Fun, Food and Friends

PART 1

Welcome to our Zooniverse, a place to discover our community and the magical, joyful worlds they live in.

In celebration of Fun, Food, Friends! collection we asked some of our favourite creators to open their homes and share their magic ingredients for a carefree and fun filled time.

This week Nicola Huthwaite shares a glimpse of her home and family. Nicola is a photographer and brand stylist from the UK and has 4 children.

Tell us a little bit about where your family live?

We live in a tiny little village in a 150 year old Victorian property with our 4 children ages from 13-1 years in the middle of the UK. We are surrounded by countryside and a have a beautiful river we walk down when the sun is shining.

What’s your favourite way to have fun together?

We enjoy spending a lot of time outside in nature in the garden and having little picnics by the river. We all love gardening; the children love to help plant the flowers and we grow fresh vegetables in the greenhouse which we use in our food. We have planted over 10 fruit trees in the garden this year! Our favourite place is at home and we love going out for country walks. We also love visiting UK beaches and pretty UK villages.

What’s your favourite family feast?

As a family we love making a homemade pizza together using the fresh greenhouse tomatoes. Everyone has their own toppings, this is definitely our favourite meal as a family because who doesn’t love a pizza!

Our favourite home made pizza recipes as follows:

For the dough:

 500g of strong white
flour, plus extra for dusting and 1 sachet of fast-action dried yest

For the sauce:

400g can plum tomatoes (San Marzano are the best). We pick the ripest tomatoes from our greenhouse to add in 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve

1⁄2 tsp dried oregano + small bunch basil, leaves picked, stalks reserved

For the toppings:

50g Parmesan, freshly grated + 200g mozzarella + your favourite vegetables on top

What’s on your mealtime play list?

We love having Jazz on in the background, it’s a super chill environment for us all.

How do you get the house ready for guests?

Our top tips for hosting guests is getting all the pretty table linen, I love a vintage style table setup with cute little teapots and cups. Making a home-made cake is also a winner. I always make sure there is a fresh bouquet of flowers on the table straight from the garden or cut branches from blossom trees.