nigella

Last night, I found a very exciting deal at the bookstore -- Nigella Lawson's cookbook, Forever Summer was in the bargain section––for eight dollars! I have no idea why it was marked so far down, but I snatched it up.

I have to admit, ever since watching her show "Nigella Bites" on the Style Network when I had cable in college, I have had a bit of a girl-crush on Ms. Lawson. She's just so fabulous. She's a great chef, she's incredibly stylish, she's British (I'm a terrible Anglophile) and she eats the most ridiculous food, but manages to remain lovely and slim, but not waifish. She also has two adorable British children and an amazing kitchen.

ANYWAY! I got home and I was looking through my new cookbook and I realized that, although I have a copy of her Nigella Bites cookbook––but I've never made anything out of it! Tragedy!

So, looking through it this afternoon, I decided to make a batch of orange muffins. I had everything on hand except self-rising flour. I pulled out my bible––The Joy of Cooking–– and saw that I could substitute regular flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda. Lovely! Mixed them up, they smelled lovely, popped them in the oven, they baked up lovely, broke one open, slathered it in butter and––

BLEH!

Not Nigella's fault. I double checked the recipe, I double checked Joy and––oh dear. I was supposed to add baking POWDER, and instead nearly TRIPLED the amount of baking SODA.

Bleh.

So. A dozen muffins that are inedible, and no more oranges to try again. I am crushed.

But there's a lovely looking stovetop rice pudding that I might try later this week... Hopefully with better results.