to think that Nigella doesn't taste half the horrible food in her cookbooks?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Bless her, I love her an all but some of her food is rank.

I tried those gnocchi roast potatoes and they were inedible - spongy and foamy tasting as well as rock hard on the outside.

Marmite pasta - well bloody hell it tasted like the devil's own excreta. Anne del Conte my arse.

DD made the sweet and sour from Kitchen - vile.

I think she has lost it slightly. Compared to How to Eat (food in the real world) I don't think her latest recipes come up to scratch at all.

I do love the way she writes but I think her recipes are so hit and miss it is not worth attempting any more.

Oh, well that makes sense. LeQ couldn't have someone outdoing her on house-proudness, I mean, the woman has bags of lavendar on door knobs and such like.

Do you ever feel that you overshare on MN sometimes?

that bloody bags of lavender story. I ever so slightly take the piss out of her about that every so often.

Mind you that doesn't beat leaky fanjos does it?

Ham in Coke - I have just looked at this and will do tomorrow as sounds delish, BUT why does she say to retain the cooking liquid and then doesn;t say what to do with it?

Am being dopey here?

I agree that she is bit hit and miss these days but I still love her and her sticky out ears!

Too right. I mean, come on. Bags of lavender? Come on. just, come on.

Yeah, leaky fanjos win

You can make soup with it stillbobbys - south beach black bean soup according to Nige (in How To Eat).

I have never bothered as it looks like runny tar with bits in. I just throw the coke away.

Upthread though says if you use cherry coke save it and cook red cabbage in it, but I have never tried this.

I am pmsl at this thread. Sorry to read about your leaky fanjo issues GOML I hope you can find some exercises that help with that.

Loved the crazy crossword puzzle baby name thread, am now wondering whether I should unhide baby names.

Anyway - someone on page one dissed the Nigella Summer book and I won't have it. Just try the chocolate and raspberry pavlova recipe. I tell you it is the best dessert ever and I don't have a sweet tooth.

Oh BLOODY HELL I don't HAVE a LEAKY FANJO!

Everyone has post bath leaks don't they? Don't they....

The red cabbage thing is both easy and nice (add a shredded red cabbage and 2 tbsp vinegar, cook for an hour and a half I think).
The black bean soup is widely agreed to be an offence against nature.

I made banana chocolate muffins today from kitchen. Although I had to make substitutions, I hade no chocolate or baking power/bicarbe whatever and no cocoa. So they just banana made with self raising flour. Still very nice!

Sorry GOML, but I don't share your affliction, but then, I haven't had children yet so that might be the reason.

Pmsl massively at glasshopper pie and racist chicken...brilliant!

I think you are a bit mean. How to Eat, Dom God and Feast are all splendid. The rolled up aubergine things in Feast are vair good.

However, Kitchen is a right old thrown together mess of a book. What is it about? I get no sense of a narrative arc in it. What are those chapters all about? Almost as annoying as listening to her telling me I only need one knife and a bowl and then incluidng a photograph of her ladle rack, which appears to house at least 50 ladles, most of which are baby blue slightly-chipped enamel, no doubt picked up for a song at some dear brocante she was at last summer. Slubber, you could do one serious intervention there. She is a self-confessed cookie-cutter hoarder; I bet her cupboards are stuffed with crap.

OK I just have to say this. She is NOT sexy or gorgeous although she is certainly plump (or rather fat). I am the same age as her and I would be bloody mortified if I looked like that (if we are worrying about looks).

She cannot cook. Her food is over sweet, stodgy and ghastly. In years to come she will be regarded in the same way that we look at Fanny Craddock now - gimmicky and a bad cook.

I would not eat profiteroles with 'burnt caramel custard'. It sounds vile. Just like the ham stewed in coke and that ghastly green pie thing that looks like a hat.

I agree - the strength of her other books is that they have a theme, Kitchen does seem cobbled together.

I do love How to Eat and Feast but dear god, eating those gnocchi roasties was an ordeal.

Abs good point I don't have children yet either so that explains the complete and utter absence of bathwater gushing out of my fanjo as I wander around Sainsbury's.

You could always bung a mooncup in after your bath though if you are afflicted in this manner, no need to make a mess on the floor.

Oh I wish DH got mumsnet. My life would be enhanced. I just suggested 'racist chicken' for Sunday and he misheard me as 'roast' chicken.

And it is so hard to explain.

(It was a yy on the roast chicken though)

I think she is a beauty though, biscuits. I really lovely looking woman.

You need to try the ham in coke, it's great.

I feel like Gordon Brown when he wanted to talk domestic policy in the election and all people banged on about was him calling that old woman a bigot.

no no no biscuitscoco the ham in coke is lovely, really (well ham in cherry coke not tried the ham in coke as didn't fancy the black bean soup).

I don't have a bath, or children, so my fanjo is not leaky at all. And I do internet shopping so there is really zero chance that I will gush bathwater all over Sainsburys.

I will NEVER eat ham in coke or pasta with bloody marmite - not while they are really lovely things to eat.

In Express I tried her tuna and cannellini beans. It was the first of her recipes ever i tried. I have a pencilled note beside it 'don't bother'.

Get away with your ham in coke talk. It's not right and you know it.

It wasn't just me who saw Nigella. Mr Biscuits was there too and his verdict was "Bloody hell .." (and not in a good way).

I don't gush water after a bath either, and have never leaked bathwater (or indeed any other fluid, bodily or otherwise) whilst going round a supermarket - and my pelvic floor has all the strength and elasticity of a wet paper bag!! GetOrf - I'm sorry, but it sounds like it is just you.

I use Nigella's recipe for pavlova too - and since watching her programmes, I now stuff chicken and duck carcasses in the freezer until I have enough to make stock (the duck stock that I made for the christmas gravy was out of this world), and I freeze the egg whites that are left over when I make carbonara. BTW - did you know that you could defrost eggwhites in the microwave (on low power) and they will still make excellent pavlova? And if you use raspberry vinegar in your pavlova mix, instead of white wine vinegar, it gives it a delicious taste that complements strawberries or raspberries perfectly.

Oh - and the pasta with marmite is DELICIOUS!!! So there!!