But It's Like This Now

I don't really have the time to toodle around at my blog,

but I can't stand to leave the messy picture

below at the top of the page.

This isn't a particularly fetching photo,

but it does show a cleaner house!

I cleaned my kitchen that very afternoon,

and now my house looks like this again.

I was sitting in my rocking chair,

taking a break and listening to Nat King Cole

(can you tell he's my favorite?),

and the camera was beside me,

so I snapped a photo of my cleanish little abode.

Oh, hey. See that book on the couch?

I am eating my words.

Recently I said here that I think I prefer

Elizabeth David to MFK Fisher.

Well, I now retract that statement.

Instead, I’ll say that I like them both very well,

for different reasons.

David writes nice prose,

which is what makes a cookbook nice, I think,

but her focus is mainly on the act of cooking

and how to use different foods in the Mediterranean way.

Her books are nice to read.

But I randomly grabbed Fisher's Bold Knife and Fork

off the shelf today,

opened the book to an essay about eggs

(which happened to be coincidental

with what I have been thinking lately

about why I am willing to spend $6

on a dozen truly free range, truly organic eggs).

And MFK Fisher's writing won me over again.

Her books are the reverse David’s.

Fisher writes light-hearted,

philosophical contemplations about food,

but she also offers recipes,

and I can’t say I prefer any food writing more than this!

So Bold Knife and Fork goes back on my nightstand once again.

Other good cookery writers?

Laurie Colwin, Nigel Slater, Alford and Duguid,

and a bunch of others.

Do you read cookbooks for fun, too?

Be back soon--I'm in the throes of finals!