Sunday 31 March 2013

A recipe to welcome Spring..

There is always that special recipe that embodies a season. For us it can be a hearty beef stew in autumn, or maybe a berry dessert in summer.  With Spring now most definitely here we thought we would share our very favourite Spring salad. It's so easy to make (perfect when catering for last minute guests) and it just seems to bring together all the best elements of the season; fresh, crisp, delicate flavours. It's absolutely delicious! This recipe should make enough for four people.

Fennel & Orange Salad.



All you'll need are a few basic ingredients that you can pick up from any supermarket but when combined they really do create something quite special!
Ingredients: 
2 Oranges sliced, then cut into small pieces
2 Fennel bulbs finely sliced
A handful of raisins
A handful of pine nuts
Parmesan shavings to taste
A squeeze of lemon

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl adding a generous drizzle of good olive oil and a pinch of salt and voila, it's time to dish up! We told you it was easy. Serve with warm crusty bread, a glass of cool white wine and enjoy...




Tuesday 26 March 2013

A brief history of ... Us.

Welcome to our blog! We are two sisters, and founders of Ginger & Mora, a very recently launched online homeware boutique. On our first post we thought it was important to share with you (with the help of a few family snaps) a little bit about us, the people behind the name, and how our journey has led to this point. 

The first question people always ask when they meet us is.."Where are you from?" 
They usually ask this first as one of us has bright red hair, the other dark brown and the lilts in our accents are definitely a little weird..Well, we are very lucky. We've moved around quite a bit; Ecuador, Colombia, Ireland and Italy were all places we called home before hitting our twenties. 

      


Endless, deserted beaches, wild jungle and flowing rivers are some our first memories and where our life's adventure began.




 A bright, open plan, tropical house on a large farm was undoubtedly our first experience of beautiful living. It was here we cultivated our love of the natural world.



Tropical living continued in a colonial house in the centre of the Caribbean city of Cartagena where  folklore, bright colours, music and great seafood were a part of our everyday life.





We were to continue our story in what definitely felt at the time like the far off, mystical Emerald Isle where a change in language, culture and style made an important impact on how we looked at the world. (Check out those jumpers!!)




Life would change again for us with our parents decision to move to Italy, the place where their own story had begun!



We loved our summers and school holidays spent in the hills of the Chianti.  Incredible food, art and style round ever corner!


So how does this all link in with Ginger & Mora? 
Well so many moves resulted in four big loves! Family, food, nature and interiors. You might be wondering how the latter one came about..

Growing up, our family home was always filled with an eclectic mix of objects from different countries and generations that somehow came together to create a calm oasis. We're pretty sure it's on that foundation that our love of decorating and interiors began.  

Now, all grown up, one of based in the Tuscan countryside, and the other in rural England we felt it was the perfect time to put our passion for interiors into creating Ginger & Mora! The beauty of this project is that it has allowed us to bring together those other three big loves. 

Family: What's better than getting to work with your best friend and sister?!  

Nature: We keep clear of items produced with a throw away attitude, over ninety percent of our  stock is made right here Europe and the largest of our producers has been around since the 15th century! We cherish the beauty of long lasting design. We love working and collaborating with small producers and artisans and look for quality and originality in every single one of our pieces. 

Food: Well, we do love food and eating with friends and family is one of our favourite things to do so the first thing we did when we launched G&M was to create our own tableware range and we'll continue adding pieces to make every meal and it's preparation just that little bit more special! 

That's how it all comes together..with Ginger & Mora!



We'll be posting again very soon but in the meantime, you can keep up to date with all things G&M via our facebook  page and twitter account!