Cooking prompts for when all you want to eat are mini cheddars

Starting the letter with a little bit of hope. Wild garlic season is a time of year I'm really grateful for life. If you don't live in the UK or are not immersed in garlic fever, wild garlic season is the time in early spring where ramsons or 'wild garlic' grows across woods, surrounds rivers, and peaks out of graveyards. If in doubt, you can tell wild garlic is nearby is the overpowering and distinct smell of, well garlic. 

It is undeniably delicious, and I am generous with my personal picking each year to ensure I have enough for pies, pesto, and curry for the coming months. It keeps nicely in the freezer, and I've even seen some people pickling it. 

Aside from its taste, wild garlic is a sign that spring is in full swing and the dearth of winter will soon be gone.  Veg boxes will start having variety in them again, berries will taste sweet, and courgettes sprouted on windowsills can be planted out and will bear fruit soon. Selfishly, it also means my birthday (April) is near too, which I hope I will be excited about until I have to remove my dentures to eat my birthday cake (5 - 10 years at my current rate).

Long days, sun, and produce is just on the horizon, and it becomes bearable yet again to exist on this grey little island. As you will see below, I've been in some sort of grey funk recently, and so my small excursions to fields of wild garlic 

Better times are coming and they smell garlicky x

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I've yet again slipped into a cooking rut. There's only so many times a month you can justify ordering half Nando's menu, or making fish finger sandwiches before you have to acknowledge that thinking of 6 dinners a week, plus breakfast, lunch, and snacks (crucially) is a struggle right now. 

Generally, I'm not enjoying a lot about cooking or engaging in food culture at the moment. Opening Instagram feels overwhelming, food websites are repetitive, and no bookstores mean no browsing and sneaking glances at new recipes. A lot about it feels very uninspiring or event rotten right now, but that's not really what I want, or need to focus on, especially when I have meals to make. 

I've been here before, and know that revisiting classic sources of inspiration can revitalise and help me focus on the good. So, to put something out into the world, below are some of my old favourite cooks, blogs, and recipes that I lean on in times like this. No social media at all.

Sophie Dahl 


Sophie Dahl is my posh white lady cook. The Delicious Miss Dahl came out when I was an impressionable teen, and I became smitten with this gently spoken giant and the stories she tells when she cooks. Is she innovative or even something new? No absolutely not. Dahl follows in the grand Nigella tradition of well-spoken purveyors of comfort cooking, and spins an image of British cooking with a capital B. 

Watching her cook is escapism, and god do I need to go somewhere right now. 

Mimi Thorisson 

Old Jamie Oliver clips

Cooking Comically

Half And Half by Rachael Krishna / Bath, United Kingdom Sent to you — Unsubscribe Delivered by