THREE FOR THREE

Rachel's book came out just before we moved, one of three cookery books that wasn't packed into the many, many cardboard boxes - Rachel, Diana, Claire. I didn't get to do more than skim it in those weeks and in the few since we've been back from Greece, as I found my feet in this in between kitchen, looking for a rhythm, working out which pans, which knives, which bowls to use.

But in the skimming I knew that this book, or, as Molly quite rightly had it 'THIS BOOK!', would quickly become a favourite - the recipes, the photography, the design, but most of all Rachel's voice. I can't put it better than something that has already been said... 'She is proper'. 

On Saturday morning, a quiet start after a long week, I curled up and spent some time reading, mentally bookmarking as I went and planning something to make the following evening. But later that day when we couldn't decide what to have for dinner I remembered reading about pasta coated in anchovy butter, I remembered the ingredients: pasta, anchovies, butter. It took as long to make as it takes pasta to cook. It was delicious.

And yesterday I sat, making a shopping list, watching the weather, seriously considering soup for dinner. We ate bread and cheese for lunch before walking through the Botanics to Stockbridge and back, the rain just starting as we got in, in time for the last few kilometres of the Tour de France. I caught up on multiple missed Spilled Milk episodes and as I listened I mixed meatballs, made tomato sauce, kneaded dough for fennel seed biscuits. The sort of kitchen time that makes me very happy, time to potter and time to quietly get things done. We ate meatballs with rice in the kitchen, going back for more, talking about what we would do with the leftovers. We ate biscuits while we watched Parks and Recreation, dealing with our disappointment at getting to the end of season 7 by going right back to the beginning.The meatballs the perfect sort of comfort for a grey July day, the biscuits punchy with fennel, reminding me of ones we bought back from Sifnos but with the something extra that must come from the olive oil and wine in the dough.

We're having leftover meatballs on toast tonight.