November 2009

The problem with me and Christmas shopping is that the list of things I want to buy for myself increases at a rapid rate. After a few days on Amazon, my wish list was blowing up with cookbooks, which are not generally cheap; I decided it was time for a trip to the local library!

I’ve written about how you can use the library to be healthier on a budget, but I actually haven’t popped into le bibliotheque in a while. I am so glad I finally went! I got six books, including Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.

I was never that into Nigella, mainly because she was British and on TV before Food Network and before I knew how to cook…I really didn’t understand her appeal. (Really, who puts a cooking show on Style?!) But after reading this book, I’m sort of pissed I didn’t realize how great she is sooner!

I sat down to read it with sticky notes handy, to tag any recipes that I liked so I could photocopy them to save. Well, she had me at the Preface, with this quote:

“This is hardly a culinary matter, of course, but cooking, we know, has a way of cutting through things, and to things, which have nothing to do with the kitchen. This is why it matters.”

The whole “domestic goddess” thing is very tongue-in-cheek. She writes that modern cooking has become too stressful, and that sometimes “we don’t want to feel like a postmodern, post feminist, overstretched woman, but, rather, a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in our languorous wake.” I love this. She just gets it. I can happily call myself a feminist, but that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes question my love of baking in heels. But she writes, “We don’t have to get ourselves up in Little Lady drag and we don’t have to renounce the world and enter into a life of domestic drudgery.” A reminder that you can be a modern woman and own both spheres is very nice.

The book is about being comfortable in our own kitchens; by “the art of comfort cooking” she means taking comfort in cooking — not comfort food, per se.

But don’t get me wrong…there is a lot of comfort food! I tagged so many recipes on the initial read of the book that I knew I had to buy it (it’s actually only $16 on Amazon, which isn’t bad). It’s all baking: cookies, cakes, pies, bread. Still, the majority of the recipes, while not intimidating, are not what I’d call “classic.” And this is why I love it. Yes, there are recipes for chocolate cake and blueberry muffins, but on the whole, the recipes feel so new and interesting. More than that, they are just so chic. That’s really the only word for them. The title is fitting, because I feel like every time I’d serve one of these recipes, I’d be treated like a goddess. Still, though, on further reading, I realized that most do not have obscure ingredients or require crazy, professional skills. They are sophisticated, but still OK to make for a bake sale. I am not a huge baker, but this book has me wanting to bake something special from scratch every night of the week!

So on Sunday night, I did! I started with white chocolate and pistachio cookies. I love pistachios in every sense, and I love white chocolate, so it seemed easy enough. Everything else was basic: sugar, butter, vanilla, eggs. Even though I had a slight fail (our oven has issues from time to time), the cookies tasted great. So light, so buttery, so sweet…and, hello WHITE CHOCOLATE PISTACHIO COOKIES?! Do you see why I feel like a goddess right now!?

I check books out of the library so I can decide whether or not to buy them, and I’ll without question be buying this book. Reading it, you just feel like the most gorgeous, sophisticated, talented woman, who can make amazing treats from scratch and make those you love take absolute pleasure in eating. But Nigella is also just so chill and funny, you still feel modern. I am definitely going to check out the rest of her books, but How to Be a Domestic Goddess is, for me, an absolute must-have.

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