The Library

[kiwilady]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is  always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not). Let the book talk begin here!

Suggestion Box for Future Discussions

I eat steamed pumpkin almost every day. I cook in the skin. Yes a dot of butter a little salt and its yummy! I was highly amused at first to learn how pumpkin is considered to be a dessert vegetable in the US and also how Sweet potato is eaten as a very sweet side dish.  I do like pumpkin scones and pumpkin bread. My grandmother made very lovely pumpkin scones. The first time we had them as small children we were horrified that she had added sugar and cinnamon to the pumpkin for the scones. I love slow roasted sweet potato (kumera to a Kiwi) and also roasted carrot. Carrot is delicious when roasted to an almost caramalised state same with Sweet potato. Now my mouth is watering!

Carolyn

[roshanarose]

Spanikopita, moussaka, gyro sandwiches, baklava, and some jet fuel drink called ouzo; all available here in Mass. My neighbor, of Greek descent, flies the Greek flag and a lot of weddings play that theme from the old Anthony Quinn movie Never on Sunday and everyone ,but everyone, dances up a storm. Opa, opa! 

Zorba the Greek ?

[roshanarose]

Thanks for the acknowledgment Rosemary!  I haven't got too far into it as yet.  Like most folks at Xmas my life is rather busy.  In the book I like the idea of "mirror image" twins.  I had never heard of this phenomenon before.

Food - sometimes brussels sprouts used to arrive on the dinner table when I was a child.  God - they were foul!  When I later learned Greek one of our lecturers had a very beautiful English bull dog called Jenny, who was built like a Sherman tank on four legs.  Jenny used to come to our tutorials and sit under our lecturer's desk.  The air would fill with the most nauseating aroma, and the lecturer would apologise by telling us that Jenny had a permanent case of "wind", a euphemism.   Poor Jenny was on a diet of brussels sprouts - you can imagine the result.  The vet have given strict instructions that Jenny had to lose weight.  That's my memory of brussels sprouts - I have never eaten one since.

Potato chips with gravy and cheese - stomach lining, Hallelujah - now that's real food!!.  I thought it was going to be something similar to bubble and squeak. 

I have always hated Vegemite.  My daughter adores, it as do her son and husband.  She started me off quite recently just having a small piece of toast with butter and a very thin layer of vegemite.  I wouldn't say I was hooked, but I don't hate it anymore, and like Gum I do enjoy toast with vegemite and a good cuppa in the morning.  But the sight of it laid on thick makes my stomach turn.  It tastes dreadul if you have too much of it on your toast IMHO.

[kiwilady]

Yuk I hate Brussel Sprouts too! Apparently its a must have vegetable in England with their Christmas dinner.

Carolyn

[rosemarykaye]

My daughter, who has never been outside Europe (and mostly never outside Scotland!) loves Vegemite and actually prefers it to our UK staple, Marmite.   must admit I quite like it myself.

Brussels sprouts!  My husband and I like them, so he always insists we get some to have with the Christmas dinner - but we have to cook frozen peas as well, as the children won't go near them.  They seem to be a thing that everyone in the UK cooks with Christmas dinner, then moans about and throws away (we don't - if there are any left we make them into bubble and squeak, which is a Boxing Day ritual in our house and even the children like it)  When I was a very young child we had an allotment where my father grew vegetables.  I was allowed to have a go and planted sprouts, which actually grew very well.  My mother then discovered that the local fox had been urinating on them.  That was the end of that experiment.

I love butternut squash and sweet potato, and when I am eating alone my standard dinner is a tray of roasted vegetables - squash, sweet potato (cut up small), carrots, onions, peppers, courgettes - really whatever I have - roasted with a little olive oil and some black pepper.   I have it with brown rice and grated cheese.  I agree, carrots are great roasted.  Squash is becoming more popular here, and no, even in Scotland we would never it it sweetened! 

Our breakfasts as a child would have been Weetabix (my children now regard that almost as a punishment, they have so much choice of cereals (or would like to, if only their skinflint mother would fork out for them  ), maybe a boiled egg and toast.  We did have porridge sometimes but to be honest I have never found porridge to be as filling as it's made out to be - it always leaves my stomach rumbling by mid-morning.

Roshanarose, I laughed about your lecturer's dog - we used to have a dog who had a similar problem (though she was not fed on Brussels sprouts - but she was unable to digest meat, so she had a vegetarian dog food recommended by the vet).  Thankfully my cats seem to have slightly more respectable digestions - they just vomit when and where you least expect it...)

Rosemary

[Steph]

So much fun to read the posts.. Before national TV, there were wonderful dialects in the various areas of the US.. And I can remember years ago going to Great Britain.. We were on a night tour to Htfield house.. You got dinner and a lovely show pertaining to the period.. The bus driver was a cockney.. You had to sit and think about what he was saying because of the slang.. Then a lovely lady on the bus from Alabama.. spoke to him and he said..." Oh You Americans, cant un derstand a single word you say. Then he couldnt figure out why the whole bus just roared with laughter.

[Babi]

 A really great dish, imho, is chicken cooked with sage and served with polenta and a
tomato sauce. I loved it! My family was less enthused with the mush, even the Latino
version. Butternut squash I bake as I would an acorn squash, with butter & a bit of
brown sugar.
  And if you're serving beans with ham hock, please don't forget the cornbread. They
just go together.
  KIWI, please tell me how to roast carrots as you describe. Sounds like I could enjoy
them cooked that way. Generally, I'd rather grate them for a carrot salad.
 
 Oh, yes, books!  I've just finished "Cutting for Stone", by Abraham Varghese, and I can say
it's one of the best books I've read in a good while.

[roshanarose]

Oh please, no peas.  For years my mother didn't know that I harboured a small empty tin beneath the table cloth into which I would surreptitously spoon the peas from my plate.  Even now I cannot eat peas.  My ex ex husband decided he was going to cure me of this aversion and would start serving me one pea for dinner, then two peas the next night, then three peas the next night and so on.  Needless to say his pea ploy was transparent and much to his disgust I still used to spoon them into a empty tin.  I am sure if I told my daughter, the psychologist, she could explain and analyse this odd behaviour, but no way am I going to tell her.

[MaryPage]

Put me down as a great lover of brussels sprouts.  To me, they are an even better form of cabbage, and I love boiled cabbage.  I cook my sprouts for a while and like them mushy with butter and salt.  Used to do pepper;  my tummy does not much like pepper any more.

Love those roasted carrots, too!  Slice sweet potatoes, slice carrots lengthwise, slice white potatoes, slice onions, slice tomatoes (we're talking thick slices all here), squash;  your choice of items per your own taste and perference.  I prefer just the carrots, onions and sweet potatoes.  In a bowl mix olive oil, rosemary, salt and, if you like, pepper.  Dip each slice in this mixture and place each in a single layer in a roasting pan.  Put in a 400° oven for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.  Heaven!  And not much trouble at all!

[bellemere]

But what IS Vegimite?  It's fermented something, I know, but what?
Another challenge to cooks in the old days was the Catholic abstension from meat on Fridays as a form of sacrifice.  I rememger "smelts" some little fish with the heads off, floured and fried.  More bones than anything.  And mackerel, a fish so oily it almost swam off the plate.  The budget favorite was tuna casserole.  In a mixed marriag, the Protestant half usually had never seen a tuna casserole.  Reactions varied.
I am reading Alice Munro's collection of short stories, "Too Much Happiness".  She is an absolute master of the short story. I have wondered before why there are so many wonderul women writers in Canada: Munro, Atwood, the late Carol Shields and Mavis Gallant. Must be the cold air up there.

[maryz]

Pedln, the only time I fix a whole ham is at Thnx, so I just make it once a year.  Sometimes one of the girls will fix a whole ham and save the bone for me.

Question for the Aussies and Kiwis - don’t y’all use “pumpkin” to mean what we Yanks call any “winter squash”?  What we call pumpkin refers only to the big round orange (used at Halloween for jack-o-lanterns) that we only use for desserts.  The others we only use in savory (non-sweet) dishes.

I love brussels sprouts, too - but don’t have them often.  John doesn’t like what he called the “strong vegetables” (or most vegetables, for that matter).  I cook them in the microwave until just tender - then butter, salt, and pepper - yum.  Daughter Kate did some roasted butternut squash for Thnx - likely dusted with olive oil, cumin, and parmesan cheese - also yum. 

We’ve tried both Vegemite and Marmite, and that’s a “we don’t have to do THAT again” around here.   

[CallieOK]

I'm also in the "been there, done that, won't do it again" category re: Vegemite/Marmite!

A SeniorNet friend from Australia (Junee) brought some with her when she visited "the states" several years ago and spent a little time in Oklahoma.  Another SN friend, originally from Tennessee, "fixed" (prepared - made - cooked  a typical Southern dinner of ham, black-eyed peas, fried okra, cornbread and other "delicacies".  We teased Junee by saying she was 'paying us back'.

We had a Filipino exchange student in our home for a year.  His mother sent me a Filipino cookbook.  I enjoyed making some of the dishes but never did - and never will! - try the one that began:  "Take the blood of one chicken..."   

I have yet to read "The Cookbook Collector" but it sounds as if it would be a good choice for this discussion thread.

[ginny]

Pedln, how do you like Major Pettigrew's Last Stand? I have it and have not started it yet. I'm still reading God Save the Queen, it's cute but a little slow, it's from another time I think, but I love Dorothy Cannell.

I'm still reading Keith Richards' Life, it's certainly interesting.

AND I found two more Lincoln Childs books which I have not read, so am excited about my reading prospects for the future. I love his books.

Roshannarose, I don't like peas either! It was a revelation to me to have them in England, you'd not know they were the same vegetable, but it's the normal taste of the things which just drive me from the table.

Mary, it's the Sticky Toffee Pudding Company: http://stickytoffeepuddingcompany.com/

They just came today and I'm going to have to taste one before Sunday to be sure (don't you know) they are good. They did NOT come frozen but cold, and came in the USPS. Of course we normally get baby chicks in the USPS from Minnesota or wherever those people are, and they are usually OK, but that's a different temp.

It says they keep frozen for 4 months etc. They LOOK the part, are very cute, so we'll see.

[maryz]

Thanks, Ginny - I wonder if they'd send me a box of half toffee and half ginger.  I'm going to look locally before I order, though.  We have Whole Foods and Fresh Market here in town - I'm going to call to check availability. 

[kiwilady]

The pumpkin we have IS pumpkin. Its not orange but pale green. We also have two types of squash commonly available but the pumpkin is much bigger and IS pumpkin. We have butternut and buttercup squash. I like buttercup squash best.

Carolyn

[CallieOK]

) Of course we normally get baby chicks in the USPS from Minnesota or wherever those people are, and they are usually OK, but that's a different temp.

It says they keep frozen for 4 months etc. They LOOK the part, are very cute, so we'll see.

The Toffee Puddings or the chicks?    (Sorry, Ginny - just couldn't resist    The Toffee Puddings sound delicious!)

[kiwilady]

Mary P we don't eat boiled cabbage any more. It is sauted with garlic and or onion. It stays nicely coloured and actually tastes better. The house smells better too! We also eat a fair bit of coleslaw made with cabbage.

We are just discussing our Christmas menu. This year we have a selection of seafood including scallops as well as our usual ham, chicken, etc. Its going to be hot so it will be hot weather fare. Our meal will be in the evening this year a real break from tradition. Normally we would have our Christmas meal around 2pm in the afternoon. I think there will be 12 of us.

What will everyone else be eating on Christmas day?

Carolyn

[JoanP]

Carolyn, please do bring your Christmas question over to the Holiday Memories Open House...  We are trying  real hard not to duplicate the discussion...  The table is set - we are waiting for you!

Holiday Open House

[maryz]

Ginny, both our local stores do have the Sticky Toffee Pudding - so I'm off to get some tomorrow.  Thanks again for telling me about it.  Wish they had the Sticky Ginger Pudding, too.  I've never had it, but I love anything "ginger".  I had the absolute best ginger fudge in NZ, but have never been able to find it or duplicate it.

[ginny]

Oh my word, it's SOOO rich. Oh my goodness. 1/2 of that would have done me or even 1/4th,  no bigger than a cupcake but RICH? Please. I think it set my sugar levels back, is it the same people? I'll be interested in what you think of it. (It IS delicious but I think 1/4th and some whipped cream would have been more than enough, kind of like those mini desserts at PJ Changs which are also good).

The Toffee Puddings or the chicks?    (Sorry, Ginny - just couldn't resist.  The Toffee Puddings sound delicious!)

hhahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa! That WAS sort of ambiguous, wasn't it? That's what I get for adding a sentence about the USPS and the chicks.  Love it.

[pedln]

Whee, this is a lively place.  Can't keep up with everything here.

MaryZ, have you been to the Ginger People website -- they have all kinds of good things to eat, and recipes, too.  I've sent DIL (she who cooks so wondrously) gift packs from there.  I love the bitey taste of ginger candy -- it sure wakes you up when you're driving long distances.

I like brussel sprouts. The best I've ever had were when my girls took me to a Middle Eastern place in Brooklyn -- so tiny, so tender, in a vinegrette sauce.  So yummy.

MaryPage, I'm going to try your roast veggies.  They sound easy and good.

Ginny, yes I'm enjoying Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.  DIL let me take her autographed copy home with me.  Her book club read it and had the author there.  To DIL's surprise she found that her kids went to the same high school as the author's kids.  I won't say the author reminds me of Barbara Pym, but I do like the way she describes the village life as seen through the eyes of this somewhat likeable curmudgeon.

I hate cooked cereal -- oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc.  I had to eat it until I was twelve, then my mother would give me a nickel for every bowl I ate.  I didn't take her up on it very often and haven't touched it in over 60 years.  And after the pablum days were over I didn't force it on my kids.

[MaryPage]

Please, Pedln, let me know what you think, even if it is negative, which I feel confident will not be the case - - - - - - but!

[maryz]

pedln, I've gotten some ginger stuff - from the Ginger People - like a lemon curd,  only just ginger and sugar.  It is incredible!!!!  I put it out at Thnx and folks went nuts over it.  Thanks for mentioning it.

I wish I could think of a book to tie this in with, but I've failed. 

[Persian]

I just learned about the Holiday Open House tonight and have been enjoying all the posts about past Holidays and the different styles of celebration, foods served and the wonderful memories from past Holidays.

My family's blessing this year is that we were able to visit with my son on Thanksgiving, when he returned to the USA for a few days from his current deployment to Iraq.  We joined my DIL's family at her Mom's house in Charlotte, NC and sampled some of the wonders of a true Southern Thanksgiving meal.  Even my husband, who is from Egypt, was delighted when he saw the spread of food before him.  AND he was lucky enough to bring some of the treats home at the invitation of our hostess. 

Last night, my son called to wish me a belated birthday (Dec. 1) and to let me know that he was leaving this morning to return to Iraq.  He'll be there another 6 months or so and hen back to the USA, where he will immediately be transferred to another base somewhere in the USA.  Really good to talk with him, share the Thanksgiving holiday with family, and indulge in some of my favorites:  chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

It's a treat also to read about the variety of ways that posters here recall their own wonderful past holidays, whether through celebrations, family customs of a wide sort, food or just the enjoyment of being together.  I recall in the mid-'70's teaching in Iran during the Christmas Holidays.  It was hard to realize that I would not be able to visit with family or celebrate in our usual manner.  But I was grateful to one of my students who searched out a scraggly tree up in the low mountains, brought it to my apartment and announced "Merry Christmas."  It was the thought that counted for me, not the funny shape of the tree.

As we move onwards through the various holidays, I hope each and everyone has a special experience this year in celebration.  Since I have no family close by and my son will be in Iraq and (most probably) my husband will have returned to Egypt to check on his family, I will be alone.  But through the wonderful memories of the past, as well as the thoughtfulness of local neighbors and friends, I'm sure that I, too, will be able to enjoy this time of year.  I'm saving a bit of my recent birthday cake to enjoy during the Christmas time, since it is a delicious chocolate.  And I am confident that one tiny taste of that delicious treat will truly make me want to sing with Holiday cheer.

Happy Holidays to all!

Mahlia

[MaryPage]

Mahlia, I remembered your birthday and sent you greetings from the Bait & Tackle, because I did not know how to get to you.

[roshanarose]

The pumpkin we have IS pumpkin. Its not orange but pale green. We also have two types of squash commonly available but the pumpkin is much bigger and IS pumpkin. We have butternut and buttercup squash. I like buttercup squash best.

Carolyn

Obfuscation setting in regarding the subject of pumpkinsWe have many types of "pumpkin" here too.  The Thanskgiving one you refer to is called "Pumpkin" here too, although they have a bluish-green skin as Kiwilady says. I have seen the orange skinned variety in vege shops, but usually a smaller variety.  It makes good roast pumpkin.  There is also the small Jap pumpkin.  We call the butternut "pumpkin", not squash.  I love the tiny individual yellow squashes.  Do you have chokoes in US?

Vegemite for Maryz
"An Australian take on a British product  
Vegemite was invented in Melbourne in 1922 when Australian food manufacturer Fred Walker asked chemist CP Callister to create a product similar to British Marmite. Made from brewer's yeast, Vegemite was initially slow to catch on, but sales improved in 1930 when Walker secured the Australian rights to Kraft's processed cheese and co-marketed it with Vegemite.

During the Second World War, Vegemite captured the Australian market. Marmite was unobtainable and the Australian Army supplied Vegemite to its troops. In the 1950s and 60s, despite acquisition by the American company Kraft, Vegemite became a distinctively 'Australian' food, featuring in songs, and on souvenirs and other popular culture ephemera. As overseas travel increased, Vegemite was carried around the world by Australians as a way to reaffirm their connection to home.
 
Nostalgic links  
In the 1950s, Vegemite spoke of Australian vitality and innocence. Today it provides a connection back to seemingly simpler times and is symbolic of the reverence for the ordinary in Australian culture. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tapped into this when he declared in the 2007 election campaign that he was a 'toast and Vegemite sort of guy'. Vegemite's links to nostalgia are evident in contemporary advertising campaigns, which often hark back to the original 'happy little Vegemites' ad of the 1950s.
Spreading the multiculturalism message  
Vegemite was once used to sell the idea of multiculturalism. A poster featuring the traditional Vegemite jar with the word 'multicultural' replacing 'Vegemite' and with the slogan 'spread it around' was designed to promote the idea of multiculturalism as characteristically Australian and something to be encouraged. Introduced as a series of national policies in 1973, multiculturalism has been both championed and criticised by politicians and members of the public throughout its history."

I loved Vegemite on Vitaweat biscuits when I was small.  A lick of butter, then Vegemite which used to squeeze out of the holes in the Vita Weat when one bit into it.  It looked like worms, but sure tasted good.  The word biscuit may be used here for both sweet and savoury "cookies".  Crackers can be called any number of things, but strictly speaking they are still biscuits per se.
 
 
 

[kiwilady]

A Chinese librarian who works with my daughter sends me home Chokos when they are in season. I cube them and add them to curries and casseroles they take on the flavour of any food you are cooking. They are a very useful vegetable. My grandmother used to cube them boil and serve with a white parsley sauce.

Carolyn

[kiwilady]

Mary you should taste sticky date pudding. Its just as good as the pudding you refer to.

Carolyn

[maryz]

Carolyn, you're tempting me terribly! 

[Gumtree]

Wow! such a lot of chatter here - I'm glad to see Kiwilady and Roshanarose have filled in about pumpkins and Vegemite - thanks girls you saved me a lot of typing - though I must say we have lots of different varieties of pumpkins that grow well and easily in Western Australia - the Queensland Blue is a favourite and is quite similar to the local Jarrahdale Grey. they are both large, round and look gorgeous with the blue/grey/green skins and bright orange flesh. My favourite for most purposes is the butternut but on occasion I use the small more decorative varieties. At times I have made a soup by cutting the top off a fairly large pumpkin, scooping out the seeds and cooking it slowly in the oven until the flesh is creamy and smooth - add a little cream and seasoning and YUM - very showy to bring to the table, lift the top which serves as a lid and just serve.  I've done a couple of still life paintings featuring pumpkins -  the colours are so attractive.... and they're wonderful to draw - delicious curves and all the knobbly bits...

We don't grow chokos here - I think they need more humid weather to thrive. In NSW they use chokos as both a vegie and for sweet dishes, notably pies for dessert. I think that came about during the Depression when every yard had a choko vine and the pies were cheap and easy to make...just guessing there.

Sticky date puddings - now you're talking - that's winter fare and too heavy for summer but I'm drooling at the thought.

I agree with Barbara on the subject of clearing out unnecessary objects - even though they might have treasured memories. I've had to do a couple of clearances for family members and it really is a difficult task. I have a friend who maintains that discarding 5 things each week is the way to go. I have tried to do this for a few years now (perhaps not every week but often enough) and it's amazing the number of things I have taken to the charity shops or given to someone who liked it or sometimes just tossed into the trash. Even so, it hasn't made much of a dent in the accumulation of more than three quarters of a century. Of course, books are not to be touched but luckily both sons are bibliophiles too and will probably come to blows over which one acquires certain volumes. Luckily their interests are different so their focus will be on different subject matter.  




 

[rosemarykaye]

Gumtree, that is an excellent idea - I am going to try it.  Even for me, 5 things shouldn't be that difficult!  Could start with all my husband's old jumpers 

[Steph]

 Ikeep a large bag in my closet. I add to it each day or week and at the end of each month, haul it off to the Animal League thrift shop. I try to really look h ard at things in the house. I have given up on my beloved crystal and glass though.. That and my china and silver will be up to my dils to decide what to do.
I love roasted veggies.. On the other hand, I loathe cooked cabbage and brussel sprouts. My husband adored brussel sprouts, so I made them for him, but refused to keep trying them.. Just flat out hated them.
I decided to start on a Terry Pratchett... Lords and Ladies. Needed a laugh and he always provides me with one.

[Babi]

 Thanks for the instructions on roasting veggies, MARYPAGE. I've jotted them down and
plan to try it. The sauteed cabbage sounds good, too, KIWI, but my daughter doesn't
like cabbage and I can't eat a whole head of cabbage by myself. 

 GUM, that 'clearance' is something that would be most helpful around here. I do
clear out some stuff occasionally, but you couldn't tell by looking. The very idea
of someone else having to clear out all this stuff is sobering, to say the least.

  Isn't Pratchett great?!!  I think I read "Lords and Ladies", but I'd have to look at it to be
sure.

[MaryPage]

Here in the U.S.A., we only call the bright orange Jack O'Lantern type vegetable a pumpkin;  everything else is called a squash.  We do identify quite a number of squash by particular names:  summer squash, crookneck squash, butternut squash, and so on.  We even have a color called "pumpkin."

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=796&bih=424&q=the+color+pumpkin&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

So when you hear of pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins, you are being told of something made with the bright orange Jack O'Lantern type pumpkin, and NOT squash of any type.  Carolyn, if your pumpkins are green, they are not our pumpkins at all.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=779&bih=424&q=pumpkin+pie&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=796&bih=424&q=pumpkin+bread+and+muffins&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

[maryz]

Babi, I'm the only one around here who eats cabbage - usually raw added to green salads or to soup.  But a cabbage will last for a couple of weeks or more.  I wrap it up in a damp paper towel, then in the plastic bag from the store, and cut off what I need each time.  I do the same thing with lettuce.   They'll keep longer than you might think.

[MaryPage]

One last image, I promise!

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=779&bih=424&q=pumpkins&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

[roshanarose]

marypage  A plethora of pumpkins, indeed.  They look Mexican inspired.

[Frybabe]

Has anyone tried making a pumpkin stew using the pumpkin as a container? It's been a long time but I remember scooping the seeds out of a pumpkin, adding veggies and browned meat into the hollow, putting the top slice back and popping it into the oven. Turned out pretty good.

[rosemarykaye]

Steph, if you want another laugh I do recommend the novel we have been speaking about, "Framed", it is such a good read and very funny. 

I have been trying to think of other books that make me laugh.  Some of Alexander McCall Smith's ones do, but I am not sure how much of that is tied up with knowing Edinburgh and the character types that inhabit it.  Others that come to mind are:

Diary of A Provincial Lady - EM Delafield
Summer's Lease - John Mortimer
Love In A Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
The Treasure Seekers - E Nesbit
The Vinyl Cafe books - Stuart MacLean
Bridget Jones Diary - Helen Fielding

Another book that really cheers me up is The Wind In The Willows.

I would love to hear others' recommendations for "happy" reads - in fact I rarely read really "miserable" books, and I can't bear all those "misery memoirs".

R

[MaryPage]

I adored LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE.

Can remember laughing out loud all by myself at the Miss Seeton series of books by first Heron Carvic and then Hamilton Crane, with a few in between written by Hampton Charles.  1968 to 1999.  Start with PICTURE MISS SEETON by Heron Carvic, if you can get it, and see what you think.

I also recommend all of Lillian Beckwith's books about life in the Western Hebrides.  Start with THE HILLS IS LONELY.  Priceless!

And don't forget Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie!  Based on a true story (I have a sentimental memory to share about it, too), it was made into a hilarious movie in Great Britain by the same name.  In the U.S. it was called Tight Little Island.  Lordy, how I laughed until my sides ached over that one!