Journal Lust

“Let me pencil that into my diary” isn’t a statement that rings true anymore as most people I know don’t keep a paper diary anymore. Generally, the dates in question will be tapped into a mobile phone, i-pad or computer rather than whipping out a pencil and jotting down the information. I’m old fashioned and keep a hard copy that goes everywhere with me – it’s a big factor in organising my increasingly hectic life. The end of the year isn’t all that far away and I’ve already started making plans for 2012 (scary stuff!) so I’m in dire need of another diary.

While perusing new notebooks, I came across this elegant recipe journal made by Moleskine which looks an absolute delight for those who love design and food. It’s designed to be a vessel for your culinary thoughts and has sections waiting to be filled with recipes and ideas. I love the little icons on the pages and the way the blank pages sing with potential. I have a recipe folder where I keep snippets from magazines and where I write down my tried-and-tested recipes for another day but I don’t tend to sketch or jot down ideas. The Moleskine journal makes my recipe folder look really rather sterile in comparison!

I’ve made my own sketchbooks and journals in the past and I wonder if I could better this. I do find the paper that Moleskine favour for their bog-standard notebooks tends to be a little thin for my liking. The format and page size (21cm by 13cm) is slightly narrower than A5 (21cm by 14.8cm) but it’s a nice compromise as its large enough to get a recipe (unless it’s really complicated) on to one page without being too big to prop up in the kitchen.

To buy or not to buy, that is the question! Maybe I should add it to my wish list in the hope that someone will be inspired to pop it in my stocking just before 2012 rolls around!

Review: The Rough Guide to Food

If, like me, you thought that the people behind the popular Rough Guides only did Travel Guides, think again. They may be known for highlighting the best drinking holes in Melbourne and the most sacred areas of Istanbul (they currently cover over 200 destinations) but they also have a vast selection of 'Reference Guides' to choose from. Their 'Rough Guide to Food' jumped off the shelf (visually, not literally) and into my hands during my last trip to my trusty local library.

I must admit that I was curious about how they would pitch a basic guide to food. The book touches upon most of the basic issues and topics, weighing up the positives and negatives of the common options. It's relatively balanced and even though its biased towards organic produce, it is sympathetic to those (like me) who can't afford to go completely organic for their regular shop.

It's a good all round book to challenge your thoughts on food, the ingredients we cook with and the places that we buy from. From the money we spend with the Big Four (our major out-of-town supermarkets) to the trials and tribulations of growing your own, there's certainly food (ho ho) for thought within its pages. It's a great starting point if you're interested in food but don't know where to start.

Published in 2009, the book could already do with an update as it covers such topical issues, it seems a little behind the times. It has a wealth of stats and graphs but these seem a little irrelevant even though they're only 2 years old. It doesn't cover Waitrose recent growth in the marketplace, for example. I suppose anything that covers the retail market is almost out of date before its published.

The layout isn't the easiest to read as the main text is interupted by fact boxes, quotes and facts which distracted me. I'm not the most dedicated of factual readers, I must admit, but the layout doesn't help. Saying that, it does break up the bulk of the text which, I imagine, makes it more appealing to first-time non-fiction readers.

There's a fantastic stockists and suppliers list at the back of the book which is split into regions. The 'South West' section suggests some familiar names but also has some new suggestions. An interesting further reading list follows with more specific resources if you'd like to find out more about a particular area. Each section has links to websites and services relevant to the passage that you've just read. It can be used as a reference book though I think it's possibly a little basic to make it on to my bookshelf. Saying that, I've already made notes of some of its suggestions.

I would seriously recommend this book if you're curious about food, its production or the environment but don't know where to start. I've felt a little lost when it comes to making a balance between eating healthy, nutritious food that's frugal, tasty and ethically sourced. This book gives you a good starting point and suggests further reading to boot.

Review: Beyond Baked Beans: Budget

Feeding yourself, and others, on a budget can be tricky. With the rising cost of food, many people are having to cut back on their weekly expenditures. I don't think that you need a lot of money to eat healthily. In fact, I'm quite proud of how little we spend in the supermarket considering how well we eat.

Fiona Beckett's Beyond Baked Beans series has been popular with students and home cooks alike for their simpler, tasty recipes. Friends of mine have found it to be a great starting point when they're at uni or when they've just flown the nest. I'm always looking for new ways to save money so when I spotted Beckett's Beyond Baked Beans: Budget during my latest library trawl, I thought I'd give it a try.

The book starts by giving some money-saving eating tips and setting out suggested shopping lists. After that, there are recipes using ingredients from your budget basket, which are split into three sections - recipes for one, meals to share and indulgent treats for when you're in need of some luxury on the cheap. It really shows that eating cheap is versatile and not just baked beans on toast (as the name suggests!).

I like the fact that Beckett suggests eating more vegetarian meals as a way to cut food costs; it's one of our tried and tested methods for saving money at the checkouts too. She doesn't cut out meat all together (though she has a specific shopping list for vegetarians and adapts recipes to suit) but encourages the reader to try more meals that are centred around fresh vegetables. The recipes themselves are straight forward and easy to follow - a great starting point for someone who's new to shopping for themselves and cooking from scratch.

I found some of the recipes a little basic and, for that reason, I probably wouldn't buy the book myself but I will certainly be considering it for my brother when he leaves home. It's a shame that the book doesn't have any photo's to really inspire the reader and get them interested in cooking. I have tried the Carrot Dhal recipe which is a winner with any curry. The lentil, spinach and cumin soup and Bang Bang Chicken Salad will, no doubt, be making it into my lunchbox sometimes very soon too.

Beyond Baked Beans: Budget is one of the three strong Beyond Baked Beans series of cookbooks by Fiona Beckett. The website is a great source of inspiration and recipes as is Fiona's blog.

Review: Omnivore’s Dilemma

My last trip to our local library took me past their cookery section. Amongst the various tempting recipe books, ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ caught my eye. Having watched Food Inc, my interest in food production and processing is growing so I decided to give it a try. That’s the great thing about the library – if you see a book that you fancy, you can take it home for free with no obligation.

The book distils America’s food chain down to its key components – corn, chicken, beef, lettuce – before giving you the warts and all truth behind the production and processing that gets food on to dinner plates all around the USA. It’s an intense read (though I’m mostly a fiction reader if I’m honest) as Michael Pollan goes into the chemical composition of common foods, the history of ‘organic’ and the in’s and out’s (s’cuse the pun) of a cows digestive system.

One of the things that struck a chord with me was how the loss of traditional farming techniques is affecting the immediate environment as well as people’s health. For years, the long-established farming practice involved rearing animals and growing crops. Naturally, this meant that the by-product of one stock was used to benefit another – chicken droppings being spread as fertiliser for your arable land, for example. Now, farmers in the US are encouraged to produce single commodities which means that the waste just piles up. Without natural fertilisers, farmers have to resort to increasing amounts of chemicals to encourage the plants to grow which is infecting the water table.

It's a genuinely fascinating book and I would highly recommend it though I did have to take certain parts of it with a pinch of salt. Otherwise, I could see myself turning into a food fundamentalist.

Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivores Dilemma, can be found on Amazon here. Or why not pop down to your local library to see if you can borrow it from them and save you a few pennies...