Non-fiction, then. A few pages of Stuck Monkey; the Deadly Planetary Cost of the Things We Love<\/em> by James Hamilton-Patterson, and I shied away from too much reality. Retreating to the past, I tried The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons<\/em> by Cat Jarman and The Road:A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past<\/em> by Christopher Hadley but made no headway.<\/p>\n I did actually finish Some Shall Break<\/em> by Ellie Marney, and Slough House<\/em> and Bad Actors<\/em> by Mick Herron, and they certainly passed the time and took me away to somewhere else. To be honest, the fact that the ‘elsewhere’ was somewhere fairly horrid probably didn’t do me all that much good. I started feeling pretty dark. I need a book! I need to read!<\/p>\n Cookbooks to the rescue. Especially Darina Allen’s massive tome The Forgotten Skills of Cooking<\/em>. Allen is a famous Irish chef, with many honours and prizes and cook books to her name. She runs the Ballymaloe Cookery School at her\u00a0 family home, Ballymaloe House in Shanagarry, County Cork. I borrowed it for the baking, not the advice on foraging (no Crispy Puffballs for us) or skinning and gutting rabbits. Allen’s Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread – made every day at Ballymaloe House for over 60 years –\u00a0 has been keeping us in toast for weeks. I am looking forward to trying Irish Porter Cake (with Guinness in it!) and Irish Tea Barmbrack (in which the dried fruit is soaked overnight in tea.<\/p>\n Plus, you get to eat your therapy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Books, which are usually a multi-purpose cure – solace, distraction or balm, exciting or soothing as required – have not been doing\u00a0 it for me lately. Perhaps I needed one of those bibliotherapy experts to prescribe exactly the right one. … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/forgotten-skills-of-cooking.avif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>When I got the news that my friend had died, I cried for a bit and then went to the kitchen and made a cake.\u00a0 Making cakes and bread is soothing and positive and life-affirming.<\/p>\n