The Old Lady Mug ~ Daily Sketch 03/01/2015

The 'Old Lady Mug' ~ Watercolour & Pencil

This old fashioned floral mug has been in service in our house for about 20 years. I can't actually remember how we came by it, I have always loved the blue floral design and the completely circular handle, it holds just the perfect amount too.

Flowering Rapeseed ~ Daily Sketch 14/05/2013

Oyster ~ Daily Sketch 12/05/2013

Daily Sketch 17/04/2013 Three Bananas

Teacake - Daily Sketch 15/03/2013

Daily Sketch 10/02/2013 Tunnock's Caramel

I just love these little caramel wafers from Tunnocks, I always have since I was at school. It's not just about the product, although they are great with a cup of tea, it's also about the way they're packaged. The smiley little rosey cheeked chappie on the pack, the wonderful 1950's design incorporating Gill Sans, probably my favourite sans serif and of course the proud boast of the manufacturer that states "Still Original Size" (which I don't think can be said for Burton's wagon wheels) all these elements are important for me. You simply can't beat a retro biscuit. I was actually looking for Tunnocks teacakes but was unlucky last night as my corner shop had sold out. Do look out for teacakes in a future post. Now, if like me you are a fan of all things whimsical and biscuitty I urge you to check out a fabulous book and website entitled A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down by Nicey & Wifey whose mission statement reads...  
"Well I think we should all sit down and have a nice cup of tea, and some biscuits, nice ones mind you. Oh and some cake would be nice as well. Lovely." Who can argue with that?

A Winter Trip To Orford

The tartist and I have just returned from yet another rather splendid few days away in Orford, a favourite nearby spot up in Suffolk. It's strange really as it is relatively close to home and very similar in it's landscape etc. but to us it seems quite far from our every day hustle & bustle. We stayed at the Crown & Castle which overlooks the old castle in Orford built by Henry 2nd in 1170'ish (the castle, not the hotel!). It is a great place for a few days unwinding with tastefully designed rooms plus an excellent 'unfussy' restaurant with a lovely menu on which there is always locally landed fish which suits us both really well.



Orford Castle through the bathroom window of our room.


Reed Beds at Snape

The bitterly cold weather, snow & ice was a feature of this particular visit and on a couple of days out I tentatively drove us on the icy road a few miles through Tunstall forest to Snape.
At Snape the old maltings have been converted into a concert hall and visitor centre with an art gallery, cafés and shops but one of the real beauties of Snape for me is the vast area of reed beds that surround the maltings. Despite the cold I went out walking with my camera (it really was too bitter for sketching this time) under very leaden skies between blizzards, meeting up later with the tartist for hot chocolate & cake. I'm pleased to say I have returned with some very interesting reference material of the snowy, muddy, windswept reeds.

On our way home we once again stopped off in Woodbridge and spent rather more than we ought to have on books in Browsers bookshop & café, where the coffee is pretty decent and the cakes are all homemade from recipes taken from books available for sale in the shop (a simple and brilliant marketing rouse on their part). As I've mentioned before in a previous post this part of Suffolk is really well worth a trip out even if it's just for the day. I can guarantee we'll be returning soon.

'Cake-Hole'

It has been some time time since our last post and now we're able to break radio silence in order to reveal what we've been up to in the last few weeks. Our blog here has had to remain idle in order that we could shopfit and prepare our sparkling new venture here on Mersea Island called 'Cake-Hole', a brand new shop just two doors down from the Artcafé. Why 'Cake-Hole'? I hear you ask, well, for some considerable time demand for the tartist's homemade cakes etc. has far exceeded capacity in our little kitchen/servery at the artcafé and to be honest we've fancied having a 'deli' style shop for quite a while. so now in addition to a lovely new shop we now have an ample catering kitchen to better service the cafés, plus a dedicated office for all our admin.


'Cake-Hole'


Interior


Artisan breads, fresh daily.




Some of our olives, pistou, feta stuffed & global.


Our 'own label' ground coffees

It has been quite an effort to get this whole thing off the ground and quite a steep learning curve that we're still on having never before been in the business of retailing lovely stuff. Our ethos is to joyfully provide all manner of delicious things with an emphasis on homemade, locally sourced (or as local as possible) and good quality, with our list of stuff growing gradually each week it currently includes:- Artisan breads; fresh daily, Maggie & Jenny's homemade cakes, olives, quality leaf teas & coffee, Mersea Island free range eggs, Hadley's Farm Dairy ice cream, homemade chutney & salad dressing, plus a growing stock of stuff we can't quite describe in a word but is 'foodie' related, so, you get the gist of it so far.

We've had the name 'Cake-Hole' on ice for a couple of years now in the hope that the ideal premises would come along, and have determinedly shied away from calling our shop a 'Deli.' Not least because most deli's these days seem to by in loads of jams & chutneys etc. that are basically factory made products dressed up to look like your granny made them. Although not strictly speaking a deli., Cake-Hole is very deli-like and in the fullness of time we may not be able to resist stocking cheeses, cold meats and more conventional deli. fare alongside our olives and artisan breads already on offer.


Some of the fruits of the tartist's labours, red onion relish & honey-mustard salad dressing.

In addition to all this we've installed our old espresso machine from the Artcafé, which now has a shiny new one, so we can also make you a cappuccino etc. in our shop when things are extremely busy next door. But, of course our new shop is still in its infancy and very much a work in progress and we welcome any suggestions that would help us make improvements and extend our range to stock the sorts of things you like to buy on a regular basis.
Hopefully now this new project is up and running we can now keep our posts a bit more regular.

Theartistandtartist...Evil Geniuses!

Another first for us, Maggie discovered this very complimentary review today whilst googling something else online. It is from an online PDF magazine called 'All The Rage', the article is rather out of date, unfortunately, but it refers to us as 'Evil Geniuses' (love it!) and, we came away with a commendable 8/10 and a couple of buffed up egos.

Starbucks

I can remember clearly the first time I had a coffee in a Starbucks café. It was quite a few years ago now, an in store branch in Selfridges in London. I can't recall what I was doing there in the first place but I do recall thinking 'oo-er so this is what they're like' as I stood in line with my plastic tray trying to decipher their almost impenetrable coffee jargon. I clearly remember the first Mc Donalds 'restaurant' coming to London too, but that's another story. Now, the disappointment of my first Starbucks experience is still clear in my mind and my opinion about the overpriced product I queued up for is still the same today, although I now know a shedload more about how decent coffee ought to be enjoyed.

Here are a few points to illustrate what mean

1/ Cappuccino (and more especially espresso) should be served in a porcelain, bowl shaped cup, kept nice and hot on top of your machine (the bowl shape helps retain the 'crema') and not in a flat bottomed 'builder's' mug.

2/ The ideal cappuccino ratio is approx. 1/3 espresso, 1/3 steamed milk & 1/3 Foam. Not 2/3 Foam 1/3 'tepid' espresso.

3/ The customer should always be offered a coffee spoon and not have to delve through his/her foam with a 'lolly stick'

4/ The beverage should still be nice and hot when it reaches the customer (especially Café Latte) not just warm to facilitate faster turnover of tables.

I could go on but I think you see what I mean, so, you can imagine our amusement yesterday upon reading this little piece in yesterday's Guardian...

Am I wrong in feeling that somehow that little vignette enshrines all that is both socioculturally unappetising and fiscally unsound about Starbucks? Not at all. Socioculturally, it is obvious that few independent coffee-dispensing entities are likely to survive the homogenising onslaught. And as for fiscal weakness – well, yes, it turns out that if your business model involves saturating local markets, no matter what the rental cost of many prestigious locations, with products made with imported coffee and aimed particularly at the young and affluent, especially those working in the banking and finance sectors, you inadvertently create the conditions for the perfect shitstorm once demand and sterling collapse. Ta-daaa!

A Week In North Cornwall

I should have posted this a week ago, sorry folks a very busy Artcafé intervened.

The tartist, theartistandtartist jnr. and myself (theartist) just got back yesterday from a long overdue week away in Cornwall, Trebarwith Strand, near Tintagel to be precise.


View across Trebarwith Strand

Now, to cut a long story short the tartist and I used to live in Trebarwith Strand, in fact it is where we first met, in the Trebarwith Strand Hotel, which the tartist owned and ran with her sister from 1978 to 1991 along with the (way ahead of it's time restaurant) 'The House On The Strand'. Now to be fair the weather was very, well, 'Cornish' and we'd both forgotten how the rain can sometimes fall horizontally for days on end up the valley. For a couple of nights the wind and rain rattled the windows, and we were reminded of the terrible flooding that Boscastle, just up the road from us, received in 2004.


Artist Jnr. on the beach

Our weather related fears didn't last though as we got a couple of days of wonderful sunshine where we enjoyed the spectacular beauty of Trebarwith beach without our raincoats and umbrellas. A feature of our visits to this part of Cornwall is a meal at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow which the tartist and I along with four of our very good friends vowed to attend once a year come rain or shine several years ago. This year I'm pleased to say we kept the tradition alive, me with an exquisite piece of Turbot, baked and served with Hollandaise and the tartist with chargrilled Dover Sole with Sea Salt and Lime preceeded by a Selection of Oysters on Ice & Ragout of Turbot and Scallop with Vouvray & Basil.

The Tartist at The Seafood Restaurant

The following day saw us take a trip just up the coast to the small but dramatic beach of Crackinton Haven in many respects similar to Trebarwith with imposing cliffs on either side, good surfing and a great little café where we enjoyed real homemade soup and pretty decent coffee. Crackington also has the most fabulous rounded smooth stones on its foreshore which kept us amused for ages, sifting sorting and admiring the veins of pink and white quartz.

Crackington Haven

Although the rain was a bit unwelcome I managed to get in a bit of sketching with judiciously timed sorties to the beach and the aid of a golfing brolly, with which I caught a gust of wind and turned inside out!







Another feature of our visit (as is often the case) was a trek across the breathtaking cliffs to Tintagel to pick up pasties for lunch from Pengenna. I was accompanied on this occasion by artist junior and we stopped frequently on route to take in the spectacular views across the bay, returning with our lunch after ice creams and a stroll around the Norman church of St. Materiana perched high on Glebe Cliff overlooking the castle.



Artist Jnr. on the seat above Penhallic Point



The view out to Gull Rock

No post about a visit to Trebarwith could be complete without a mention of our good mates 'Grip' and Kirsty who run
The Strand Café who kept our chins up when the rain came with hot chocolates, cappuccinos and some of the best chocolate & walnut brownies I've ever tasted. Sadly this will be their last season in the valley so if you're down that way do stop by and say 'hi' from the artist and tartist, and sample some of their wares, you won't be dissapointed.



Grip & Kirsty

So here we are back on flat old Mersea Island and yes, it's still raining, but I've a feeling we'll return to North Cornwall soon, hopefully before the year is out.

TBTE

I had a most agreeable spot of dinner with the tartist this fine evening at The Coast Inn, overlooking the fleet as we islanders like to call the three muddy channels you can see in the distance. You will have also noticed the two pint glasses containing our beverages, often (for me especially) these would contain something very much darker and 'hoppy', but not this evening. You see I become quite a sucker for this trend of cider drinking, not that cider drinking is in any way a new concept, but the simple idea of filling a pint glass full of ice then pouring your pint of cider over it is, I think, a stroke of genius. On such a warm late June evening it made a perfect accompaniment to my fish and chips. Then with the sun still warm on our backs we walked up the gentle incline towards home, feeling quite fortunate to live on this muddy Essex island.

Ginger Cake & Coffee & Custard

The tartist and I have just enjoyed an afternoon cappuccino accompanied by a slice of Jenny's Double Ginger Cake which is a new arrival at the Artcafé. Our Jenny has certainly inherited the tartist gene if her new cake is anything to go by, a very moist and substantially gingery cake which prompted us immediately to discuss how comfortably ginger as a flavour sits with coffee. There are certain obvious partners to coffee, chocolate for example or vanilla or almond perhaps but I hadn't really thought of ginger before this afternoon's slice of ginger cake and it was something of a minor revelation. A bit off topic but still on the subject of ginger cake, Jenny's recipe came up in conversation and Clare from Colchester Artcafé revealed that she used to have ginger cake and custard as a pudding, then the tartist piped up and said 'ooh yeah my mum used to do it too in our house' and I have to confess there were many times when we as kids were treated to McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake and Birds custard as a pudding (quite often after Cubs whilst watching Z-Cars or Rising Damp). Now I recon this combination was possibly going on in the seventies up and down the land and I'd be curious to learn if anyone else had this as a pud. in their household at the time?

Some like it hot...and small!

The Return Of The Milkshake

Some may argue that the milkshake never went away, but for a time recently it has been somewhat eclipsed by those smoothie type drinks and we've seen more than a handful of smoothie/juice bar businesses come and go in the time we've been at the Artcafé. For what it's worth we flirted a bit with the smoothie idea a while ago and quite enjoyed drinking/eating(?) them. After a time I (theartist) began to experience quite a bit of indigestion and heartburn after consuming them, this raises the eating, drinking question. Of course I'm not a dietician, if I were this blog would be the 'dieticianandthetartist', but to me the ingredients in most smoothies, unlike milk, were never meant to be drunk at all. Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, all these basic smoothie ingredients are surely supposed to be chewed first in order for the natural breakdown of nutrients that occurs in the mouth to happen, and only then does mother nature intend us to swallow. Surely to drink these straight to the stomach is simply asking for trouble? Which is why I no longer have them and the accompanying discomfort.

Now this brings me on to the good old fashioned milkshake. Some may reasonably question the idea of drinking the milk of other mammals, especially for our entire adult life but at the very least, milk, unlike straberries etc. is designed to be a drink. We were approached by Shaken Udder, a local producer recently to sell their milkshakes, so we've been giving them them a go and I for one really think they're delicious. They currently make four flavours, Strawberry, Banana, Chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake which believe it or not really tastes like a Strawberry cheesecake, genius. As well as having a good product the Shaken Udder people are on our doorstep in Tolleshunt Major so they haven't clocked up hundreds of 'food miles' to bring us their shakes, so next time you drop in and don't really fancy a tea or a coffee, consider a yummy milkshake!