In the magazine rack

Once upon a time I was quite familiar with current magazine titles, in pre-Internet days I’d have four or five different titles each month, read them fairly in-depth and buy new ones the following month.

Around the millenium magazine editors were worried that the growing  interest in the Internet would cause the demise of magazines so many of them went out on foolish limbs in an effort to maintain their readerships. This, coupled with ever growing advertising, prompted me to cut out magazines for over a decade.

In the past few years however a few edgy, hip, non-mainstream titles have appeared, Pip a permaculture magazine, Peppermint an eco-fashion and lifestyle magazine and latterly a couple of food magazines which are less celebrity cook focussed and more about home cooking.

I’m quite taken with Donna Hay’s new Fresh and Light which is about eating well, eating clean and green. I’ve always admired Hay who came from an ordinary Sydney suburban background as a cook — not a chef — to become an icon of simple stylish Australian food.

Unfortunately she brand endorses everything from crockery to aprons, she has pre-mixed food products on supermarket shelves and is always looking to expand the empire, activities which I believe cut her concentration on the food recipes. That said, she has a good take on food if somewhat meat heavy and “hero ingredient” focussed rather than offering a balanced meal.

Fresh and Light has a good number of very good recipes which can be made as whole meals and Hay’s baking recipes using different flours and other baking ingredients are incomparable. I think sweet recipes have always been her forte.

Eating Well is the poor cousin subsidiary of the Well Being stable. The budget is obviously limited and I have to wonder if there is any testing of recipes before they are printed. That said, this magazine is full of good healthy food ideas. Alternate sections of the magazine are “Sponsor recipes” featuring a particular product such as Mckenzie’s lentils, but most of those recipes can be used with a substitute product.

Have you found anything interesting on the magazine shelves?

Finding my tribe #Lyn at ipreferreading

With Anna inspiring me domestically and creatively, Brydie getting me baking and planting, it’s surely time to kick back with a book so that means dropping in on Lyn. I first stumbled across Lyn’s blog several years ago, it was a serendipitous discovery as Lyn is both widely read and in-depth read in so many areas.

In her blog header she quotes Logan Pearsall Smith aphorism “Some people say life is the thing, but I prefer reading” which made me laugh out loud when I first caught sight of it and isn’t it true in so many ways?