Why is it that I've always been addicted to stuff that's bad for me? Oh, I don't mean the really, really bad stuff - there will be no revelations about illegal drugs here, thank you; I think the hardest drug I'm addicted to is Pepsi - but there are some things that I know will do me no good whatsoever, and yet I have to have them. Unsuitable shoes, expensive vintage clothes (or just clothes in generally, really), books when my shelves are overflowing, CD's and DVD's when there really isn't any room for them...it's just ridiculous! And now it seems that my almost-new-but-slightly-ludicrous addiction is...cookery books.
I know, I know, not exactly rock 'n' roll, is it? But I have a real thing about them, even though I rarely cook anything and am currently undergoing tests for IBS and Crohns Disease (so food is sort of my enemy at the moment, at least until I know what's definitely going on in there and can do something about it. FML...) But there's just something about a cookery book that has a real hold over me; where most people would say the longest book they've ever read is 'War and Peace', I ploughed my way through 'Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management'. Some people get stupidly-excited over a new model of a particular car, I jump and down squealing when there's a new Nigella Lawson on the bookshelves. I have the obligatory 'celebrity chef' cookbooks, of course, for I worship at the altar of Nigella and Jamie, but I also have more interesting cookbooks (stop sniggering at the back - such things are possible!)
Take the book I bought today, for example. It's called 'Falling Cloudberries' by Tessa Kiros, who is the daughter of a Finnish mother and Cypriot father, who lived in South Africa from the age of 4 and is now married to an Italian. This is not so much a cookery book - although the recipes certainly look scrumptious - as a family history; there are stories, photographs, snippets of lore...it's absolutely beautiful. It was the cover that grabbed me first, and when I picked it up I knew it was coming home with me. What can I say, I have the iron will of an amoeba. But it's stunning and will have pride of place on my shelf. All that and I managed to get a cheap paperback copy of the legendary Julia Childs...today was a good day! Right, I'm off to drool over my lovely books and imagine being able to cook everything in them...and eat them with no consequences...ah well.
I know, I know, not exactly rock 'n' roll, is it? But I have a real thing about them, even though I rarely cook anything and am currently undergoing tests for IBS and Crohns Disease (so food is sort of my enemy at the moment, at least until I know what's definitely going on in there and can do something about it. FML...) But there's just something about a cookery book that has a real hold over me; where most people would say the longest book they've ever read is 'War and Peace', I ploughed my way through 'Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management'. Some people get stupidly-excited over a new model of a particular car, I jump and down squealing when there's a new Nigella Lawson on the bookshelves. I have the obligatory 'celebrity chef' cookbooks, of course, for I worship at the altar of Nigella and Jamie, but I also have more interesting cookbooks (stop sniggering at the back - such things are possible!)
Take the book I bought today, for example. It's called 'Falling Cloudberries' by Tessa Kiros, who is the daughter of a Finnish mother and Cypriot father, who lived in South Africa from the age of 4 and is now married to an Italian. This is not so much a cookery book - although the recipes certainly look scrumptious - as a family history; there are stories, photographs, snippets of lore...it's absolutely beautiful. It was the cover that grabbed me first, and when I picked it up I knew it was coming home with me. What can I say, I have the iron will of an amoeba. But it's stunning and will have pride of place on my shelf. All that and I managed to get a cheap paperback copy of the legendary Julia Childs...today was a good day! Right, I'm off to drool over my lovely books and imagine being able to cook everything in them...and eat them with no consequences...ah well.
1 comment:
Oh Kate! And you were so good at Sonisphere!
Methinks a gluten-free cookbook would be a good present for when you know what's going on. *huggles*
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