Couch Surfing - Nigella Kitchen

If you love your food, and spending time in the kitchen minus the effort that comes with convoluted recipes, Nigella Lawson's latest DVD Nigella Kitchen is packed with easy, quick recipes that made me exceptionally hungry. Spread over 2 DVDs, Nigella cooks in her home kitchen with an ever-present smile of satisfaction and a constant passion so strong it is almost tiring. Never short of strangely intense descriptions of her creations (my personal favourites: "Blackberries glistening darkly out of a pillowy duvet of cream" and "inner thigh quibble" - both describing a form of cheesecake), Nigella is as curiously entertaining as her food is mouth-watering.

After watching several episodes, it was obvious that if Nigella were to narrate my most mundane of days, they would seem impressively wonderful, such is her lingual finesse. The number of unique descriptions and rarely-used words that call for dictionary look-ups that the eloquent Oxford-grad and one-time book reviewer Lawson appears to include in a natural vocabulary (with plummy accent to boot) is truly impressive. She is hardly a repeat offender, which, for any MasterChef followers, is a nice reprieve from the "salivating" craze (am I right?). 

Though I would probably not advise watching all 371 minutes of Nigella Kitchen in one sitting, lest you get indigestion, the mini series does provide nice little bites of culinary happiness that make you feel better about your impatience in the kitchen, as well as providing interesting little tips here and there - the kind that make you go "Oh, that's a good idea!". Nigella Kitchen is easy cooking for the everyday, without the banal vocabulary. Good for grazing for inspiration on couch-bound wintry days.

Sophie @ Girl With a Satchel.