Indoor play sand. In action.

Yesterday I found myself with three hours between appointments. So I did what any sane person finding themselves in Oxford Street would do. I went to Selfridges, the place of my birth (really, almost, plus my Holy Communion dress was made there by my aunt who used to work in alterations there).

After wondering around books, buying myself a miniature Lola cupcake (red velvet with cream cheese topping, £1.25, delicious), looking at the artisan food stuffs that are beautiful but ludicrously expensive, I found myself in the not-small magazine section.

The world of crafts is really big now isn’t it? There are sooo many magazines devoted to it. Most aren’t really my thing but there was one which had a bit of everything in it and in it there was a recipe for playsand (cept they called it something else, but I don’t remember what). It looked really easy (unlike everything else in those magazines that require old socks, broom  handles, glue, cut up gloves etc), so I tried it this morning.

You need:

Five measures of flour (methinks this is a good way to use up past sell-by-date flour)
One measures of baby oil

A bowl
A large, shallow plastic container, such as you see above. This you put the sand in to play.

You then mix the flour and baby oil together, kinda rub it together like crumble mixture. It’ll look all dry but when you squeeze it together it holds. So it’s brilliant for putting into containers and generally playing with.

My three year old has been playing with it for the past nearly-two hours. Then she found my Chanel lip gloss.

Okay. So it’s not actually a kettle and it doesn’t really cost £1000 exactly (it costs from £830 at the time of writing). But it grabbed your attention didn’t it?

It’s actually a Quooker boiling water tap which stores water in a 3L tank (you can get a 7L one but it costs much more, is much bigger and you don’t really need that, really you don’t in normal domestic circumstances) under the sink at 110C and delivers it at 100C – filtered. No more scummy tea. And it comes in a few different designs and finishes if you don’t like that one.

(God, look. I know I sound like an ad. This isn’t an ad. No-one has paid me to write this and I don’t give a toss if you buy one or not. The only reason I’m writing this is because when I was considering one, there were no really useful reviews and it’s an expensive thing. So anyone with any Qs, do ask away…)

So, anyway, I’d been thinking about getting one of these for ages. Partly because I was sick of leaky kettles or ones that just kept breaking down after two years. But the cost was really putting me off. And the people who already had one were evanfuckinggelical about their bloody Quookers, and that was putting me off.

Anyway, Quooker isn’t the only company that does these. Zip also does (Google them) but the tank that fits under the sink is hooge and they’re even more expensive. Advantage with the Zip is that you also get cold filtered water through them but we didn’t need this as we already have a Brita filter tap that delivers cold filtered water.

It’s a very high-end piece of kit. You can’t justify it in terms of cost of this vs not ever having to buy a kettle again, because you could buy several, several kettles for the price. The advantages are no more kettles or kettle leads, you take only the water you need (so it’s more economical than boiling a kettle when you only need one cup). No more boiling the kettle, forgetting you’ve boiled it and then having to reboil it. But again you can’t justify it in terms of electricity saving because the outlay is BIG. So I’m not going to. All I’m going to say is that we’ve had ours in use for about a year now and it’s fantastic. Our electricity bills have definitely gone down, but whether it’s due to that or not, I can’t say.

It delivers perfectly boiling, filtered water and yes, tea tastes better. No more waiting for the water to boil to make pasta, or anything. (Yeah yeah, I know it only takes minutes but still.) You can sterilise knives you’ve just used to cut raw meat, chopping boards, blanch veg etc. But all of these things you can do with a kettle.

It’s just that I don’t want to.

It has a safety device which is you have to hold the tap handle down and turn it at the same time (but once pushed in it stays on). It’s safer than a kettle in that if a child pulls a kettle on top of them, the entire contents will go on them. The Quooker delivers water at 0.05litres of a second. You still need to be careful with it however but in situ, it’s incredibly safe even if the idea of it isn’t.

Once it’s dispensed 3L of water it takes about 10 minutes to refill and reheat. I’ve never found this a pain. It stores the water in a 3L or 7L triple insulated tank. If I recall correctly, the heated up water doesn’t mix with the new cold water, i.e. you’re not constantly boiling up the whole tank every time you dispense some water and the tank tops up. We have a electricity monitor and I can see that, when not actively heating the water – i.e. just storing it, it doesn’t seem to use up any electricity.

There are various other hot water taps out there that cost not much at all, but they don’t dispense water at 100C, so they’re not boiling water taps.

If you’re having your kitchen refitted or just like the latest gadgets this is one to seriously consider. I love love love mine.

In the meantime, let me tell you a true story about a very famous designer having her Quooker fitted. So VFD leaves her assistant to deal with the Quooker engineer. Quooker engineer fits the Quooker and shows VFD’s assistant how to use it. “Oh no,” says VFD’s assistant, flapping the steam away, “VFD won’t like that, it steams”.

“That’s because,” says the Quooker engineer, “it’s a boiling water tap and water at 100C causes steam.”

“Oh no,” says VFD’s assistant “VFD won’t like that, can’t you do anything about the steam?”

Luckily, VFD loved the steam and the tap and had another fitted and everyone lived happily ever after.

Some years ago, I spied some rechargeable lights that looked really good. They were called Candela rechargeable lights by Vessel and they were not cheap: about £70 for four. I bought some and for a while, they were indeed great. You could use them inside or outside, no wires or batteries, and when they needed recharging you just put them in their recharging base (which did plug in). I could use them as a night light for my children – they could even take them to bed with them if they wanted.

The Candela (which means candle in Italian by the way). Not working because, well, they don’t work anymore.

But. After not very long at all, they stopped taking a charge. After replacing the base three times I gave up and relegated them to the top of the dressing table, where they’re still gathering dust. I can’t seem to find them for sale in this country anymore and perhaps that’s why, cos they just stopped working after a while and people got fed up with them.

This was a shame because they were also really good for when and where you wanted low, ambient light – a bath say – but didn’t want to use a candle. I love candles, I have more scented candles than you could possibly imagine: Diptyque, Creed, Jo Malone, Fresh et al, but with two young children, I don’t really use them much anymore.  So for the past few years I’ve been having a bath under what seem like 2000W bulbs. Restful? Not much.

Then I found these LED flickering Imageo candle lights from Philips.

Here they are off.

Here they are on. Magic init.

A company I can at least track down fairly easily if things go wrong. And instead of £70 they cost £17 for three (ha, just looked and they’re even cheaper now, but you know with Amazon the price goes up and down, £17 is what I paid for them anyway). I though they’d be a bit naff, but actually they’re rather good (they look like a candle in a frosted glass container). You tip them to turn them on or off and when not in use they sit charging in a base. Great in pumpkins come Hallowe’en, great anywhere you’d use a candle. I love them by the bath, don’t have to worry about switching them off. They’re really nice on a dinner table (no point pretending they’re real but from a distance they do look authentic).  I give my children baths using them when they need calming down (works a treat, the little one goes into a sort of trance looking at them, so much so that I end up asking her if she’s doing a poo in the bath, it’s that sort of far away stare, but don’t worry, cos she’s not, she’s just transfixed).

They won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I love ’em.

Anyone visiting this blog probably thinks I gave up on the sourdough.

Wrong!

I bake all our own bread several times a week! I just ordered a new banneton, this time going for the more expensive Matfer one at £26.99 (just saying it made my eyes water), rather than the cheaper one I got last time which has already fallen apart after 18 months use (the other, cheaper ones, are fine still but the 1K round one was the one I used most). Matfer are industrial strength so they should last. I did toy with Vannerie which are hand made but really, that is too much for me.

Am also toying with idea of baking cloche, anyone have one? I feel it’s a bit superfluous as my oven is a great oven which makes lovely sourdough, and next year we’re building a wood fired oven in the garden. But I did wonder if anyone had one, and if so what they thought of it?

I did mean to do a post over the summer, as I had so many enquiries about ‘what to do with my starter when I go on holiday’. Honestly people. You just put it in the fridge, enjoy your holiday, and refresh * the starter when you get back. One friend even thought he had to bring the starter with him on holiday. I’d have loved to have seen customs deal with that.

*take out half of it, refresh with 125g strong white bread flour, 100g cold water, stir and leave for about 12 hours before using it to make dough.

La Gigogne. Very difficult to take a picture of a glass..

You may have gleaned, from one of my other posts, that I’ve got a thing about glasses. This may be because my beverage of choice is plain old water, and thus I need to get my kick from the vessel in which it’s served.

I am crazy for these Duralex glasses. Duralex almost went bust a few years ago, which must take some doing considering that its glasses are so beautiful, simple, iconic and various other words that you wouldn’t marry with a company that almost went bust. Perhaps its most famous glass is the Picardie. (That link not only takes you to a picture of the Picardie, but a rather good article on Duralex in general, in the Independent.)

But I’m not so keen on the Picardie. My particular favourite is the slightly lesser known, far simpler Gigogne glass. It looks a bit like a bowling ball with two lines etched around it (not easy to see in the pics, but you can just make them out). It sits so nicely in the palm of your hand and the 160ml size makes a lovely glass for children, too. Not so crazy when you realise (see below) how resilient Duralex is.

It comes in three sizes: 220ml, 160ml, 90ml. It’s the middle size you can see here and it is perfect for serving water, red wine (I really do not like traditional wine glasses, they make me hyperventilate, especially the ones we have which are on stems about a foot high and I always fear knocking them over because I am quite clumsy. My partner is rabid about serving wine in the correct way, at the correct temperature, in the correct glass and then you holding it in the correct way. Me? I drink the Italian peasant way, in a glass rough worker’s hands can pick up easily) or even, as you can see below, cappuccino. It holds, to my mind, the perfect proportions of a good cappuccino – not too much milk, one espresso shot.

You can also serve desserts in it – individual style trifles, mousses, you get the picture. Even though there isn’t one of it holding such a dessert. Another time.

Duralex glasses are virtually unbreakable: tempered, can stand hot or cold, chip proof, can go in the dishwasher or the microwave. No wonder they were used in school canteens and put to various other commercial uses in the 60s and 70s.

I cannot imagine a more hard working, plucky glass. And all for a coupla quid each. I got mine from Rinkit via Amazon. They are surely due for a major come back.

Update. Johnny Loulous has now started stocking them. I now have them in both the medium and large size. I prefer the large for water (I drink a lot of water).

This little museum is just a short walk away from where I grew up. I’ve been meaning to go there ever since I discovered its existence, a couple of years ago. It’s a lovely way to spend an hour or so and unless you’re unlucky, it should be nice and calm and not too busy.

There are cabinets full of packets of washing up liquid, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, bleach, stock cubes…you get the picture. It shows how packaging has changed over the years (or, not so much in some cases) and it’s a great trip down memory lane. I found it comfortingly nostalgic. There are good toilets, a very simple cafe (simple as in the staff have a kettle and make the tea) but a few tables to sit at – very peaceful (or was when we went) with a TV showing ads from the past on a loop – which provided excellent entertainment.

The shop has some great postcards (55p showing vintage ads).

I loved this place. Go.

Ottolenghi is round the corner if you want to spend lots of money on great pastries.

Museum of Brands:

Opening hours
Tues-Sat 10.00:18.00, Sun 11.00:17.00
Closed Mondays except Bank Holidays
Last entry is 45 minutes before closing
Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, Notting Hill Carnival
Admission
Adults £6.50 (including Gift Aid),
Children (7-16) £2.25, Family £15.00, Concessions £4.00. Group discount 10% (groups of 10 or more are asked to pre-book).

It’s a joke in our house that whenever I’m on a particularly scary deadline, I iron tea towels. My partner can always tell when I’m procrastinating wildly because he comes home/downstairs/in from the shed and everything is ironed to within an inch of its life.

I only like industrial looking tea towels. The ones with the red or blue stripe and something (I’ve never worked out what) written down its length. I loathe cutsey, jokey ones. They are completely wrong. But I love these mid-century modern styley ones from M&S with their bright, graphic designs: £9.50 for three. I’ve seen similar for about £15 each so buy before they all go.