Food & Cookbooks

[Qoass]

That's what I like about keeping them on a thumb drive:  before printing, I can make it any size I want.

[biakbiak]

Bumping this thread because I got Lucky Peach's 101 Easy Asian Recipes for my birthday and I quite like it. It has Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino and Indonesian recipes and everyone that I have tried has in fact been quick (or at least a short prep time), easy and flavorful. They are not always the most traditional but I have enjoyed them.

[Qoass]

I read through Mark Bittman's How to Bake Everything over the weekend and it's everything you would expect.  Tons of recipes with variations and variations on the variations.  The no-knead bread method is in there plus a ton of frostings and fillings.  A few drawings but no photographs.  Weighs a ton.  It would make an excellent gift for the beginning chef or recipe collector in your life.

[annzeepark914]

I bought How To Cook Everything and it's been a lifesaver quite a few times in the few years I've had it.  This too would make an excellent gift for a new cook (or even an older cook who can't find that certain recipe on how to make scalloped potatoes or noodles w/ peanut sauce, etc).  

Edited December 4, 2016 by annzeepark914

[Athena]

On 2016-12-04 at 1:16 PM, annzeepark914 said:

I bought How To Cook Everything and it's been a lifesaver quite a few times in the few years I've had it.  This too would make an excellent gift for a new cook (or even an older cook who can't find that certain recipe on how to make scalloped potatoes or noodles w/ peanut sauce, etc).  

Seconding this. I have the photographed version which is a great alternative to the soft cover or text only version for people who like the visual learning.  Less recipes of course, but definitely one of my favourite cookbooks in my collection (50+) for its versatility.

[Qoass]

This weekend I went through Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan.  This is not the usual chocolate-chip, then peanut butter chip, then chocolate chocolate-chip variety.  She had cookies in there I never would have dreamed of.  There is a particularly intriguing chapter of "Cocktail Cookies" both sweet and savory designed to go with wine and spirits.  Every recipe had a full page color picture and the paper stock is nice and heavy.

Still, it's not a "keeper" for me as too many of the recipes were way too fiddly for me.  I know I'd never have the patience to make them and because of the big, beautiful pictures, nearly every recipe required two or more pages which means you would have to do a mise en place or risk getting chocolately fingerprints on every gorgeous page.

[Captain Carrot]

OK, back when I was a kid in the 80's my grandmother got a cookbook called 'Virginia Hospitality' while on vacation. Everyone liked it so much that she ordered a copy for each of her children. The first thing I ever cooked (other than kraft mac & cheese) is the lemon squares recipe from this book. I now have my mom's copy, and I highly recommend getting a copy to anyone that's interested in southern cooking. I've attached links to two websites that offer it to anyone that's interested:

https://www.amazon.com/Virginia-Hospitality-Junior-League-Hampton/dp/0961360011

http://www.madeinva.com/Hospitality_Cookbook_p/va_hospitality_cookbook.htm

[Qoass]

I am very excited about Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos.  All the recipes make two to three servings!  If I want homemade cheesecake, I can make it without having the remains whispering to me from the fridge for a week and a half.  There's a recipe for a french bread boule that I can't wait to try because I'll be able to practice making yeast bread without breaking the bank and wasting lots of food.  I picked out a couple of recipes from the library's book and if they work, I'll be buying my own copy.

Edited January 23, 2017 by Qoass

[DeLurker]

Report back with your review - that sounds really suitable for my household too.

[Qoass]

@DeLurker, I tried two recipes from it this weekend:

Happy Morning Muffins which is her take on Morning Glory muffins.  Of course it took just as long to make a small batch of batter as it would a large batch but I was able to chop the handful of nuts and grate a single carrot by hand in a flash so I didn't need to pull out my food processor and clean it afterwards.  They came out so good that had I made a dozen, I would have eaten at least a couple in one go but this way I had one for Saturday morning and one (albeit a trifle soggy) for Sunday which was perfect.

Chocolate Chip Almond Dream Cakes were supposed to be like Italian Cream cake.  The recipe was easy to follow and the result was tasty but I found the texture rather leaden so I don't think I would make it again.

That said, I look forward to doing more next weekend.  Maybe scones?

[DeLurker]

I had never seen a scone until about sometime in the 2000s.  I had heard of them, but they were a quaint British pastry.  When I had them, I thought they were brilliant - not overly sweet, not too cakey or breadish in texture, the right size...they changed my life.

So I vote scones.  Think I will peruse where I can obtain a copy.

I wonder if the Dream Cake's texture was off because of altitude?  I was listening to NPR yesterday and they were talking about this cookbook which addressed the changes needed to a recipe at a bunch of different elevations.

[Qoass]

Nah, I'm at an average altitude.  I did use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream so maybe that was it.  Even so, the author alluded to the dense texture the cake would have.  Too dense for me.

[annzeepark914]

Well, I made a big mistake and ordered from amazon Oprah's Food, Health & Happiness cookbook w/o first checking it out via the library.  It's a wonderful cookbook for people who have chefs or who really love to make those recipes with lots of ingredients.  Just looking through it I realized it's not for me, so I'll probably donate it to my library for their book sale this spring ;>(

[DeLurker]

Since it is new, do you have a used bookstore you could sell it to?  Mine doesn't give you cash, but store credit.  We love the used bookstore.

[annzeepark914]

It came w/o a jacket which is odd.  It's used but looks new.  Lesson learned!  Hmmm, I wonder if our used book store would like it?  Thanks for the tip DeLurker. In the meantime, I just picked up Ina's new cookbook at the library and will see if I like it enough to order it.

[annzeepark914]

Restaurant critic for the Washington Post Tom Sietsema wrote an interesting article about Zuni Cafe & the late Judy Rogers in today's paper.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/i-left-my-heart-you-know-where-but-this-cookbook-takes-me-back/2017/02/06/0887df28-e6ee-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html?utm_term=.85ccb0f41f74

Edited February 9, 2017 by annzeepark914

[Captain Carrot]

I saw this article about pie crusts made out of saltine crackers. Has anyone tried this?

http://www.avclub.com/article/forget-graham-crackers-saltines-make-best-pie-crus-250223

[DeLurker]

That looks interesting!  And so does the lemon pie recipe, but I think I will try this with a quiche first.

[ethalfrida]

On 1/31/2017 at 0:13 PM, annzeepark914 said:

It came w/o a jacket which is odd.  It's used but looks new.  Lesson learned!  Hmmm, I wonder if our used book store would like it?  Thanks for the tip DeLurker. In the meantime, I just picked up Ina's new cookbook at the library and will see if I like it enough to order it.

Sell it back to Amazon or just return it for a refund.

[chessiegal]

I jus bought "The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook" from ATK for my iPad. I got some sample recipes in an email. I liked them, and feel like I'm in a rut for cooking for two. My 1st iPad cookbook.

[Spunkygal]

I love HPB! Although not cookbooks, I recently got Julia's My Life in France (excellent!) and Jacques Pepin's memoir The Apprentice (also very good). I loved reading about two of my favorites chefs. For me, Julia's is a must-read!

[larapu2000]

I love Half Price Books, too, but haven't shopped there much since I got a Kindle, but your post reminded me that they always have a really great cookbook section!

I am in serious lust with my Momfuku Milk Bar cookbook.  The best part of the cookie recipes is that they tell you to scoop out the dough and then refrigerate at least a few hours or overnight, but once you scoop, you can freeze half or part of the batch.  You definitely WANT to scoop first, not later-the dough is hard as a rock.    

This recipe may sound weird, but my dad said that it's his favorite cookie he's ever had.

Cornflake Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Cookies

This one is SO unique!  

Blueberries & Cream Cookies

Some people might not like the recipes within recipes, but the cornflake crunch and milk crumb are tasty and crave-generating snacks, so believe me-they're WORTH IT.

My next recipe from the book is going to either be the pistachio cake or the crack pie.  I've heard the crack pie is the thing to get at Milk Bar.

[Quof]

I have a seriously out of control sweet tooth, but I find the crack pie at Milk Bar too sweet. I used to buy the compost cookie, but I found the recipe and make my own, so now I go for the cereal milk or pretzel milk soft serve. 

[Qoass]

I checked the Momfuku Milk Bar cookbook out of the library.  I did photocopy some of the recipes out of it (yes, I know, I'm a bad, bad person) but truth be told, I've never felt up to the challenge of making any of them.  While I don't mind taking an entire day to make something labor-intensive once in awhile for a special occasion or just because but with these recipes, you frequently had to make an ingredient first and then use that ingredient to make the recipe you want to make.  I'm just not that adventurous.

[Mittengirl]

A trip to a thrift store today netted The Essential Baker ( https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Baker-Comprehensive-Chocolate-Ingredients/dp/0764576453/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490045052&sr=8-1&keywords=the+essential+baker ) for one dollar.  It looks really interesting.  Instead of being divided into chapters by the type of baked good (cookies, cakes, etc.) it is divided by flavor, so if you are having a yen for citrus or nuts, you go right to that chapter.  Now I just have to figure out what to try first.

[Mindthinkr]

My SIL recently made something out of this world (Vegetarian) and she said that she uses this cookbook for healthy recipes. If you don't mind the language it's actually a very funny read as well as having good recipes. I bought one for myself and 2 others for friends. 

Thug Kitchen (Eat like You Give a Fvck) 

We all love it and use it often. 

[Qoass]

I just went to my library website to put that on hold per your suggestion and it seems there are at least two sequels: Party Grub and Fast as Fuck.

[Mindthinkr]

Ooh. I'll have to ramble over to the library and check those out. Loved the suggestion I read upthread about making photocopies of what recipes you want to use and will do that. If it's really good (like their first book) then I may hunt for a used copy or if necessary just buy one. Yes, I liked it that much. 

[ennui]

On 1/31/2017 at 11:05 AM, DeLurker said:

Since it is new, do you have a used bookstore you could sell it to?  Mine doesn't give you cash, but store credit.  We love the used bookstore.

I don't have a HPB near me, but there is a used bookstore that buys -- they only pay $.01 for cookbooks. I donated most of mine to thrift stores.

[Qoass]

Mine go to my local library's book sale.

[Qoass]

Is it still a double post if four months go by? Somebody come play with me!

I checked The Pioneer Woman: Come and Get It out of the library this weekend. If you've watched the most recent season of the show, you've already seen all the recipes in it. The paper is of good heavy stock but the bright, bright colors of the print and page borders and pictures are all reminiscent of a child's pinata. Also, you know how annoying it is when you go to a cooking website and there's a photo of every step as if you need to know what two cups of flour in a bowl look like? Well, that's how every recipe is except the pictures and the font are really small and there's no "just show me the recipe" to page down to. Mostly, the list of ingredients are on one page and the instructions are on the next two or three. There are also several pages dedicated to her husband and kids (not many cows, horses or landscapes this time) and there's a full page picture of her recently deceased dog with a full page original poem about him opposite. For rabid fans only.

I also checked out The Smitten Kitchen Every Day and liked it much, much more. She cuts right to the chase instead of page after page of what kind of pans, equipment and pantry items you should have and she includes everything from meals to snacks to desserts plus a drink or two. Lovely pictures of everything on heavy paper. Again, ingredients on one page, method on another which bugs so my plan is to go to the website and download as many of the recipes I like as I can print. Fancy food that looks not so hard to make. Recommended!

Edited November 27, 2017 by Qoass

[Athena]

25 minutes ago, Qoass said:

I also checked out The Smitten Kitchen Every Day and liked it much, much more. She cuts right to the chase instead of page after page of what kind of pans, equipment and pantry items you should have and she includes everything from meals to snacks to desserts plus a drink or two. Lovely pictures of everything on heavy paper. Again, ingredients on one page, method on another which bugs so my plan is to go to the website and download as many of the recipes I like as I can print. Fancy food that looks not so hard to make. Recommended!

I'm still going through it slowly as I own it. I really like the designs of these books and Deb Perelman said that all her books should be able to lay flat on any page so you can use them while cooking. This is a pet peeve I had with other cookbooks but so glad she requested all her books to have that ability. I know a lot North American cookbooks are going metric, but I always appreciated how Smitten Kitchen blog and her books are very aware of it as well.

[EllieH]

10 hours ago, Qoass said:

I also checked out The Smitten Kitchen Every Day and liked it much, much more.

I'm waiting on this one from our local library, looking forward to it!

[Qoass]

Quote

Deb Perelman said that all her books should be able to lay flat on any page so you can use them while cooking. This is a pet peeve I had with other cookbooks but so glad she requested all her books to have that ability. 

OT/ I keep a pants hanger in my kitchen so I can clip a book open without it flopping shut.

[Mittengirl]

My library system has an online magazine database (RBDigital) where you can access the digital issues of many magazines through an app.    I can read Taste of Home, AllRecipes, Simple & Delicious, Saveur, Rachel Ray Everyday (or something like that), Food Network magazine, Cooks Country, Cooks Illustrated and a couple of others that escape me at the moment.  You can even read back issues on some titles.

[Giselle]

If you collect cookbooks like my mother did and I still do I would recommend putting a list of your collection on your phone. It's handy when you're at a store or a  library's bookshop.

More than once I've bought "doubles",  also  be careful because sometimes an earlier book is reissued as part of a compilation. For example the Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking combines two of her earlier cookbooks.

[caitmcg]

On 1/6/2019 at 11:35 PM, Giselle said:

If you collect cookbooks like my mother did and I still do I would recommend putting a list of your collection on your phone. It's handy when you're at a store or a  library's bookshop.

More than once I've bought "doubles",  also  be careful because sometimes an earlier book is reissued as part of a compilation. For example the Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking combines two of her earlier cookbooks.

In the Hazan case, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking does combine Classic Italian Cooking and More Classic Italian. but she edited a number of the recipes, changing ingredient ratios and such so they're not exactly the same as in the earlier books. 

I have a bunch of cookbooks, both in paper and ebook (I don't love using them in ebook form, but it's hard to resist snapping up a book I'm interested in when it's selling for only a few bucks), and I use Eat Your Books to catalog them. It's a pay service, but it is super useful for keeping track of and making the most of cookbooks because you can search your bookshelf for recipes using a variety of criteria, and organize them in various ways. Even without a membership, you can use it to browse through or search the recipe titles and main ingredients of indexed books and blogs, access recipes online, and read people's recipe notes. They have a ton of giveaways, too. Here is my personal bookshelf.

[Giselle]

1 hour ago, caitmcg said:

In the Hazan case, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking does combine Classic Italian Cooking and More Classic Italian. but she edited a number of the recipes, changing ingredient ratios and such so they're not exactly the same as in the earlier books. 

I have a bunch of cookbooks, both in paper and ebook (I don't love using them in ebook form, but it's hard to resist snapping up a book I'm interested in when it's selling for only a few bucks), and I use Eat Your Books to catalog them. It's a pay service, but it is super useful for keeping track of and making the most of cookbooks because you can search your bookshelf for recipes using a variety of criteria, and organize them in various ways. Even without a membership, you can use it to browse through or search the recipe titles and main ingredients of indexed books and blogs, access recipes online, and read people's recipe notes. They have a ton of giveaways, too. Here is my personal bookshelf.

So true. I have the Hazan books mentioned. After I buy a cookbook I'll also, after a year or so, check online to see if there were any errors or changes.

I've gotta look into "Eat Your Books".  That is so cool 

I saw so many in your "bookshelf"  list that are also on my bookshelf in my office.

[hanny isabel]

Good food is one of life’s great pleasures, and good health is one of our greatest gifts.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is pleased to present

Keep the Beat

Recipes: Deliciously Healthy Dinners.

This cookbook—the first in a new series—shows how to prepare and enjoy tasty recipes that are good for your heart and your health.

[ebk57]

Maida Heatter died yesterday.  I highly recommend any of her cookbooks.  I have 4 or 5 of them and really...dessert is a wonderful thing!

[wilsie]

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/maida-heatter-died  She was 102, only a few months from 103.  This is a really good article about her and her long life.

14 hours ago, ebk57 said:

Maida Heatter died yesterday.  I highly recommend any of her cookbooks.  I have 4 or 5 of them and really...dessert is a wonderful thing!

[annzeepark914]

I checked out Prune, by Gabrielle Hamilton, from the library and just started perusing the recipes. I got to softshell crabs where she instructs one to "snip off eyes & gills of live crabs". & that's when I shut the book. I love to cook & try new recipes. Love to read cookbooks. But this was a major turnoff for me. 

[chessiegal]

I'm not a fan of softshell crabs - in these parts they are served when the crabs are shedding their shells, with parts you wouldn't want to eat already removed. I like my crab cooked and cleanly picked in a crab cake sandwich.

[caitmcg]

On 6/11/2019 at 3:10 PM, annzeepark914 said:

I checked out Prune, by Gabrielle Hamilton, from the library and just started perusing the recipes. I got to softshell crabs where she instructs one to "snip off eyes & gills of live crabs". & that's when I shut the book. I love to cook & try new recipes. Love to read cookbooks. But this was a major turnoff for me. 

As far as I can tell, that's pretty much par for the course as far as directions for prepping soft-shell crab goes. If you're still in search of reasons to be put off Prune, how about that IT HAS NO INDEX. Or, there's that recipe for "dead celery" that sounds resourceful till you realize it requires pounds and pounds of expensive meat. (Good luck finding it, what with the book having no index.) I'm sure Hamilton is a great chef, but her book went back to the library without my trying a recipe. I do have friends who swear the salt and pepper pork chop technique is worth the price of the book, however.

[Giselle]

On 7/27/2017 at 11:55 AM, Mindthinkr said:

My SIL recently made something out of this world (Vegetarian) and she said that she uses this cookbook for healthy recipes. If you don't mind the language it's actually a very funny read as well as having good recipes. I bought one for myself and 2 others for friends. 

Thug Kitchen (Eat like You Give a Fvck) 

We all love it and use it often. 

Glad you enjoy using it.

I checked this out if the library but gave up on it and didn't bother with it.

I don't mind foul language and I do use it, but in this book it was stupidly and childishly used to extreme unnecessary excess. It reminded me of a child cussing hoping to be seen as cool and looking utterly ridiculous. 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Giselle
Gotta finish making pork Skewers.