Cook

I like books. I like book shops. A few weeks ago we found ourselves in Waterstones, which is not unusual as we always try to visit whenever we are in England. I was busy trying to decide whether to buy 2666 by Roberto Bolano - the book is this years must have novel. I did buy it, and think that if, as some reviewers said, this book is the novel reinvented, then god help us! I found it boring and lacking in any soul. Maybe it lost something in the translation from its original Spanish.

So while I was being impressed by the wonderful reviews of 2666 my wife was flicking through the new Jamie Oliver book and occasionally showing me a recipe, which I was glancing at with little interest at first, but found myself drawn to after having my senses slowly bludgeoned by photo after photo of very tasty looking dishes. At half price it seemed too good an offer to miss and so we bought it. Back in Belgium it was soon tested out, we had a pack of macaroni that needed to be used and so my wife made his macaroni cheese dish. Quite nice indeed.

Over the weekend it was decided that we would try the Jambalyo. I was waiting for the Liverpool v West Ham match to start on tv and so I decided to prepare the different bits, of which there was quite a lot; smoked sausage, salami, chicken and chilli peppers amongst other things. Well one thing led to another, I poured myself a big glass of Aussie red, my tribute to Keith Floyd, and actually cooked my first ever dish straight out of a cook book!

I do have a small repertoire of culinary delights, my chilli con carne is quite spectacular...although I'm far from earning my first Michelin star!

It was quite easy to make, but it was touch and go for a while because there was a period of about 15 minutes when I didn't have to do anything and so to amuse myself I started flicking through the pages of Jamie's book and found a dish called southern sausage stew, or something like it. I started to read what it involved and realised I had to add some more ingredients to my Jambalayo. Then the football started.

Football + booze = attention elsewhere.

When I returned to the cooking, it took me 5 minutes to realise that I was no longer following the Jambalayo recipe but the southern sausage stew! Being a little bit squiffy, I was only a little bit surprised when the book told me to add things that I had already added. It was my wife who saved the day because I couldn't find the flour, which wasn't needed in the recipe I was supposed to be cooking! In the end it was a success, not perfect, but another dish to add to my expanding list.