Don't Assume I Cook!...

It's no secret in my family that I don't like to cook. I can cook, but I just don't enjoy it. I'd actually do most things to get out of having to rustle up something from scratch which takes me 30 minutes to chop and prepare then 45 minutes to wait for it to cook. I'm far too impatient! An added problem is that I can't stand mess... or ready meals. The amount of added salt, sugar chemicals and what not in some of those things scares me to death, plus there's the fact that they taste like plastic once you've cooked them.

I'm not a great 'foodie', in the way that food doesn't give me pleasure and I think that's at the root of my apathy for cooking. I recently found out that I'm highly intollerant to cow's milk and whole eggs, with cashew nuts featuring high on the 'eat these and you'll suffer' list of produce. It was a really interesting experiment that I did with a home testing kit from a reputable company that supplies hospitals and clinics with testing equipment and I was in the middle of having one of my frantic searches for a cure for my daily headaches which have plagued me for the last 20 years. So, I guessed that as I consume cow's milk every day in one form or another I'd give it a go and go 'cold turkey' (very seasonally apt!), and guess what... I'm on day 6 of not having a headache or taking pain killers!! I'm not counting my chickens (or turkeys) yet but if cow's milk and eggs are at the root of my headache woes, then I'm happy to substitute them for something else!

So, lately I've had to read labels on food for the first time in my life, and have realised that milk in one form or another is in most products, from tomato soup to Pringles crisps, to nearly every chocolate, so I've been making my own stuff more so that I know that I'm not consuming some sneaky lactose or egg and I've actually been secretly nearly enjoying it! (oh, plus I've dropped a few pounds from having to cut out bakery stuff! Win all round!)

Somthing that I've realised too, is that I might not actually like cooking but I sure as hell LOVE watching cooking programmes with a whistful dreamy twinkle in my eye wishing that I was Nigella Lawson. I lay on my sofa watching her Christmas Kitchen programme last night, and her velvety voice, total passion for food and gorgeous voluptuousness makes me just want to jump up and bake these chocolate cookies and give them to everyone I know with Christmas music playing in the background and twinkly lights adorning every surface of my whole house! You just can't help but fall in love with Nigella. I want to be her friend. She makes me happy and everything doesn't seem so bad once you've spent half an hour with her!


















As I was reading some random blogs last night I came across this one which made me swoon with excitement! Not So Humble Pie is the most fabulous diary of a Seattle Sweetie who takes basic ingredients and transforms them into works of art with a fun element to her cooking. The reason this tickles my taste buds, and nudges my creative gene is that she bakes cookies! Now, if there's anything I love baking it's cookies. Just the thought of baking something special that I could actually decorate makes me have a big smile on my face... although P does all the decorating in our house when we bake cookies so I never get a look in! Have a look through her older posts, she makes some amazing stuff which looks like it would last about 3.2 seconds if she put them on a table and asked everyone to help themselves! I love the layout of this blog and the way she writes, but it's the photographs that do it for me. Talk about visual merchandising! These Snowflake Cookies are to die for!!!

I guess I'l have to make 2010 the year I start to enjoy cooking, using lactose free milk and whole egg substitute of course!... and I'm starting with watching more Nigella! I'm off to buy some cookie cutters!

N x