Flower Power

double flowers = double happiness!! At least in Joli's case...

Potato Love Heart

J'adore my little surprise potato love heart that i came across while cooking the other night!

And no, Joli does not have large man hands, she has lovely delicate hands of course! That is the hand of Joli's special friend...

The Fridge

Baby Lola, postcards from Huggs and a daily reminder that I am QUEEN of fucking EVERYTHING! :)

Will 4 Kate 4 Eva

Smiles served on a plate (story from the Evening Standard)

An alternative set of souvenir plates, pictured above, has been created by artists to inject a sense of fun into the royal wedding.

The irreverent take on the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton includes one design with the message: “Thanks for the free day off.”

The 10 designs will be made — like the approved Royal Collection plates — from bone china in Stoke-on-Trent but are expected to sell for £35 — £5 less than the official version bearing the entwined initials of the prince and Miss Middleton. KK Outlet, a design agency in Hoxton Square, is selling its jokey plates online and from its shop from the weekend.

There is a two-week wait for the official plate after the Royal Collection received 30 times more orders than expected. KK Outlet managing director Dave Bell said the agency had come up with “something in keeping with the times...as they are promoting it as a modern' royal wedding”.

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Which one should Joli choose? Naturally, she connects most with 'THANKS FOR THE FREE DAY OFF" plate, because really, THANK YOU FOR THE FREE DAY OFF! You guys are the best. Now cheers to the modern royal wedding!

Sunday Flowers

Red tulips in my favourite (spiked) lemonade pitcher.

I wish this was me, drinking spiked lemonade, right now. Joli Lapin loves the beach!

(image via Le Love)

Home Cooking

My parents are signed up for the "Organic Box"program, which means a box of seasonal organic vegetables is delivered to their doorstep each week. Lately they have been getting a lot of the same veg as the kitchen is overflowing with pumpkins, potatoes and butternut squash. I guess it's winter! To clear some space, and put the vegetables to good use, I decided to make a curried pumpkin, butternut squash, yam, potato and green apple soup and it turned out to be super yummy!

I loosely followed a recipe from Epicurious on my iphone, but I mainly made it up as I went along. If you would like to make this at home, first bake your vegetables (cut in half and face down) for about 50 minutes at 350C - take out and let cool. Chop an onion, and soften in a large pot with olive oil, add lots of garlic and ginger to the mix. At this point, I added roughly chopped granny smith apples before transferring everything to the food processor. Blend the mixture until smooth and return it to your pot. Next, scoop out the baked veg into the food processor, blend until smooth and add to the pot. Add 2-3 cups of chicken stock and stir everything together well. The mixture can tend to be quite thick so depending on how much you are making you can add more chicken stock, or milk to give it a creamier taste. I played around with just about every spice in the kitchen, but I would highly recommend adding salt, fresh ground pepper, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, cumin, cinnamon and curry powder to taste.

Good luck and enjoy!

Mum Has The Coolest Things...

Just a few of her many, many, MANY treasures!

The Easy Apple Tart

Speaking of my friend Dana, last weekend she hosted a wonderful little tea party at her flat with tons of wonderful food, but she happened to have a little trouble with the apple cake she made. While it looked great, it was undercooked and had "too many apples" as her first taster commented. I told her I would post my Easy Apple Tart recipe as it would have been a lot faster, easier and would cook better in her crappy old oven. Sorry, but it's true! So here goes...

The Easy Apple Tart:

2 tablespoons - organic unsalted butter

1 tablespoon - brown sugar

1 tsp - vanilla

1/2 tsp - cinnamon

4-6 - apples (I often use pears as well) cored and sliced into wedges

1 roll - easy puff pastry

To begin, slice the apples (and pears) into wedges and place in a pie dish as you go a long. This is often the best way to measure as the sizes of fruit, and amount you need can vary, fill the dish until level. Heat a non-stick frying pan and melt the butter, add the brown sugar and mix with a wooden spoon until the sugar has melted and is well-blended. Poor in the sliced apples and toss until coated, add the vanilla and cinnamon (you can add more or less depended on taste preferences). Toss the apples a couple of more times, before removing from heat.

Roll out the puff pastry and place in the pie dish, roll down edges to create a thicker crust. Poor in the apple mixture and spread evenly in the dish. Place the dish into a pre-heated oven at 180C and bake for approximately 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, when the crust and apples are golden brown it's time to take it out!

Best served piping hot with vanilla ice cream on the side, enjoy!

Flower Power Tea Towels

ELLE Deco had a little end-of-year sample sale last week and I picked up TONS of great things for hardly anything! A few cookbooks, some gifts, a new fancy pillow... eventually I will post about all my great finds. I love this pink flower power tea towel I got so much, it was sitting on the sale table for so long I couldn't believe no one had picked it up! I guess you could say it was meant to be, and I only had to pay £1 for it!!

Tropical Owls

On my first visit to England, a few of years ago, the boyfriend and I stayed at his sister's old flat for a couple of nights. She and her husband had the most amazing place, situated inside a massive old manor house, it had incredibly tall ceilings and windows, with huge rooms - the place was magnificent. But what caught my eye most of all, was her large golden vintage pineapple that she kept in the kitchen, never have I been so envious of a piece of fruit!!

Since that first sighting, I have developed a bit of an obsession with retro pineapples. In fact, when I went to get my nails done with SLC at WAH in Topshop last spring, they too had a gold pineapple sitting on a shelf to my surprise - sadly they declined my somewhat-generous-for-a-poor-person offer.

On the day of my birthday party this year, my friend Dana popped over early so we could scour local charity shops together. As we wandered through my least favourite of the three chazzers on the main strip, Dana picked up a great set of hand-painted tumblers while I was still left empty-handed. Feeling certain that I wasn't going to find anything to my liking amongst their homeware shelves - I took one last glance, before something spiky and golden hiding in the corner caught my eye. I could hardly contain myself, I GOLDEN FREAKING PINEAPPLE AT LAST!!! I held that thing up in the air like a damn trophy.

It may be a mini version of my first love, but I still love it none the less. Now it sits pretty next to my favourite little owls and I think it makes them feel happy and cool, as if they're hanging out in their own tropical oasis. Yay!

Island Treasures

This weekend the boyf and I went down to the Isle of Wight to visit his fam. It was a lovely, relaxing weekend and I am super excited about my new shopper and vintage tin - both gifts from his ma and sis. Love!

Flower Power

I absolutely love having flowers in my house, but when my bank account is running low (not that its ever on a high) sadly they are the first to be knocked off of my mental 'necessary purchases' list. However, I have found ways to fulfil my love of flowers in the home and not break the bank. Instead of visiting a wonderful florist, I simply wander over to my local Tesco and pick up a small bouquet for under a fiver! This autumn-coloured arrangement really perked up my kitchen, and two weeks later they're still holding up - now that's value! Sometimes it really surprises me how much joy I can get from spending £3. Ta! x

Salt-N-Pepa

Even though I was in dire need of some salt and pepper shakers when we moved into our current flat last winter, I obviously would not settle for a generic, cheap design from my local department store. I held out for ages until I found this cute little pair sitting in one of my favourite charity shops in Chiswick. Hand-painted and so sweet, I love them! x

Cherries, Lemons & Limes - Oh My!

Gosh, my kitchen is so au courant! In case you have yet to check out the SS11 shows, a big trend for the summery season consists of bold, FRUITY prints! Taking a look at the snap shot from my kitchen above, one might have thought that Stella McCartney had pinched her collection inspiration from inside my own home - but non! She just loves her vitamin C as much as I do.

But this post is not about my oranges, lemons and limes, it is about my lovely cerise-painted vintage butter dish - don't you just love!? Anther fab charity shop find, yup! x

The Bird

If only my Sunday Roasts could look this fabulous each week!

(image via Lurve Mag)

Retro Summer Pimms

...Actually, make that Sangria - I'm not too keen on Pimms.

Don't you just lOove my retro pitcher set?? I bought it towards the end of the summer at a Charity Shop for £3.50 with the hopes of hosting more garden parties and being able to put it to good use. Unfortunately, lousy English summer weather meant no more parties and I had to pack it away in the cupboard.

On Thanksgiving Sunday I had two friends over for dinner and was determined to pull out and show off all of my best kitchen finds by putting them to use. Even though it was a small party of four, I picked out my four favourite glasses and filled the jug with Brita water for us all to enjoy throughout the evening. Party hosting success!

Dreaming of Dusseldorf

Hallo! Joli Lapin posts have been lacking lately due to my lack of internet while away in Dusseldorf, Germany over the past few days. I have SO much to share from my trip! Dusseldorf is a wonderful city and I enjoyed tons of great food and found lots of fab things - such as this beyond cute vintage apron I found at an amazing little shop called Le Freak & Chic. If I ever attempt to make schnitzel at home, I'm sooo wearing this! Posts from my trip coming soon promis! x

Happy Housewife

Ooh I just love my original 1950s floral apron! I bought this from my local charity shop for something like £1.50 and it was new with original tags - amazing! It likes to hang out on my kitchen cupboard handle, sadly I usually forget to wear it while cooking... then I curse each time I stain my clothes, which is pretty much every time I cook. Darn! At least my lack of wear maintains its pristine condition.

Kitty's Kitchen

Isn't this vintage tea towel AMAZING!? Part of my second 2-for -£1 batch of vintage tea towels found at my favourite local charity shop, I think this one might be my fave so far even though they are all pretty great. This kitten is a definitely too good to get messy, I'd like to hang it up on the wall sometime soon.

Pretty Prints

Late yesterday afternoon I popped into one of my favourite local charity shops right before closing. Considering how well I did in there last weekend, I wasn't expecting to find much. Quickly scanning the rails nothing really stood out until I walked over to the homeware wall and found this little number sitting pretty!

I couldn't believe it was almost closing time and no-one had picked her up. Fortunately for me, I have polar opposite tastes to those who live in my area. The above is a casserole dish by the Broadhurst Bros Burslem from Stoke-On-Trent. Not sure if I can really use it to cook or not, but at least it will look nice hanging out in my kitchen.

...Perhaps she can play host to my sweet potato mash (topped with roasted marshmellows), the Canadian Thanksgiving classic that I plan to make next weekend!