I Heart NY (Mag)

You're a 25-32 year old female.

What magazines do you read?

You have enough experience in the bedroom not to need your information from a glossy, let alone a sealed section. You are too smart to get all of your information from a serial whose stories are really pictures and who quote 'a source close to the couple' to add legitimacy to what they're alleging. You're too young for those publications who include articles about royal families, knitting and food porn (although you might flick through one at your mother's house!). You might have a mortgage, a child, or are saving up for a trip, so high fashion mags just make you want things you can't afford. Don't even get you started on periodicals devoted solely to slimming. Yuk.

So what's left? Frankie? Great publication - but it's published every second month! What's a girl supposed to do in the off month?

Fear not friends, as New York Magazine has come to the rescue! It's put out weekly and has a fab roundup of high and low art, political scandals, pop culture, opinion pieces and investigative journalism. My favourite section is StarMarket where they assess whether to buy, sell or hold a particular celebrity based on their stock history, market value, peers and what Hollywood thinks. Far from a nasty tabloid style dissection of their private life - this is an in-depth analysis of their movies, how they handle publicity, what they bring to each project etc. While I might spend some serious time drooling over Mad Men's John Hamm and am confident in his superior star power -- StarMarket points out that '[p]eople in Kansas aren't watching Mad Men. Hamm needs to figure out how to do something...with red state appeal but not in such a way that it looks ridiculous - so bull riding is out. Hamm's been an athlete. He's an NHL fan. He used to play baseball. Use that.' Good stuff! And not a recipe, weight loss article or blurry celebrity photo in sight. I had a ball flicking through this mag while I was in New York on a recent trip, but it has a great online counterpart which won't eat into your mortgage/holiday/child budget at all!

The Only One We Need

My laptop was stolen from my luggage on a recent overseas trip (along with a rather colourful maxi dress I bought from Macy's. What strange taste my robber had! What were they thinking as they were rifling through my possessions: 'Books, boring! I could sell this Mac on eBay. Ooh! Here's a nice dress!') and so this blog has been sadly sadly neglected. But I am back with a vengeance, friends!

I know you think I'm going to blab on about the new season of Mad Men or yabber about the state of the country's hung parliament, but no! I'm going to pay homage to a book that I have become strangely devoted to. One that I see on the shelf and smile. One that gives me comfort in uncertain times. One that I would save in a fire. Brace yourselves: it's the Low GI Vegetarian Cookbook. I know, I know, you think I've cracked it - let me explain: We've recently moved states and despite owning a shelf full of great cookbooks (both meat friendly and meat free), we were short on space and this was the only one that made the cut.

Written by Professor Jennie Brand-Miller (the scientist who developed the Glycemic Index) and others, it gives us meat abstainers some great pointers about how to get the most nutrition from food and then launches into the best 80 vego recipes that have ever existed. Truly, each one is a winner. My fella (a pretty committed carnivore) and I constantly sit and marvel about how each dish seems to trump earlier ones in the taste department, smug in the knowledge that we've just eaten something pretty healthy, too!

My mother, who remarked that all vegos should be 'taken out and shot' when I 'came out' to her, ate the Paella and then emailed the next day to ask for the recipe. Two other friends whose constant cry goes something like 'it ain't a meal unless there's meat' asked for seconds of the Spicy Moroccan Chickpea and Lentil Soup. And having never wanted to eat dahl before (it's such a cliche! It looks like slop!) I relented and cooked the Red Lentil Dahl with Spiced Basmati Rice and nearly passed out with pleasure.

Highly recommended for all vegos who are a little bored with tofu and goat's cheese (although they make an occasional appearance), as well as herbivores and carnivores who own way too many cookbooks!