Those old posts

"You live life looking forward, you understand life looking backward."

Soren Kierkegaard

This is the header for the first iteration of my blog, a photograph taken in Italy in a small restaurant in Lombardy somewhere between Mantua and Lake Garda. I am contemplating the view in anticipation of what turned out to be a delicious meal, which began with locally made breadcrumb gnocchi. I'm afraid I can't remember the rest. I rarely do. It was actually taken just a short time before I started the blog - in June 2016. The blog began on July 15th when I was back at home, bored after a gorgeous holiday in Italy and France.

You may have noticed that, inspired by the Smitten Kitchen newsletter, at the foot of each of my posts I have been adding links to posts written on the same day in years gone by. You probably don't read them which is absolutely fine. Like the blog itself, it's really something of interest to me rather than anyone else. So today I thought I would ponder on what it has meant to me as I look at those past ramblings.

I suppose the main thing which makes me cringe is how repetitive I am. I seem to have written about chicken butter cream and chicken tikka masala, their history and variations many, many times - the most recent being my excursions into trying out different recipes in an attempt to find the 'perfect' recipe - probably Nik Sharma's or the original Moti Mahal recipe.  I do think that mostly, however, I have been quite good about not repeating the posts about a particular dish - with those outstanding exceptions.

Moments of joy crop up a lot - as they should really. What is life after all without those moments of joy? And they aren't always the same kind of thing, although it is maybe a little surprising, maybe not, how many of them are associated with food. Although that probably just reflects my own passion for all food related things rather than anything else. A footballer, for example, would find those moments of joy in football related things; a fashionista in clothes ...

Recipes from my favourites are obvious - the same names crop up all the time - Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Jamie, Elizabeth David, Robert Carrier, Jane Grigson ... Honestly I do try to check out others, but those names - past and present do linger, although I guess the favourites change from time to time.

Then there's always the family gatherings, simultaneously the same old thing and not; the very occasional restaurant visits - although those are always different of course. People make careers out of writing restaurant reviews after all. I'm not sure I'm really good at them. After our visit to Little Drop of Poison on Wednesday I have been contemplating what to say to a request from the restaurant for a review. They deserve one, but I can't think of what to say that might be helpful and is better than 'great food, great atmosphere'.

Other repetitive topics - fridge raids, what to do with leftovers or a glut - in general and in particular - how to decide what to cook, how to shop and what the supermarkets are currently doing. Nostalgia is perhaps a big one, and I see that I am indulging in nostalgia again with this post. It seems to appeal to more of you than other things perhaps - maybe because:

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. Robert Breault

Issues - health, commerce, environment, politics ... If you read this blog on even a semi regular basis I am sure you know the things that crop up over and over again. Although hopefully with at least one tiny variation in what I say each time.

So let's look at today in years gone by - October 6 - the beginning of summertime this year on a distinctly non summery day - in a little bit more detail.

2023 - A-Z Yes it was a post about the alphabet - a kind of postscript to one of my curriculum posts - on language - which I think was the first one. Indeed I remember that the post on language induced me to buy a book The Language of Food by Dan Jurafsky, which I dip into every now and then and which has little yellow post-it stickers, calling to me to tackle them. The first half of this post was about alphabets and the second about how the alphabet helped with cookbooks, plus a mini, mini review of Rachel Roddy's An A-Z of Pasta, which I had recently purchased. I think I was a bit unfair about it in retrospect. The post only had 5 views. I don't know what that means.

2022 - Nothing. Although the subtitle of this blog is 'daily musings on food' - those daily musings on food - and yes there are always daily musings on food in my head. Often the first thing I think about on waking is what am I going to do about dinner, because that might involve removing something from the freezer, or deciding what to do with some wilting leeks. But those musings do not always translate into a blog. I might be totally uninspired - an increasingly frequent occurrence - or I might just have no time because I am doing other things. Yes I do do other things, although I am always looking at those other things with an eye to the possibility of turning something into a post. I do wonder, however, what I was doing on that day that I didn't write anything.

2021 - First recipe - sesame prawn toasts The first recipe trick to get me out of a hole continues to this day. I think I am about halfway through my coobook collection. If I'm still alive and still interested in doing this, and I've done them all, I should perhaps start on the last recipes.

Sometimes when I find what that first recipe is I just can't face it and put it aside for a while, but eventually there is always somthing to say. There was quite a lot to say about this one around the topic of fusion food - that and authenticity crop up a lot in my ramblings too. This time the fusion was centred on Hong Kong and colonialism in general, and I seem to have found lots of very tempting examples of this particular dish. It won't get cooked in this house however because of David's prawn aversion. The recipe was from the late Valli Little in a small delicious. booklet. For some reason 14 of you read this.

2020 - Pear-shaped

Inspired by my then diary and a pear-shaped piece of wood crafted by my very young son. I wrote mostly about the history of their cultivation, and how, like bananas, their perfect moment was very transient. Like all perfect moments, that nevertheless linger for ever more. Just one recipe from Jane Grigson for Locket's savoury - cheese and pear on toast. Only 5 of you looked at this one. Which doesn't necessarily mean anything.

2019 How to pretend to cook with the aid of your local supermarket We are now back in the days of my old blog. This was just a bit of a diatribe at premade, and packaged ingredients, inspired by a recipe card I found in Woolworths for this Cheat's gozleme with lamb shoulder. Do recipe cards still exist? It's another much repeated topic I guess - and the stuff about what their magazines are designed to do. I don't know how many of you read this. I don't seem to have any viewing counts on my old website.

2018 Rocket A standard ingredient kind of post this one. A little bit of botanical knowledge, a tiny bit of history, a few comments on how it is most often used and a few recipes. Did you know there are two kinds of rocket? This one and the spikey one, with the spikey one being rather more bitter. And you can grow it pretty easily so no need to buy it in packets in your supermarket. Rocket pesto seemed to be the most popular recipe but there were a few interesting pasta recipes. Otherwise just use it like any other green leaf.

2017 Mellow yellow Inspired by Van Gogh, as I often am - indeed the weekend's desk calendar picture is a Van Gogh - Roses - white ones. Though I don't think I can easily parlay that one into a post. But then again maybe I could. Have I done roses? Yes. Have I done white food? I think so but I'm not sure. Have I done Van Gogh and food - oh yes.

Anyway this post was mostly a rumination on the good and the bad of yellow, ending with a sort of list of yellow food - and this rather good quote:

"Yellow is also an amazing attention-getter, which is why you can see McDonald's signs from so far away." Reid Mene

2016 Hot lavender

I bet I've done lavender more than once. I even have it in my Ideas list, so I should just cross that one off. This one was inspired by the previous day's post - Is Provence Real? which again had a Van Gogh connection. This day's post, however, was a few random thoughts about lavender, mostly whether you could cook with it. Of course you can - mostly desserts like ice-cream, crème brulée and marshmallows, but also sometimes as a flavour for lamb. I seem to have thought that it was trendy and I think it is currently in my Ideas list because it is still trendy today. Maybe I should update it and see what they are doing with it today. No mention of Ottolenghi back then.

So there you are. A snapshot of a particular date's blogs on what seems to be a fairly broad range of subject matter. I promise I won't do it again but I'll continue to list what I wrote in all those years. Personally speaking I have found it an interesting exercise. I have been somewhat rebuked for being repetitive, although some of the subjects attacked over and over again can always be revisited and revised in some way. Times change and we change with them. Did I think the same way back then? Probably. Writing this blog has been excellent therapy for me. I suppose that was what it was then, and that is what it is now. Generally it soothes me. At the end, however rubbishy the post might be, I have at least tried to do something more than shop, cook, walk and ponder. Sometimes I learn things, sometimes it makes me think. I can tick off one of my weekly targets. Always satisfying if tremendously trivial.

"The years go by. The time, it does fly. Every single second is a moment in time that passes. And it seems like nothing - but when you're looking back ... well, it amounts to everything." Ray Bradbury