Listening

It's Sunday and traditionally this is a day for reflection. Although I'm not planning to go to church today I occasionally enjoy listening to a sermon when it's given by a particularly enlightened and sometimes witty priest. I think I've written before about how I find it important to take time out to think about life and where I'm going. I suppose because I don't have children to worry about I have more time to do this but it's always been essential to me. I'm pretty sure that if I don't pause and reflect on what's happening internally and externally I end up lost in confusion and wondering where the hell I'm going with all my stuff. 


Listening is an incredibly important part of life. It's almost a skill that one needs to learn. When I was a child it felt good to be with an adult who listened to me and I felt understood me. It seems to me to be the essence of what makes up a good relationship. It matters in friendship as well of course. If I'm with a close friend the conversation is a delicate balance between listening to what he or she has to say and me talking about my things. I often catch myself impatiently talking before my friend has even finished what they need to say and I find it quite annoying in myself. 


How do we train ourselves to listen? Sit and be quiet. It's really quite simple but actually rather hard for most people to do. We're so used to being active and thinking of all the things that need to be done. But  you can do it. I think the technical term for it is meditation but I prefer to think of it as just a bit of quiet time. If you can do that then you are in a good position to be attentive to what's important around you and it makes it a lot easier to listen. If you're busy, busy, busy all the time you become a pain in the neck and sometime even a bit mad. I find it hard to be with really pushy people who only seem to listen to what's going on inside them and can't hear what anyone else has to say. I don't know what's causing it. Maybe they're totally self-absorbed and can't hear what anyone else is saying or perhaps it's because they're totally insensitive and couldn't give a damn. Who knows?


All I know is that I like to be around people who do take time to listen to each other. I'm trying to get better at it myself although I know that sometimes it's not always easy. When you're in emotional pain however I know it's one of the essential things that help you get better. My mum used to say that therapy was the great talking cure and I'm sure that's true but it's good to learn how to listen as well and not just be in the position where you are the one getting it all off your chest. I suppose it's a question of balance.


Anyway that's all I have to say for today. I can't write this without acknowledging that my blog is of course my way of getting my ideas out there. Hopefully I don't come across as too egocentric and I like to think of it as like sending postcards to friends around the world. The feedback is good too!

Melting macarons

I have been doing a fairly intensive amount of baking recently with varying degrees of success. It is a bit scary how easily things can go wrong with patisserie and it takes quite a lot of courage to carry on in the knowledge that at any second it's probably all going to go a bit out of control. I seem to veer from one near catastrophe to the next in the kitchen. This evening at my birthday party the delicate little macarons I worked so hard to make were sitting prettily on their glass plate - the next thing I knew they had turned into some sort of molten creation that we needed spoons to dig into. It still tasted scrummy it's just that it looked a bit weird and rather less elegant. Well as the French say Tant pis..

The other calamity was the pastry creme for my strawberry tart which turned into scrambled egg as I was adding the egg mixture to the simmering milk. I managed to salvage it by hastily transferring it all back into the KitchenAid mixer. Thank God for that piece of machinery. It's worth every penny of the investment as it sorts out most of my messes. In the end I was very happy with the result even if the tart went the same way as the macarons and turned into an aesthetic slop. Notice that I only place images of these delicacies on this page before they started to slide of the plate... the rest I leave to your imagination.

I don't really mind these mishaps as I quite enjoy the voyage of discovery and I learn something from each new disaster. I'm beginning to gain a whole new respect for the art of patisserie. It's a steep learning curve but one that I'm happy to pursue because it seems to give a lot of pleasure to everyone and that's a good thing in life.

Books for Cooks

 

Yesterday was an extraordinary day for me. I received an overwhelming amount of lovely comments about my stall at Books for Cooks. They were only biscuits but anyone would think I'd created a work of art from all the warmth and support I received from everyone. After three weeks of constant baking and experimenting with ideas for my biscuits I finally got everything wrapped up and tied with pretty little ribbons. It was a lot of hard work but worth it in the end as I met some very interesting people and contacts were made which is what it was all about.  So huge thanks to Eric and Clara at Books for Cooks for all their support and giving me the opportunity to launch Tea with Alex on Saturday.

Saturday on Portobello Road has a bit of a party atmosphere and it was fun to observe the mix of people passing by. Some stopped and chatted to me, others just wanted to take a photo of the biscuits or find out about what I was up to. Eric encouraged me to engage with the public and not just sit at my stall nonchalantly expecting people to buy a biscuit. You can't be shy. It's essential to chat people up and make a sale. I learned a lot! Some of my friends pitched up too which was great as it meant that I was able to relax and enjoy having a few familiar faces around. My adorable little friend Heloise was keen to pose with the biscuits and we had a lovely chat about how to create a cookie and what I use for my inspiration. I think she could be a budding biscuiteer..

I never thought I'd be any good at patisserie as I'm a fairly instinctive cook like most people. A little bit here, a little bit there. something else thrown in for good measure.. that sort of thing. But I have surprised myself with these biscuits. They are the most incredibly fiddly things to do and require a huge amount of patience and determination to get right. But the reason I've not given up with them is because I really love the end result and I have practised, practised and practised until I am happy with them. Also I have had lots of encouragement from all kinds of people and it's been quite an absorbing journey to see where I can get with them. My friend Sophie set me the challenge to come up with a bespoke biscuit for her jewellery business and it was a great moment when I actually received the cookie cutter which I designed in the shape of her logo.

Eric at Books for Cooks invited me to put on a display at his shop which then turned into an opportunity to sell the biscuits outside the shop. I have always been fascinated by packaging and it was totally my thing when I was at art college studying graphic design so in many ways I have managed to combine all the things I love. I mustn't forget my Mum who helped me with the purchase of my KitchenAid mixer, without which the making of all my cakes and biscuits would be a formidable task. As it is I love the process of putting all the ingredients together, making a bit of a mess and then seeing what happens. Michal showed me how to keep lots of recipes up in the air at any one time. And my friend Jemima at Great Western Studios in Notting Hill recently held a very interesting event with the theme of food, drink and design. Julian Metcalfe, who set up Pret a Manger and Itsu was a speaker, as well as Afroditi Krassa who is Julian's brand director for Itsu and branding and design who has worked on beautiful wine labels designs for the winemaker Telmo Rodriguez. They all advised me not to attempt to go commercial and retain the integrity of my designs so that's what I'm doing. I want to keep everything personal and design to please myself and the client. I won't be going global just yet...