The Kitchen Diaries

For my birthday, a friend gave me a book called The Kitchen Diaries: A year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater. The book is what its title suggests--a day by day account of what Slater cooked and ate and needed. I kind of love it. I pick it up at odd times, when I'm in between books or articles or out of sorts (like last night when I finished A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, a beautiful and disturbing piece of nonfiction by Peter Handke) and it's very soothing. It's not only full of great recipes but it reminds me of the rhythms of the kitchen and, of course, the days. At any particular moment I might feel stuck, but here's what I could eat today, or tomorrow, or in May. I haven't made anything from it, but cooking from it feels almost beside the point. Except for the Lime Tart that Slater made at the end of January the year he wrote the book. That might be exactly on point for dinner tonight for us. Along with roast chicken (not from the farm market since the meat farmer wasn't there yesterday), roasted brussel sprouts and a challah. Definitely on point that lime tart.