DEBORAH CROMBIE: I know quite a few of us have been cooking-challenged in the last couple of weeks. When you can't get out to the store, for whatever reason (iced in for a week here!) you have to get creative. So did I pull out my favorite cookbooks as I was perusing the pantry and planning meals?
Uh, nope, I'm a little embarrassed to admit. I searched for recipes online. Don't get me wrong–I love cookbooks. But I'm more likely to read them than I am to actually cook from them. I've almost finished reading the copy of Samin Nosrat's GOOD THINGS I got for Christmas, but have I made anything from it? Oops, no, although I even bought the special vinegar for one of her salad dressings... Maybe tomorrow...
I do, however, have favorite online cooking sites that I use practically every day.
#1 is New York Times Cooking.
I know it's a subscription, but to me it is absolutely worth it. I love that I can save recipes in my searchable Recipe Box. And I really love the comments from other readers. They can be incredibly helpful and have often made the difference between a recipe that is just okay and one that goes on instant dinner repeat.
#2 is Jeanine Donofrio's LOVE & LEMONS. I actually have one of her cookbooks that I never think to open. We're not vegetarian but I'm always trying to ramp up our fruit, veggie, and grain proportions, and she's a terrific resource on how to cook all of those things.
#3 is another vegetarian site, COOKIE + KATE. If one of your New Year's resolutions is to eat healthier, this will inspire you.
I also subscribe to The Washington Post's Eat Voraciously column (free with the paper's digital subscription) and I subscribe to Mark Bittman's substack, The Bittman Project which does require a small fee but is a great resource for healthy eating and food news.
And of course there is Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, who can be relied upon for many a great recipe. (Short ribs, anyone? Yum, I think, with this cold weather, those might need to go on my menu this week…)
Darling REDs, do you turn to favorite internet cooking gurus in a pinch, or do you actually use your trusty cookbooks?
LUCY BURDETTE: I requested and received 3 cookbooks for Christmas and Birthday, including Good Things. I’ve only made one recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s cake book. John wonders why I need cookbooks when I get everything online? BIG SHRUG. I’m an addict!
I love New York Times Cooking, Once Upon a Chef, Sally’s Baking Addiction, King Arthur, and most recently, Alexandra’s Kitchen. And more…
DEBS: Oh, I use Once Upon a Chef, too!
HALLIE EPHRON: My go-to source is The New York Times Cooking, too. But I also find myself dipping back into the first cookbook I ever used: The Joy of Cooking. It’s cover has decayed and many of the pages are stained, but it’s so easy to follow, simple and reliable. I’m not a fan of recipes that include obscure ingredients or fancy equipment. (No air fryer or sous vide or crockpot even …)
And then there are all the recipes I’ve cut out or printed over the years, which I keep in a series of manila folders (Mains, Desserts, Soups…)
DEBS: For some reason, I've never really cooked from Joy, even though I have the 1970s edition and the newer one. You Joy fans will have to list me some of your favorites to try.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Ladies, I have to confess. I cook because I like to eat. Any small stirrings of cooking as a creative act were trampled underfoot by thirty years of making dinners (and lunches) for a family of five. If I could hire someone to make delicious, healthy meals for me, I’d do it in a minute, and I’d never open the oven again except to re-heat take-out pizza.
That being said, if I am looking for a recipe for a dish I’ve never made before, my technique is to search with a list of the main ingredients, see what pops up, and then sort the recipes by the number of reviews and how many stars each one received. Then I go back and forth, reading several of them. Sometimes, I choose just one. Other times, I mix and match. If a dish was a success, I’ll bookmark it, which is the modern version of the manila folders with newspaper and magazine clippings which I, like Hallie, collected.
Where are they now? I guess we’ll find out when my Swedish Death Cleaning is complete.
DEBS: Julia, mine in are the kitchen bookshelf, and I do actually use some of them!
RHYS BOWEN: I have become anti-cooking. After fifty years of feeding a family every night all I want is a personal chef to call me when dinner is on the table and delight my senses. But one thing I do still enjoy is making soups in the winter. My friend Susan Shea gave me a lovely book called Sunday Soups for Christmas and I have already tried a couple of them.
I do save recipes I see online but I have to confess that my rule for trying them is now how good they might taste but how many ingredients they have. If I scan down and read “first grate the ginger, crush the garlic and saute the xxx then put aside while you…” No. My favorite meals these days are things like lamb chops, asparagus and new potatoes or pan fried petrale sole.
DEBS: So many of the NYT recipes tell you that you can make them in 30 minutes. I will tell you that THEY LIE. I used to think I was just a really bad cook because things would take me at least twice as long, but I see other people in the NYT comments saying that they lie! Maybe in a professional kitchen, with someone to prep...
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I think I get a newsletter from–All Recipes? Which I never make anything from, but I get ideas. Like–oh, I have chicken and mushrooms, and that’s an interesting way to put them together. And then I do it my way. Sometimes I enter the ingredients I have, and see what it comes with that’s different. I am less and less inclined to try something complicated. I have NO time for that.
I do have a stash of cookbooks, though, and if I need any advice, I go to Mark Bittman or the Blue Strawberry Cookbook. They always know. I will never give up my young-bride compilation of recipes clipped from the Washington post and who knows where else, some in handwriting on peoples index cards and some weird copies from an office copier (I bet) and all taped with now-yellowed and brittle scotch tape into spiral steno pads. I bet it has chicken divan and fondue sauces and chicken Kiev and french onion soup (Julia Child's) and boeuf bourguignon and fettucini Alfredo.Things like that.
Recently I calculated that in the time I’ve been married to Jonathan I have probably cooked 7500 dinners. Just saying.
JENN McKINLAY: I don’t cook so while I love looking at cookbooks — the Magnolia Bakery cookbook is divine! — I handed my apron to the Hub during the pandemic and never took it back. So recipe searching isn’t for me, although I will ask the Hub to cook chicken or fish or whatever I’m hankering and he is wonderfully accommodating and a much better cook than I am.
DEBS: How about it, dear readers? Do you reach for a cookbook, look up a dinner recipe online--or order out!
I enjoy cooking so if I look up a recipe, I'm likely to do some tweaking of the recipe as I'm cooking. I'm probably evenly split between searching for a recipe online or looking something up in one of the many cookbooks on the kitchen shelf. When I do search for recipes, I'm most likely to select one based on the ingredient list. I don't mind the "grate, crush, sauté" ones; it's the ingredients I don't have or don't want to include that will put me off of a recipe . . . .
ReplyDeleteJoan, the ingredients not had is part of my cooking retirement. In moving five years ago, I found so much in the pantry so far out of date and realized arriving in my new home how expensive and wasteful restocking would be. Elisabeth
DeleteJoan, I am likely to order the ingredients for some recipe that sounds interesting, then never get around to making it!
DeleteMy husband does the cooking - I always had the longer commute, plus he enjoys it more than I do. I do occasionally cook something from Alton Brown’s Good Eats cookbooks - I like learning the science behind the recipes.
ReplyDeletethe science would make my eyes roll back in my head Lisa:)
DeleteI have Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. Do I ever use it? No...
DeleteWe went to Alton Brown’s stage show. It was terrific. Had a massive air fryer to cook chicken wings.
DeleteI have a subscription to New York Times Cooking and use that frequently. (Just used it to remind myself how to cook Swiss Chard, as a matter of fact.) I also use Allrecipes.com that Hank mentioned above. Those are my two main go tos online, though a friend has recommended Smitten Kitchen which looks intriguing. And Debs, though I weeded my cookbooks about a year ago, I still have plenty I could use — but for the most part don’t any more.— Pat S
ReplyDeleteOh, I love Smitten Kitchen! How could I have left it out? I have a couple of Deb Perlman's cookbooks, too. My absolutely to-die-for granola recipe is a variation of hers.
DeleteI have a raft of cookbooks that I rarely open. I do look things up on line, more to find new things to do with whatever falls out of the pantry/fridge. If I see something I like, I print it out, have a notebook filled with these. But the only time I really use a recipe is for baked goods, cakes and pies and breads and cookies.
ReplyDeleteAll that being said, I do love to put a great meal on the table. This week it was stuffed pork loin. And I’m still bragging about it! Julie found a whole loin at a great price. It was the size of my thigh! I cut two roasts and ten chops from it, vacuum packing all but one of the roasts. That one I butterflied, pounded out to about a 9 x 13 rectangle and filled it with Pepperidge farm stuffing, rolled it into a tight tight roll and tied it. I’m a fan of convection roasting and my oven probe. That went into the interior, set at 150 degrees. I roasted it on top of Brussels sprouts, until it reached the set temp and served it with roast potatoes and a mix of yellow wax and green beans. Plus homemade applesauce.
We inhaled it! And I saved a slice for Jannette, our household Angel. She said it was the best pork she’d ever tasted. And such a pretty dish, each slice a pinwheel. Pru and Paul would be proud!
that sounds amazing Ann!
DeleteAnn sent me a photo of the stuffed pork roast. It was gorgeous!!! I wish we could include pics in the comments!
DeleteMark me down as one of the “retired” cooks. But I do love reading recipes and used to love cooking and baking. And, in the family of my heart at least 3 very talented cooks. NYT Cooking is my favorite source (and since I subscribe to the NYT, it is no added charge). Find a recipe, forward it to those 3 talented cooks (and as long as I don’t exceed 10 recipes a month no added charge) and voila! The next family dinner features one of these. Enjoy your days, All. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteYou're very clever Elisabeth, to send on what you're hankering for!
DeleteI think you've found the perfect system, Elizabeth!
DeleteI'm a mix of all of that. I pull out my mother's Joy of Cooking for standbys like banana bread. I dip into my New Basics Cookbook for things like pizza dough and beef bourgignone (crap, how do you spell that, anyway? I'm leaving it at my third try...). The little Wild About Muffins book has been my rock for years (I like it so much I found pre-owned copies for both my sons for Christmas). I have my blue folder of recipes found online that I print out and try, and if they're good, into the folder they go (like the dry rub for the spatchcock chicken, orginally from NYT Cooking, I have the NYT subscription, and I often just make up a dish. Oh, plus my recipe box from my teen and young adult years, which holds my grandmothers' and mother's cookie recipes.
ReplyDeleteBut unusual ingredients? Forget it. I have made exactly one recipe from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem.
I love those old recipe boxes Edith, though I rarely cook from them.
DeleteI cooked to survive, but now that my family loves to cook, I don't now. If they are not home, I do take-out.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky there, Dru!
DeleteYears ago, I wrote a food book called Substituting Ingredients.
ReplyDeleteI've updated it several times and it's still in print (3rd edition).
So now you know the basis of my cooking.
that's very cool Becky!
DeleteI'm going to look that up, Becky! What fun!
DeleteI am one of the least imaginative cooks ever. I have been baking the same Laurel's Kitchen 100% whole wheat bread week in, week out, for 45 years. Because I'm not an adventurous eater and my husband will eat anything, I mostly cook old favorites at this point. My cookbooks on the shelf are sadly ignored. However I do occasionally add to the repertoire. This year Connie Schultz (wife of former/hopefully future Ohio senator Sherrod Brown) recommended a turkey pot pie recipe to use up Christmas leftovers, promising it was easy with a store bought pie crust. It actually WAS very easy, my family loved it, and I printed the recipe for my own manila folder. Right now, with the cold (-1°F before windchill this AM, due to be -20° before windchill this weekend) I'm thinking about soups and stews. Last night I made cornbread and pea soup with the Christmas ham bone. I need to look in the freezer for whatever promising things I can throw together for one night and on the other I'll make corn chowder or squash soup. Plus fresh bread, of course. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteall that sounds good Selden, plus how fun to have a recipe from Sherrod's wife!
DeleteOh my gosh, Selden, memories of my early mom days! Is your recipe from Laurel's Kitchen or from Laurel Kitchen's Bread Book? I need to drag those cookbooks out!!!
DeleteStay warm!!!!
Yes, it is fun. This is the recipe Connie Schultz recommended as delicious and very easy. Those are the KEY WORDS for this cook! and in this case, they were true.
Deletehttps://www.thekitchn.com/turkey-pot-pie-23100723
Allrecipes is one of my favorites when I get a craving for something I had at a restaurant that either no long exists, is in a different city, or removed it from the menu. I still refer to my Betty Crocker cookbook that I received as a wedding gift a few decades ago. And I have a folder of print outs of recipes as well as a vintage recipe box.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have found some fabulous recipes in the little cookbooks sold near grocery store checkout lines.
I use Allrecipes, too--that's one I left out. I have some old Sunset Cookbooks, the large format paperbacks that used to be sold in grocery stores. One is French Country Cooking and it's still my go-to for any of those type of recipes.
DeleteWe enjoy good food and cooking. My husband has taken the initiative the last few years - he has his new specialties. While NYT is our go-to, I increasingly use the database Eat Your Books, which also gives me recipes from Food 52. I have many cookbooks I've rarely cooked from, and we've come up with some real gems in the last few months. So if I have an ingredient I want to use - leeks, for example, I enter that in, and see what comes up. We've even come up with some Hazan recipes we had never made before. One of our real finds was from Six Seasons. I bought the book for all the right reasons, but had never cooked from it. And the squash soup from Falastin was amazing. I could go on.... I subscribe to Milk Street, but hadn't used it much. We made a canned artichoke pasta the other night that was amazing.
ReplyDeleteI declare you the official blog chefs!
DeleteI've never heard of Eat Your Books, Beth. That sounds fascinating. Is there a fee?
DeleteYes, there is a fee, but it is well worth it for me. It's not too much. And when we find a recipe that's wonderful, and that we never would have known to make otherwise, it is so worth it. Can you tell we don't go out to eat when we're at home? Takeout Thai or Indian every once in a while. It will be strange to eat out every night when in Italy next month for 10 days (lecture/conference in Florence + 5 nights in Rome).
DeleteI signed up for the free trial membership of Eat Your Books, just to see how it works. Thanks for the tip, Beth!
DeleteNormally I do not cook. Many of the cookbooks belong to my husband. He likes America’s Test Kitchen from the TV show. Occasionally I will thumb through the church cookbooks we have. My go to for basic instructions for things most people just know how to make is still my red and white plaid Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook from 1974-75 7th grade Home Ec. My mother had a previous edition.
ReplyDeleteEvery now and again I will think of something specific I would like to have and I will google a recipe for it. I’ve used some All Recipe recipes and I like the Pioneer Woman. For Thanksgiving I tried a different stuffing recipe. It was okay but it that recipe went in the recycle bin. In December, I made a baked orange French toast for Christmas brunch. In January I actually cut an appetizer recipe out of our community newspaper, made it and served it at a neighbor gathering. It was well-received. I copied both of those to recipe cards and crammed them in my box.
Brenda, I'd like to borrow your cooking husband!
DeleteMy older sister also has a husband who cooks. As she doesn't cook, she doesn't shop for groceries. Finally, she lives in New Jersey so doesn't pump her own gas. She's an amazing person but when our kids were small it helped me to remember these background details when I felt completely disheveled, disorganized, and inadequate by comparison. (Selden)
DeleteBrenda, my husband has been doing more of the cooking in recent years. And regarding "prep," he's always done that. He does it with such precision in a way I have no patience for.
DeleteI use recipes from my cookbooks and don't mind chopping one thing and grating another. Most of the times, I can anticipate whether a combination of ingredients will be to our taste. I do occasionally list ingredients on Google and see what recipes pop up. I made a delicious soup combining a couple of ideas last week.
ReplyDeleteMore than cookbooks, I have folders full of recipes that I have been accumulating for 53 years. I make notes on the pages and if something is delicious, it gets revisited from time to time.
On line, I follow Epicurious, America's Test Kitchen, Sally's Baking Addiction and King Arthur Flour. Did you ever call the KAF help line? The bakers there are so helpful! I also have called the help line on other products' boxes. I needed a non dairy recipes for cornbread and the Quaker Oats people obliged. Perfect!
As for estimated cooking times, I don't think they include prep, which probably takes me 3 times as long as a trained chef.
Judy, you sound so organized! I do have a stack of printed out recipes, and I do make notes on them. If I print something and we don't like it, the printed copy goes straight in the recycle bin.
DeleteNot much of a cook, having neither the time nor the inclination. My one time-tested recipe has only four ingredients: Rice Krispies, milk, bowl, spoon.
ReplyDeleteJerry, substitute Cheerios for Rice Krispies and I’m there!
DeleteSince today is about cooking, I will add this even if it is slightly off topic. My sister died Monday morning – at home with just my brother and I there along with ChatGPT in a blizzard. She was ‘fine’ Saturday night when my brother arrived, and by noon Sunday, she was asking for death – that fast. All those details are important. Also, we live in the country. Apparently, our friend Chat does not recognize blizzard, snow, ambulance can’t get here in her wonderful repertoire of good things to know, because otherwise she was really helpful. All of that and so many other things that happened would make a comedy – think George would be played by Martin Short, and I would quite possibly be Carol Burnett Harvey Korman would be the sister, but he would have to stifle the laughing.. Anyway, after we covered her at 3:19, and asked the question “what do we do now?” (we decided to go to bed – nothing you could do, we were up all the most of the night, and there was a blizzard outside!)
ReplyDeleteSo, I will write sometime on why we need funeral/death doulas some other time, but I will say as a newbie to this event I had no idea what to do, and was spinning – from here to there, on 5 phones, and needed someone to tell me what was the next step.
Today is the day before the funeral, and I am sure there are many things left undone – meeting with one of the ministers this morning – just to make things more complicated she will be buried from the United church, since there is no physical Anglican church, but everything else now is double – 2 preachers, 2 choirs, was almost 2 organists, 2 groups of church women catering…talk about spinning plates.
After you read this, make sure you have all your passwords written down somewhere, and somebody knows where. We have her phone (apple) which she opened with her thumb, or a type in 4 letter code. Nowhere is the code. So we can answer the phone to incoming calls, but not answer any texts or have access to her contacts – and they are not listed on the computer. So, just saying – go list your passwords.
Now for the important part which is about the food. What did we want/need? Supper. We ate fried eggs on the run for 3 days. There was no time to make a meal. There was no time to even heat a casserole. We needed salads, cold meats, that kind of stuff. We needed people to turn up at suppertime with 2 plates of whatever they were serving to their family – ready to sit down to and eat. The casseroles and stuff for the various receptions could come later, or even I would dare to ask for it – and I did. It was just the small things. I am not complaining, but now I know and am passing it on.
As for recipes – when I will finally cook again – I will collect recipes all morning from various websites and they are in various folders in a larger folder on my computer, which I sometimes re-search, but usually even enjoy doing a new internet search.
Meanwhile – I’ll be back on Monday – I hope!
Margo, I'm so sorry for the loss of your sister. We do need death doulas! But it sounds like you and your brother will send her out beautifully. We are there in our thoughts and wish we had all known to bring plates of food. xox
DeleteI am so very sorry for your loss, Margo. May you and your family and friends find comfort in your shared memories. You will be in my prayers. Thanks for sharing these insights.
DeleteSo so sorry Margo. My goodness, what a hard situation. Peace to you and your family.
DeleteOh Margo, so very sorry for your loss, and all the extra grief and complications. May your sister’s memory be a blessing.
DeleteYou have my deepest sympathy, Margot. What a terrible time you and your brother have had. But it sounds like you're doing a great job.
DeleteMargo, you and your family are in my prayers. It’s so hard to lose a sibling.
DeleteThank you for all the practical advice. It was a nightmare for my sister-in-law when my brother died suddenly, and she couldn’t access important information from his computer.
I wish you and your family peace.
DebRo
I am so sorry for the loss of your sister, Margo. But it sounds like you and your brother handled things beautifully and in the best way for her. And we all thank you for the reminder about the passwords. So important.
DeleteOh, Margo. I'm so sorry for the loss of your sister. You've been strong for so long; I'm glad your brother was there with you at the end. In the loss and exhaustion and BLIZZARD I would hold onto the pragmatic, also. Thank you for your shared knowledge and I hope the service tomorrow gives you comfort. (Selden)
DeleteMargo, it is a privilege and a burden to witness and share the death of a loved one. So glad you and your brother could be there together at the end. And in a blizzard, no less.
DeleteWhen my mother-in-law died, we were grief central for the family, since they lived less than two miles away, and I had to manage everything. My husband was on an island in Alaska, with no phone, when she passed, and I literally lost five pounds over the weekend from the stress. My best friend, bless her, brought two freshly roasted chickens in a throw-away pan, and that saved us all from starvation while I gnawed my fingernails waiting for my husband to return.
With you in spirit as you complete these important rituals, dear one.
I have moved online except for oh-those-favorites. And that's always when there is company. Too many disasters from using a new recipe for guests! Yikes.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about the new recipe disasters, but I will still give in to that temptation.
DeleteIsn’t it funny how sometimes cooking seems like it’s so much fun and creative and you get to cook something new and share it with someone you love, and have a wonderful experience with a delicious taste… And other times, It seems like the most difficult thing in the world. :-)
ReplyDeleteSome of that is time, Hank. When there is not enough of it, cooking can be a real chore. But sometimes something you make all the time can be so surprisingly good. Last night I made the white bean/whole wheat orzo/spinach soup that is one of my regulars, but instead of boxed, I used chicken stock from a rotisserie chicken I'd made in the slow cooker, and the finished soup was so much more delicious.
DeleteI still cook on average about four nights a week. During the covid shutdown, I made it a personal project to never repeat a recipe. (Not realizing when it began, of course, how challenging that would become!) Anyway, I kept a log of everything we ate during that time and have since weeded out the (many) recipes I tried and vowed never to repeeat, so I have a long list of what I consider our usual repertoire, which I update as we find new recipes worthy of regular rotation. My list currently has 78 listings, of which probably 50 to 60 are the real go-to set. And some of those are seasonal by nature, so maybe 30 to 50 are year-round favorites.
ReplyDeleteWhen we downsized, I purged many cookbooks and am left with only the ones I actually use on a regular basis. New recipes almost always come from the internet, with NYT Cooking and AllRecipes being my favorite sources. I also get a monthly magazine from Kroger that includes recipes and I have clipped a few very good ones from there, and while my local newspaper is digital now, once a week it runs recipes and I occasionally download those, too.
I do markedly prefer working from a printed recipe, so I run a hard copy of almost every recipe I use. Maybe it's just because of my age, but I find it annoying when the screen chooses to go dark while my hands are messy, making it hard to re-awaken it, and things like that. Recipes that have been tested and make the "worth repeating" list go in a big binder, while "to be tried" go in an accordion file folder.
Susan, what a project to undertake during covid! I'm in awe. I do try to cook something new about once a week, usually from NYT Cooking. What I SHOULD do is make a plan to cook something from one of my cookbooks once a week... I just flipped through my copy of Ottolenghi's Plenty and didn't see a single recipe my husband would eat. Sigh.
DeleteWow, Susan, 60 go-to recipes! You're amazing! My husband would move to your house in a heartbeat! (Selden)
DeleteThat's really impressive, Susan. We don't thave that many go-tos. I try to write down in a diary what eat for dinner each night, something I've done when we're traveling, but didn't used to do at home.
DeleteAh, Ottolenghi. I think I have 4 of his cookbooks, but have been doing more from Falastin lately (by Sami, his co-author). I love Ottolenghi, but do not have so many of the exotic ingredients. Sigh. One time my husband was away at a conference for 5 days. I so rarely cook for myself, and committed to at least eating a proper dinner on Friday. I remember I made something from Ottolenghi, and actually made a dessert. It did take hours, though.
DeleteI keep a record in my planner of what we have dinner, have done this for years. Lately it has been very boring indeed.
DeleteMostly I make the same things over and over! I have a pile of printouts and hand written recipes in my kitchen cupboard, but I only occasionally dig through it. I do search on line "easy cod recipe" etc and have found some good recipes. It has to be easy or I won't do it. Do I ever look in my on-line bookmarks? No.
ReplyDeleteHa, me either, Gillian. I have better luck emailing recipes to myself.
DeleteSorry for your loss Margo. Thanks for your good advice about passwords.
ReplyDeleteI still have my original Better Homes "New" Cook Book, published in 1968 and use it almost daily. If not for a recipe but to check on recipes and compare to new ones.
My husband loves chocolate chocolate chip muffins that he gets from a bakery but they're too sugary for my taste. I wanted to replicate the muffin without so much sugar so I checked online and found the Preppy Kitchen by John Kanell. He has a recipe for the ch/ch muffin and was rated a 5. It turned out perfect and was the best muffin I've ever made. I've since bought his cookbooks but nothing has turned out quite as well as his muffin recipe!
In addition to Better Homes Cook Book, I use Cooks (American's Test Kitchen), Ina Garten, and a number of hand-me-down recipes from my mom and grandmother.
Debs, I have Samin Nosrats' first cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. I tried her biscuit recipe but her instructions said the butter should be the size of a grain of salt. The biscuits didn't rise and I haven't made anything else from her book...BUT I do love her salad dressings - she has a lot and they always turn out.
I have Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, too--a gift from my friend Gigi--and I'm trying to remember if I've actually made anything from it... Butter the size of a grain of sand sounds impossible! Thanks for the choc/choc muffin recipe! I don't bake much but I'm going to look that one up.
DeleteSo, I just went and counted my cookbooks (which includes cocktail and wine books) and 92! And that’s after giving a whole boxful to my library bookstore! I confess, like many of you, I often buy them just to read. I have cooked from many of them (I still have a couple of my grandmother’s and a few of my Mom’s in that collection). I prefer when my husband cooks, he is very good and he always plated his dinner so they look lovely. I have been doing much more cooking since November and his hip replacement. I look in my cookbooks and my big hanging folder of recipes, and also online, No favourite site, although I will check out the ones mentioned today! Everything always seems to take longer than I thought so now I always get my mis-en-place ready and try to calculate the time. I prefer fewer ingredients, and not a zillion steps. My 2 go to cookbooks are “Moosewood Sundays”and “The Stonyfield Farm Cookbook (Stony Field Farm is a Vermont Yoghurt Company).
ReplyDeleteWhat a collection, Suzette! And for me, everything always takes so much longer! I think they fudge on purpose so that people will try the recipes.
DeleteHow is your husband doing with his hip?
Debs, I think you’re right about fudging the timing!
DeleteThanks for asking! My husband’s hip is doing okay, he’s had a few other complications we’re working on but he can run the snowblower (we had 2+ inches of snow last snowstorm) and go to the gym so all is looking up in that respect!
We’ve got an “Arctic front” coming so any long simmering soup, stew, ,or casserole will be the name of the cooking game! Hope you ice is melting!
We are supposed to be 80 degrees here today!
DeleteWonderful topic. My former babysitter, from when I was a baby, started a restaurant in Mendocino when I was about 8 years old and she wrote several cookbooks. We still have her cookbooks and I find myself perusing her recipes when I want to bake or cook a delicacy that I like. We still have a homemade cookbook put together by the preschool parents of my classmates and myself. My Mom's recipe for Banana Bread is in the book.
ReplyDeleteI love the cookbooks by Cristina Ferrare and Alice Waters. I discovered that I have 36 COOKBOOKS, including a cookbook that Meghan Markle put together to raise funds for the victims of the Grenell Towers fire. I have a Winnie the Pooh recipe book. We found a collection of International recipes in a cookbook at a library sale. In that cookbook, I got a recipe for Swedish gingersnaps.
Those cookbooks sound like treasures, Diana. Now I'm going to go count mine!
DeleteDon't forget about Lucy Burdette's Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from the Key West Food Critic Mysteries!
ReplyDeleteI have an accordian file folder stuffed with recipes I've printed from the NYT and Washington Post (did the owner eliminate the food department this week?). Last summer I tried a new chicken recipe with zucchini, red, and yellow peppers. A success! Otherwise, I've been making lasagna, chicken pot pie, and apple cider pork chops, with pot roast as an occasional treat.
ReplyDeleteMy husband mentioned something he'd read or heard: AI is messing with on-line recipes on social media with disastrous results.
Yes, Eat Voraciously is gone. I am just sick.
DeleteI have a husband who took over the cooking 20 years ago—lucky me! He finds it fun and relaxing. Today we’re going to The Key West Cooking School for their 1:00 presentation.
ReplyDeleteOh, how fun, Emily!! I am so envious, both of the cooking husband and that you're in Key West AND that you're going to the cooking school!!!
DeleteI order out. I don't have the time or inclination to spend all that time making a dish at home that will take me 15 minutes to eat. I'd rather just pick up a sub and eat it. The cleanup is easy and the only prep I have to do is unwrap the darn thing.
ReplyDeleteIf my husband was by himself he would do exactly the same, Jay.
DeleteSo would mine, if we didn't live 8 miles from town. I usually have a frozen pizza for him if I have to be away for any reason. (Selden)
DeleteDebs, thanks for the LOVE AND LEMONS recommendation, and Rhys, I'll look for SUNDAY SOUPS, since I'm a big soup fan.
ReplyDeleteMy husband doesn't like to cook, so he does the food shopping and cleans up the kitchen every night. I do like to cook, and I like to eat home-cooked food, so I make dinner every night unless we go out. I use a number of favorite old cookbooks all the time, including Joy of Cooking, Fanny Farmer, two of Craig Claiborne's NYTimes cookbooks, and James Beard's pasta book. But once I've looked up what I want to make in one or more of my cookbooks, I also check several online recipes to see whether I want to vary my tried-and-true ingredients, and often I do. Any new recipes I try come from friends or the Internet. Oh, and I should add that I have all my mother's recipes written out on large index cards, and I still make her split-pea soup, turkey tetrazzini, oatmeal-raisin cookies, and much more.
I hope you enjoy Love and Lemons, Kim. I love her lentil soup, and many others.
DeleteI have my mother's recipe box but I don't really use it. I should get it out for a look.
I do love to eat my own cooking... when it comes out the way that I envisioned before I started the prep work. I have a hard time ceding control in the kitchen but happily Jerry was content to let me have my way with it. Love reading everyone's connection to the kitchen and cooking via recipes...
ReplyDeleteI find Ina's recipes foolproof! She must test-kitchen the h*ll out of them!
ReplyDeleteMy other favorite cookbooks are my mom's old "Officers' Wives Club" cookbooks. My dad was in the Army and at every post, the officers' wives (back before there were "spouses!") collected recipes and published cookbooks for charity, usually $100 or $200 college scholarships. The recipes included the name of the contributor. In addition to providing great recipes, they are such lovely memorials to old friends and acquaintances.
Robin, a friend collected dozens of those charity cookbook compilations, and donated them to my Little Free Library a few years ago. Garden clubs, PTAs, women's clubs, churches, all with recipes that were a fascinating walk through the history of cooking in the United States for 50 years.
DeleteI have never made an Ina recipe that didn't turn out well! I love her!
DeleteI pu together a family recipe cookbook called "Mastering the Art of Family Cooking". I included a favorite recipe from every family member then included photos of them on the page. I also include my mother's and grandmother's family recipes with their photos.
ReplyDeleteAt the end I did a genealogy chart for the grandkids.
I would be hard pressed to point to a single source for my own cooking. Call me indiscriminate. If a recipe sounds good I will print it out, or bookmark it, and sometimes even make it. About three times a week I cook from scratch, with at least one leftover meal built in. We eat all three daily meals at home except for about once every other week, so I do keep a loaded fridge, freezer, and pantry.
ReplyDeleteA friend recently gave me some sourdough starter, and I am keeping it alive, but have only used it once, so far. I used the King Arthur recipe for an artisanal boule, and it got badly singed, so I am going to use Judy's hint of calling their help line to see how to adjust the time and temp for the next time.
Three microwave cookbooks have served me well: the Amana Radarange I bought in 1976 came with a fantastic cookbook that I still use, even though it is falling apart. My friends are always stunned when I tell them the brownies they are swooning over were made in the microwave, in 10 minutes. Microwave Gourmet by Barbara Kafka has the best, quickest Potato Leek Soup ever. And HP Books Microwave Cookbook by Pat Jester falls open at the best-ever Tetrazzini recipe.
My favorite, go-to, well-bookmarked Joy of Cooking recipes: Brussels Sprouts Cockaigne, Flourless Chocolate cake, Tomato Tart, Prime Rib, Basil Pesto, Potatoes Daphinoise, Chicken Cacciotore (I need to make this again), the best icing recipes, marinades, Beef Stroganoff, Tartar Sauce, Stuffed Peppers, and soups. I have also learned reams of information from reading their "about" sections.
Every year I pledge that I will actually try some recipes from JOY and so far it hasn't happened!
DeleteI would like to use our microwave more so those sources sound good.
And how could I forget all the great recipes from MysteryLoversKitchen.com? Every day, another delicious entry.
DeleteI love to cook and to cook interesting and new things, but I live alone so for the most part, I do that special cooking when I'm having a dinner party. I have a full bookcase in the kitchen of cookbooks and like most of you when I'm in a hurry, I go online to remind myself of the ratio of flour to water or the special ingredients in a dish that I like. I love the Sunday Soups cookbook I gave to Rhys and use that a lot at every time of year. I love Moroccan food and I have a cookbook just about that. I do use Joy. I do use Julia Cild but less than I used to, and my collection of cookbooks includes some special ones from chefs who have passed away and from restaurants that were extraordinary and are no more. The best lasagna I have ever made and the one that dinner guests kept asking for seconds about was from Samrat. The entire kitchen was full of pots and pans and béchamel sauce and it was a mess in the kitchen, but the lasagna is out of this world. I think she calls it the big lasagna.
ReplyDeleteSamin Nosrat! See how cleverly I merged her first and last names!
DeleteSusan, I thought Sunday Soup sounded familiar and, sure enough, I found it in my cookbook cabinet! I will have to make an effort to actually cook from it!
DeleteI knew who you meant!!
DeleteYou all inspired me to count my cookbooks--81! Too many!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Julia and Rhys. After twenty-odd years of feeding four every single night, I'm over cooking. At least over making dinner. If I could be granted any wish, it would be for someone to make dinner. But that isn't happening. I do have an air fryer and an Instant Pot, but I use them constantly - much more than my oven, in fact.
ReplyDeleteI have my good old, trusty Betty Crocker with the red and white gingham cover for basic stuff. I have a compilation of recipes that I've tried over the years and worked, so I cut them out or wrote them or saved them. Sometimes I Google for "chicken recipes" or whatever and I try something from AllRecipes.com or whatever as long as the ingredient list and procedure isn't too wacky.
Mostly, however, we pick a protein and say, "What shall we do with this tonight?" Sometimes it goes well, sometimes not. There is an olive oil store in town that also carries all sorts of fancy vinegar and they do pairings. We "discovered" a stir fry of chicken and vegetables in sesame oil. Serve over rice and top with a honey ginger white vinegar. It's now a staple.