It’s time to get cooking!

I’ve been known to take cookery books and recipe folders to bed like most people would take a novel. I try and get a few hours every weekend to update my recipe folder and trawl through any new cook books I’ve bought from my local charity shop, my most recent was Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat. That’s probably quite sad and proves that I have no friends but at least I’m well fed!

I wouldn’t call my cooking the best in the world, but I would say that I’m more than capable of producing wholesome, filling, comforting food that is more than a little bit edible. That’s probably part of the reason why Nigella is my all-time favourite cookery writer. She understands that we aren’t all professionally trained, don’t have hours to make a jous, mousse, or caramel nest, and that even if we did we wouldn’t want to anyway.

That’s not say that there’s anything wrong with that type of food, but let’s face it, how many of us really want to spend more than about an hour in the kitchen at the end of the day? For some, even 10 minutes is 10 minutes too long.

Personally I enjoy a cook book that has a mixture of easy, delicious, and preferably cheapish meals and the more expensive, time consuming, but equally delicious dishes. After all, which foodie doesn’t like spending a bit of extra time to prepare a gorgeous meal when they’ve got the time?

So with these criteria in mind here are my favourite cookery books that are guaranteed to get you in the kitchen no matter what day of the week it is.

Gizzi Erskine – Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts

If you’re anything like me then your relationship with food is a constant battle of keeping your weight down without feeling hard done by when presented with a plate of food.

As far as I’m concerned home cooked food should be delicious, filling, and definitely not like you’re on a diet. Gizzi’s book delivers just that. Her skinny weeks recipes are gorgeous, especially with all the Middle Eastern and Oriental flavours she uses, and her weekend feasts are to die for!

Valentine Warner – What to Eat Now: Spring and Summer

This was another charity shop find that’s definitely worth the few quid I paid for it. If you’ve been wanting to eat more seasonal ingredients but you haven’t been sure how to make the most of them then this is the book for you.

Unlike Gizzi and in line with Nigella’s philosophy, calorie counting doesn’t come into it, although that doesn’t mean that every recipe is dripping in lard. There are more than enough tasty and nutritious soups, salads, and grills to be had and this book.

Good Housekeeping Cookery Book – Cook’s Companion

Really any of the cookery books produced by the Good Housekeeping team are worth getting your hands on. Admittedly the recipes are pretty dated, salmon in aspic anyone? However other recipes form the basis of every good cook’s repertoire.

Soups, stews, pies, puddings, bread, and pastry are all explained with fool proof methods that even the most kitchen shy cook can understand. Mine was passed down to me from a family friend and with this in hand I survived university without poisoning myself or developing scurvy. If you want a book that tells you all the basics then is for you.

Anything by Nigella!

I know I’m carping on but I really do love Nigella. Her recipes will see you through every occasion, event, or personal crisis that you can think of all with minimal fuss and effort.

So what are you waiting for? Ready, steady, read that cook book!

Something for the weekend

 

Weekdays are busy and let’s face it, finding time to read during the week can be tough. That’s why it’s great to get to Friday night and know that you’ve got all weekend to curl up with a good book and really get stuck in to a story.

If you’re anything like me then weekends also mean cooking so you can guarantee to find me with my nose in a cookery book on a Saturday afternoon, as well as a novel on a Sunday morning.

Here are some of my top weekend reads that I think you’ll really love…

If you want something light and fluffy

After working hard all week you might not want to read something dark and dramatic, so getting your hands on a light, uplifting novel is a great way to wash all your weekday worries away.

My top read would be Pillow Talk by Freya North. I got this book free with a women’s magazine a few summers ago and since then I’ve read it every year. I now know exactly what happens in each chapter but I find that sort of comforting. It’s light, amusing, well written, and you just know it’s going to have a happy ending. Definitely not your typical chick lit and well worth giving up a few hours of your weekend to read.

If you want something to get stuck into

If your way of winding down at the weekend is to read something dark, dangerous, and dramatic then you could do worse than read Stephen King’s The Green Mile. I definitely wouldn’t say it’s a happy story, but it’s certainly a good one.

Most people have seen the film and if you haven’t read the book then now’s your chance. You’ll cry, you’ll smile, and you’ll read the last page and feel uplifted, without really knowing why.

If you want something short

Unfortunately we don’t all have hours to spend reading at the weekend, but no weekend would be complete without a little time spent with a book. This is where short story collections are a boon, you can read one and then put the collection down until you have time for another one.

One of my favourite short story collections is Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. The stories are dark, sexy, and just a little bit weird. You’ll love them! Angela Carter takes fairy tales such as Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, and Beauty and the Beast and turns them into fantastic stories for adults.

If you want something foodie

Weekends and cooking go hand in hand for me and multiple cookery books are usually read and discarded over the course of my weekend. I’m constantly in my local charity bookshop rummaging around for a delicious new cookery book.

My favourite find from the last digging session is Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat. I should probably get with the times and choose a more recently released cookery book, but I just really love this tasty offering from the Domestic Goddess herself. There are recipes for everything from a simple rice pudding to delicious slow roasted quail. So whether you’d like to know how to make a top class omelette or you’ve got a swanky dinner party to cater for, this book will see you right.