In the spirit of this time of year lets do a little looking back and a little looking forward.
At the start of the year I was mid way through a creative writing course that I took through our local adult educational service here in Norwich. We were asked to set some goals at the outset and I listed one of mine as starting a food blog. In the last week of the course I posted my first piece and although the blog still feels like a work in progress, I’ll be very happy if I’m as successful with any targets that I set myself for next year.
Outside of the blog the other main food highlight of the year has simply been the chance to bake and cook more than I have ever done before. It’s now over twelve months since I left the world of office life and it’s opened up the opportunity to spend so much more time in the kitchen. For a long time I had ‘weekend baker’ listed in my Twitter profile but that’s had to come off now. The next step is going to be trying to extend the range of people I bake for. There’s only so much that immediate family can eat, probably only so much their waistbands can take, but there’s so much that I want to bake. I’m still trying to work out how to do it but finding an outlet so that i produce more is definitely the aim for 2020. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Another aim for next year is to do some travelling. This year some of my favourite books would have been just as at home on the travel shelf as they would on the food one. The best of these was Felicity Cloake’s One More Croissant For the Road. A joyful account of her cycle trip around France that despite the title covers a lot more French culinary treats than just croissants. I was also hooked by Edward Lee’s Buttermilk Graffiti in which the author travels across the US sampling and writing about modern American food. Reading these books and also revelling in the recent BBC series that saw Rick Stein eat his was through France has fired the urge in me to venture further afield.
I know that this is the point in the calendar where we’re all supposed to make commitments to eat less or drink less , but at fear of sounding like a glutton I’m not about to do that. What I do want to do is eat better. I’ve mentioned in some previous posts that Natural Baking by Carolin Strothe was my favourite addition to the cookbook collection this year and it really has been quite a revelation to see how indulgent cakes can be even if the cream and sugar levels are reduced. Sensible cooking and portion control is my plan. With those in place there’s no reason why you can’t still be indulgent.
One final aim for next year is simply to keep enjoying new food experiences. I’m very lucky that Norwich has such a thriving food culture and although we’ve lost a few outlets in the last twelve months there have been a bunch of exciting new comers as well. My favourite find of 2019 is Aldente a wonderful Italian restaurant that I recommend to anyone with an evening to spare in Norwich.
So that just leaves me to say that whatever you’re looking forward to in 2020 I hope it happens and to wish you a Happy New Year.
David in the kitchen. 