Sugar and Spice

When I think of Christmas food, I am haunted by the smells of cinnamon and spice, of oranges. I think of Christmas cake soaked with boozy dried fruits and crisp pastry shell mince pies. In Georgian times, the import of fruits, fresh and dried were a popular commodity and elaborate confections adorned the supper tables of the aristocracy and landed gentry. In 1757 an Italian pastry cook named Domenico Negri opened a confectionery shop at 7-8 Berkeley Square under the sign of “The Pot and Pineapple”. At that time, the pineapple was a symbol of luxury and used extensively as a logo for confectioners. Only the rich could afford the delicacies produced in this type of shop, but the eating of ices and sweetmeats became extremely fashionable. No image remains of the premises, but here is one of Negri’s business cards.

Frederic Nutt’s Spiced Biscuits

(NB not suitable for people with nut allergies)

The Ang Lee adaptation of Sense and Sensibility (1995) has Fanny Dashwood declare at the ball, that her brother and husband “have been eating ices”. Negri’s shop employed apprentices, one of whom included Frederic Nutt, who went on to produce his own recipe book. The recipe following, (converted into modern measurements) is taken from Nutt’s publication, The Complete Confectioner: Or, The Whole Art of Confectionary Made Easy : Also Receipts for Home-made Wines, Cordials, French and Italian Liqueurs, &c, first published in 1789.

These biscuits are rather like biscotti, designed to be dunked in sweet, dessert wine (or these days, coffee or tea). They are hard and crunchy so best to be softened by liquid before consuming.

Ingredients:

125g plain white flour

125g blanched almonds

40g icing sugar

Teaspoon mace (or mixed spice)

Teaspoon cinnamon

Sugar syrup – 100ml water, boiling with 125g caster sugar, swirl in pan, boil for 1 min.

Method:

Add syrup to dry ingredients. Pull together by hand. Roll into a sausage, flatten a little. Put on baking paper, bake at 160 degrees for 40 mins.

Wet the back of the paper and the sausage will lift off easily. Cut very thin slices at an angle. Put the slices back on the tray and into the oven (switched off) to dry out for 40 minutes. Dunk in dessert wine and enjoy!

Winter At Studio Arkell

Now that the trees are bare, and Christmas preparations are in full swing, its time to look ahead to the arrival another New Year! For us, 2022 has past in a flash, with January marking the first year in our Christchurch offices and seeing us already planning ahead for 2023.

Now is a great time to set your plans into motion too, adding those extra spaces to make your home New Year ready, whether you need that vital quiet corner for work, or want to bring the outside in ready for the Spring – Studio Arkell can solve all your design and build questions.

Studio Arkell is a friendly and approachable RIBA Chartered Architect’s practice, with a talented and growing team led by Hannah Arkell, in her home town of Christchurch, Dorset.

To take advantage of a limited offer of a complimentary 1-hour Design Consultation – please get in touch with Hannah or her Team at Studio Arkell today.

You can find us just off the top of Christchurch High Street. A: 5, Castle Street, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 1DP

T: 01202 232423

Enquire for a free consultation.

E: info@studioarkell.com

W: www.studioarkell.com

Due to our continued growth and success, we are seeking a motivated:

- Part 2

- Architect

- Senior Technician

If you think you’d like to work with us, please send your abridged CV and portfolio to info@studioarkell.com

By Dr Armorel Wood

WHY DO WE SLEEP?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE ASLEEP?

HOW DO WE SLEEP BETTER?

Sleep is essential to allow us to recover from the physical and emotional strains of the day and recharge us for the new day ahead. As a generalisation we are awake for 16 hours and sleep for 8 hours- 1/3 of our lives spent asleep!

There are three sleep inducers:

An INTERNAL BODY CLOCK (circadian rhythm) that is set by periods of light and dark

A SLEEP SIGNAL (adenosine) that builds up as we are awake and resets at night

RELAXATION activities as a pre bed routine.

We can adjust our lifestyle in order to maximise the capacity of these inducers to get us, and keep us, asleep. Firstly, we need to get up at approximately the same time each day, even at weekends, to allow the sleep signal time to build up to a maximum by bedtime. We also need to go to bed at approx. the same time each night. i.e., staying awake for the same time period each day.

Diet, dark/light exposure and temperature can interfere with this process. Caffeine blocks the effects of adenosine the sleep signal and that is how it keeps us awake. Therefore, if you have trouble sleeping you should not have caffeinated drinks after about 2pm. Alcohol in the evening although it may make us sleepy ultimately messes with the quality of our sleep so should be limited to one unit with our early evening meal. Eating at regular times also helps our internal body clock so it is best to have breakfast on waking and our main meal at lunch with a light early evening meal. Our eyes have receptors that are sensitive to morning sunlight and evening sunlight so exposing ourselves to natural full spectrum light as early as possible by doing a short walk for about 30 minutes and again in the early evening helps the sleep-wakesleep cycle. At bedtime our bodies like to be cool, this can be achieved by a hot bath/shower which causes the skin to vasodilate and our bodies to lose heat. Bedrooms need to be about 17 degrees; a dark, tidy and quiet place, a safe, comfortable haven to relax. Bedtime routines including turning all screens off one hour before bed and those that include meditation, reading, music, breathing exercises or yoga all help set us up for a better night.

There are three phases of sleep that occur in cycles throughout the night. The phases include:

DEEP SLEEP which cleans and refreshes the nerve pathways in the brain and refreshes the tissues in our bodies.

REM/DREAM SLEEP that acts to process and reset our emotions from the day.

LEARNING SLEEP that helps store and consolidate memories and learning from the previous day.

We have 4-5 cycles of these sleep phases each night with most of our deep sleep before 3am and most of our REM sleep after 3am. After each cycle we wake momentarily (which we may not remember). Thus, a total of 10 min awake at night with 20 min falling asleep is considered normal.

If you have trouble sleeping, try not to worry about being awake as this leads to outpouring of stress hormones and puts your body on high alert. You need to try and change your expectations of being in bed to expect to fall asleep away from expecting to stay awake. Enjoy resting and relaxing, bring your thoughts back to the here and now and focus on your senses and what you can feel, practise your breathing, count, use calm music, sleep podcasts, familiar audiobooks with headphones.

Do not worry about being awake as this leads to outpouring of stress hormones and puts your body on high alert. The more you worry about not falling asleep the more you wake yourself up! You need to change your expectations of being in bed to expect to fall asleep away from expecting to stay awake. Enjoy resting and relaxing practise your breathing, count, use calm music, familiar audiobooks. You ideally need to lie in bed with your eyes closed in a state of quiet wakefulness while waiting for sleep to come. Instead of fighting to get to sleep you need to practise accepting the fact that you are still awake and welcome any unwanted thoughts or sensations instead of resisting them. It is the struggle with wakefulness that does the damage not the wakefulness itself. Any attempts to fight, or avoid your insomnia signals your brain that you are being threatened in some way. This automatically triggers your innate survival response and prepares your mind and body for fight or flight and alert wakefulness so you need to change your relationship with your thoughts rather than struggle to change them. Accepting and welcoming your insomnia is the key to getting you back to sleep!

Dr Armorel Wood Private Counsellor

M: 07765 915 211

E: woodarmorel@gmail.com

W: mapletreetherapy.org.uk