Do my friends know me well, or what?!
I am so excited to get in the kitchen with my two new cookbooks, The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham (today's Fannie Farmer) and Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert.
My mom has a shiny gold copy of The Fannie Farmer cookbook. It always seemed slightly magical in its shimmeriness. I imagine my mom's copy used to have a dust cover on it, but it was long gone by the time I ever saw it. (Its chocolate chip cookie recipe is our family go-to.) Marion Cunningham is responsible for editing the Fannie Farmer cookbook in 1979...so maybe my mom's copy predates Cunningham's contributions. Several Christmases ago my mom gave me my own copy of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (the Cunningham edition) along with Joy of Cooking.
I'm particularly looking forward to having friends over for brunch so that I can try Cunningham's Shirred Eggs with Mixed Herbs (eggs cooked in the oven in little ramekins or a muffin tin), Bridge Creek Fresh Ginger Muffins, Rhubarb with English Custard, and Chocolate Walnut Butter Bread French Toast, and everything else!
Simply in Season is organized by season with straightforward, one-page recipes that highlight produce that is...ahem...in season. So basically, its title is incredibly descriptive. I can't wait to make its Rhubarb Muffins (I'm really pining for rhubarb these days.), Velvety Vegetable Soup, Shiitake Mushroom Pasta, and Sesame Chicken Couscous Salad (peas!). I haven't even peeked at the Summer section. Patience is a virtue.
Showing posts with label cookbooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookbooks. Show all posts
Mark Bittman, you're my hero.
As a faithful and persistent public library patron, I recently realized while logged in to my online library account that the copy of How to Cook Everything that I had borrowed from the library was not actually, according to the library, in my possession. Some computer error was surely at fault. I would never sneak something anything out of the library! I can't say that keeping the cookbook didn't cross my mind ("They may not even know it's gone!"), and I even mentioned this idea aloud to my sister. However, like the moral compass that a big sister should be, she firmly told me to return the book to the library.
Ok, ok, I wasn't actually going to...steal...a library book. What kind of person do you think I am? If everyone stole library books....
So, much to my delight, after returning from vacation, I noticed that my house now owns a copy of this glorious cookbook. (I've found that one of the benefits of living with four people is sharing cookbooks.) Who knows where that library book had been anyway? ick.
In an effort to use some of this week's share, but also make a simple chicken dish, and maybe learn some new (but easy) cooking techniques, I reached for the Bittman bible and found the recipe for sautéed chicken cutlets with a quick sauce of white wine and tomatoes. It's sort of like this recipe from Bittman's NYT blog. The book's recipe called for unseasoned bread crumbs or plain flour, but I used panko bread crumbs because the Barefoot Contessa thinks that they are more crunchy. And if Bittman is some kind of Prince Simple-Food-Know-It-All, well Ina Garten might be the Princess of the same domain.
Along with the chicken, I made a simple salad of greens, cucumber and yellow cherry tomatoes and a vinaigrette of apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, and olive oil. Voilá, a tasty, quick, and uncomplicated meal!
In addition to making something delicious and simple, I also accomplished some culinary skill-building: I dredged, I sautéed, I reduced, I cored, scored, boiled, peeled and de-seeded tomatoes, and I made my own variations to the recipe.
Bittman, I promise, someday I'll buy your cookbook, but for now I think I'm going to spend a lot of time here.
Ok, ok, I wasn't actually going to...steal...a library book. What kind of person do you think I am? If everyone stole library books....
So, much to my delight, after returning from vacation, I noticed that my house now owns a copy of this glorious cookbook. (I've found that one of the benefits of living with four people is sharing cookbooks.) Who knows where that library book had been anyway? ick.
In an effort to use some of this week's share, but also make a simple chicken dish, and maybe learn some new (but easy) cooking techniques, I reached for the Bittman bible and found the recipe for sautéed chicken cutlets with a quick sauce of white wine and tomatoes. It's sort of like this recipe from Bittman's NYT blog. The book's recipe called for unseasoned bread crumbs or plain flour, but I used panko bread crumbs because the Barefoot Contessa thinks that they are more crunchy. And if Bittman is some kind of Prince Simple-Food-Know-It-All, well Ina Garten might be the Princess of the same domain.
Along with the chicken, I made a simple salad of greens, cucumber and yellow cherry tomatoes and a vinaigrette of apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, and olive oil. Voilá, a tasty, quick, and uncomplicated meal!
In addition to making something delicious and simple, I also accomplished some culinary skill-building: I dredged, I sautéed, I reduced, I cored, scored, boiled, peeled and de-seeded tomatoes, and I made my own variations to the recipe.
Bittman, I promise, someday I'll buy your cookbook, but for now I think I'm going to spend a lot of time here.
So Now I'm Blogging...
I bought three cookbooks today at Capitol Hill Books; none are the ones for which I am really pining, but these three are still welcome additions to my growing collection. The new purchases are--in order of discovery in the dingy (that describes the whole store) cookbook corner--Jacques Pépin Celebrates, Chez Panisse Cooking, and Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites.
I'm not pretending to know a lot about Pépin or Alice Waters/Chez Panisse, but I do know that I should know more about both of these important food people, so I'm considering this my first step. I love how unpretentious Pépin's book feels despite: 1) I can't pronounce the names of some of the dishes, and I studied French!, and 2) There are photographic directions for making a swan out of a melon. Which, by the way, is the first recipe I'm going to tackle...right after " 'Angry' Trout in Hot Pecan Sauce."
I was disappointed to only find the Low-Fat Moosewood book, but upon further inspection, it looks delicious. And as the proprietor of Cap Hill Books reminded me, Moosewood volumes are quite popular, so I'll consider myself lucky for unearthing this one. I've already started skipping over the modifer "non-fat" when reading the recipes; I think I'm set.
I'm not pretending to know a lot about Pépin or Alice Waters/Chez Panisse, but I do know that I should know more about both of these important food people, so I'm considering this my first step. I love how unpretentious Pépin's book feels despite: 1) I can't pronounce the names of some of the dishes, and I studied French!, and 2) There are photographic directions for making a swan out of a melon. Which, by the way, is the first recipe I'm going to tackle...right after " 'Angry' Trout in Hot Pecan Sauce."
I was disappointed to only find the Low-Fat Moosewood book, but upon further inspection, it looks delicious. And as the proprietor of Cap Hill Books reminded me, Moosewood volumes are quite popular, so I'll consider myself lucky for unearthing this one. I've already started skipping over the modifer "non-fat" when reading the recipes; I think I'm set.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)