CookBooks

If you know me, you definitely know that my interest in reading is nonexistent.

Apart from reading online blogs, tweets and 9gag, I don't read that much. 

See, this is probably why my English is slowly getting worse each day. 

I have tried to read a novel or two, but always end up reading not even half of it. I prefer books with pictures. As childish as it sounds, books with visuals excites me the most. 

I can only finish books that tells a story about animals (dogs in particular) or food. Yes. Food.

I own a few cookbooks which I love to read over and over again and just stare at the mouthwatering pictures on each page. 

The first cookbook I picked up when I arrived in Melbourne was "From Pasta to Pancakes - The Ultimate Student Cookbook" by Tiffany Goodall. This book is lovely, considering it feels more like a comic book that gives you photos of step by step cooking instructions and it also uses a very understandable everyday English. The cool thing is that she's also a student (at least when the book was released, I suppose), so she's in the similar situation as us, starving university students. I did try some of the recipes from the book, which were very simple and idiot-proof (even I have no slight chance of screwing things up. Now that's something!). 

Then I impulsively bought one of Nigella Lawson's book, "Nigella Kitchen - Recipes from the Heart of the Home" which was my first hard-cover, heavy as #%^ cookbook. I am a big Nigella fan. I think she's wonderfully charming. I haven't tried any of her recipes yet, although I already put page markers on some recipes that caught my eyes. Let's just hope some her recipes land on this blog. I did try one of her recipe from her tv show a while ago, the raspberry oatmeal swirl which was delicious! I would definitely make it again!

Nigella Lawson's Oatmeal Swirl
Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen raspberry
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• A few pieces of digestive biscuits
• Plain greek yogurt (Chobani FTW!)

1. Blend the raspberry and caster sugar together until smooth. Make sure that the frozen raspberry are soft enough to be blended. I added a splash of water just to make my hand blender works easier. Set aside

2. Crush a few pieces (I use two for each portion) of digestive biscuits 

3. Now it's just a matter of layering them all together. I like to start with a dollop of that raspberry puree on the bottom, followed by a layer of creamy tangy greek yogurt and biscuit crumbles. Repeat until you get the portion size that you want. I also love to leave out some cookie crumble to scatter on the top!

ps. The oatmeal in this recipe is from the digestive biscuits. Ha. 

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Lastly, on my birthday, my best friend gave me Jamie Oliver's "Cook with Jamie". I've read through it and I love the tips and tricks that he wrote, I feel smarter after reading them. haha! I also marked possible recipes to try later on. I feel quiet intimidated to try and replicate his creations. I love the explanations he gave on each recipe, it shows how passionate and knowledgeable he is when it comes to food. Plus, he's really cute. His wife is one very lucky lady!

Uh oh, 

I got carried away talking about cookbooks. Anyway,

two days ago, I went to a bookstore with a mission : To pick up a novel and start to read more. 

Then I saw this book with a pig with an anatomy of butchery on its body. I thought the book was really cute and then I realised that this book was written by Julie Powell. Yes, the writer of Julie and Julia.

I didn't hesitate and bought the book immediately. 

I started reading it this morning on my way to work. So far I've only reached the third chapter, still a long way to go. It's interesting how she gives a totally different persona of herself compared to the Julie I know and love from her previous story in Julie and Julia. 

A lot of butchery stuff were explained and illustrated in words, which is very interesting (yet a bit challenging to be understood). Also, it's kind of sad to see how her marriage isn't as sweet as the one she written before. Since I've watched Julie and Julia the movie, I'm stuck with the images of the actors in the movie. I'm not complaining though. It makes it easier for me to illustrate the scenes in my mind. 

I will post my opinion about he book in the future as I'm reading it. 

Anyone got their favourite food related novels?