The Eleventh Muse
If Judith Jones considers the tenth muse ‘Gasterea the Muse of Taste’ I am going to draw my own conclusions and award the eleventh Muse to the love of Books. Always there is the simple joy of books and how they open one to a labyrinth of possibilities.
Fact and Fiction
I think about Dora Maar and Francoise Gilot and wonder about their own art, how they managed to create and persevere when the aura of Picasso was constantly bumping up against their own inner worlds.
Casa Dolce Casa
Winter is a delicate time, a time when you tell yourself it is great to be inside that you will lock yourself in the house, finish projects, bake wholesome delights, clean out the fridge, make your own soap, but then what happens? Your hands are freezing, it’s cold inside, the garden is turning into a jungle, the fire needs lighting….
Winter Light, Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 6
It is true that until recently I have never made pasta from scratch. I bought the pasta machine, a shiny steel contraption and Jamie’s book on Italian cuisine as gifts for husband and kept my fingers crossed. He prepared the pasta mixing flour and eggs going from novice to pro within weeks so for me, why bother? However, now that ravioli presented itself in Bread is Gold page 32 to be exact well I had to test my fortitude.
Pity and Awe, Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 5
What really moves me is spending time sharing and creating food that teaches me a new way to be in the kitchen. I really like thinking about a recipe for a day or two. Today I was offered some grapefruit from a homegrown garden, yes I will make the Fennel and Grapefruit Salad with the Anchovy dressing. Great I can’t wait. That’s what its all about. I am with Gwyneth (Paltrow) anchovies on anything. It’s a shame my kids don’t eat them, but maybe in time they might. (I love G.P’s cookbooks too) So this is the heart of the kitchen, the coming and the going, and the turning up again to do it all over again.
“Submit it to the test”...Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 4
Turning to Bread is Gold: Extraordinary Meals with Ordinary Ingredients I learn about Alex Atala’s food, his traditions and his intention behind the food he cooks. I learn that the anchovy is a wise friend in the meal that can reproduce quickly in the food chain, unlike tuna that can take a year or so to grow. I did not know that and revel more in the deep flavours that this sauce shares. The key take away here is to add anchovy to the garlic in oil part as it dissolves into the sauce adding flavour and boldness.
Poor Mans Feast, Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 3
No less, food has become the back bone for days spent at home, no distractions. I have been cooking, gardening, weeding, growing things like kale and spring onions, leek and delphiniums, pots of sweet peas....my own dreams of a row or two are coming to life. Somewhere in between I have returned to a few days at work and the rest is just the domestic and the creative and a cook book to ponder. A blue one since the beautiful cream cover I have set aside. I am still cooking from ‘Bread is Gold’ and trying out recipes and gaining a whole new way of looking at food and the possibilities of simple ingredients and what is possible in the day to day.
The Devil for Breakfast
Yesterday a great experiment. I have always wanted to cook the infamous chocolate cake Le Diabolo by the late Simone Beck from her book Simca’s Cuisine. She and Julia Child collaborated to create the great tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I have read accounts of this cake and the merits of it from the travel writer Frances Mayes. Indeed a wonderful piece aptly named “Devil in a Blue Apron” she wrote for a book about the pleasure and discoveries of food, A Fork in the Road so I have remained curious.
How Big is a Sprig? Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 2
How is it that this cooking project is now the anchor for days at home? A lifeline of sorts and perhaps a welcome distraction in the middle of navigating new territory in lifestyle, family time and communications. Lucky for me slow living and slow food has been my happy place over the years, its almost the perfect foundation for this time we now find ourselves in.
Three Simple Things, Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 1
In truth, I have never tasted Panzenella. I may be nutty for Italian things but I have been oblivious to the wonders and intense flavours of this magical dish. At a time when tomatoes are laden and sun bathing on windowsills and a loaf of Pane di Casa is half eaten it was time. It made sense but in truth I wasn't that excited about it.
Slow Mondays, Cooking with Massimo & Friends
It’s funny but I have to come to realise over the past few weeks as I manage and figure out how I am going to cook every recipe in this book I realise that reading a cook book and mediating upon the recipes is much like a spiritual practice. You turn up, you read, begin, make, follow, sample, season, taste, prepare and ultimately create something beautiful to sustain your day. You commit, you take your intentions, your creativity and your intuition to the table.
The Cookbook Project
Somewhere along the way I have been contemplating the idea to find a cook-book that I would go on to actually cook every recipe in the publication. The theory being that I learn some new skills in the kitchen, perhaps find some fresh recipes I can rotate on the family menu, perhaps take myself into new territory in the land of cookery and food. I have been thinking about this for about a year now.
Kitchen Notes
So for years I have been collecting cookbooks, buying them somewhat guiltily thinking this is the last one each time.
Because I Want To
“And while the paths and outcomes of creative living will vary wildly from person to person, I can guarantee you this: A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life”.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Incubation and lone wolves
I press a lemon into my palm hoping to release the juice, extract it somehow. Winter that time of resolving, reflection. I find myself in a dream, frosty mornings, inept gas heater, longer mornings laying prone…