Spring clean

Finally we are beginning to see signs that spring is on its way. Daffodils, blossom, Easter eggs and, dare we say it, the odd sunny day. 

While it might not be time to put away our winter coats just yet, it is time to think about welcoming the new season into our homes. What better way to do so than with a spring clean. Whether you plan to set aside an entire weekend to clean from skirting board to ceiling or you’re just going to resolve to give those curtains a spin in the washing machine, our Shopkeeper, Louise Gorrod, has the selected the perfect cleaning kit from The Stuff of Life to make those chores a little more enjoyable.

Images from top, left to right: Organic cotton ironing board cover by Orche and Ocre, £18.00 | Linen laundry bag by The Linen Works, £28.00 | Vintage style enamel wash bowl by The Glam Camping Company, £9.99 | Linen kitchen towels by LinenMe, £10.99 | Birch wood round brush by Cachette, £20.00 | Handcrafted scrubbing brush by Cachette, £12.00 | Set of 3 Kaleidoscope storage boxes by Cambridge Imprint, £18.00 | Organic cotton peg bag by Orche and Ocre, £12.00 | Natural belly basket by Olli Ella, £25.00.

Recipe: Allium broth

This delicious broth has many uses. Use it instead of water for cooking pulses and beans and it brings them to life immediately. Add some diced or shredded green vegetables and simmer until they soften for a nutrient-rich soup or simply stir in some green pesto and lemon juice and pour into a mug for a light lunch on the go.

Allium broth

Makes 1.2 litres
2 large white onions, skins on, sliced
2 leeks, green ends included, sliced
1 bunch spring onions, sliced vertically
4-6 garlic cloves, rolled and smashed, skins on
4 small shallots, skin on, sliced into rounds
2.25 litres water
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns

1 Combine all the ingredients in a large pan. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil.
2 Lower the heat to a simmer, and continue cooking for 2 hours until all the allium vegetables have softened, become totally transparent and are almost reduced to a pulp.
3 Strain the broth through a sieve, pushing through the finer vegetables with a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.
4 Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days, or freeze for up to three months.

Recipe from Broth by Vicki Edgson and Heather Thomas. Photography by Lisa Linder (Jacqui Small Publishing).

Read more:

From the February issue

Soup recipes

Supper on the sofa

February's The Simple Things is out now - buy, download or subscribe. 

Recipe: Edible baubles

Giving the odd couples on Strictly Come Dancing’s Christmas special a run for their money is this recipe’s unlikely pairing: fruit cakes and Polo mints. 

These mini mincemeat-laced sponges are marzipaned and iced to rival the classiest of tree decorations. But will they hang? The real question is whether anything this tasty will even make it onto the tree... 

Edible baubles

Makes 24

For the fairy cakes:

140g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
175g unsalted butter, soft, diced
175g muscavado sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
60g ground almonds
150g mincemeat

To ice and decorate: 

4 tbsp apricot jam
500g marzipan
Icing sugar, to dust
1 tbsp sherry or cooled, boiled water
750g white sugarpaste
Packet of Polo mints
60g bag white royal icing, no.1 nozzle
30-50g red sugarpaste
60g bag red royal icing, no.1 nozzle

You will need:

24 red paper cases
6.5cm round cutter
7cm round cutter
Selection of tiny cutters
Lengths of 5mm-wide ribbon

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ 350F. Line two fairy cake tins with paper cases. Sift first 5 ingredients into a bowl; add butter, sugar, eggs and nuts. Beat with an electric whisk. Fold in mincemeat. Divide batter between cases and bake for 15–18 mins, or until springy. Leave cakes tins for 2 mins, then cool on a rack. 
2. Warm the jam slightly, push it through a sieve, then brush it lightly over each cake. 
3. Roll marzipan out to 4–5mm thick on a worktop dusted with icing sugar. Using the smaller cutter, stamp out discs of marzipan to top each cake. Brush lightly with sherry or water. Use larger cutter to create white sugarpaste discs (the same size as the top of the cases) and smooth over the cake edges. Press a mint into each to make a ring, attaching with royal icing if needed. Leave overnight.
4. To decorate, roll out to 2–3mm thick on a board dusted with icing sugar. To make buttons, cut out tiny rounds, indent the edge with a smaller cutter and make two holes with a cocktail stick. Attach all the sugarpaste decorations with royal icing. Pipe details with the white and red royal icing. Thread the mints with ribbon.

Tip: Sugarpaste decorations can be made in advance and stored in a box (not in an airtight container or the fridge).

RECIPE AND IMAGE TAKEN FROM SEASONAL BAKING BY FIONA CAIRNS (WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, £25). PHOTOGRAPHY DAN JONES

December's The Simple Things is on sale. Buy, download or subscribe now.

Recipe: Spanish Tomato Toast

Start the day like you’re in a Spanish café. This simple breakfast makes good use of this month’s glut of tomatoes and extends that summer feeling long after your holiday is over. Very ripe tomatoes and good quality olive oil are a must. 

SPANISH TOMATO TOAST

Serves 2

2 large or 4 small ripe tomatoes (cherry tomatoes won’t work here)
pinch of salt
glug of extra virgin
olive oil
4 slices sourdough bread

1 Using a large box grater, or something similar, carefully grate the juicy tomatoes into a bowl. Grate until you can’t grate any more, avoiding knuckle
scrapes as best you can. 
2 Addapinchofsaltanda good glug of olive oil, and mix together to make a tomato ‘nectar’. Let the flavours combine while you char the bread.
3 Get a griddle pan nice and hot over a high heat, then char the bread for 2–3 minutes on each side. When all the bread is toasted, take it to the table along with your tomato nectar and spoon some over your toast.

Recipe from Breakfast: Morning, Noon & Night by Fern Green (Hardie Grant). Photography by Danielle Wood

For more ways to use a tomato surplus, turn to page 38 of September’s The Simple Things for Lia Leendertz’s tomato relish recipe.

September's The Simple Things is on sale - buy, download or subscribe now.

READ MORE:

How to ripen tomatoes indoors

Breakfast recipes

More from the September issue

Recipe: May Bowl

This simple punch originated in Germany and is traditionally served on May Day. Sweet woodruff*, Galium odoratum, is a creeping herb found in shady patches under trees. Its leaves and flowers add sweet, herbal, vanilla and woody notes to dry white wine and champagne. Pick the leaves and flowers the day before, so they dry out slightly and give off a stronger scent.

MAY BOWL

MAKES 14 SERVINGS 
1 small bunch fresh sweet woodruff
250ml water
4 tbsp caster sugar 
750ml bottle dry white wine, such as a German Reisling
750ml bottle champagne or dry sparkling wine

TOOLS
baking sheet
sealable Tupperware 
paper towel
small nonstick pan 
wooden spoon
punch bowl
plastic wrap
ladle

1 First you need to dry out some of the woodruff. Remove any damaged leaves from the bunch and spread out about a third on a baking sheet. Place on the bottom shelf of a recently switched-off oven, with the door open, or in an airing cupboard, overnight.

2 Meanwhile, line a Tupperware box with a damp sheet of paper towel and place the remaining leaves and flowers inside to stay fresh. Seal the box and place in the fridge until just before you serve the punch. 

3 About two hours before serving, heat the water and sugar in the nonreactive pan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool. Meanwhile, place the semi- dried woodruff in a punch bowl and pour the dry white wine over it. Cover and put in the fridge for at least an hour. 

4 As soon as the sugar syrup has cooled, add it to the punch bowl, stir, and return to the fridge for an hour. Before serving, remove the semi-dried woodruff with a ladle and replace with the fresh leaves and flowers from the Tupperware box.

5 Serve in a wine glass topped up with bubbly and garnished with a woodruff leaf or flower.

Suggestion: Strawberries, or even better, wild strawberries would also make a great addition to this punch, as would wild violet flowers and lemon slices.

* Sweet woodruff has been used since the Middle Ages to treat everything from cuts to liver problems. Today herbalists use it as an anti- inflammatory and to treat stomach ache. It contains coumarin, which is toxic in high doses, so drink this punch in moderation, won’t you?

Recipe taken from Wild Cocktails by Lottie Muir (Cico Books, £16.99) Photography by Kim Lightbody.

Fresh: Spring flowers

Nothing says spring quite like the arrival of magnolias, daffodils, narcissus and tulips.

Turn to page 18 for tips on following the progress of the magnificent magnolias, or page 93 for a sweet way to display spring blooms. 

Want more? Head over to our Fresh board on Pinterest for a whole virtual garden - let's celebrate the start of spring proper.

Follow The Simple Things's board Fresh on Pinterest.

Not got your March issue of The Simple Things? Buy now,  subscribe or look inside.

Soppy by Philippa Rice

True love not twee love brought to life in Soppy by Philippa Rice

Artist, illustrator and crocheter Philippa Rice has turned her life into a comic that celebrates the sweet, everyday world she shares with her illustrator boyfriend, Luke Pearson.

In a palette of red, white and black, the cartoon duo (both with raven dark hair and rosy red cheeks) do the washing up, head to the shops, snuggle on the sofa and squabble about who should answer the door. There are no grand sweep-you-off-your-feet gestures here, just small, heartwarming moments: “If I got zombied would you shoot me? No. I’d let you bite me.”

Now that sounds like true love. 

Have a look through our gallery of pictures from Soppy by Philippa Rice (Square Peg, £10.99). 

www.philippajrice.com

Compiled by Lottie Storey

Learn a new skill with The Simple Things: make your own desert boots

Join other readers of The Simple Things for a special one-day shoemaking workshop with Green Shoes at its studio in Devon

The classic desert boot is ideal for beginners to tackle. Choose from a wide selection of leathers or vegan material and learn how to cut, stitch, shape and attach to the traditional crepe rubber sole. You’ll take home a pair of boots that are made-to-measure in the colour of your choice.

Green Shoes has been handmaking shoes since 1981 and uses the same low-tech methods as the original makers of this classic field boot. All their footwear can be resoled, ensuring they last for years.

The day starts with coffee and instruction. An experienced shoe-maker is on hand to help at all stages. The morning is about cutting and stitching. After lunch at a local cafe, you’ll learn how to shape them on a traditional last and they’ll be ready to wear home at the end of the day.

The course takes place on Saturday 21 March at the Green Shoes workshop in Moretonhampstead, Devon and costs £280 to include all materials, instruction, lunch and a pair of boots to take home.

How to book

There are just five places available for readers on the course. Travel to and from Green Shoes workshop is not included. To book, call 01647 440735 or email info@greenshoes.co.uk

Recipe: Homemade Jaffa cakes

How do you transform a Jaffa Cake into a thoughtful gift? Make it yourself. And make it French. 

This recipe brings together soft cookies and marmalade, topped with crispy chocolate. Wherever you rock up with a tin of these, you’re sure to be well received. 

Makes about 20
170g orange marmalade 
Pinch of agar* powder
3 large free-range eggs 
75g caster sugar
75g plain flour
1 tsp sunflower oil 
200g/7oz dark chocolate

1 In a saucepan, mix the marmalade with 4 tsp of water, bring to a boil, sprinkle with the agar and mix vigorously. Let the marmalade simmer for 2 mins.

2 Put a tsp marmalade into each cup of a 20-cup mini muffin pan and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for an hour. 

3 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/350F. Separate the eggs and, with an electric mixer, whisk the whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.

4 Sprinkle the sugar over the egg whites and whisk for another minute. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, whisking all the time, and then beat in the flour. Finally, add the oil and mix gently.

5 Pour the batter onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Spread it to an even thickness to cover the baking sheet. Bake for about 10 mins and then let cool.

6 With a cookie cutter, cut circles about 5cm in diameter, wasting as little as possible. Set the cut-out circles on the same lined baking skeet and bake for about 5 mins to dry the cookies.

7 Spread each cookie with a little of the refrigerated marmalade mixture and
then arrange on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour.

8 Melt the chocolate in a bain marie (a heatproof bowl set just above a pan
of boiling water).

9 Remove the cookies from the freezer and, using a soft spatula, coat each one with a thin layer of melted chocolate. The difference in temperature will cause the chocolate to solidify almost instantly into a crisp layer.

10 Transfer the cookies to a rack as soon as they’re finished to let the chocolate harden completely before eating. The cookies keep for up to five days in an airtight tin.

*Agar is a kind of vegetarian gelatin, available in the baking section at big supermarkets.

Recipe taken from Better Made at Home by Estérelle Payany. Photography: Guillaume Czerw (Black Dog & Leventhal, £12.99).

More recipes!

Got a taste for shop-bought treats made by hand? Us too. Follow our Pinterest board for recipes for classics such as jammie dodgers, hobnobs, custard creams, fondant fancies, and even the chocolate teacake.

Follow The Simple Things's board Homemade treats on Pinterest.

Compiled by Lottie Storey

Recipe: Bircher muesli and other breakfast suggestions

In a nod to a more wholesome, nutritious new year, we present the ultimate breakfast for starting the day as you mean to go on, with the power to stave off morning munchies. Stir and leave to soak before you go to bed and wake up happy.

BIRCHER MUESLI

2 apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled and cored
300ml coconut water (or use apple juice or milk)
300ml plain Greek yogurt (3.5% fat or more)
250g rolled oats, kamut, or spelt
85g dried goji berries
3 tbsp flaxseed
2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves
3 tbsp maple syrup

To garnish:
Fresh berries, mint leaves, granola, Cape gooseberries and chopped nuts

1. Using a box grater set over a large bowl, coarsely grate the apples. Add the coconut water, 60ml of the yogurt, the oats, goji berries, flaxseed, and mint to the bowl and stir until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

2. Cover the muesli and refrigerate overnight.

3. The next morning, mix the remaining 240ml yogurt, maple syrup and a pinch of salt into the muesli and spoon into bowls. Garnish as desired before serving.

Notes:
Makes about 900g. The muesli can be prepared ahead and refrigerated for up to 3 days. If you’re using coconut water, it’s better to use a yogurt with a fairly high fat percentage.

RECIPE ADAPTED FROM BREAD EXCHANGE BY MALIN ELMLID (CHRONICLE BOOKS, £21.99). 

Want more breakfast ideas?

It's easy to get into a rut when it comes to breakfast, particularly during dark winter mornings. But a warming meal first thing will set you up for the rest of the day. Try these three breakfasts for size, or head over to our Rise and Shine Pinterest board for more ideas.

Quinoa porridge with apples and spice

Image: The Teacup Chronicles

Using quinoa instead of porridge oats results in a lighter, more nutritious porridge, while the spices are warming and the apples add natural sweetness.

Get the recipe.

Shakshuka

Image: The Natural Cook by Tom Hunt

After something savoury? Shakshuka - a traditional Middle Eastern dish - features eggs, tomatoes, and a peppy blend of spices. Guaranteed to get the blood pumping and keep you full until lunchtime.

Get the recipe. 

Brioche French toast

Image: Sunday Suppers

Not everyone is dieting and detoxing this month, and this recipe for brioche French toast is almost bread and butter pudding-esque. Indulgent and delicious - perfect for those with a sweet tooth.

Get the recipe.

Words: Lottie Storey

Bircher muesli recipe from page 128 of January's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe now.

Recipe: Gochujang chicken skewers

Finger food for drinks parties, starters or whenever a yummy nibble might fit the bill.

Makes 20

500g/1lb 2oz chicken thighs, skinless and boneless, cut into 40 pieces
Sesame seeds and thinly sliced spring onions, to garnish

For the marinade:
2 garlic cloves, grated 
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp clear honey, plus
extra to taste
1 heaped tsp medium-hot Korean Gochujang paste
20 wooden/metal skewers
A baking sheet, greased

1. Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl. Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and leave to marinate for no more than 30 mins.
2. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C/375F.
3. Put two pieces of chicken onto each skewer and lay them on the prepared baking sheet. Cook the chicken for 10–12 mins.
4. While the chicken is cooking, reduce the marinade in a small saucepan on a low-medium heat for about 3 mins, adding a little more honey to taste.
5. When the chicken is cooked, brush or spoon the sauce on top and sprinkle with the sesame seeds and spring onions.

Recipe from Party-Perfect Bites by Milli Taylor. Photography: Helen Cathcart (Ryland, Peters & Small).

More Christmas posts from The Simple Things.

Plenty more festive ideas for gifts, food and fun in December's issue of The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe now. 

Christmas holidays: Kids' activities that help you out

Turn off that TV set...

...and make use of hyperactive kids in the run up to Christmas. Little fingers have many uses.

BAKE MINI CAKES, ginger biscuits or tree decorations or truffles for presents. Decorate and package in a little box, Kilner jar or with cellophane and a piece of ribbon to tie. Great for emergency gifts. 

DESIGN WRAPPING PAPER by taking a sheet of A3 and doodling on it, which you can then photocopy as many times as you want (equally effective in black and white). Other paper ideas are using rolls of black or brown paper and writing or drawing on it with white or coloured pens or using letter stamps to label.

SEW gifts for babies and little ones. Felt finger puppets are easy to make and look cute placed in an egg box. All you need is coloured felt, embroidery thread to sew eyes and pompoms for noses. Also try monster teddies (as mad and misshapen as they like!) or simple drawstring bags.

More Christmas posts from The Simple Things.

Plenty more festive ideas for gifts, food and fun in December's issue of The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe now. 

Write your cards (well)

Timely advice to improve your handwriting from lettering artist Cherrell Avery.

1. Find a good handwriting pen, a roller ball or fountain pen that grips the paper.
2. Sit right. Bad posture equals bad writing. Make sure your legs aren’t scrunched up, your back is straight and hold your pen with a loose, relaxed grip.
3. Keep your fingers flexible, not rigid. Try doodling to practise mobilising your digits.
4. Spend five minutes writing, being mindful of what you’re doing, of how your writing looks, the speed and the shapes (not what you’re writing).
5 . Inspect your writing. Is the scale and proportion of your letters consistent? Are you forming your letters correctly? Many people miss the backbone in the letters n, m and r. Misjoining letters is also common. When writing at speed, n, m and h deterioriate quickly. Get to know what your habits are and practise slowing down to correct them. 

Cherrell teaches Transform your Handwriting courses at London’s Idler Academy, www.idler.co.uk.