I’ve said before that sometimes the generosity of spirit of the people I meet amazes me. I’m feeling like that today.

I got home from work to find a parcel from a Southern Belle (Jill) with the most fantastic recipe book from the Deep South of the USA. It’s such a beautiful book, the photography is excellent and the recipes enticing – in fact as I type this, the smells of Southern style Stuffed Peppers and Cardamom Creamy Sweet Potatoes are wafting up from the oven! This cements our friendship beautifully as I have a particularly strong love of recipe books and treasure those given to me by friends. I can’t wait to tuck into the dishes that are cooking a little later this evening.

The book itself is a ‘read’ in its own right – it has a lot of history and commentary about the food and that’s what I love – I always said what was important to me was what was BEHIND the photo. It reminds me of ‘A Taste Of India’ – a Madhur Jaffrey book that my parents bought me years ago…….

PBASE has completely unexpectedly delivered me a really wide range of friends that I never expected to ‘meet’. Another of these friends (the irrepressible Jeanne) posted me a CD containing a song by a hero of mine that I’ve never heard before yesterday. So tonight we will sit, eating a meal that was inspired by a Southern Belle while listening to music given by a glorious Californian (by residence if not by birthright). How cool is that….I wonder if Slug realised that he would be responsible for such a tight-knit community when he set up PBASE?

Another kind soul has touched me today too – Mike R, who spent the evening with us yesterday, drove out of his way tonight to deliver some photography books to me that he promised me yesterday and he just wanted me to have them quickly. He said it was because I was so fired up yesterday that he didn’t want the moment to pass before I had taken action on our discussions. What a wonderful gesture.

How lucky am I? Oh yes, you are right – the luckiest girl in the world!

Oh and Ian – your pic yesterday made my day too. I was drooling over that egg all day and all morning today until (working at home) lunchtime when I was able to make some of my own! You can rest assured David will get all of those things you recommended to soothe his anguish (which seems to have subsided a bit anyway) and for a poor uneducated soul, can you tell me what bokeh is? Then I can decide how pleasing it is!

To end today’s posting a good, Southern quote from the cookery book…..

“As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again”
Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind

POST SCRIPT - delicious too!