I have just finished reading Heartburn, a book written by much loved journalist, novelist, screenwriter, director and Blogger, Nora Ephron.
Ephron was inspired to write the book after she discovered her husband was having an affair with their mutual friend. With her usual comic genius, Ephron's heroine, Rachel Samsat, describes her husband as 'being capable of having sex with a venetian blind' and that their friend, with whom he was having an affair, looked like a giraffe with big feet.
One of the many reasons I love Ephron is that she loved food with a heartening fervour, Heartburn is about the break up of a marriage but the heroine is a food writer and this is how she describes it: 'The cookbooks I write do well. They're very personal and chatty - they're cookbooks in an almost incidental way. I write chapters about friends or relatives or trips or experiences, and work in the recipes peripherally.'.............Just like my blog!
Sometimes I rattle on about things and actually the recipes really do become incidental, I'm not really sure how readers feel about that?
As many of you will know, I was inspired to write a food blog after seeing Ephron's movie, Julie & Julia. Julie Powell was frustrated at being in a soul-killing, dead end job and embarked on a project where she prepared all 524 recipes from her favourite chef, Julia Child's landmark cookbook 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking.' Powell documented this in a blog which went viral, culminating in Ephron's film starring Meryl Streep.
I'm pretty sure the film inspired many like minded people to embark on a food blog, mine is just one of thousands, but whilst I don't write it as often as I'd like, I do thoroughly enjoy blathering on and I hope my recipes are of consequence. A typical recipe in Heartburn reads like this: 'Bacon hash, cut some bacon into small pieces and cook over a slow flame so that the fat is rendered. Then add diced cooked potatoes and cook until the potatoes and bacon are completely crunchy. Eat with an egg.
On that note, this next preparation is child's play (excuse the pun.)
Delicious tomato salad
Recipe
2/3 pounds of mixed ripe tomatoes
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Red wine or balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, peeled and grated
1 fresh chilli, seeded and chopped, optional
Cut your tomatoes into uneven sizes, place in a colander and season with a good pinch of salt
Shake the tomatoes, the salt will begin to draw out any excess moisture
Leave the tomatoes in the colander on top of a bowl for 15 minutes, discard excess juice
Transfer tomatoes to a large bowl
Make a dressing using 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, add garlic and chilli and stir well
Serve as part of a regular salad or with some torn mozzarella and crusty bread
'You can never have too much butter - that's my belief. If I have a religion, that's it.'
- Nora Ephron.
Love Donna xxxxxxx
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