Inspiration a la Amazon.com

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages from Amazon.com… hmm, OK, so perhaps it doesn’t have quite the same ring as “tied up with string”, but front door deliveries absolutely fall into the category of being amongst my favorite things.

Last week, I once again fell victim to Amazon’s “since you bought this… we think you should also buy this” email blitzes and used their efficient mobile app to order the River Cottage Every Day cookbook.  I had no idea what the River Cottage was, but the description made it sound somewhat similar to Heidi Swanson‘s style and the long winter months have left me in need of some culinary inspiration… so I figured it was worth the $17.26 risk.

Two days later, the book arrived at my doorstep.  (Sidenote – I bought into Amazon Prime last year… it’s changed my life in some very small but important ways.)   A few pages in, I learned that River Cottage is a fully sustainable farm/cooking school/restaurant/store in the UK that is out to convince the world of the value of self-sufficiency, food integrity, and the consumption of local, seasonal produce. I also learned some disturbing things about why you shouldn’t eat chilean sea bass which I am now trying to forget.

The recipes in River Cottage Every Day are pretty straightforward and the photography is stunning.   There are an unfortunately high number of pages dedicated to odd meat dishes (lamb liver?) and desserts… but the pages in between have some really great recipes.  I tried three of them last night:  1) seedy spinach salad, 2) tabouleh kisir, and 3) roasted new potatoes (no link that one, it’s pretty basic).  All three are keepers, particularly the spinach salad.  I’ve earmarked another 5-6 to try.

At some point this week Heidi Swanson‘s new book Super Natural Everyday should be arriving (I have had it on pre-order for a few months now), I think it’s formal release date is April 5th.  I’m looking forward to another visit from UPS with another of my favorite brown paper packages, more inspiration a la Amazon.com.