Focus

or What to do with this substack thing.

Illustration by Alexis Snell

My use of social media is erratic, although I am on it a lot. I post randomly, sometimes silly things, sometimes heartfelt diatribes, sometimes re-posting someone else’s thoughts and witticisms. I enjoy writing and have been told I am good at it. Obviously that is only as an imposter, in real life I am not good at it or anything else, and I am too short, too fat and too old, haha. In my imposter life I am good writer, a woman who is aging gracefully and happily eating anything I want and an excellent cook. The twain does meet occasionally, but that’s not what this post is about. This post is a signal for all posts to come because I have decided to buckle down, rein in my spaghetti mind and focus.

I am going to cook and write a weekly post on one recipe from every single recipe book I own. Which is quite a lot.

As I was putting books back on the shelf in the newly redecorated sitting room (see instagram if you’re remotely interested in that story) I came up with this plan. The bottom shelf is nothing but recipe books. I was a bit confused though, as I was sure I had more than that. It took a while to realise that the other main bookshelf in the kitchen was jam packed with the rest. I’d say there is around 50. Which is poor potatoes compared to many people I know, but you have to start somewhere. So I pulled a few out and ideas started a-tumblin’ forth which I will regale you with as I go.

The first to catch my eye was The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes, which I picked up somewhere on my travels in the deep South of America. The original was written in 1935, but this is a modern reproduction, simply printing the original pages. I am so incredibly shocked by the images and captions in this book that the recipes take a back seat, long way back. It’s beyond racist. I hadn’t looked at it properly before, which is quite often how it goes when I buy things on the spur of the moment, and taking a good look made my blood run cold. It links with the rhetoric coming out of Florida currently about enslavement having been beneficial and that many slaves were happy, simple folk living their best life . While there were no actual slaves in 1935 the ideology is the same.

I am not sure what to do about it. One part of me thinks it should be ceremoniously burned. Another part wants to know the recipes, which apart from anything else would have been cooked, and presumably made up, by the black cooks of those ‘good ‘ol’ Southern households and deserve recognition. Another part wants to dig into the history of this book and and out why it is still being sold, right now, in its original form online and in tourist shops. I think that part will win but will have to be a side hustle. Curious to know others thoughts on what to do with this kind of find.

I will not start this odyssey with that book though, it’s a complex and difficult subject and will need extra focus. I will start on a much lighter and more pleasurable note (we need light and pleasure so much right now!) with a recipe from one of my favourite writers, favourite people actually. Rosie Sykes’ ‘The Sunday Night Book’ is filled with treasures for any night, or day, of the week really, but highlights Sunday night as a special, relaxed, informal all things easy ozey kind of night. I absolutely love the illustrations by Alexis Snell too, which remind me of the illustrations in Elizabeth David’s Italian Food by Renato Guttuso and who, with the glorious recipes, brings that feet up in front the fire kind of feel with them. I will start my new found project with Olive Anchovy and Onion Cornbread Tart, to be cooked on Sunday evening, of course. Stand by.

Note: I reserve the right to not do this as and when I don’t feel like it.