Spoiling

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

When a child throws himself on the floor and wails because he cannot have what he wishes for, we wrinkle up our noses and mutter to ourselves disapprovingly, “spoilt brat”. This is no compliment; look up “to spoil” in the dictionary and you’ll find “to diminish or impair the quality or character by excessive indulgence.” But why the lesson in language?

Cast your eye over your Facebook feed until you find that frequently used post-birthday refrain, “Thanks everyone, I had a lovely day and feel well and truly spoilt”. In being spoilt, it seems, we feel loved and cherished. The act of spoiling is something to be celebrated – and it’s this new, positive use of the word, which I believe is so revealing about our relationship with food. Continue reading →

An ode to strawberries

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

We have been feasting on strawberries. Each day, I walk to the strawberry seller at the end of our road and buy a kilo for 5 euros. A third of these I take with me for the children to eat on the way home from nursery. The rest we devour at the end of our evening meal – a great bowlful in the middle of the table, green stalks cast off on our dirty plates.

One of the most evocative fruits (though pedants among you will say they are not really fruits at all – bearing their seeds on the outside and being only accessories to these), summer without strawberries is hard to imagine. Quartered and sugared with a dollop of cream, or rinsed and left with the stalks on, the sight of these plump red jewels conjures up an array of images: a hot day in the fields with friends; the cool shade of the living room with the thwack of the tennis ball on the telly; scones with Granny as the summer rain drips down outside the art gallery window; pudding in the late fading light in the back garden; one more glass of warm Pimm’s by the river before the university holidays start. Continue reading →

In all seriousness (and beetroot)

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

Browse the internet or a bookshop and you’ll find a slew of advice on how to be taken more seriously – by your partner, your colleagues, or even by your own children. Lower your voice, hold someone’s gaze, focus on the things most important to you, and so on. It’s important too, because it’s how you get people to listen to your ideas – and even a three-year-old knows that not being listened to is one of the most frustrating things in the world. (I am writing on the eve of International Women’s Day.)

Whether these methods work is another matter, but to be taken seriously must be something we want, or we wouldn’t be so open to all that lecturing on the subject. Strange that, because I don’t see much evidence of us putting these ideas into practice. Open your eyes and ears to it: in the office sentences trail off into self-conscious laughter (of both the boisterous and meek kind); at the playground parents absent-mindedly chide small children with one eye still on their Facebook-covered iPhone screens; and lovers on the tube quarrel in mock baby voices. Mostly, it seems, we’re busy trying to be liked (whether by our new boyfriend or on social media) instead. Continue reading →

Money where your mouth is

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

Posh cosmetics are absurdly expensive, or so it seemed to me whilst browsing the department store shelves for a new moisturiser. But we still buy them: most bathroom cupboards are so well stocked with lotions and potions they could be apothecaries.

I suppose it’s understandable that when it comes to beauty no expense is spared. We all like to look our best (and youngest) and these products very convincingly promise they will help us do just that. But they don’t, not really. Good genes, happy lives, healthy diets and enough sleep are far more important (though I do continue to slavishly follow the expensive skincare routine I introduced on turning thirty – ah, sweet delusion). Continue reading →

My Valentine …

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

Now, imagine a card factory before Valentine’s Day: a never-ending line of pink-hearted, teddy-bear headed cards filing out of a printing machine, before being neatly slotted into a cellophane envelopes. Or the chocolate factory: great vats of vegetable oil, sugar and lactose swilling around before being dropped into little heart-shaped moulds and wrapped in red shiny paper. The thundering machines, the sickly smells of rancid fat … Romantic, no? Continue reading →

Not spirulina again …

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

The world has gone mad for green smoothies. Wherever I look I find health food blogs proclaiming the fountain of eternal youth spouts whizzed up celery and spirulina, perhaps with a few chia seeds thrown in for good measure. And there’s always the photo of course: the jar, the rustic background, the recycled straw. Can you hear my scepticism? (Ironic, I know, given the intentions of this blog … ) Continue reading →

Your inner child, and sweet potatoes

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

Tempting as it may be after a long day in the office, it is not acceptable to throw tantrums as an adult. With age, most of us somehow manage to control our tempers and defuse anger in more mature ways. If we don’t, our professional and romantic luck will be rather limited – tough but true. But when it comes to what and when we eat, we remain rather childlike. Let me explain why. Continue reading →

The day after the night before

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

Mastering self-control is much harder when you’re tired (and hungover to boot). Somehow indulging the body feels very justified, rather like when you’re a little bit ill or sad. And therein lies the fallacy of indulgence. That stodgy breakfast, milky coffee, late afternoon slab of chocolate may gratify your desires but won’t make you feel in better; indeed, it will almost certainly make you feel worse.

Pleasure is your goal, not indulgence. A tired day needs careful management right up to the point at which you can take pleasure in it again (especially in dark and chilly January). This longer term view should provide the discipline to carry you through those bleak hours of fatigue, which can rear up and tempt you throughout a day after a night before. Continue reading →

Quinoa with apple – the unexpected breakfast

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

When the richness of yoghurt does not appeal early in the morning, I use a couple of big spoonfuls of unsweetened apple puree to moisten some sort of cereal instead. Recently, tired of oats, I’ve been using cold quinoa, leftover from lunch the day before, or buckwheat flakes I buy from our local health food shop. Both are delicious.

But yesterday, in an untypical moment of self sacrifice, I finished the jar of apple puree on the children’s porridge. And so it was left to my culinary creativity to find a suitable replacement. As so very often the self sacrifice paid off, leading me to discover this gem of a breakfast. Continue reading →

A sense of ceremony – or bananas on sticks

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Chloe Daniel

My three-and-a-half year old daughter has a penchant for sweet treats. Hard as this may be to believe, she appears not yet to recognise the benefits of her sage mother’s ascetic approach to food – perhaps because she is growing as fast as a bean-shoot and constantly darts between her two favourite activities of bouncing on the settee and jumping on our bed, or possibly just because she’s three-and-a-half. Anyway – I digress.

This results in a persistent clamouring for “something sweet – no, something really sweet,” said in that typically three-and-a-half year old, utterly resolute voice. And because she eats a (reasonably) balanced diet the rest of the time – with plenty of protein, healthy fats and wholegrains – I give her craving some credit and usually try to find something acceptable both to her and me; though not always an easy task. Continue reading →

Of Slender Means

eating thoughtfully and effortlessly

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