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The Knowledge: Back to business
It's Friday – and our experts are here to tell you how to get the most out of your weekend. Jayne Dawson talks to them
Nest building
If you're struggling to find the focus you need to work at home, may be you need to transform your office area and make it more alluring.
The contemporary Italian design of the Kirk desk, with its clear, shaped glass top, stylish beech table leg and polished steel base might make it easier to get down to some work.
Pair it with the Danda office chair, which comes in a great range of colours to match or contrast with any colour palette, and you will struggle to find an excuse not to be at your desk.
Listen to it
Playing Out – Songs for Children and Robots
THE CRAYONETTES
(One Little Indian)
The Crayonettes are North-East supergroup of sorts, formed by Mercury Prize-nominated folk singer Kathryn Williams and Anna Spencer, once of Newcastle punk group Delicate Vomit.
As mums of young boys, the pair would regularly meet and marvel at their sons' imaginations. Then, says Kathryn, "we got thinking about creating something that would make them laugh and us laugh. We wanted songs that sounded like punk or disco or country – the Small Faces brushing their teeth or the Velvet Underground asking questions about toads."
Hence the album Playing Out was born. Its 11 amusing ditties cover everything from whether to eat a sweet that's been dropped on the floor to the fun of squashing gerkhins and the relative temperature of amphibians ("Chilli's hot, ice cream's cold/How hot is a toad?").
It's a playful collection that's perfect for youngsters – and parents – fed up of traditional nursery-rhyme records performed in posh voices with zero humour quotient.
Get fit
Stretching is important when trying to stay in shape, so find a stretching programme and use it every time you exercise. Some stretches may feel uncomfortable initially but try to stay in them, even if only for a short while. As long as you feel no pain, you should not be in danger of injuring yourself. But don't bounce your stretch, simply maintain it while breathing calmly and regularly through your nose.
Read it
Tender Volume II
Nigel Slater
(Fourth Estate)
When Nigel Slater dug up his lawn to grow his own vegetables and herbs he planted fruit too. A handful of small trees – plum, apple and pear – some raspberry, blackberry and currant bushes and even strawberries in pots suddenly joined his patch of potatoes, beans and peas.
These fruits became the backbone of his home baking, the stars in his cakes and pastries and even inspired the odd pot of jam.
More than this, he started to use them in new ways too, from a weekday supper of pork chops with cider and apples to a Chinese Sunday roast with spiced plum sauce.
The hot family puddings and fruit ices he had always loved so much suddenly took on a delicious new significance.
The definitive guide to cooking with fruit from Britain's finest food writer.
Visit it
Early autumn is one of the most beautiful times of the year and a good time to be outdoors.
You can enjoy the sharp air, the changing colours and the September sunshine at Chevin Forest Park, which covers almost 500 acres of moorland and woodland to the south and east of Otley in Wharfedale.
There are facilities for picnics, walking and rock-climbing, and designated bridleways for horse-riding and biking.
Eat it
Autumn is on its way and with it our appetite for heartier wholesome meals - and tender, succulent lamb fits the bill perfectly.
To really bring out the mouth-watering flavour, cook slowly and let the flavours infuse.
Lamb with Roasted Vegetables
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35-40 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
500g new potatoes
6 baby orange peppers, halved and deseeded
8 shallots, peeled and halved
3 bulbs baby fennel, trimmed and quartered
6 baby courgettes, halved
300g butternut squash, seeded and sliced
6-8 cloves garlic
8 tbsp Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Handful basil leaves
25g pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 racks of lamb, French trimmed
Flat parsley to garnish
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/400F/Gas Mark 6. Place all the vegetables in a large roasting tin. Drizzle over four tbsp of oil and toss the vegetables to coat them. Roast for 15 mins.
Meanwhile, place the basil, pinenuts and garlic in a food processor with the remaining oil and blend on the pulse setting until a coarse paste is formed. Press this mix onto the skin of the lamb racks.
Remove the roasting tin from the oven and stir the vegetables. Lay the lamb racks on top of the vegetables and roast for a further 20-25 minutes or until the lamb is still pink in the middle. Remove the lamb and allow to rest for five minutes before carving into cutlets. Serve with the vegetables.
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
