YOU'RE not the only person out there complaining about working more hours than ever, probably for less reward. It's the pared down 1990s all right - pared down income, pared down social life, entertaining scraped away into oblivion. The nearest my household comes to (occasional) civilisation is when friends of long enough standing to understand are persuaded to sit around the kitchen table for some shamefully simple food and a few bottles of wine.
What wine, though? If it's a clever match, the right bottle can work a special alchemy, transforming even the humblest food into a feast. It's a matter of picking a particular wine to suit a particular dish.
Some weeks ago, two new books arrived - each on the subject of matching different foods with ideal partners. As a source of insight into complex and fascinating relationships, they leave Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus standing.
The first is a large glossy, Wine With Food, by wine correspondent Joanna Simon (Mitchell Beazley, £17.99). The second, Sainsbury's Pocket Food And Wine Guide, by wine correspondent Kathryn McWhirter and Charles Metcalfe of Wine magazine (Sainsbury's, £2.95 in the UK), is as small and neat as its name suggests, though almost 300 pages long.
Joanna Simon's is scholarly and discursive, with chapters on the different grape varieties and wine regions, and the handy lists of what to match with what confined to a few pages at the back. Kathryn McWhirter's is the opposite, built almost entirely on an excellent list system, with a bit of elaboration near the end for those who want to understand why certain combinations taste better than others and learn how to pick winners for themselves. Both books, I guarantee, will open your mind to electrifying possibilities.
I've had terrific fun over the last few weeks, trying out all sorts of combinations (while falling some way short, I must admit, of Kathryn McWhirter's 28,000 mouthfuls with different foods). Below are 10 that will help to put a gloss on zero effort cooking. And try to persuade a friend in Britain to send you a copy of the Sainsbury's Pocket Food And Wine Guide. It's a bargain.