The Kitchen Diaries

I’m packed up, moved out, and semi-moved in for a temporary jaunt at my family’s house in New Haven.  I have rediscovered the books that I left on the shelf here last time I was in New Haven.  One of those is Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries.  It’s a beautifully designed book with a simple premise – a near-daily log of Slater’s home cooking from January 1st to December 31st.  It being January 5th, I’m still thinking New Year’s resolutions, fresh starts, new commitments, and am generally ambitious in that first-week-of-the-year kind of way.  I really like Slater’s idea, as much for it’s simplicity as for it’s sense of ritual.  In some ways writing down almost everything that you cook seems somehow easier than writing only about the standout dishes.  This relieves the pressure, allows for the mundane meal but also highlights the excitement of eating seasonally.  Slater explains, that this is “food of the moment – something eaten at a time when it is most appropriate, when the food, the cook and the time of year are at one with each other.”  Exactly the kind of food I love.

So I’m back to eating soup – it hasn’t crept above freezing in days, the nights are still interminably long, and I’m in need of something warming.  Tonight it will be a Mexican Tortilla Soup to re-purpose the roast chicken I found in my parents’ fridge and to remind me of the flavors I was immersed in at this time last year…