Create a Cookbook Library: The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

Nigel Slater, author of The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen (2005, Fourth Estate), has the same attitude toward cooking that I do: Shop for fresh, local ingredients often, toss stuff together in the pan without a big fuss and sit down and enjoy it with family and friends.

He's also not above heating up a tin of baked beans for a meal. He says the way to elevate a scrounged meal is to have a glass of wine with it, or better still a glass of champagne. My kind of guy.

Slater wrote The Kitchen Diaries in order to pay careful attention to precise times when produce was at it's peak and how his cooking reflected the seasons. Starting with a pumpkin soup on New Year's Day, and ending with reheating his Christmas pudding on the following Boxing Day, Slater tracks the months through cooking whatever strikes his fancy.Written in a diary form, the book makes an interesting read and the recipes seem like a bonus. The recipes themselves have a loose feel to them as though these are mostly suggestions for preparations rather than carefully tested items. There is nothing rigid about the way he cooks or entertains-or writes for that matter. He has an easy writing style that makes you feel you are having a conversation.

I've made a number of things from the book, and I've always been happy with the outcome. I do have to make some adjustments for the differences in climate and food seasons between England and Canada. There's no way that I have late harvest raspberries available in November and I certainly don't dine al fresco in March.

This would a nice addition to your cookbook library. I often pull it off the shelf to browse and check to see what Nigel had to eat that day. And I often think, what a good idea, I'll try that.

Difficulty level: Easy