The Kitchen Diaries

It's two days before I am interviewing Nigel Slater about the book he once described as his favourite, The Kitchen Diaries. The book, of course, has been out for yonks, but the Dutch were a bit slow to catch on and are only publishing a translated edition now. Lucky them - there's a whole world of marvelous recipes to be discovered.

I still remember my first Nigel Slater concoction, it was his afternoon tea cake, full of fruit and nuts, crumbly and dry enough to fool anyone into thinking it is bread more than cake and thus justifying slathering on a thick layer of butter.

I have been in total awe ever since. I won't be saying that to him though, as I imagine it must be well annoying to be interviewed by a 'fan'. No, I'll be playing it cool on Thursday. Oh dear, am I nervous.

The Kitchen Diaries are about 365 days of cooking and eating with the seasons. (They're also about shopping, about ingredients and about - hurray! - the weather.) Reading it, I grew a massive ball of jealousy in my stomach. If only I had the time to Just Think About Food all day long.

Oddly enough this is also the week that I found out there are scores of people doing a '365' project, setting themselves a nice little goal to accomplish each day and documenting it online somewhere. In a blog, on instagram, wherever.

There is a lady who does a daily self-portrait, a girl who photographs her daily 'nourishment' and a woman (they're all women, it seems, apart from a Japanese guy) who designs a new pattern (doodle style) every day.

A dim sum inspired pattern by Ann Kilzer

Nigel Slater, I'm now thinking, was the original 365-er.

I'm tempted to follow suit and make a 365-style kitchen diary of my own. Focusing on one ingredient every day, maybe. That way I am allowed to think about food every day, at least for a bit, and deal with that big ball of jealousy. I also reckon it's great for tricking myself into thinking I have accomplished something, even when all I have done is hang out with the twins and snapping a picture of a lemon. It's perfect.

You can check the lovely 365-project people out here:

makesomething365.com

The self-portraits: afaceaday2013.blogspot.com

The nourishment pics: nourish365project.com

The patterns: 365daysofpattern.blogspot.com