The Kitchen Table Chronicles - October
Netflix kills another great show. Early nightfall joys. The simple magic of apples and other notes.
Netflix kills another great show. A Game of Thrones shaped rabbit hole. Nobody Wants This (I do actually). Grotesquerie. Early nightfall joys. Taylor Swift. Public Service Broadcasting. Coldplay. More Game of Thrones (but this time in book form). A vault of store bought chips and pizzas. The simple magic of apples. Auroras and sad prose and other notes from the kitchen table.
The Kitchen Table Chronicles
Notes on good things shared from the place all the best conversations happen, straight from my kitchen table, to you.
Genuine conversation from the kitchen table over sneaky late night treats - Why’d they do that to my doughnuts?
Why do store bought doughnuts insist on having powdered sugar on them? It makes them a slimy affair and does nothing for them. What happened to actual sugar? The grains soaking up a bit of the residual cooking oil, the gritty texture in contrast to the pillowy dough giving that beautiful hint of a crunch livening up the whole situation. Just why?
(I suspect it’s something to do with sugar tax here in the UK, just tax it already, more of it falls off or ends up on your face than the powdered stuff anyway so I refuse to believe that they’re healthier now!)
Watching
KAOS - why must Netflix insist on cancelling anything with a hint of individuality that will undoubtedly become a cult classic? It’s like the execs over there can’t stand the thought of doing something different. They are the prim cardigand, bespectacled prefects who police anyone having fun and daring to be different (all due respect if you are a glasses wearer who loves a cardi, me too but it’s a aesthetic that fits the bill here). I still have not forgiven them The OA cancellation (I never will, that was a peculiar lifeline that I didn’t know I needed until it was with me and part of my soul feels a bit incomplete now the story is left unfinished) or the ironically titled “I am not okay with this”. Regardless, KAOS is a stylish and intriguing take on Greek mythology and I haven’t finished it yet but I love it.
GOT - very late to the party on this one but have barrelled through Game of Thrones only to finish it and immediately start rewatching it. Feeling like I needed a notebook to connect all the dots the first time round I now know where it is all going and can enjoy the scenery. Not a euphemism for the sex scenes, but in fact a badly put metaphor for understanding the familial connections and aspirations to own the throne. I can also stop worrying about ***** and ***** dying because against all odds they made it to the end, hurrah! (Don’t bother trying to figure out who - I used a random number of * so not to give the game away in the unlikely event you haven’t seen it yet and might venture into that world, but will also add ***** to the list because I thought for sure they’d be killed!) House of the Dragon is a little harder to swallow, I still can’t get behind Targaryen marriage and bloodline principles and feel like Rhaenyra should be a little more gutsy than she is, but maybe the whole thing will grow on me.
Nobody Wants This - Ahhhhhh. Seth Cohen grew up! And is dating Gossip Girl! When worlds collide hey. I like this. It’s short (usually around 25 mins or less per episode) and sweet. It’s total fluff. A GoT “softener” (the term we use in our house for something to soften up particularly gritty / violent / scary watches) and the best attempt I’ve seen at romcom in a while. That was a genre that thrived in the 90’s and on rewatch they’re all pretty bad one way or another. I feel like teen shows will never be as good as they were in the 90’s / early noughties either (is that right? Am I saying that right? Was there ever an acceptable turn of phrase for that post millennium turn decade or two?). Dawson’s Creek and The OC being peak watching of that time. My So Called Life and Buffy before and probably many more I’ve forgotten - do remind me!
Grotesquerie - Not my usual favourite flavour of TV / Film but looked like it might have a Hannibal feel to it and I really loved how well done that was. I’m only just coming to the third episode so it’s too soon to say whether I really love it or not. I would really like that lady to get some better locks though and have never been more thankful for my home being notoriously difficult and to noisy to get in and out of. If psychological thrillers are your thing - The Fall is the only recommendation that I ever need to give to you. The only time I have ever rooted for a serial killer to get away with it such is the power of Jamie Dornan’s acting. And now I want to revisit that too. Shall we all just spend November curled up in front of a fire watching things that make our hearts beat fast and our eyes dart to the windows and doors to make sure they’re locked?!
Film Season - I have been waiting for the nights to start drawing in (I always think that’s an odd phrase but somehow it fits so poetically and beautifully in every way), film season is at long last incoming. It’s one of my favourite things about winter and I’m forever thankful to my mum who bought us a projector during lockdown. Early evening movies on the chimney breast are a treat. I’m feeling an Audrey Hepburn season coming on this year, maybe a re-watch of Casablanca, you get the idea. Visually beautiful films that feel like a cordial handshake (because that is what is proper and expected) on the small screen but somehow take on a cosy familiarity (and old time magic) when you make them big. Homemade popcorn optional but highly recommended.
On the record player
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to write. I say try because mostly it’s me staring at an unfilled screen with a headache, or ideas percolating that haven’t yet committed themselves to words in the world outside my brain (and always just as they start to it’s time to do something else) and so feel like I haven’t listened to a lot of music of late (the two are no longer compatible, trouble enough having my brain be doing one thing at a time!). As I look under the record player I can see the evermore cover sticking out so I think that is what I last listened to. Perfectly autumnal. It was one of my least favourite Swift albums previously but I think the season was just wrong. Music can be like that can’t it? The National are a perfect example. Terrible for an upbeat family road trip, two of us in the car on a foggy / moody day though - they were made for that! Also Fearless by Swift. It’s probably not trendy to admit that but a) it’s just so joyful and 2) I don’t really care. I like what I like.
New vinyl that arrived but I have not yet listened to includes The Last Flight by Public Service Broadcasting (this will be good if the album launch party performance was anything to go by) and Coldplay - Moon Music. Currently trying to decide whether to preorder The Summer Portraits by Ludovico Einaudi, his is music that I liked as a teen and forgot about entirely until an ad for that album popped up on my instagram yesterday.
Towering on the nightstand (because it’s perfectly normal to have a book stack that looks like The Leaning Tower of Pisa)
For someone who loves to deep dive into things, GoT is a wondrous treasure trove. If you create a world for me to watch / read you better believe I want to know what happened 300 years previous to that story line to shape the current day events. I have yet to read the books (found later ones at a charity shop but had been missing the first one until this week) but have enjoyed dipping into The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones. In searching up that title I stumbled across a site that I think will prove to become very costly. I’m sharing it with you here so that you too may fall under its spell because there are many beautiful editions of all sorts. Imagine having a library full of such magnificent books?
Currently finishing off book two of the Killing Eve series. I must admit, I’m not loving it. Stieg Larson (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and Jason Matthews (The Red Sparrow trilogy) were far better at that genre and this just feels slightly like a poorly done attempt at something similar. I’ll see how book 3 pans out and let you know.
What’s going on in the garden?
I have cut the lawn for the last time in the house garden. The allotment is a beast that ran away from me and next year I think we’re just going to have to employ some sort of mechanical noise making thing to deter all the things that have been eating my food. There are many. Deer, pheasants, mice, squirrels. It all sounds perfectly Beatrix Potter, but these guys do not share. The radishes for example - they literally took a bite out of every single one in the ground to claim them as their own. I’m not above sharing in-nibbled items, but that’s despicable behaviour.
What foods have been on the table lately?
I really want to say fancy things here but honestly, after finishing off the glut of potatoes (the only thing not eaten by the mice) we fell into a vault of store bought chips and pizzas for ease, and then things on toast because everyone is somewhere at different times. I hate food ruts and this has been a particularly bad one. Trying to reclaim the passion this week with batch cooking items that we can reheat and add to as and when and remember what a total joy apples are. I’ll be posting a separate thread on that and adding to it as and when I remember recipes / experiment with new things because they are super versatile beasties and I actually love them in a savoury setting as much as a sweet one. Breakfast, lunch and dinner they are magic little orbs that can elevate a dish easily.
What has nourished your soul?
Auroras and sad prose. How many Taylor Swift references are too many for one post? I don’t care, the Eras tour is back tonight and I couldn’t be more excited if it were actual Christmas Day.
I waited my whole life to see the aurora and have been lucky enough to see it twice in one year, without setting foot on a single overpriced “journey to the Arctic Cirlce for an hour and a half” plane (yes, I nearly booked one of those trips years ago, I’m glad I didn’t now). There is something spectacularly wondrous about seeing the same sky you’ve seen every night of your existence do something so fancy and unexpected. Ballet of the skies, it is like we are being welcomed into another world and it is awe inspiring.
I have fallen in love with the notebooks of musicians. Newest in the Collection is Nick Cave’s book. It’s a delight. More on that next time.
If you know someone who would like to join us at the kitchen table, invite them!
It’s hot chocolate season. I never knew there were quite so many variations on them until this past couple of years. Spanish style (or Italian as it seems looking at the tin) is particularly good and a particularly decadent breakfast with churros. I most enjoy raw cacao melted into rice milk with added cinnamon and cardamom. You only need a really small amount and it feels like it’s almost verging on healthy with the spices. I like rice or oat milk for a bit of sweetness but encourage you to experiment. I get my cacao here (not an affiliate or sponsored link, just a really good cacao and a really lovely business too)
What have you been watching / reading / growing / eating / listening to / nourishing your soul with? If you’ve got something good that doesn’t feature in that list, I would love to hear about that too. Be sure to leave your kitchen table talk in the comments below, this isn’t a magazine column - it’s a conversation.
It also just occurred to me that it might be fun to have actual kitchen table talk in the chat area once a month. If I can get my brain in order and manage to stick to a schedule, is that something that would interest you? A cup of something, a plate of something and from an introvert who never really gelled with zoom meet ups - a typed chat session? Let me know what you think.
With love,
V.V
P.S On the further name change of this series… There I was, smugly thinking I had the perfect title that embodies this lovely new space I plan on creating and then someone exposes it (pun intended) to be the same title as a horrific blue movie! Out with “Behind the Green Door” and in with “The Kitchen Table Chronicles”. I googled it this time, I think we’re safe.