The value of cookbooks

With the advent of the internet and the increasingly available food websites, cookbooks seem less and less necessary. I mean, who needs to buy a paper copy of something when you can easily do a search for recipes that use the ingredients you have in your fridge? Or watch how a recipe is created on YouTube? You'd need a dozen cookbooks to get the twelve different recipes you can find on one website for your annual Christmas party.

Well, I've got the dozen. And then some.

I guess you could call me a cookbook collector. I've met other cookbook collectors, and we all collect a little differently. Some collect for value, seeking out old and antique cookbooks. Others are looking for beautiful coffee-table books to read and display. Some simply want every cookbook they can get their hands on.

Me, I like the ones that offer something different. I want one of each. One from every country, one for every different kind of food (like pies, ice-cream, bread, pizza, wraps...you get the idea). There's just one rule to stay on my cookbook shelf: I have to actually use the cookbook. If I keep skipping the cookbook because the food never looks appealing, or I've learned from sad experience that no one in my family enjoys the recipes, that cookbook gets donated. I consider my collection very selective and useful.

But why, you may wonder. Why have all those cookbooks taking up space when I could find everything online?

The internet is a wonderful thing, and I use to peruse it a lot before I began collecting cookbooks. I'd find a recipe and print it out, and then paste it into a book where I pasted all the recipes I cut out off of boxes and out of magazines. Because I like to have my recipes in hard copy. I like to change the amounts and the increments. I like to substitute ingredients. I like to write down on the recipe what I liked and what I did it and how many times I've made it.

I'm not patient enough to do that with the internet.

I'm always glad for the internet if I'm in a hurry or looking for something particular. But I'm not likely to give up cookbooks anytime soon.

What are your thoughts on cookbooks? Do you have any? Do you use them?

Tastefully,

Tamara

My Credibility as a Chef

So, you might wonder, what qualifies me to consider myself a cook? A foodie? An expert? What's my professional training?

I have none.

Probably doesn't surprise you, right? I bet most of us don't have any professional training. Don't ask me the best way to cut an onion, because my way might not be the correct way. I'm self-taught. (Unless you count the awesome semester of home-ec I had in seventh grade. I hear they don't even offer that class anymore. That's where I learned the awesome caramel apple ice-cream topping I still use to this day. Too bad the sewing part didn't stick with me better.)

Sure, I dabbled around in the kitchen as a kid, but I headed off to college with no real knowledge of cooking. My mom gave me my first cookbook as a graduation present:

I looked through it, said thanks, and really didn't plan on using it. At all.

And I didn't. Not my freshman year, anyway. Who had time for cooking? I mastered the art of ramen and opening a can of soup. 

Until suddenly one day, I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't eat another meal of Suddenly Pasta or smell the simmer of ramen noodles again. I emptied my cupboards of all those ready-made meals and cracked open that cookbook. And started cooking.

My first meals involved burnt pork chops and dried out chicken. My roommates were my guinea pigs and it was often a big fat FAIL. But I discovered something: I loved this. I didn't want to make the same dish over and over again. I loved the adventure of creating something new, the surprise of an untried recipe and the expectation of a novelty meal.

I've been addicted ever since then.

So I'm nothing special. I have no special training. I might watch a YouTube video here and again on how to cook spaghetti squash or how to peel a mango, but mostly I just try. Sometimes I get it wrong, but these days, I usually get it right. 

What's my point? I like to compare myself to the rat on Ratatouille. Anyone can cook. I can do it. So can you. Cooking does not have to be a drudgery, but it can be something fun to look forward to. (Cleaning's the drudgery. Don't agree with me? I'll cook for you and you can clean for me. Done deal.) It's my big stress reliever at the end of every day.

What does cooking do for you? Do you enjoy it? How did you get started?

Tastefully,

Tamara

Menu planning week of May 18

Time to plan the weekly menu again! This week I wasn't lucky enough to get a basket loaded with fresh produce (I will again on Friday), but I've still got lots of things in my fridge to work with. Including various leftovers from last week's meals!

From the fridge, I'll be making meals with the leftover beans, the pasta, and the corn relish.

The cookbooks I'll be using for new meals are Quick Soups, Simple Salada (QSSS), a cookbook put out by Cooking Club of America. My sister gave it to me several years ago, and I've loved almost everything I've made from it.

The other one I'll be using is Grilling Surf and Turf (GSAT), a book put out by CharBroil Grills. I don't own such a grill, just a normal charcoal one. But I've not had any problem adapting the recipes to work with my grill.

Monday: Bean soup

Tuesday: Chicken alfredo

Wednesday: Brats with corn relish and nachos

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Dad's night to cook

Saturday: Salmon and salsa (GSAT), potato planks (GSAT), Strawberry pie (GSAT)

Sunday: lamb salad (QSSS)

What looks good? Did you try anything from last week? What cookbooks are inspiring you this week? Share your thoughts!

Tastefully,

Tamara 

Bunuelos and flounder

Tonight's dinner was me making due with what I had in my fridge. I had a bag of frozen flounder, some canned corn relish, tons of broccoli, and bunuelos I started and never finished for our Cinco de Mayo party last week.

Let's start with the stir-fried broccoli.

The recipe called for 8 oz. of broccoli thinly sliced, then added to a tablespoon of olive oil and sauteed for four minutes before adding a tablespoon of soy sauce and serving.

Very easy. But it also tasted rather salty to me. My kids loved it (but they do like salt). I, on the other hand, thought it would have tasted better sauteed in olive oil and garlic.

The fish was my favorite part of the meal. I lined two baking pans with tin foil to make clean up easy, and then laid the fish in one row over the tin foil. I didn't measure the olive oil, but I generously waved the bottle over them. I like to buy the flavored extra virgin olive oil, and this one was cilantro and onion. So yummy. But regular olive oil would work just as well.

On top of that I sprinkled crushed sea salt. Finally I scattered about a tablespoon of corn relish over the fish. I made the corn relish, which you could do, or just cook up some corn and bell peppers to sprinkle over the fish.

I put the whole mixture in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. It came out smelling wonderful and my kids loved it.

I served the whole thing with rice, and the plates made a beautiful presentation, but I forgot to take any pictures before the kids demolished them. Sorry, still getting used to this whole photographing every step thing.

On to dessert. The one thing I usually get right in a meal is dessert. But remember the post about the koi cupcakes? I'm not so big on looks. It's all about taste.

So bunuelos are little Mexican fritters. You make the dough, refrigerate it, then  divide it up and fry it.

For some reason the recipe I was following had me flatten my bunuelos into a disk and then make an indentation with my thumb. Other recipes I've checked leave the whole thing in a ball, but I thought, "Okay, I'll do what I'm told."

They fried up nicely. Floated to the top and turned a nice golden color when done, just like the recipe said they would.

But then I ran into a problem. I spent the weekend baking for a wedding reception, and I used every last teaspoon of white sugar. Wow. No cook should ever be without white sugar. I figured, not a problem, I'll just use my brown sugar.

It's a problem. The brown sugar didn't stick to the bunuelos. At all. I even tried smashing it on.

But I carried on with the recipe and poured honey over the top and they were super tasty. Just not super pretty. I'm not showing you the final picture because on camera they look like chicken nuggets. And, well, they're not.

I don't think I'd make them again unless it's for a party. They were a lot of work. It did, however, make 48 of them. My kids will be taking bunuelos to lunch for the rest of the week.

Have a great day!

Tastefully,

Tamara