Good evening everyone. What are you reading these days apart from The Windsor Waffle? Any good blogs, books, magazines? The same type of things as usual or are you trying different things because your mood has changed or you have more time?
To be honest you nearly didn’t get a blog post today. I have been an idiot. Apart from cooking and eating I find reading so relaxing and I realise that I have been neglecting this lately. Correction.. I have been reading the wrong things over and over again. I have been obsessively scouring for any updates on news on the Coronavirus on my iPad or iPhone constantly looking for new updates throughout the day. When I found myself on the brink of tears at my desk this morning I thought this has got to stop. Apart from staying in as much as possible and obeying the rules there is very little that I personally can do to stop this virus. But I can change the way I react to it. It is dominating all our lives but I should not have let it dominate my reading habits. I have made myself overwhelmed and also wasted a lot of time as I am often reading the same depressing news over and over again. Time when I could have been baking lovely cakes or reading books I’ve always wanted to read. So here we go, I acknowledge my bad habits and move on.
I’ve got a few books out to show you. Just gathering up all my current reading material and spreading it out over the dining table has made me feel happier already.
Firstly you can see the picture above showing the latest Good Housekeeping magazine. I got a subscription to this as a Christmas gift and I quite like it for a bit of easy reading. There is always something exciting about a virgin new magazine you haven’t opened the cover of yet and you don’t know what you will discover within. Will you start at the front or the back, or just flick through the pages until something interesting jumps out at you. I will probably do a mixture of all 3!
I’ve also got up there the latest “Cook” brochure as I’m really loving their ready meals at the moment. I am highlighting all the meals I think my mother-in-law might like such as cottage pie and chicken casserole so we may tempt her into trying some too and leave them for her on her doorstep while she isolates.
Next up I have a few cookery books, I love cookery books especially ones with lots of pictures.
The Good Housekeeping Express came free with the gift subscription but I think it’s well worth buying in its own right. All the meals take a maximum of 30 minutes to prepare (and they really do, some cookbooks I find are annoyingly inaccurate with timings). The recipes are easy and very tasty. It was my favourite after work cookbook before I got distracted by the virus, so I’m looking forward to getting back to that and trying some new meals out.
Then I have my trusty Delia, Delia’s Complete Cookery Course. I have used this book so much and learnt how to make soufflés, sauces, vol au vents, you name it. Thanks Delia. I used her crumble recipe last night for my rhubarb crumble. I go back to her time and time again but she does worry me a little being so heavy handed on the cream and butter, clearly not for those with high cholesterol!
I’ve also included The Curious Bartender volume 1 as I received this as a gift and haven’t really explored it yet. We are doing “Cocktail Saturdays”in our house now and I can’t find my copy of The Little Book of Cocktails at the moment so this will come in handy for me to become a Master Cocktail Maker spinning cocktail shakers in the air in some exotic fashion… (maybe).
As usual I have waffled on and ran out of time. I have lots of cooking and reading to be getting on with so I’ll love you and leave you and tell you all about my other books including my fiction choices tomorrow…. x
The Windsor Waffle 