Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights

I spent this lazy Saturday morning reading Sophie Dahl's cookery book "Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights" and loving every page. Her recipes sound absolutely delicious and easy-as-can-be to make, but her personal stories and thoughts about food and life were what really kept me captivated as a reader. There's a passage in which she describes the kitchen she wants and dreams of that had me thinking about moving to a big, old, airy house in the country and spending the rest of my days puttering around the kitchen and tending to my vegetable garden. Who wouldn't want a life like this:

"This kitchen is a gentle relaxed one, where a punishing, guilt-inducing attitude towards food will not be tolerated. In this kitchen we appreciate the restorative powers of chocolate. The kitchen would have a fireplace, and possibly a few dogs from Battersea Dogs' Home curled up next to it. There might be a small upright piano by the window, with an orchid that doesn't wither as soon as I look at it. On long summer days, the doors to this kitchen are thrown open, while a few lazy, non-stinging bees mosey by. Children stir. When it rains, there is room in this kitchen for reading and a spoon finding its way into the cake mix. Serious cups of tea are drunk here; idle gossip occurs, balance and humour prevail. It's the kitchen of my grandparents', but with some Bowie thrown in. It is lingering breakfasts, it is friends with babies on their knees, it is goodbye on a Sunday with the promise of more. This kitchen is where life occurs; jumbled, messy and delicious. It is lovely."