Sakura of DOOM

I haven't read Laurie Colwin's first book about home cooking, but I don't think I needed to. This is a wonderfully homey, comforting, happy-making book; it cheered me up immensely. A lot of it is because of Colwin's attitude toward cooking. She likes good ingredients and fresh food, but she's also a fan of things that taste awesome with minimum preparation (the elegant slob, she calls herself).

I was a little wary when the introduction was on the importance of the family dinner and having families eat together. While I usually do like dinners together, I find that people propounding this also tend to advocate "all-American" family values, most of which just don't work with me. But Colwin goes on to talk about how the meaning of family changes and how the giant Norman Rockwell dinners meant slaving at the stove and doing the dishes afterward; she writes of how families are friends or single-parent or gay or lesbian or multiracial.

I particularly like that she includes non-American food in the book; she's equally fond of chutney and fermented black beans as she is of turkey. That said, most of the recipes are American.

And well, she's just funny!

I come from a coffee-loving family, and you can always tell if my sister and I have been around, because both of us collect all the dead coffee from everyone's morning cup, pour it over ice, and drink it. This is a disgusting habit, and only a coffee addict would indulge in it.

It is gross! But it also sums up coffee addiction! (Not caffeine, mind you -- I do like caffeinated things, but I loooove coffee above and beyond that.)

Really fun, and incredibly cheering to read on cold, rainy winter nights.