Soup, Rain, and Delicious Books

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's hodgepodge Sunday here on the blog, and what better place to start than with the weather! We have had a long, and I have to admit, glorious, Indian summer here in north Texas. We had two inches of rain back in mid-September and since then we have been pretty much 90 to 70 degrees every single day. (With pollen, I might add.) The mornings and evenings are lovely, and with the days getting shorter, it's not even unpleasant to be out in the warmest part of the afternoon. 

BUT. I am a self-confessed pluviophile.

And, no, that's not something kinky. A pluviophile is defined as "someone who loves rain and feels happy, calm, and peaceful during rainy weather."  Too much rain in mid-winter can give me a bit of the blues, but most of the time a rainy day makes me feel happy and creative, and I've been very deprived. 

And on top of that, it's SOUP SEASON, and it really hard to get in the mood to make soup when it's ninety degrees! I love soup as much as I love rainy weather, and with the first little cold snap the possibilities beckon.

Finally, yesterday, we had a little front and a few light thunderstorms, just enough to cancel my granddaughter's soccer game and barely "piss off the grass," as we say in Texas. But enough to get out the stockpot and put on some lovely lentil soup.

This recipe was from Cookie and Kate, one of my fave vegetarian websites, but any kind of soup sounds good to me. I've been drooling over this chicken soup recipe by ronrofe on Instagram. He does the most absolutely gorgeous food and I want to eat everything he makes.

We are getting to the delicious books, by way of soup. I subscribe to the writer and cookbook author Ella Risbridger's substack as I adore everything she writes. This week her email was about soup (and she's also going to be reposting her huge soup blog from last year) but what caught my eye were two new books. She's edited a selection of poems by women and girls with amazing illustrations called AND EVERYHING WILL BE GLAD TO SEE YOU which I ordered for Wren's Christmas from Amazon before discovering it was available from Blackwell's in the UK for a lot less and with free shipping. 

As is Ella's upcoming IN LOVE WITH LOVE, described as her "love letter to romantic fiction," and which is getting rave reviews everywhere. Happy pre-Christmas to me!

So, dear REDs and readers, happy soup, happy Sunday, and what is floating your autumn boat?

P.S. I tried my first ever pumpkin spice latte from my favorite coffee stall at the farmer's market yesterday and DID NOT LIKE IT. Boo. I call that a way to ruin some good coffee...

Books for Cooks (and Writers)

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I had to get "books for cooks" in the title, because it made me think about one of my favorite bookstores anywhere, BOOKS FOR COOKS on Blenheim Crescent in Notting Hill, just off Portobello Road. The tiny shop is a cookbook (or "cookery book", if you're British) lovers dream, and they do cookery demonstrations in the equally tiny kitchen at the back.

The thing is, I have wee bit of an thing with cookbooks. I know you can get anything off the Internet these days, but it's just not the same as holding a book in hour hands, browsing through recipes to see what catches your fancy. 

This is my official cookbook cabinet in the kitchen.

 This is the little table in the butler's pantry.

This is obviously not very efficient as you can't get to the ones at the bottom of the stack...

And I'm not even talking about the ones piled on the kitchen island or tucked away in other spots around the house. Oops.

It would be great, of course, if I actually cooked out of all of these books. I am really really embarrassed to admit that I own cookbooks that I've only made one or two recipes from...  Okay, okay, I own cookbooks that I have never made a SINGLE recipe from!

But I cannot resist a cookbook. They are so full of promise. Meals that might be fabulous, dinner parties or cookouts planned, cocktails drunk, favorite places revisited or dreamed of.

And every so often you discover a gem. This is one.

I came across a reference to this book in Eater London (which I subscribe to because I like to keep up with what's going on in the London food scene.) This was in a piece about Ciao Bella, an Italian restaurant on Lamb's Conduit Street, just down the block from Duncan's Holborn Police Station. I've never eaten there, but have always meant to, so I was intrigued that this cookbook had mentioned the place. 

I ordered the book from the UK, not realizing until much later that it had been a big deal there when it was published in 2019, winning all sorts of accolades, or that it had been pushed out in the US just this last summer. The book is gorgeous--I've always had a weakness for books that are illustrated rather than photographed--and the recipes all sound scrumptious. (Kit cooks one in A KILLING OF INNOCENTS.)

But it's the writing that blew me away. This is a cookbook that you read like a novel, joyous and heartbreaking, and I would put Ella Risbridger up there with any of the most iconic food writers, many of her influences among them.

So if you need a present for a cookbook loving friend, or just for a reading friend, this one comes highly recommended!

REDS and readers, are you addicted to cookbooks? What gems have you discovered?

AND-- Alert from Hank!

Ho ho holiday reading! A very special treat on Hank's First Chapter Fun – – you know it, right?  Every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30 PM ET on Facebook and Instagram live, Hank and Canadian Bestseller Hannah Mary McKinnon read the first chapter of a brand new book out loud. (As Hank always says: it's live! What could go wrong?) 

Tomorrow: Episode 223 – – can you believe it? – – is a special holiday reading. You’ll hear some holiday classics, so don’t miss it!

Join the private Facebook group here today https://www.facebook.com/groups/firstchapterfun/ so you can be in on the fun.

Or view on @FirstChapterFun on Instagram. 

It's the perfect lunchtime break!