This month has been unprecedentedly busy with work, so I've been taking lots of taxi journeys and eating out a lot. I was glad to have a few days off this week, which coincided with the arrival of my new cooker. I was looking forward to cooking again, so on my way back home from a stroll into town I stopped by Waterstones to have a browse through the cookbooks and choose what to make for dinner that night. I was so taken by Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries that I decided just to buy it. Not only are his recipes simple but mouthwatering, I like the presentation of them as - as you can imagine - a food diary. I also find his charming but incredibly middle class anecdotes and observations quite hilarious (I'm not so oblivious that I can't see my own captions probably read in the same way, just a little less middle-class but a little less charming, too.) In any case, this is the first recipe I tried, baked onions with parmesan and cream. Simple, and perhaps not the most beautiful dish, but as a side to accompany a grilled pork chop it was, in Nigel's own words, "quite one of the most splendid meals I can remember." Glasgow, 2010.

This is the thickest cookbook I own. The measurement of the spine is 2.3 cm. Nigel Slater has a very unique way of writing. His cookbooks are more like stories than your usual picture and recipe only type books. Definitely a favorite. Next comes the yummy part...mmmm!