Made in Clerkenwell

Made in Clerkenwell might be the best event I tell you about this month. I apologise in advance for any of you who can't get to Clerkenwell this week. The Craft Central event Made in Clerkenwell sounds like the best shopping and design event this year.

There's something so appealing about craft fairs, but this is a craft fair with a difference. Instead of people doing needle point and crochet, you'll find some of the best jewellers and ceramicists in the area (not that there's anything wrong with crochet). This is interiors shopping heaven. And yes, Susan Bradley, the woman behind that iconic table is there. And that wonderful chandelier designer we featured a while ago Madeleine Boulesteix will be there as well.

The event runs from this evening until Sunday. Go! Go now!

Cupboard Lust: Chalk Storage Jars

Remember the teetering ceramic towers of cupboard chaos that we talked about when we showed you those gorgeous Japanese-inspired stacking mugs from Habitat? Well, being the helpful Domestic Sluts that we are, we’ve found yet another ingenious way of avoiding the terrifying cascade of jars, pots and pans tumbling onto your head every time you dare open a cupboard.

These ceramic storage jars with chalkboard labels are perfect for keeping ingredients organised, and with prices from £3.50, they’re a bargain too. Although if like me you live with two unruly and infantile chaps, they’ll probably just end up adorned with chalk drawings of bosoms and willies. So you’ll still have to risk the precarious tumble of containers to get at the ingredients you’re after, but at least you’ll get some cheap laughs too.

Vintage Fabric Market

There I was ambling through cyberspace with a handy hot chocolate and a couple of ginger biccies when I stumbled upon brilliance. The Vintage Fabric Market site is amazing. You know that wonderful feeling you get when you not only find something brilliant but also that its really quite reasonable too? I quite possibly lost a good hour nosing through their pages and unearthed such beauties as this lovely vintage owl hairclip - a veritable snip at just £2.75!

But its not all hair clips, this site has almost everthing you could ever need, from vintage handbags, hats, scarves, jewellery to fabric. Check out these other lovelies I spotted, but get in quick as otherwise I may buy them all up myself!

Look at this peacock-a-licious scarf clip, it's only £3.75!

And check out this stunning hat, perfect -surely - for just about any occassion! How much will it set you back? An unbelieveable £28!

Fabulous.

What's your favourite type of sluttery?

I like that the term 'sluttery' is being used more often. But I'm curious now about what your favourite type of sluttery is (yes, except for that kind). Someone commented on our Facebook page saying they loved lounging about in a bubble bath with a glass of Baileys. Yep, I'd quite like that too. But if I had to choose, it would be a glass of champagne outside in the sunshine when I'm actually meant to be working.

So what about you guys? What's your favourite type of sluttery? Tell us in the comments too!

Bollocks to baking: Cupcakes and Peonies

Earlier today, the lovely Cupcakes & Peonies sent us a box of cupcakes to sample. Yay! Free cupcakes make Domestic Sluttery HQ a very cheery place! Of course, that doesn't mean we're not impartial when it comes to testing, but here's the thing: Cupcakes & Peonies are all the way in the Midlands, and we're in South London, so the chances of us trying them otherwise are pretty slim.

Cupcakery shops are in every neighbourhood in London these days, but further afield, I hear that they're not that common. Luckily, Cupcakes & Peonies are really really tasty. I'm not a fan of normal icing, so their butter icing is perfect - it's more butter than icing I'm sure of it!

I'm very impressed with them. The cakes are yummy and the people behind the company are friendly. If I lived nearer, they'd be on my speed dial (yes, I have cupcakeries on speed dial). But I might have to stick to London for the time being. Anyone living in the Midlands really should check them out though. At £1.25 per cupcake, not only are they yummy, they're they cheapest I've found.

Guest Recipe: Hecklerspray's Onion Bread

I asked Hecklerspray editor Stuart Heritage to 'Slut up' his famous onion bread recipe (when I say famous, I mean that he tweets about bread more than anything else). Being the lovely guy that he is, he scribbled it out in an email for us. See? Domestic Sluttery isn't just for girls.

Onion Bread.

This is the greatest bread you will ever eat. That’s not an exaggeration. If anything it’s not enough of an exaggeration. This bread will make you taller, cure all present and future illnesses and force everyone on the planet to fall hopelessly in love with you. There, that’s enough of an exaggeration.

It’s delicious enough by itself, but I’ve found that this bread will create perhaps the most delicious bacon sandwich in all of history. Obviously most of you reading this will be women, so feel free to substitute the bacon with hummus or a tampon or a copy of Heat magazine or whatever it is you people like instead of bacon.

This recipe might work in a bread machine, but it’s better by hand because a) there’s nothing like eating bread you’ve worked to make, b) the texture will be less crumpety and c) you won’t have to perform one of those ridiculous colonoscopy things to get the wire mixer out from the middle of the loaf afterwards.

475g bread flour

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1.5 teaspoons fast action dried yeast

275ml warm water

2 tablespoons dried milk

1 chopped onion

In a mixing bowl, combine the butter with the flour, working it through with your fingertips until it looks like you’ve got a bowl of fine breadcrumbs.

Throw in the rest of the dry ingredients - and the onions - and slowly add the water while mixing with a wooden spoon. You want the ingredients to combine into a stiff dough - too much water and you’ll end up with a sloppy mess, which is no good to anybody.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead well for five or so minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. Stick it back in the bowl, cover it lightly with clingfilm and leave it somewhere warm for 45 minutes.

Take the clingfilm off, punch the air out of the dough, tip it out and knead it again, before returning it to the bowl. Leave for another 45 minutes, and then repeat this step all over again.

After the 45 minutes are done, knock the dough back and knead it a third time before placing it in a greased 2lb loaf tin. Clingfilm it back up and leave it for half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 200C.

Now, finally, you can cook the sod. Dust the dough with flour and put it the oven for 30 minutes (or slightly less if, like mine, your oven seems to be powered by a mixture of nuclear fission and dragon farts). Remove from the tin and leave to cool. DO NOT EAT THE BREAD INSTANTLY. It may smell like the most beautiful thing in the world, but you’ll burn your mouth quite severely. Experience talking.

Cocktail Hour: Mai Tai

We've seem to have been talking a lot about tea this week. And that's great, I love the stuff, but it's halfway through the week and I could do with a proper drink at some point. This afternoon actually.

So here's the king of Mai Tais. Trader Vic's have stuck to this recipe since 1944. I'm not going to argue with them, but instead of using "Trader Vic's Rock Candy Syrup", I'll modify the recipe and tell you to use any sugar syrup you feel like.

You'll need these things:

• 50ml of rum.
• Juice of one lime
  
• 10ml Orange Curacao.
• 5 ml any old sugar syrup you feel like.
• 15ml Almond Syrup
• Crushed ice
• Sprigs of mint
  

And then do this: Shake everything about. Shake it some more! Sing a song! Pour into a lo-ball glass with a straw and a sprig of mint. Drink, and pretend that your kitchen is a swanky hotel bar.

Flickr image from mil8's photostream.