I think I need an intervention

I have a confession to make.


I have quite a significant collection of cookbooks.  Some of them I haven't even cooked a recipe out of (I really like the pictures though - does that count?).  Many a time I have fritted away an afternoon drooling over recipes in the guise of 'working out what to cook for dinner'.  Food porn I call it.  That's one reason why I love Celia's blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial - her pictures (and her recipes) are very drool-worthy! 


The LOML would like it immensely if I would reduce the number of cookbooks I own.  Likewise the number of gardening books.  And novels.  (what can I say, I'm a reader!).  Unfortunately for him, I don't like his chances.


So today I'd like to share with you some of the [many] cookbooks that regularly jump off the shelf at me....

This is my high school Home Economics textbook.  It's been many years since it was used as a textbook but the dog-eared, food spattered pages are testament to it's regular use.  I find it has all the basics in one place - pastries, biscuits, cakes, casseroles - that I then adapt according to what I have in the fridge and pantry!  Best of all I got it for $4 when the school library had a cleanout.  Nice.

This one is a present I got for the LOML for his birthday a couple of years back.  He doesn't cook but I was tired of getting him presents that he would never use (eg money clip, electric shaver) so that year I got him Jamie and told him he could pick any recipe out of it and I would cook it for him.  Me wanting the book had nothing, absolutely nothing, at all to do with this present decision!  I am still yet to make a recipe chosen by the LOML......!

This is my bargain market find - only $5!  It has the best dark fruit cake recipe - very much a favourite of the LOML.

This one the LOML bought for me when we got back from Thailand last year.  He bought it for the pictures scattered throughout - a very visual reminder for us of our trip.  I love it because of the recipes.  Everyone's happy!

This is another one that entered my collection just after we got back from our Thailand trip - I bought this one.  It has some amazing curries.  The hardest part is choosing just the one to cook.

And finally this is the book I turn to most when I am feeling creative or when I am craving something sweet!  Just flicking through its pages satisfies my every desire!


So that's it for today.  Like I said, I own a lot of books - certainly too many to be taking photos of them all and posting them here!  One of my favourite recreational pursuits is to stand in front of the cookery section shelves of the bookstore and flip through the pages of every book.  Probably not appreciated by the bookstore staff but if I had lots of money I'd buy them all!  I also love the cookery section of the library though the disappointing thing is that I have to give them back!  Oh well....!

Sweet, sweet poison

These two books have changed my life.

Towards the end of last year, as I was downing my third V for the day (I know, terrible), I came to the realisation that something had to change.  I wasn't sleeping properly so was always tired, I was moody, I was eating the world and I was having three V's a day (!!!) - the first by 9am (and no amount of justification that I don't drink tea or coffee can remove the terrible-ness of that!).  I was also spending a stupid amount of money on these sugary/caffiene/guarana drinks (and that's with buying them at the supermarket in 4-packs, as opposed to individual cold cans from the cafe) and they didn't seem to be having the same kick they did when I first started drinking them.....someone had themself a habit!

Not long after this light-bulb moment, I was wandering around the bookshop (my favourite all-time pasttime) and David Gillespie's book Sweet Poison jumped out at me from the shelf.  Well, it didn't actually jump out but it certainly caught my attention.  I read the intro (always a good indication as to whether I will like the book) and couldn't stop reading.  At least 40 minutes later I'm sure the sales girl was seconds away from doing an Apu "Ahhh, Mr Homer, this is not a public library.  Please get out."  So I bought the book.

I think I read it from front to back in two days (while at work - shhhhh, don't tell!) and it really struck a chord.  Without going into to too much detail, David's book is about his experience eliminating sugar from his diet, losing weight in the process.  He has done a lot of research into sugar in our diets (from a 'everyday' person point - he is not a scientist/ nutritionist/ dietician/ medical practitioner etc - he's a normal person) and some of the things he found out were enough to put the heebeejeebees in me and make me want to change my way of eating.

Then I found his second book, the Quit Plan, which made it so much easier to put into practice.  So into practice I did put it.  Five rules - easy to understand, easy to implement - that made all the difference.  It was coming up to Christmas and New Years so I struggled a little with all the temptations on offer around that time of year but was able to get right back on track after a few little binges (normally after a binge I would give up but not this time).

I kept at it and on top of it for about 5 months and felt the best I ever have in all my life.  As a bonus to feeling great (fitter, firmer, not as hungry, better skin, sleeping through the night) I lost a little weight.  Not my original intention, to lose weight, but it was a bonus.  I just wanted to kick the sugar cravings throughout the day and be able to go to a restaurant without looking at the dessert menu first!

The last couple of weeks have seen me start to waiver in my sugar-free-stance.  I'm consuming softdrinks and sweet cakes again, not in the quantities that I was but I seem to be unable to resist the temptation.  I find I'm craving something sweet to eat at odd hours of the day and have a headache most afternoons.  And my pants are getting tight.  Time to take action. 

So these are the five easy rules that are guiding my life again, effective today:

1. I will change my attitude: I am being beating my addiction, not depriving myself of sugar. 
2. I will not snack on sugar.  End of story.  (I now know how much sugar is in a can of V and it is SCARY!).
3. Once a sugarholic, always a sugarholic: I can't afford to have even a little.  (This is the big one for me - honey on toast in the morning is not an option).
4. I won't concern myself with fat content other than to steer away from low-fat foods. (Low-fat = high sugar).
5. Party food is for parties.  (Parties don't happen every day, so NO).

I can do this. 



I will do this. 

My magical escape

Don't cha know it's magic.  Oooh baby it's magic.

I've said it before, I'll say it again...I'm a reader.

Give me a good book and a comfy chair (optional - I can read ANYwhere) and you've lost me.  Don't bother talking to me cos I won't hear you (just ask the LOML).  Well, chances are I will hear you but just not when you are talking.  I'll respond about 5 minutes later when my brain computes what you've said.

I've always been a reader.  I remember being 6 or 7 years old and coming home from school after the mobile library had been (very small school - council library had a bus that would visit once a fortnight) with a PILE of books.  All read within days and then re-read numerous times before the bus came again.

Back then my books of choice were horse-related.  I loved horses.  Eventually I got my own horse Bobby and that just fanned the passion even more - when I wasn't riding I was reading!

What do I read now?  Magic.  Wizards and witches and demons and elves and lots of mystical happenings.  Now, even though I love reading magical fantasy novels, I don't go in for re-enactments or role-playing or computer games based on the books.  I just like to read. 
I also want to point out though that I've been reading 'magic' books (the book shops call them fantasy novels) LOOOONNNNGGG before Harry Potter came along and introduced a whole new generation to the escapism brought on by a good wizard fighting evil powers that want to take over the world.

Back to my story.....

The first book that turned me from horses to wands was this one.....

The book that started it all.  This is the 'New Revised Edition' I was given for my 16th birthday - I also have the original version of my first read.....

 A friend of my mum's had given her a book to read and she, not being that interested, put it into the crap cupboard (like the crap drawer but higher and a lot riskier to search through!) so she could forget about it.  I came home from high school and, in a moment of teenage nosiness, found it.  What started with a quick read of the first few pages to see what it was about (why is this book here? Where did it come from? Who does it belong to? How come I don't know about it?) ended 3 hours later when mum came home from work and found me sitting on the floor in the kitchen under the crap cupboard still totally absorbed and in another world.   And so it started......

I now have the whole collection of that series (and a new one has just been released!!! I am SO excited!!!) plus a heap more by different authors.  I read them all too.  The LOML can't understand that.  'But you know what is going to happen?  Why read it again?'. 

Because...... I can escape and be taken on an adventure even though I know the outcome.  I must admit I do read fast, very fast, and because of this I tend to skip sentences, sometimes paragraphs.  So by re-reading, I tend to pick up those missed bits ('wow, never read that bit before!').  I also love the characters and the storylines and the adventures......I love it all!

Right now I'm reading this one......

.....and I have to say (as I told the LOML last night) I can't actually remember reading it before.  Fancy that.  A book I've had for years, decades even, that I haven't read.   Jackpot! It's like finding $50 in the pocket of a jacket that hasn't been worn since last winter. 

This one is about number 4 in the series - I think I have two more to read after it......wonder if I've read them?  Can't wait now.....

What do you read?