I'm with you - Heinz soup and lots of pepper. Nostalgic? Most definitely, reminding me so much of Mum who in fact was a stunning old-fashioned family cook.
I don't find that cookbooks give me relief from the current world perils at the moment, though. For me, it's a gardening book, possibly an embroidery book, or one of my favourite go-to's in times of distrait, Winter Solstice. And yes, I do know its your bookclub choice. Fabulous choice!
I love this quote from Oscar Wilde affirming memory and nostalgia. "Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us."
Oh yes. Agree. It must be Heinz Big Red for me. Definitely the one with salt. NOT salt reduced. I very much like your non-cookbook choices. I am like this also with baby knitting books at the moment. They are hope-filled. And also vintage craft books. And - like you - gardening books, mostly vintage ones I find at Saver's. Thank you so much for reading and for commenting. x
I actually do have an immediate cookbook comfort read note: I have truly never read a more wonderful cookbook than Ella Risbridger’s Midnight Chicken. She has the most delightful way with words, it’s beautifully illustrated, and I honestly read it front to back like it was a novel. Her descriptions of the recipes are all deeply compelling too.
cookbooks leave me feeling sad and a bit of a failure, but spending time thinking about my favourite meals from childhood is definitely a pleasure. I miss my mums cooking not just the food but the feeling of being nurtured and cared for, unconditionally.
I loved mums boiled chook with parsley sauce, her roast pork with all the trimmings, also a lamb chop, rice curry thing she did in the oven, her chocolate sponge cream cake and fried bread oh my actually now i see it written down it's probably good i don't eat those things anymore. I was never able to make any of them like she did, probably because of the mum love that i just couldn't find anywhere to add. My favourite was the chook but my hubby doesn't like any part of it so I've never even bothered to try and make that. more fool me for putting the needs of others before myself
Sometimes our favourite don't translate to others, right? They hold a special place in our own history though. My nan used to cook some of the things you mention and they are impossible to replicate for me also.
I absolutely love this! You nailed how I feel about inspiration vs action. I have so many cookbook comfort reads - they really feed my soul more than my stomach sometimes - but particularly delight in ones in the form of diaries, eg The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater and My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl. And tomato soup is also my ultimate comfort food, ideally with a very cheesy toastie on the side.
I love both of those books. I also love Sally Wise's book A Year on the Farm for this reason. Gosh. Tomato soup. How can something so syrupy and bright be so good? I do not know how, but it most certainly is. (And yes to cheese toastie OR a cheese and bacon roll warmed up!)
This has put into words how I feel, not just about the cookbooks I collect but so many things. I love the feeling certain things give me.
My cookbook collection lets me dream I am a person who cooks delicious & varied meals, & sometimes I am but mostly I am cooking very simple meals that don’t need a recipe. I don’t have a favourite I pull down to reread but often on a weekend I’ll pull 5 or 6 books from my shelves to pour over. I’ll find recipes I’d bookmarked when I first bought the book home & think “yes! I’ll make that this week!”. Sometimes I do but mostly I don’t.
My collection of little notebooks lets me believe I can be the type of person who journals & writes daily, filling pages with little drawings & tidbits from my life. Mostly I am a person who sporadically spills her heart onto a page & it’s all very mundane & visually boring.
I go through times of collecting seeds & buying gardening magazines believing I’m going to have a beautiful & abundant garden, that I’ll spend time every day tending to my plants. But I am never that person. I am lazy & forgetful. Plants that need little attention & love are actually what I should collect.
I enjoy imagining myself as those types of people.
I think we all have best laid plans and then life gets in the way. Even today I am thinking what the heck did I even do. I mean ... I rested. Did a bit of housework type stuff. Wrote a thing. It doesn't seem like much for all those hours ... I had much bigger plans. In short, I can relate to what you are saying. I think life and energy levels and even WEATHER gets in the way at times. I love your cookbook collection. It looks a lot like mine, except yours is organised and mine is ... chaos! x
I was talking to someone who is going through a hard phase & said “ you want to be that guy from the movie click who fast forwards the hard & boring parts of his life to get to what he thinks are the good bits but it’s all those hard bits, the small bits, the everyday bits that create your life” so today Pip, you created your life.
And for the record, what I am learning about myself is I think I am fab at the aspirational side of life but not so great at the action part. And I am trying to be ok with that or at least choose areas where I can be better at actioning things I really want.
I love all of this, Pip. The reason comfort and cosiness feels so good is because it releases oxytocin - the hormone that heals - so comfort really is healing. Give me an early night and a hot water bottle, a cup of tea and a good book. Bliss! Also, I was thinking of the ‘shabby chic’ book that came out in the late 90s….im never going to decorate my house like that but I love a peruse through the pages x
Yes! Exactly! The methodological framework for my Honours was based around nursing 'Care Theory' - discussing the crafting of comfort for characters in the same way that nursing theory addresses the provision of comfort for patients. I looked at the work of theorists like Joan Tronto, Katherine Kolcaba and Talia Schaffer. It was fascinating. So fun to think of characters being cared for using this sort of framework. Comfort 4 ever!
Have you read Laurie Colwin? She writes comfort so well! And what a beautiful, meaningful theme for your honours. I bet it was a joy (and so apt for you!) x
oh Jodie you've just made me see exactly what i have been longing for, for years now, it's comfort. i thought it was connection, but that is only part of it, it's comfort and i need to give it to myself, there is no florence nightingale about to swoop in and take care of me,
I love this. It also made me smile, as the dissertation title for my English BA in 2016 was "Recipe Books as Aspirational Fiction" - a sweet reminder of a long time ago!
Oh that sounds brilliant. What a great research focus. You clearly chose a topic you would not lose interest in over the long months of study, which is what the uni staff recommend from the get-go. Nerds unite, Eleanor!
I love reading a cookbook. A recent favourite is Ella Risbridger's Midnight Chicken. I think I've only cooked two things from it! I also love reading Nigel Slater's books.
I love this Pip! Thank you for putting into words why I screenshot new ideas daily, and cannot part with published writing in all forms that has spoken to me xx
Once again I soaked in the at-one-ness with the whole vibe of this. When my friend Michelle visits she always loves to read my trusty old Lyndey Milan cookbook and when I visit her I go down the Mollie Katzen rabbit hole.
I love a good cookbook! So much more inspiring to peruse a book filled with pretty pictures than finding a recipe online. I have lots of favourites including books by Tessa Kiros, Madher Jaffrey for Indian, River Cottage etc I never get bored due to my love of good food and gardening. Keeps me happy and content!
Dear dear Pip, sigh! I cannot really look at cookbooks or recipes any more..and it relates to what I CAN no longer do…eat as others might, since cancer took away half my mouth. Look, to be fair my leg gave me something like a mouth back…sorry! So, I am by necessity as comfort food cook of my own making. My husband and I at 75 eat far less than we did even a couple of decades ago. Something about the aging thing that says no more from our stomachs.
Yet I can crave very much still. And they are foods my late mum cooked. And whilst I can’t replicate them, I did try on a few occasions to give my late Dad some tastes he could remember from his life with mum. About tomato soup. For me always Rosella condensed tomato soup with grated ‘blue packet’ cheese . And then some years back production stopped. Where was my comfort soup!? And one day, there it was back on the shelves in a pack like stock. I now always have some for those times of need. And the blue packet of cheese is now a green packet as a new owner takes over.
I'm with you - Heinz soup and lots of pepper. Nostalgic? Most definitely, reminding me so much of Mum who in fact was a stunning old-fashioned family cook.
I don't find that cookbooks give me relief from the current world perils at the moment, though. For me, it's a gardening book, possibly an embroidery book, or one of my favourite go-to's in times of distrait, Winter Solstice. And yes, I do know its your bookclub choice. Fabulous choice!
I love this quote from Oscar Wilde affirming memory and nostalgia. "Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us."
Cheers and thanks for your wonderful post.
Oh yes. Agree. It must be Heinz Big Red for me. Definitely the one with salt. NOT salt reduced. I very much like your non-cookbook choices. I am like this also with baby knitting books at the moment. They are hope-filled. And also vintage craft books. And - like you - gardening books, mostly vintage ones I find at Saver's. Thank you so much for reading and for commenting. x
I actually do have an immediate cookbook comfort read note: I have truly never read a more wonderful cookbook than Ella Risbridger’s Midnight Chicken. She has the most delightful way with words, it’s beautifully illustrated, and I honestly read it front to back like it was a novel. Her descriptions of the recipes are all deeply compelling too.
Oh I love that cookbook too!
I had that one by my bed for a long time. It's such a great book, isn't it. Thanks for the reminder, Cass. xx
cookbooks leave me feeling sad and a bit of a failure, but spending time thinking about my favourite meals from childhood is definitely a pleasure. I miss my mums cooking not just the food but the feeling of being nurtured and cared for, unconditionally.
Were there particular favourite childhood meals, Kate? It's QUITE hard being a grown up at times. I can relate. Who cooks for us?! x
I loved mums boiled chook with parsley sauce, her roast pork with all the trimmings, also a lamb chop, rice curry thing she did in the oven, her chocolate sponge cream cake and fried bread oh my actually now i see it written down it's probably good i don't eat those things anymore. I was never able to make any of them like she did, probably because of the mum love that i just couldn't find anywhere to add. My favourite was the chook but my hubby doesn't like any part of it so I've never even bothered to try and make that. more fool me for putting the needs of others before myself
Sometimes our favourite don't translate to others, right? They hold a special place in our own history though. My nan used to cook some of the things you mention and they are impossible to replicate for me also.
Yes to reading cookbooks and Nancy M inspired sofas!
Hear hear!! x
I absolutely love this! You nailed how I feel about inspiration vs action. I have so many cookbook comfort reads - they really feed my soul more than my stomach sometimes - but particularly delight in ones in the form of diaries, eg The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater and My Kitchen Year by Ruth Reichl. And tomato soup is also my ultimate comfort food, ideally with a very cheesy toastie on the side.
I love both of those books. I also love Sally Wise's book A Year on the Farm for this reason. Gosh. Tomato soup. How can something so syrupy and bright be so good? I do not know how, but it most certainly is. (And yes to cheese toastie OR a cheese and bacon roll warmed up!)
This has put into words how I feel, not just about the cookbooks I collect but so many things. I love the feeling certain things give me.
My cookbook collection lets me dream I am a person who cooks delicious & varied meals, & sometimes I am but mostly I am cooking very simple meals that don’t need a recipe. I don’t have a favourite I pull down to reread but often on a weekend I’ll pull 5 or 6 books from my shelves to pour over. I’ll find recipes I’d bookmarked when I first bought the book home & think “yes! I’ll make that this week!”. Sometimes I do but mostly I don’t.
My collection of little notebooks lets me believe I can be the type of person who journals & writes daily, filling pages with little drawings & tidbits from my life. Mostly I am a person who sporadically spills her heart onto a page & it’s all very mundane & visually boring.
I go through times of collecting seeds & buying gardening magazines believing I’m going to have a beautiful & abundant garden, that I’ll spend time every day tending to my plants. But I am never that person. I am lazy & forgetful. Plants that need little attention & love are actually what I should collect.
I enjoy imagining myself as those types of people.
I think we all have best laid plans and then life gets in the way. Even today I am thinking what the heck did I even do. I mean ... I rested. Did a bit of housework type stuff. Wrote a thing. It doesn't seem like much for all those hours ... I had much bigger plans. In short, I can relate to what you are saying. I think life and energy levels and even WEATHER gets in the way at times. I love your cookbook collection. It looks a lot like mine, except yours is organised and mine is ... chaos! x
I was talking to someone who is going through a hard phase & said “ you want to be that guy from the movie click who fast forwards the hard & boring parts of his life to get to what he thinks are the good bits but it’s all those hard bits, the small bits, the everyday bits that create your life” so today Pip, you created your life.
And for the record, what I am learning about myself is I think I am fab at the aspirational side of life but not so great at the action part. And I am trying to be ok with that or at least choose areas where I can be better at actioning things I really want.
I love all of this, Pip. The reason comfort and cosiness feels so good is because it releases oxytocin - the hormone that heals - so comfort really is healing. Give me an early night and a hot water bottle, a cup of tea and a good book. Bliss! Also, I was thinking of the ‘shabby chic’ book that came out in the late 90s….im never going to decorate my house like that but I love a peruse through the pages x
Yes! Exactly! The methodological framework for my Honours was based around nursing 'Care Theory' - discussing the crafting of comfort for characters in the same way that nursing theory addresses the provision of comfort for patients. I looked at the work of theorists like Joan Tronto, Katherine Kolcaba and Talia Schaffer. It was fascinating. So fun to think of characters being cared for using this sort of framework. Comfort 4 ever!
Have you read Laurie Colwin? She writes comfort so well! And what a beautiful, meaningful theme for your honours. I bet it was a joy (and so apt for you!) x
oh Jodie you've just made me see exactly what i have been longing for, for years now, it's comfort. i thought it was connection, but that is only part of it, it's comfort and i need to give it to myself, there is no florence nightingale about to swoop in and take care of me,
Comfort is the steadiness we all need x
I love this. It also made me smile, as the dissertation title for my English BA in 2016 was "Recipe Books as Aspirational Fiction" - a sweet reminder of a long time ago!
Oh that sounds brilliant. What a great research focus. You clearly chose a topic you would not lose interest in over the long months of study, which is what the uni staff recommend from the get-go. Nerds unite, Eleanor!
I love reading a cookbook. A recent favourite is Ella Risbridger's Midnight Chicken. I think I've only cooked two things from it! I also love reading Nigel Slater's books.
I love this Pip! Thank you for putting into words why I screenshot new ideas daily, and cannot part with published writing in all forms that has spoken to me xx
Once again I soaked in the at-one-ness with the whole vibe of this. When my friend Michelle visits she always loves to read my trusty old Lyndey Milan cookbook and when I visit her I go down the Mollie Katzen rabbit hole.
I love a good cookbook! So much more inspiring to peruse a book filled with pretty pictures than finding a recipe online. I have lots of favourites including books by Tessa Kiros, Madher Jaffrey for Indian, River Cottage etc I never get bored due to my love of good food and gardening. Keeps me happy and content!
Dear dear Pip, sigh! I cannot really look at cookbooks or recipes any more..and it relates to what I CAN no longer do…eat as others might, since cancer took away half my mouth. Look, to be fair my leg gave me something like a mouth back…sorry! So, I am by necessity as comfort food cook of my own making. My husband and I at 75 eat far less than we did even a couple of decades ago. Something about the aging thing that says no more from our stomachs.
Yet I can crave very much still. And they are foods my late mum cooked. And whilst I can’t replicate them, I did try on a few occasions to give my late Dad some tastes he could remember from his life with mum. About tomato soup. For me always Rosella condensed tomato soup with grated ‘blue packet’ cheese . And then some years back production stopped. Where was my comfort soup!? And one day, there it was back on the shelves in a pack like stock. I now always have some for those times of need. And the blue packet of cheese is now a green packet as a new owner takes over.