Food and Cooking
Comfort Food, Barmy Oatcakes and Emilys
Comfort Food It’s November. According to the Met Office we have actually lost about two hours of daylight during October! Which perhaps explains why we often feel in need of comfort at this time of year, even though January and February are usually so much colder and bleaker. And looking at the state of the
In Defence of Divas and Early Christmas Preparations
Divas and Christmas Preparations This month I’m reclaiming early Christmas preparations from associations with rampant commercialism. And after viewing a recent opera performance, I explain why I don’t believe that teamwork always produces the best results in creative works. We need divas! Finally, as part of the seasonal preparations, I am sharing the recipe for
Food, Culture and Identity
A story of food, culture and identity Possibly my favourite cookbook, and certainly my most used, is Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. I can’t recommend it highly enough, even if you’re not vegetarian (I’m not). I might have mentioned before that I mainly cook because I like eating, and so I’m naturally drawn to the work
Tinned Salmon and the Totality of Life
Tinned Salmon This is last month’s article that I never managed to publish. It was holiday season at Castle Sefton Press and we also had some uninvited visitors. Even though I was going away, the blog was due to go out before I went but at the last minute we had a rodent incursion in
An Inspector Calls, Integrity and Imaginary Cooking Friends
An Inspector Calls Regular readers of this blog will know that I am an admirer of the work of English author J. B. Priestley, now best known for his play An Inspector Calls. My enthusiasm for his writing was, as far as I remember, first ignited by the 1981 BBC adaptation of that very play.
The Fawlty Towers Spanish Omelette
Seasonal Considerations Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, but having written about love at some length in my last post, I thought about food. Festivals and special days like Valentine’s Day are celebrated the world over by feasts of special dishes, and archaeology suggests that has been a feature human societies for a long time. In
What Will You Carry Through to the New Year?
Christmas is fast approaching. It is once more the time of short, dark days, warm glows and twinkly lights, hearty meals and inward pleasures. Like Clyde in Ghost Train, I have prepared the dark, rich foods of the heart of winter: mincemeat, fruit cake and a round splodge of a Christmas pudding. The first mince
