Sunshine, Pudding & Gold
Finding a lot of joy this week in Hope's Kitchen
Yesterday I spent a happy ten minutes engrossed in the rookery visible in the February nudity of the hosting trees from platform 2 of Lewes train station. Amazing feats of twig engineering and aerobatics on show, also a lot of fighting or courting, I wasn’t sure which. Basically a whole lot of rooks in a rookery being rooks. The bright blue back drop of the sky helped the visual spectacle along, as the sun was helping pretty much everything and everyone along, all of life just bursting with gratitude at its return.
Alysa Liu burst into my consciousness this last week, like one huge ray of sunshine, and if you’re thinking ‘who’ then have a google and enjoy the rabbit hole, it is glorious. I must have watched Alysa’s winning free dance ice skating routine 20 times, and it still thrills me and lifts me – there is this gorgeous moment when she has completed the check list of jumps and turns and spins necessary for points and she just starts to dance (she is also dancing to Donna Summer singing McArthur Park, no less). You can tell that every atom of her being is dancing, she is beaming, eyes up into the crowd, gold lurex shimmering and shining. Like the rooks in the trees mesmerising me with their pure rookishness, Alysa had me spellbound with her youthful, feminine power and joy. This is what our young women and girls are built for, not the stuff of the minds of evil, ugly men. Alysa stuck a big, quilted, gold lurex Band aid on my heart, and I am so grateful. I could go on to describe her further, but I will leave you with this quote from her on winning gold and the glorious photo of her on the podium, again urging you to head online to an Alysa Liu shaped rabbit hole…
“I don’t need this. But what I needed was a stage, and I got that. So I was all good, no matter what. If I fell on every jump, I would still be wearing this dress, so it’s all good.”
It is a gorgeous dress.
On Monday I catered a secondary school staff inset day – 94 teachers having Sri Lankan curry for lunch. It was me and Cate working together with the added bonus of some of the school catering team, a welcoming, thoughtful, intuitive group of women who worked together with such calm and mutual support, as Cate pointed out, it was very inspiring. For dessert we made a tropical fruit crumble, which I have been enjoying the left overs of since – there’s just something about the way crumble topping soaks up the excess juices from the fruit and then solidifies in the fridge that makes it so good! You can tweak this recipe to make it less sweet and add some nuts and seeds to the crumble mix for a breakfast crumble, something mentioned to me by my friend Katie who had made one while on a recent retreat, literal pudding for breakfast!
I hope that you make it and enjoy it!
Love Chloe x
Tropical Fruit Crumble
For the topping
125g light brown sugar
125g butter (or vegan alternative)
250g plain flour
50g desiccated coconut
For the filling
1 tin of pineapple
1 bag of frozen mango
2 bananas, peeled and sliced
Juice and zest of a lime
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
Mix all the dry topping ingredients together then rub in the butter until the mixture becomes like coarse breadcrumbs.
Put the mango pieces and sliced mango in a large oven proof deep dish, pick the pineapple chunks out of their juice with your fingers (you want some of the juice but not too much) and add to the rest of the fruit. Mix together with the lime juice and zest, cornflour and sugar.
Top with the crumble mixture and bake in a hot oven, 180c (160 fan) until golden, about 20 minutes.
thank you Chlöe! the sun is shining here too!!!