Nigella Lawson's Recipes Are Guaranteed To Bring You Joy

The holidays may be different this year, but Nigella Lawson’s recipes in Cook, Eat, Repeat are guaranteed to bring you joy. Her rhubarb-and custard trifle could even become a new tradition

CHOCOLATE, TAHINI AND BANANA TWO WAYS

WHETHER YOU SEE THE WORDS “cook, eat, repeat” as a reassuring reminder of a routine that provides solace and structure, anchoring us in what truly matters in life, or as a draining encapsulation of the drudgery of cooking, you will find much at Christmastime to confirm your views. Even those of us vehemently in the former camp cannot deny the encroaching exhaustion so dreaded by the latter. In truth, I exult in the cooking, but I can get worn down by all the planning and the never-ending clearing up. And yet, at the time of writing, under lockdown and unsure of how expansive Christmas celebrations might actually be in 2020, I feel a wistful pang for those frenziedly mapped-out schedules and shopping lists, those cluttered surfaces, messy tables, even those ever-full kitchen sinks and roasting pans on perma-soak.

But even curtailed Christmas celebrations in my house will, I know, rely on repetition and, what’s more, we’ll luxuriate in it. We human beings need ritual; for me, at Christmas that need is met in cooking and at the table. All families create their own traditions. They’re the ones that make you wake early in overexcitement as a child, the ones you feel stifled by in your adolescence, that you remember either in horror or in the glow of nostalgia as you get older. And then there are the ones you create yourself, allowing the cycle to start up all over again.