I am of the recipe notebook school. I have a book which I started I guess in my early 20's, my first book, but it's since been filled and another larger version started. My mum and I both bought the same notebook at the same time and started to fill it with our favourite recipes and ones that we wanted to keep to try later.
I've mentioned before that I write a menu at the start of each week and shop to that menu. Anal as it sounds it works for me. I love to cook, but with the two little ones I just don't enjoy leaving it until the last minute to decide and shop. So this week I was feeling uninspired and turned to my old book for recipes that I hadn't made in a while.
Last night I cooked with Inma. Inma is a Spanish friend who lives in London with her family, we worked together at the same French bank. Although a Spanish tortilla is a simple enough concept, anyone who has had the real deal in Spain, knows that there is something magical about a great tortilla. Last night I made tortilla as I'd come across a note she'd written for me about her grandmother's recipe - so Tuesday dinner we had with Inma.
Tonight I'm making a recipe one of my dearest friends Lena made for us when we went to her and her now husband Peter's place for dinner the very first time. Lena and I also met at BNP - she moved to London from Copenhagen to join Peter, who was her boyfriend at the time. We went to dinner at their little flat in Chelsea, just down from Sloane Square and she made this meatball dish.
Neither of these dishes are gourmet delights - they're both a case of being as much a memory as a taste. It's not quite like the retsina Geoff and I drank in Greek Islands or the instant noodles that I used to cook over a camp fire in BC travelling with my old park ranger boyfriend - because they were never as good in reality as they were in my memory. These dishes both taste delish, but I love them all the more for being a trigger in bringing back even sweeter times.
3 comments:
How funny the similarities! I have a dear friend named Lena. My husband is a dual park ranger and ecologist. He and his best friend went to Banff on a roadtrip and upon returning to the U.S., he made the mistake of telling the crossing guard that he was born in Thailand. He almost didn't make it back because he didn't have his Thai birth certificate. How lucky you and Geoff are to visit the Greek Islands. I would love to go there. I bet the food was incredible.
you've reminded me to get out my recipe notebook, and to start menu planning. I hate that feeling at about 4pm when I remember we all have to eat! I usually enjoy cooking, but my kids (nearly 5, 3 and 9mths) are slow eaters who like really simple foods. We eat after the kids have gone to bed, around 8pm, and usually it's a different meal. I need to get the kids up to speed eating adult food, and cook something that can be kept warm or added to for our meal.
We lived in London for 3 years just the other side of the station off eaton sq. We had a french friend in pimlico who made the most amazing food, but I've never tried cooking her rabbit at home!
loving your blog and yours was one of the first on my blogroll.
Lynda
I smiled when I saw you notebook. I have the same one also bought in my 20's filled with recipes, books to read, places to visit. I just have to dig it out. Enjoying your bolg
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