The sky from my window - late afternoon.....
the sun going down over the garden,
throwing its light over the bookshelves in the spare room,
where this weird and wonderful creature lives - one of my husband's creations - guardian of his books. But as he can't read them, his books are an anachronism now, a white elephant in the room.
I recently commissioned this marvellous painting of him by the portrait artist Rachel Jamieson, surrounded by his weird and wonderful ceramics. So even if the ceramics themselves find other homes I'll always have this picture to remind me....
You can find Rachel's moving portraits at
Tonight I wanted to use up the tired red cabbage I've had in the fridge for ages - I meant to cook it at Christmas but ran out of time. For inspiration I looked in Dennis Cotter's wonderful book Wild Garlic Gooseberries and Me, and adapted his recipe for Braised Savoy Cabbage and Apricots and Pecans - actually it ended up nothing like it but was still fab.
Chop a couple of shallots, add some minced ginger and garlic and fry in coconut oil. Add the shredded red cabbage, 2 small wizened apples, a sprinkle of toasted cumin seeds, the last of the dried Christmas cranberries, cover with hot vegetable bouillon and cook till tender and rosy purple. Stir in some knobbly chopped walnuts, season with S&P and a slick of shiny pomegranate syrup swirled in at the end for sweet winter comfort.
We accompanied it with roasted squash chunks, half a gem squash each, shredded Neroli cabbage, a dollop of left over tomato sauce and a fillet of smoked haddock.
While I was chopping and stirring I lit all the old candle stubs from Christmas and let them burn and melt into a soft white sea.... like waves of white elephant ears on the plate.
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