Dear Reader, I am a terrible sleeper. I wake up at the slightest noise and love to sleep long and deep so earplugs are my best friend. I love to sleep in on the weekend and if I have an early appointment, I am always slightly resentful. Even if it’s something monumental, I’ll still inwardly kvetch at the idea of rising early on a weekend. So the Queen wants to meet me? “Humph, aren’t we almost a republic?” I’d say. “I hope there are some sandwiches” I’ll mutter to myself. I should add that apart from when I wake up, I try to conduct myself with alacrity but there is a time between waking and my first cup of tea where I am quite frankly quite surly 
French Toast is a staple weekend meal at our place. Not only does it allow me to use up the bread that is past its prime but it can be done in 10 minutes or under which for someone that loves to sleep in and potter around quite a bit before making food, means that I can get my brunch eaten before 12 o’clock. I feel somewhat embarrassed at eating brunch after 12noon.
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July 28th, 2012
by Not Quite Nigella
I awoke from a dream startled, and rang Mr NQN at work.
“Honey, I had a dream that you were wearing two of my cardigans. You know the one with the pearls?”
“Err what?” he said startled.
“You were wearing two of my cardigans to work, one backwards, and you were about to do a dance off with the guys that you work with…” I said breathlessly while thumbing through my wardrobe to look for the cardigans, just in case he had taken them you know. ”So I guess I’m ringing to find out, was I dreaming or did you wear two of my cardigans and are you having a dance off?”
There was a loud sigh and then with the patience of a saint he said, “No I’m not but thank you for calling.”
I realise now that it’s best to not call someone straight after dreaming, after all, they are sometimes so vivid that you might think that your shirt and pants wearing husband might suddenly turn up at work wearing not one but two of your cardigans.
This is a much better and safer way to wake up.
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July 20th, 2012
by Not Quite Nigella
I had a very strange, semi psychotic friend in High School. She used to claim several things: that she was distantly royal to either the Danish or Norwegian royal family as well as to a very popular 80′s Australian supermodel who graced countless magazine covers.
Sadly, it turns out that they were all untruths. A fact we later discovered once we left high school (and I suspected when said friend bore no such resemblance to the supermodel, nor did anyone from her family know of any such connection). When we left high school, her whole make believe world unravelled and we realised that all of the tales that she had been spinning were a falsehood.
Apart from he monetary benefits, I’m not sure why people claim royal relations. I mean apart from the invitation to the wedding (which sounds like it might at least have good food) and the odd castle, family gatherings sound a bit stiff and dull. However, if one were part of the Norwegian royal family I think that there is the added benefit that you could eat any food any day that your heart desires.
I have more normal friends now, friends like Kathy. Along with another friend Nic and my mother, Kathy is one of the kind souls that are testing out recipes for my new book. It is a memoir rather than a cookbook but there are recipes slotted in at appropriate points where they fit the story. As they’re all brand new recipes that haven’t appeared on the blog, she offered to test out the recipes for me which was a huge relief and her feedback has been wonderful and heart warmingly positive. And occasionally she will suggest that I might give a recipe a go. This is one of them.
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May 15th, 2012
by Not Quite Nigella
There’s a joke in my family about rice. Whenever my parents go overseas, they only seem to visit certain countries in a certain order. Allow me to explain. After university I went to live in Japan to teach English and my parents came to visit me. My mother rang me one day from their Tokyo hotel.
“We’re going back to Australia earlier than expected. Your father couldn’t find the rice that he likes here!”
I thought she was joking – after all, we were in Japan where there is plenty of rice. But it was true, my father didn’t want to try the koshihikari rice in Japan and insisted that he and my mother high tail it back home where he could have the rice that he liked. I am not kidding…
Thankfully he has gotten better after that trip. Now he can visit Europe with a minimum of fuss (although all European holidays must be buttressed at each end by a visit to Hong Kong). One thing about rice that I did find curious when I lived in Japan was that although they loved rice, the idea of rice pudding turned many off and that when I’d talk to my students about it their noses would wrinkle at the thought. Sure there is congee and rice cakes but English rice pudding wasn’t common at all.
I saw this recipe for rice pudding griddle cakes on Deana’s fantastic site Lost Past Remembered and wanted to make them straight away. The next day in fact when we were “busy” relaxing and enjoying the four day Easter weekend. For any Finnish people out there, these are like a hot cake version of the Finnish Karelian rice pie and although they don’t have any rye pastry, the filling is very similar to rice pies.
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April 9th, 2012
by Not Quite Nigella
One day while out and about I picked up a copy of a book called “211 Things A Bright Girl Can Do” by Bunty Cutler. The book caught my eye for the wrong reason. I am half blind even with my contact lenses in so I mused aloud “Why are there only 21 things a clever girl can do? Surely there are more!” before a kind soul pointed out that the title said 211. Oops! I’m like your confused half blind friend-embarrassing!
I took it down and flicked through it and started chuckling straight away. There was “How to escape a vicious swarm of bees”, “How To Hide a File in a Cake” and “How to survive a plane crash” with tongue in cheek advice like “Survivors are the ones who don’t stop for family or friends. Just walk over all the other people, screaming loudly” along with actual sound advice. Then there is more practical advice such as “How to manage an umbrella in the wind” and “How to forecast the weather like your grandmother used to.”
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February 22nd, 2012
by Not Quite Nigella
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