Let's Have a Coffee
Welcome back!Â
The last two years have been a doozy, haven’t they? In hindsight it’s pretty clear that I spent much of 2020 trying to distract myself from events through productivity (which I also did when my nervous breakdown started at 19… we learn things about ourselves!) and optimism that things would only get better.
They did not ‘only get better’, did they? Pull up a chair, and let’s chat.
here we are in the middle of 2022. Parts of my life are beginning to look like they did in 2019 (back to the gym! work travel! eating pizza in restaurants and not on my sofa!) and I’m slowly rebuilding my social stamina. But at the same time I firmly believe that the many thousands of hours I spent alone, the weeks in end without speaking to anyone I knew in person, the complete isolation will stay with me for the rest of my life. And at the same time I know I’m incredibly lucky. My experience of the pandemic was of loneliness rather than grief - lost possibilities rather than lost people - and I’ve stayed employed and with a roof over my head.
But I haven’t just revived the newsletter to tell you that I’m mostly okay, most of the time. I’ve retired my foodstagram, but I still want somewhere to talk about what I’m cooking and eating. With the added bonus that now some of these things happen outside my flat! Also, live theatre is back now, and book events, and I’ve got my first sunshine holiday in four years booked in a few months’ time.Â
Catching up with a friend, or a newsletter, always goes better with a sweet treat (one of the possible names for this corner of Substack was Kaffeeklatsch) so I’m going to kick off the new era of Pull Up A Chair with a link to Deb Perelman’s Double Chocolate Chip Muffins. Always and forever in the Smitten Kitchen fan club! One thing I love about Smitten Kitchen is that Deb writes recipes with American tastes but always gives ingredients with metric weights, and suggests substitutions for ingredients not readily available in the U.K.. What’s more, her readership is so big that if you want more ideas for substitutions (especially if you’re vegan, gluten free, etc), they will almost certainly be findable in the comment section.
(Chocolate chip muffins are too dark to photograph well. Especially if half your lightbulbs have gone, as is currently the state of my kitchen…)
Something good…
Two podcast recommendations for you all this time, both accessible through the podcast app of your choice (I like Pocket Casts):
Borderline Salty, hosted by Carla Lalli Music and Rick Martinez. Similar vibe to the fantastic (but limited-run) Home Cooking - fun and chatty show about cooking and food. Episode titles like Always Taste Your White Powder, Salt the Hell Out of It, and If The Mood Strikes, Lick Away, give you an indication of the tone! Carla and Rick start each episode by saying to each other ‘tell me something good’ which, yes, I’ve stolen the header of this section from.
Sliced Bread, from BBC Radio 4. Each episode features host Greg Foot trying to find out if new inventions or concepts are the best thing since Sliced Bread - SB - or just BS! Recent episodes include carbon offsets, Huel, and air-source heat pumps. I’ve found it a really good way to find out more about some of the inventions I’m hearing more about, with all the credibility of a BBC show (and the BBC contacts book!)
Have a lovely weekend (in the last hour we have had bright sunshine and torrential rain here in Edinburgh, and now we seem to be back to the bright sunshine).
Lily