I've just had a pastry epiphany, courtesy of Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache, a brilliant new cookery book with a twist.
Author Harry Eastwood's premise is to completely replace the fat in cakes, muffins, puddings and sweets with....wait for it...vegetables--and it works unbelievably well so not only can you sneak veggies into your kids/loved ones' diets, you can also dramatically cut the calories without sacrificing an iota of the taste.
Being smug was never this delicious!
I started off with the seriously yummy Coffee and Walnut Courage cake, an impressive looking, but easy to conjure up classic cake and have progressed, to the astonishment of my family, through an array of fabulous treats...with everything from butternut squash to courgettes and turnips employed undercover.
At £20 this is perfect present material with Christmas merely a few dozen teatimes away...and not just for the hausfrau in your life.
Hardback and with some lovely photography, stylish illustrations and bright, easy to follow tone, Red Velvet is occasionally a little padded, but, with the fat free recipes you won't be...and with the divine recipes and quality of everything else, it's a small price to pay! Buy this book and enjoy guilt free teatimes forever.
If there was a Pulitzer for Pastries, this would win hands-down!
The 'Bank we like best!
...we refer, of course, to the South Bank, where from now until early December the great and the good rub shoulders at the Literature and Spoken Word Festival, including special events around this year's National Poetry Day (October 8th) and a whole day of festivites celebrating 30 years of the incomparable Hitchhiker's Guide.
Other highlights of a packed and tempting schedule include: Agatha Christie Night on September 16th at which Val McDermid, Kate Mosse and Jasper Fforde share extracts from their favourite works and well as fielding questions; Wendy Cope, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Alice Oswald and Daljit Nagra at the Faber Anniversary Readings (Sept 22nd); legendary film-maker and all-round renaissance man Werner Herzog (Oct 3rd); 2009 Man Booker Prize Readings, which brings together all six shortlisted authors for their only Q&As and reading session en masse, chaired by Man Booker Literary Director Ion Trewin (Oct 5th); John Irving discussing his latest book, Last Night In Twisted River,(Oct 12th); Anita and Kiran Desai in conversation with Maggie Gee (Oct 31st); Beyond Words, which features 5 South African poets brought together by the country's Poet Laureate and renowned campaigner Keorapetse Kgositsile (4 November); Tristram Hunt and Robert Service discussing revolutionary lives through their biographies of Engels and Trotsky (Nov 11th); poets from Radio 4's Saturday Live (Kate Fox, Matt Harvey, Elvis Mcgonagall and Luke Wright) meet South Bank Artist in residence Lemn Sissay (Nov 26th) plus a celebration of the life of Adrian Mitchell on Dec 9th at which Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy joins Patience Agbbi, John Hegley, Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Michael Rosen to reflect on Mitchell's life, work and the effect he had on poetry and performance; the date also marks the publication of Mitchell's final collection, Tell Me Lies.
Admission rates vary so best to check the SB site before setting off.
Other highlights of a packed and tempting schedule include: Agatha Christie Night on September 16th at which Val McDermid, Kate Mosse and Jasper Fforde share extracts from their favourite works and well as fielding questions; Wendy Cope, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Alice Oswald and Daljit Nagra at the Faber Anniversary Readings (Sept 22nd); legendary film-maker and all-round renaissance man Werner Herzog (Oct 3rd); 2009 Man Booker Prize Readings, which brings together all six shortlisted authors for their only Q&As and reading session en masse, chaired by Man Booker Literary Director Ion Trewin (Oct 5th); John Irving discussing his latest book, Last Night In Twisted River,(Oct 12th); Anita and Kiran Desai in conversation with Maggie Gee (Oct 31st); Beyond Words, which features 5 South African poets brought together by the country's Poet Laureate and renowned campaigner Keorapetse Kgositsile (4 November); Tristram Hunt and Robert Service discussing revolutionary lives through their biographies of Engels and Trotsky (Nov 11th); poets from Radio 4's Saturday Live (Kate Fox, Matt Harvey, Elvis Mcgonagall and Luke Wright) meet South Bank Artist in residence Lemn Sissay (Nov 26th) plus a celebration of the life of Adrian Mitchell on Dec 9th at which Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy joins Patience Agbbi, John Hegley, Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Michael Rosen to reflect on Mitchell's life, work and the effect he had on poetry and performance; the date also marks the publication of Mitchell's final collection, Tell Me Lies.
Admission rates vary so best to check the SB site before setting off.
Wherefore art
A longtime NW6 resident (and West End Lane Books customer!), the American artist Martha Green Doran is staging an exhibition at Thou Art in Mill Lane until 26th September.
Green Doran's work includes large charcoal drawings, Smaller oil paintings and sketches and you can catch the show every weekday 9.30--6.30 or Saturdays until 5.30
Green Doran's work includes large charcoal drawings, Smaller oil paintings and sketches and you can catch the show every weekday 9.30--6.30 or Saturdays until 5.30
Twin events this Thursday
The good people of West Hampstead Library, our fellow literati on the Lane, are hosting a rather cool event for kids after school this Friday (Sept 10th).
So, grab your youngsters as they emerge from the school gates encrusted in Play-doh, Ribena and Monster Munch (as if!) and take them down to the library to meet local author Andrew Selby who will be reading from, and answering questions about, his forthcoming book, The Bumble Twins--The 'Fete' Of The Environment, which tells the story of twins Carly and Jake as they discover the true meaning of going green. The event runs from 4--5.30pm which'll give you the requisite time to take them home, feed them and put them into bed for a nice early night before hotfooting it back to West End Lane Books to meet our visiting author, the fabulous Sarah Dunant, who will be reading from her utterly transporting best seller, Sacred Hearts, from 8pm.
So, grab your youngsters as they emerge from the school gates encrusted in Play-doh, Ribena and Monster Munch (as if!) and take them down to the library to meet local author Andrew Selby who will be reading from, and answering questions about, his forthcoming book, The Bumble Twins--The 'Fete' Of The Environment, which tells the story of twins Carly and Jake as they discover the true meaning of going green. The event runs from 4--5.30pm which'll give you the requisite time to take them home, feed them and put them into bed for a nice early night before hotfooting it back to West End Lane Books to meet our visiting author, the fabulous Sarah Dunant, who will be reading from her utterly transporting best seller, Sacred Hearts, from 8pm.
Season of mist and Moleskines
For those mourning the passing of another summer, we have some news to cheer even the most seasonally-challenged: the new range of Moleskine 2010 diaries have arrived at West End Lane Books!
Alongside our glorious and distinctly sexy range of notebooks, sketchpads, water colour books and other leather-clad yumminess, you will find large, small, soft and rigid diaries to suit every schedule and suit-pocket, plus --making its debut-- a small, dark chunky desk diary simply crying out to be bought as a stocking filler for those of impeccable taste.
Mist and mellowness we like, but Moleskines we love!
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