Saturday, January 10, 2009

Who Here Likes Post? Yeah, Me Too...

This is me perusing...

I've been doing a lot of the above in the past couple of days. And by 'a lot of the above' I don't mean sitting on my ass. I mean reading! 

Reading, because with my Christmas money from kindly relatives I did a little bit of interwebs shopping last weekend, and in the last few days, BEHOLD what has arrived in the post for little old me:

My new cook book (Note in the background my current knitting project. Oh, and my beloved penguin)

This is item number one, Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, a delightful gorgeous cookery book written by Jane Brocket, she of yarnstorm fame.  I've been reading Jane's blog for just over a year now, and so remember when she first mentioned the concept of this book, and have wanted to get it ever since it was published at the end of last year.  It's such a cute idea for a book, especially for those who read lots of the classic children's books in their youth, as I did.

You know the stuff, Enid Blyton, Noel Streatfield that kind of deal. I don't know about anyone else, but The Famous Five were like crack to my small childlike brain.. I literally couldn't get enough of it, and remember staying awake way longer than I was supposed to reading by the light of the hallway lamp under my bedroom door, just so that I could find out who the "bad-guy" was. Ha, it still makes me feel kind of criminal even admitting it now, as my parents do read this!

Anyway, back to Jane's book. Basically in all the old children's books there were always amazing descriptions of food that they ate to sustain their adventures, and Jane has basically come up with recipe's based on lots of fondly-remembered food scenes in classic children's books.  

I really recommend this book for anyone who liked reading as a child, and fondly remembers salivating as they read about delicious foods such as hot buttered crumpets, creamy porridge, sardines, hot cocoa, tongue sandwiches, ginger buns, cherry cake and, indeed, ginger beer that seemed ever present in these fabulous stories but were distinctly lacking in real life.  Just reading it as a book in its own right was a lot of fun, and brought back memories I didn't realise I still had.  But I cannot wait to try out some of the recipes!!  

***

The second package of exciting fun that I got in the post contained these beauties:

Knitting magazines. No, I'm not 65. Knitting is actually cool. And/or hip.

Two of the current Rowan knitting magazines available.  I have been leafing through this all day, and already my current knitting project seems far too boring, and to be taking twice as long to finish now!!

I really like a lot of the designs in the Studio magazine, as that magazine is a lot more trend-led rather than focussing on classic knits, although some in the regular Rowan magazine are beautiful as well. Again, I am chomping at the bit to get some of these on my needles!!

I aim to do a proper knitting post giving a lot of links that I have found really useful in the last two months as I've learnt to knit from scratch.  This will likely come once I've finished something that I can actually show you (i.e. not a secret Christmas gift) and I hope that will be soon!

Until then, I'm going to continue to watch the post. You never know what else might come through the door!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go to sleep NOW!

PS As a child I used to read under the bed sheets with my torch - thank goodness Nanny Iris doesn't read this

Baybay Mama said...

Cooking? Knitting? You are my hero! I need to learn how to do both and that book sounds amazing!
xo,
d-

Little Lj said...

Daddio: Thank goodness, indeed!

Dooder City: I too used to be one of the baking and knitting uninitiated! But then I tried it and discovered it isn't all that hard! You just have to get over the fear of screwing it up, haha

Anonymous said...

Dooder City & LJ: the trick with cooking is if it goes wrong - call it something different eg cake doesn't rise - It's a torte!

Daisy said...

Thanks for the comment, and postsecret is such an amzing idea i relaly like it! Also your new cook book looks amazing, I looked at her blog and its so interesting!

Little Lj said...

Daisy: Jane's blog is really lovely. She recently started again from scratch, but I've been reading her for about a year or so and it's all very inspiring.

Anonymous said...

i wish i was better at knitting!
x