in a loveless, abusive marriage - Adelaide was a child bride to a man her father's age - and forced to give up her only child to the ministrations of the strict nanny, her story is poignant and dark.
Her life is dreary, she as much a slave of her husband, as her maid, who is raped by Adelaide's husband. Two female protagonists' lives are intertwined into one symbol of suffering and subjugation. Yet their spirit is not broken. Their friendship, devotion to each other, is beautifully written. Crozier created authentic characters, and the setting is flawless.

Free from her husband's dictatorship, Adelaide is hesitantly exploring the possibilities of writing for the ladies' magazines as a source of income. When her first piece is accepted for publication, she is thrilled and exalted. But of course, ladies of her status are not supposed to earn money. Adelaide's family takes an umbrage and puts a lot of pressure on her to give up on writing.

Gwendolyn, the widowed elder sister, keeps all her siblings under her thumb. She is a forceful, bullying entity behind the complicated family dynamics:
"I knew Gwendolyn would consider sensitivity in this or similar matters a waste of time. My sister is brutality itself, wrapped in strait propriety".

Women of their class are supposed to be pretty ornaments. "We ladies gazed up at him with our soft faces, seated, as we were in this womanly room embroidered so prettily and curtained away from the world. The very vase on the small table, filled with what few roses and foliage could be found this time of year, gave emphasis to my domestic womanliness."

Adelaide and Sobriety venture into London, both excited and giddy with their own bravery, when they follow a nameless girl with a baby in her arms into the tunnel. They are full of good intentions but of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Their interference brings on dramatic, unalterable results.

This elegantly told tale is a deeply compelling dark narrative, with brilliant protagonists.

The book cover design deserves a special mention. It depicts a family heirloom with two images, of a young woman and a much older gentleman. The roses on the desk are past their bloom, the petals getting discoloured in decay. The white rose symbolised purity and innocence in the Victorian times.
Roses in decay represent here an innocence lost.


Potential triggers: marital abuse, rape, child separated from his mother, etc.

Nadine by John Steinberg #BlogTour

He was in love with the girl, who didn't love him in return: one of the great themes of classical Greek drama...

It's not easy to decide which genre Nadine by John Steinberg belongs to. It's a cross-genre between a contemporary romance, with the historical timeframes going back to the 1970s and even earlier, before WWII, with the elements of crime fiction (there is a subplot of an organised crime group, active in London) and the subgenre of ballet fiction.

We first meet Peter Greenberg, a theatre director, in London, 2012. His career has gone downhill, the latest show had closed early and left him practically bankrupt. While browsing the newspapers, Greenberg's attention is drawn to a headline about the celebrated Broadway director Dominic Langley who's considering a permanent move to the States.

Greenberg cannot put the young man's name out of his mind: "This time, however, creeping slowly into his overburdened heart, the past came to life once again, reminding him of his unfulfilled obligation to the only woman he had ever truly loved. Nadine... Several lifetimes had gone by since he had last thought about Nadine. But nothing would make him forget her, nor the first time he saw her onstage, all those years ago".

We travel back in time to 1974, when Greenberg goes to see his rival's musical and falls in love with an enigmatic dancer in blue - Nadine. Parisian-born talented dancer is a major star of the show. She's extraordinarily gifted, she is in demand, and her career appears to be secure.

Nadine embarks on an affair with the suave Charles, whose "air of superiority is consistent with a British public school education". He's charming and eloquent, and Nadine needs little persuasion, moving into a flat he owns in Chelsea.

When Nadine finds herself pregnant, she doesn't tell Charles, as he claims he wants to give his marriage a second chance. Charles is such a deeply unscrupulous and unpleasant character, that it's difficult to understand what Nadine could see in him.

Nadine is supposed to be an epitome of a free spirit, but she appears as rather self-indulgent, sexually indiscriminate, emotionally immature, fleeting from one relationship to another.

She is a tragic figure, a deeply troubled individual. Her married lover takes a full advantage of her fragile mental condition:
"...Nadine once again had the feeling she was being manipulated, and that the control of her own life was being taken away from her by some sleight of hand".

Yet she's also irresponsible, and as a mother, she has failed her child on all accounts.
"The deep guilt she felt at that moment threatened to tear her apart. How could she have been so selfish as to think that she could be a mother just when it suited her? Although she was loath to admit it, she was no better than her father putting his career above his family".

I couldn't relate or warm up to her.
"She took her medication when she remembered - and when she renewed her prescription. But the truth was that she only felt normal while she was performing, when she could escape into a world of fantasy".

It's an unusual absorbing novel, a nuanced examination of the human nature, with its foibles and strengths. A haunting maze of family ties and secrets, broken trust, unrequited love and distant hope.

Greenberg, Nadine and Charles' lives intersect and impact each other, forming an irregular tragic love triangle.
The story pulls you in, and also gives a fascinating insight into the world of West End show business from the 1970s to the present time.

Potential triggers: mental health problems, depression, suicide, Holocaust.

This review is part of the blog tour for Nadine, check out the following blog stops:

Disclosure: Many thanks to John Steinberg, 2QT Limited and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Apple bundt cake

September is a great time to enjoy the harvest. We have five apple trees in the garden. Two of them are "having a break" this year, bearing no fruit, but last year we had so many apples, I was running out of trays and cardboard boxes to keep them over winter. This year the crop is more manageable, which is good.
One of the younger trees is a Golden Delicious apple. My Mum and I bought it in the garden centre about 4 years ago. This year it produced around a dozen of beautiful apples. I've already eaten one, and it was crispy and sweet.
Two old apple trees have been in the garden for many years. I don't know who or when has planted them, these people are probably long gone, but I'm sure they would rejoice, if they knew how fruitful these apple trees are.

They are a late variety, best picked at the end of September or early October. At first, they are pretty sharp and sour, reminding me of Granny Smith's but after keeping in the summerhouse for a month or two, they mellow in taste, turn yellow and become rather sweet.

Yesterday morning I ventured in the garden and picked a few windfalls from the grass.
After watching the first episode of GBBO last Tuesday, I fancied baking a fruit cake (they had some tasty-looking fruit cakes as their first task to complete).

My sons are not very keen on "proper" fruitcakes, which are packed with dried fruit, so my cake is a bit of a compromise, a hybrid of a fruitcake with a Russian apple cake Sharlotka.

It's a pretty easy cake, and wouldn't have scored many points at the GBBO challenge, as it's not decorated, but I rarely decorate the cakes, preferring just to add a bit of icing sugar or plain lemon icing. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the beautifully decorated cakes, like, for example, an exquisite Wedgwood Cake, baked by Anca at CookStyle. Her creation is a true showstopper.

Apple bundt cake
Ingredients:
2 medium apples (about 370g in weight together)
200g caster sugar (or less, if apples are sweet)
60g dried apricots, chopped
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground cloves
vanilla (I used freshly grated)
1tsp baking powder
3 medium eggs
300g self-raising flour
185g butter, melted

In a medium sized mixing bowl grate one apple (peeled before), and mix with sugar. Peel and finely chop another apple and add to the mix together with chopped apricots (softer variety; if they are too dried, then soak them in a bit of warm water in advance).
Add all the spices and baking powder. I used a vanilla grater, but 1tsp of vanilla paste or essence is fine as well.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift in the flour, and mix well.
Finally melt the butter, let it cool a bit, and add to the cake batter, mixing carefully.

Brush the bundt cake tin with melted butter or use a cooking oil spray. Scoop the cake batter in the tin, and place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for 40+ minutes. Check the readiness with a wooden toothpick. If your tin is of a different variety, it might take longer.

Also adjust the amount of sugar, depending on the apples you use. The sour/tart apples need more sugar, the dessert/sweet apples will require less sugar.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 5-10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Dust the cake with the icing sugar.

Serve warm or cold, with tea or coffee. For an indulgent treat, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or caramel sauce.

If you're looking for more baking recipes with the apples, try any of the following:
Apple Sharlotka

Belgian Apple Tart

Apple and Raisin Cake

Apple Semolina Cake

If it's the fruitcakes you're more interested in, may I tempt you with:

Boiled Fruit and walnut cake

Boiled Fruitcake

Fruitcake for Mma Ramotswe

Photo diary: week 35, project 365

The last day of summer is always a mix of sadness and relief. We're not quite ready to greet autumn, but by now I think we're all restless, and going back to school would definitely give me some personal time. I found the summer holidays too full-on. As I was telling my husband, who's away for the third time in the last month, that I haven't spent a single hour on my own these last few weeks, I'm always in someone's company, distracted from whatever I'm doing all the time.
Early mornings will be tough, but at least I will be able to have some time to myself, in peace and quiet, without being followed around and expected to answer one million questions.

A few weeks ago I asked someone to help me with the garden, as it's overgrown a lot in the summer. Along the weeds a small rose bush and a gooseberry plant were cut off, and I was left slightly fuming, as I thought it was pretty obvious they were not weeds. Thankfully, the little rose has recovered, and even produced a tiny red rosebud. The gooseberry, I'm afraid, hasn't come back to life.

This summer we had a Marvel-films-marathon with Eddie, watching around 20 Marvels films. Last Monday it was the turn of Dr Strange. Not my favourite from the series. My top three would be Thor Ragnarok, Spiderman Far from Home and Guardians of the Galaxy 2. We can't wait for the Endgame DVD to arrive, which has been on pre-order for a while. Eddie still hasn't forgiven me for not taking him to the cinema to watch it.

Earlier in summer I had an email from an author, asking if I would like to read and review her book. I'm so glad I agreed (I had way too many book reviews lined up for several months in advance, that I wasn't sure I could do it). It's beautifully written. I just need a day or two to finish my review, as I want to give it justice.

On Wednesday Sash had the last respite stay of the summer, and off he went, very happy. He had a great time. Eddie and I had a few errands in town. When I asked him what he'd like for dinner, he said he wanted chicken nuggets and chips. We did all the shopping, came back home, then I realised that we bought everything on the list except what he asked. Drat. We also collected Eddie's friend on the way home to spend the afternoon with us.
And so I ordered a takeaway pizza for the boys.

Leaving Eddie at home with the childminder, I ran into town to the pharmacy and a bit of grocery shopping. I enjoy walking by the Witney Mill.

Wild cyclamens bloom twice a year in my garden, in spring and in late summer/early autumn.

I picked a few windfalls in the garden this morning and baked a cake.
After watching the first episode of GBBO, I really fancied a fruitcake, but none of my boys like proper fruitcakes, which are packed with dried fruit. This apple bundt cake is a compromise. I've grated one apple and chopped another one, and added a handful of chopped dried apricots.
Sasha ate two slices so it must be a good one, as he's a tricky customer when it comes to bakes.

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