simple pleasures (6)

A glass of wine makes everything more civilised, everyone slightly more relaxed. I prefer my wine white and very cold in the summer, red and reasonably light in the winter.

I used to drink a lot of wine. There was a time when drinking a bottle or more a night was not unusual, and I was still able to get out of bed in the morning and go to work*. Nowadays I rarely drink more than a glass a night, and have a hangover if I have more than two. I am informed by my Mother that this is a result of my advancing years, but when I mentioned it to Little Friend Susan the other day her retort was 'Well, obviously you need more practise'. Perhaps she is right.

* frequently in an exceptionally bad mood, though admittedly this had little to do with wine.

simple pleasures (5) [moving swiftly onwards]

Of all the foods which begin with 'ch' cheese is my favourite. I like cheese which comes arranged on a board with a curvy knife, or offered from large baskets in French restaurants and then placed on your plate in strict 'eat this one first' order. I like posh organic farm cheddar, epoisse, and darilylea and spent much of my childhood hankering after edam and later babybel, but mostly I like sneaking to the fridge repeatedly after dinner to cut slices from the supermarket cheddar and stuff it naughtily into my mouth while I stand in the middle of the kitchen floor looking out of the window. Last weekend this habit led to my falling flat on my arse in the kitchen, but that is another story.

simple pleasures (4)

Cake had to make an appearance sooner or later, didn't it? Cake is mother-love, hug replacement, over indulgence. In school we self medicate with cake constantly in an attempt to cancel out our bad days. Then the next day we beat ourselves up for eating too much cake.

simple pleasures (3)

Autumn is here, and the soup making has begun. I love making soup: it makes me feel very virtuous (all those vegetables!), it makes me feel like a domestic goddess (chopping can do that to a woman), and all of this is achieved by a meal that takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook. My stock recipes are leek and potato (secret ingredient one rasher of bacon), carrot and butternut squash (it's in the rosemary) and celery (no secrets involved), though I also cook a huge range of what my mother used to call 'bitsa' soups, involving whatever vegetables are left in the fridge. For some reason I have never really got into cooking meat soups, probably becasue when I began cooking I was going through the obligatory art school vegetarian phase. I still carry the guilt from the occasion when my mother whispered 'I've put a chicken stock cube in but she'll never know' to me as she passed over some leek and potato soup to a vegetarian friend of mine. Scarred for life, I am.

The other good thing about soup of course is that it goes well with both cheese (what doesn't?) and toast.

Despite my love of all things soupy, one of the few foods that I truly despise is a soup. The abomination which is French onion. Countless people have attempted to persuade me of the deliciousness of this stuff, but I can't bear it. It's thin, it's brown, it tastes bad and to add insult to injury it features wet bread floating upon it. In a word: bleurch.

simple pleasures (2)

Despite the fact that I love a wide variety of foods, when it all comes down to it I could probably live on toast. And as it happens, between January and May of last year toast in combination with houmous or marmite did form the backbone of my diet (which might explain why I lost quite a bit of weight: maybe I should write a diet book and clean up). When I am on holiday and eating lots of fine food I begin after a couple of weeks to crave beans on toast; which I rarely eat when I am at home. When I have a hangover I want toast and butter. When I am in a hurry and realise that I ought to eat I have cheese or scrambled eggs on toast. If I'm four o'clockish I do toast and jam. There would be a very large hole in my diet were I to give up toast.

And yes, I am aware of the Paul Young song.

simple pleasures (1)