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anuary 26 2026 around the table diana henry i ve been knitting a lot and not reading as much as i should some of my reading has been re reading at that gaudy night again but i have finished diana henry s around the table after having it on the go for a while around the table is a collection of 52 essays on food and life and not really designed for reading cover to cover in one go much better to dip in and out of i think and really savour in the process it is not a cookbook although there are plenty of tips and suggestions in here for the cook to consider i have a long standing love for diana s books which i have successfully managed to share with my husband who is now also happily cooking his way through a bird in the hand and from oven to table these are practical books full of the kind of food that we both like and recipes that have proven to be reliable time after time for husband who could and did cook for himself and us for years but with a limited repertoire both titles have been significant confidence boosters he likes that things turn out very much like the pictures i would be well served if he would read around the table too for the extra hints and food philosophy for anyone familier with diana s articles and cookbooks there will be familiar territory here her thoughts on the quality of pork and the virtues of a good butcher bear repeating it really does make a difference if we ever manage to leave leicester the butchers on the local market will be one of my biggest misses in cold kitchen caroline eden talks about books to have to hand the sort perfect to browse or read through whilst waiting for something to cook around the table is exactly that sort of book the essays are short enough to fit well with the need to give something an occasional stir or until the next thing needs to be added as it s also a book that might inspire your next meal or project citrus season is at it s height right now do i just enjoy the blood oranges whilst they re here and as they are or do i go and buy seville s and make some marmalade or help you make a better salad dressing its physical as well as spiritual home is very much near the kitchen table too in short a deeply enjoyable book that feels like the best sort of conversation between reader and author it builds on previous books feels chatty and warm without being overly intimate sometimes biographies can be too revealing this isn t that or a biography i love the essay format and generally could stand to see a lot more books of this calibre around posted by desperate reader at 5 44 pm 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday january 18 2026 new year new jumper new project work took up a lot of energy last year and amongst other things knitting fell a bit by the wayside on new year s day i finally finished a jumper i started over a year ago and had meant to finish variously by the start of december my birthday christmas and then finally new year which was just in time for the cold snap so i suppose it was done at just the right time in the end there was no particular pattern for this one just bits and pieces from other jumpers that i liked i had an idea of what i wanted which hadn t quite worked out for an earlier version i made it both too short and a little bit smaller than i really wanted the yarn is jamieson and smth 5 ply which is lovely to knit with and gives quite a heavy drappy fabric i wanted quite a slouchy jumper with space for layers underneath and not too dense a fabric i got all of that and also something which wasn t quite as see through as my first attempt colour choice helped a lot with that the sleeves have ended up quite close fitting which i like but i wouldn t do as close again they re exactly the right length but don t really push up which is fine in winter but maybe less so in warmer weather equally i wouldn t get a long sleeved tee to fit comfortably underneath them which alas not great for winter otherwise it s a nice looking jumper this is it before it went on the board that is remarkably warm and that i ve already worn a lot the new project is a proper fair isle slipover a mati ventrilon slipover pattern from the 2025 wool week annual it s got elements i would normally avoid the first being quite a deep rib knitted on 2mm needles ribbing like this bores me 20 rows at 336 stitches a row felt like a marathon effort the sleeve holes will be steeked i ve used steeks before but again it wasn t a process i loved especially at the finishing stage this will also be the garment where i make myself learn how to graft my knitting together rather than relying on a 3 needle bind off plenty of challenges then of course the first challenge was what colours to use i have a lot of yarn in my stash and i need to use some of it buying specifically for this project was not an option unfortunatley it turns out that what i ve got a lot of is small amounts which are perfect for hats or gloves but fall short of enough for this particular slipover i do also have a few cones and colours in sufficient quantities but not ao many that would work well together or the intended wearer would like husband eventually i hit on a combination that i thought would work but it s knitting up a little more subtly than i had hoped husband likes the effect so that s fine and i love the main colour but it is a bit of an issue when you do most of your yarn shopping on holiday and it s a lot more expensive to order online from a distance it s not really feasible to buy big project quantities without a specific big project in mind but is it sensible to have huge quantities of shades but only in 2 or 3 balls at a time also probably no one answer will be to have a big sort out find all the yarn that s hidden around the flat and arrange it sensibly not a job i m feeling very enthusiastic about given how much of it there is wish me luck posted by desperate reader at 4 32 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday january 10 2026 vin chaud good drinks and not doing dry january it s been a long time since december was a boozy month for me i don t find the pressure of the busiest time of year mixes well with alcohol so when things slow down a bit in january i m ready to responsibly enjoy a small amount of alcohol anything more than that plays hell with my peri menopausal system given there s a long haul of winter still ahead it also seems counterintuitive to get all austere now i have tins and tins of unfinished christmas biscuits most of a cake and we were given some very nice bottles this year i m not turning my back or otherwise wasting any of it the responsible and small amounts part of alcohol consumption is covered by instigating a cocktail habit a single drink to hit the moment between dinner going in the oven and it being ready to eat partly inspired by virginia miller s uneasy elixirs a really very good cocktail book that had a lot of things we wanted to try in it that got us started and then dusting down books i haven t used much since leaving the wine trade it s making winter feel much more lightsome i have written about tested and quoted from ambrose heath s good drinks many times over the years it s one of the few books i have that really covers hot alcoholic drinks and once again i m sitting here with the outside temperature hovering around freezing day and night wondering why we don t do more hot punch type drinks and why we leave mulled wine behind in december anyone who s known me for a while or used to read this blog a few years ago will probably know that have strong feelings about mulled wine although nowhere sells out of the pre bottled stuff like they used to i think this might just be because it s less popular than it was but there s nothing better for a lazy freezing weekend day off the easiest version of a mulled wine i ve found is ambrose heath s vin chaud good drinks was published in 1939 and this version is by far the simplest i can find which is a big part of its appeal current recipes feel over complicated and don t have the differentiation from other versions of mulled wine to make it stand out ambrose heath only asks that you sweeten a bottle of claret of burgandy any cheap but not awful red wine will work to your taste and heat it in a pan with a stick of cinnamon as soon as it approches boiling remove from the heat extract the cinnamon and serve in mugs or glasses in the bottom of which there is already a slice of lemon simple quick not too strong perfect posted by desperate reader at 4 17 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday january 8 2026 new year new ways to procrastinate after a very busy peak period at work i managed to get the first week of january off worked on the 2nd but missed the last weekend of the school holidays somewhere at the back of my head was a plan to really start writing here but instead i started a jigsaw puzzle so fiendish that i gave up on it after 3 days and took it to a charity shop and then having learnt nothing started another more enjoyable one it still isn t finished either i did at least finish the jumper i started in autumn 2024 on new year s day in time for the very cold snap but otherwise it s been some light reading lighter film watching cooking and generally not going out very much we had thought about going away but the weather being what it has i m glad we didn t the chance for a few really lazy unproductive days has been delightful especially as my job role changes the day i go back which is exciting but lots of new challanges too meanwhile i ve been working through diana henry s around the table predictably excellent 52 essays about her life and food there are no recipes as such but a lot of tips and pointers that are promising husband has fallen somewhat in love with diana henry s cookbooks particularly oven to table and bird in the hand he s more or less taken over daily cooking and appreciates these ones because it s food we both like and more importantly the recipes turn out as promised his efforts look like the pictures and it s given him a real boost in confidence when it comes to trying new things the only new recipe and it s barely a recipe that i ve tried is from skye mcalpine s wonderful christmas companion this is currently half price in various places waterstones and amazon for sure i bought it for vibes and have no regrets it s a gorgeous book that mixes completely over the top with really practical under the really practical heading is panettone pudding as a twist on bread and butter pudding we ended up with a serious excess of panettone this year after i bought one early and forgot about it bought another and then yet another the m s chocolate and cherry version being impossible to resist chopping up half of one of them and covering it with custard is about as simple as it gets though i see no reason not to use pre made custard if it s there so it could be even simpler this is absolutely worth buying an extra or indeed a sale panettone for it was incredibly comforting to eat on a night when the temperature outside hit 5 and we were struggling to keep warm posted by desperate reader at 6 43 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday december 20 2025 the odd flamingo nina bawden a real change of mood for my second reprint of the year nomination nina bawden s the odd flamingo lands us in the sultry heat of august and gives us a much seedier overview of the 1950s only two years separate this one from death in ambush but there s little room for nostalgia or the cosy certainties of village life the heat of one particular day has been broken by a thunderstorm solicitor will hunt is regarding his roses when the phone disturbs his tranquility on the other end is celia wife of his best friend and something is very wrong humphrey stone is the charismatic headmaster of the local boys school and here in their home which comes with the job is a girl claiming that he s got her pregnant and tried to push her into an illegal abortion the stakes are high if she s telling the truth the stones lose reputation his job their home and their place in local society humphrey is away celia wants will to interview the girl and judge if she s telling the truth will thinks she is and from there his carefully ordered life is pushed into nightmare territory he tracks humphrey down to a sordid little soho club the odd flamingo they used to go to in their youth when it felt edgy will has long outgrown it humphrey seems not to have grown up at all in the wake of rose s claims somewhat denied by humphrey there will be blackmail murder brushes with drug pushers criminal gangs and more as will steadily more disillusioned at each turn and watched over by a pitying policeman tries to help his friend and find somene left with some innocence the grittiness is an excellent counterpoint to the now more familiar and altogether more sanitised view of the 1950s that we get from agatha christie or indeed susan gilruth and others the british library crime classics series have been brilliant at unearthing lost gems that do this contemporary readers would have been well enough aware of this side of society but i think we mostly imagine a safer time when we look back bawden instead gives us a brilliantly drawn portrait of extremely banal evil and she does it by letting us see will struggle with each betrayal it s elegant writing that does not dwell on sordid details but gives us time to think through the implications of each revelation i could almost feel the humidity and grubbiness drifting up from the hot london streets and strongly identified with will who really doesn t want to be involved in any of it but at the same time can t see how to avoid the obligation as a final note a gay character is described in somewhat homophobic terms i don t think this particularly reflects bawden s views but rather describes a character who is meant to be morally ambiguous on several levels and displays the imperfect side of will s character that said you probably wouldn t get away with it now posted by desperate reader at 7 01 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday december 13 2025 death in ambush susan gilruth my first nomination for crime reprint of the year is this year s british library crime classics christmas special i loved this in my opinion it s one of the best christmas mysteries i ve found there s a quote from francis iles on the back that could feel like faint praise susan gilruth has a pleasant light touch but actually is the perfect descriptor published in 1952 and set presumably around the same time the korean war is mentioned this is a very satisfying slice of nostalgia liane lee craford is married to a soldier bill who features not at all for the rest of the book she has been invited to stay with friends for chr...