We're gearing up for the big Summer Grilling Kickoff also known more formally as Memorial Day Weekend, shaking off grill covers, scouring down grill grates, and of course, flipping through collections of recipes for everything from barbecue meats to side dishes like potato salad and corn on the cob. Many of us will be turning to modern grillmasters like Steven Raichlen and Bobby Flay, but I'll have you know that the real secrets of barbecue are in a gem of a cookbook that came my way a few weeks ago: Better Homes and Gardens Barbecue Cookbook, published in 1956.
Now, I don't usually rely too heavily on cookbooks to begin with, and books from the likes of Better Homes and Gardens, even less so. However, when I started flipping through the pages of this book that my Mom gave me after salvaging from her neighbor's garage sale the week before, I told myself that at some point, I would have to fry corndogs, shove the ends of their sticks into a head of cabbage, hollow out the center and fill it with sauce, and serve the alien platter of "Broncos" to my family at our next "elegant tail gate."
All of course, while wearing a red and white dress with puffed sleeves wider than a doorway, to balance the 22" waistline.
There are photos of some choice illustrations, menus, serving suggestions, and recipes (for "Instant Coffee!") in the gallery:
The official start of Summer is rapidly approaching. That means it's nearly time for trips to the beach, backyard cookouts and lots of homemade ice cream (preferably eaten outside with friends and family). Whether you've got a hand crank ice cream maker, one that attaches to your stand mixer or a fancy one with its own compressor, you can always use some fresh ice cream inspiration.
That's where Sally Sampson's new book Recipe of the Week: Ice Cream comes in. As the title suggests, Sampson has written a fresh recipe for every week of the year, making it possible for you to always be experimenting with new recipes, while still going back to your favorites. She has included recipes for ice cream, granitas and gelatos in the book, so no matter what your preference, there's something here for you.
One of the nice things here is that Sampson has worked to lower the amount of sugar in her recipes over more traditional ice cream recipes, so if you are one without a strong sweet tooth, you may find this book particularly appealing. The only problem I've found with this volume is that Sampson doesn't give any advice as to how to go about choosing an ice cream maker if you don't already have one. She assumed a certain level of prior knowledge, which is good for someone with ice cream experience, but isn't particularly helpful for the novice.
However, if you are excited for fresh ice cream inspiration and you have a bit of ice cream making experience, I would recommend this book without hesitation.
I've something of a crush on Molly O'Neill since I read her autobiography, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food and Baseball a couple of years ago. She communicates a love of and respect for food that is unlike many other writers I've encountered. So, when I came across a copy of her book, A Well-Seasoned Appetite at my library's used bookstore, I added it to towering stack in my arms.
Published in 1995, it was one of the first of the current crop of cookbooks to combine recipes and essays in this manner, and to organize them by season. She starts with Spring and moves forward through the seasons, allowing for those challenging in between times by including shorter sections devoted to the times of year when it is nearly Summer, but just not quite.
For those of us who always want more with our recipes--more information, more notes and more detail as to how the recipe came into being, then this is a wonderful book to have in the collection. There's not a single recipe in here that doesn't satisfy that desire for more. The only problem I've discovered in reading it is that after just two or three pages, I am absolutely ravenous and in need of instantaneous sustenance (preferably whatever I had just been reading about). Most of the time I have to satisfy my cravings with an apple or a handful of pretzels. I'm hoping that soon, I'll instead get to sate my hunger with her Spinach with Garlic and Lemon or the Sour Cherry Crumble.
First published in 1971, The Pauper's Cookbook continues to be relevant today, especially in these times when we're all trying to make our food dollar stretch to cover increasing food costs (I went to a local bakery yesterday to buy some sandwich bread, and nearly had a heart attack. They were selling half loaves of my bread for $4.95. In the past, I would be able to get a full loaf of that bread for $3.75).
Written by Jocasta Innes, this book came to be when she couldn't find the cookbook she wanted in her local bookstores. She says, "It stood to reason that there must be a good few other people in my situation, trying to conjure good food from limited cash, battered old pots and pans and kitchens more nightmarish than dream. What a blessing for us all such a book would be, I thought, and waited for some highly qualified expert to leap in and write it." When no expert stepped up, she traveled into the void herself, creating a highly readable and deeply useful cookbook.
The book is written in a narrative style, without the traditional recipe formatting that we are all used to. However, instead of being frustrating, it makes for an entertaining read and easy experience, almost like having a friend or relative talk you through the steps of the dish.
The recipes are divided into sections entitled, Standards (which include soups, sauces, cheap veggie dishes, some eggs and classic British comfort foods), Padding (lots of rice, barley, oats and beans), Fast Work (just as it says, a section devoted to getting a meal on the table quickly), Programmed Eating (menu suggestions), Fancy Work (dishes that will impress), Dieting on a Budget (keeping your calories and budget low) and Private Enterprise (jams, jellies, marmalades and quick breads).
It's a fun little book, especially if you are someone living in the US who has a weakness for British cookery writing.
I think the easiest way to describe Sam Zien and his new cookbook, Sam the Cooking Guy is by saying that he seems to be the male equivalent of Rachael Ray (back before RR exploded all over daytime television and Dunkin' Donuts commercials). He says he's not a chef, just wants to help the average person get dinner on the table and dreams up crazy/quirky names for his dishes. Before you think this comparison to be damning, I want to remind you all that back in the early days RR made some good food and really helped people think about skipping the drive through in order to make dinner at home.
And, if you're looking for that elusive cookbook, the one that is entertaining to read and offers some easy to follow and tasty recipes, then this could be a good one to check out. The book contains 126 recipes, which would keep you cooking for quite a while. He's a big fan of those pre-cooked deli chickens, pre-baked pizza crusts and ready-to-eat bacon, so he's not for those people who like to do things from scratch, but for the "quick and easy crowd" he might just be the new, hottest thing.
In the days before the internet, cooking shows had to figure out an easy way for viewers to get a hold of the recipes featured on their programs. There was typically an address that one could write to to obtain the recipes. Alternately, they would leave the ingredient list and instructions up on the screen for some time at some point during the program, so that a quick transcriptionist could hurriedly jot them down. Sometimes, the only option for the viewer was to take notes while watching (my Aunt Doris always watched Julia Child with steno pad and pencil in hand).
This book, Julia Child and Company, was something of a revolution. Printed in 1978, it came out at the very same time as Child's show of the same name began to air. That way, viewers could watch the show at leisure, unworried about catching every nuance of the recipe as they knew they'd have Child's clear and careful written instructions to reference later on. Now, thirty years later, we can't follow along with the series, but we can still utilize the recipes in the book.
It is organized by menu, which is fun in that you can see just how Child would have served a meal (it's not just French food in this volume, she incorporates a variety of cultural favorites). However, if you don't want to recreate an entire show's worth of food, you do have to poke around a bit more to find what you're looking for. If you're a fan of Child and want another opportunity to "hear" her calm, helpful voice in the kitchen, this is a good book to add to your collection.
Most of the time, when I sit down in front of my shelf of cookbooks, I reach for smaller volumes that I can quickly page through in my search for the recipe that will satiate my hunger. However, on occasion, what I most want is a hefty cookbook, with lots of pictures and description that help me imagine just how good the food will taste when it's on my plate.
Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes by Jeanne Kelley, is one of those hefty, satisfying cookbooks (far more of a banquet than a snack) that you'll want to keep out on the kitchen table, to flip through for inspiration and culinary motivation. Written with an eye towards seasonality (although what new cookbook doesn't take local and seasonal foods into account these days), the recipes are written to best highlight foods that ripen and grow at the same times of year.
In addition to containing an abundance of tasty-looking recipes, this book also devotes several pages to instruction on how to start your own backyard garden. It is the perfect thing to get you excited for the spring and summer growing and cooking season.
Back in January, when I first started this project to revive the Cookbook of the Day feature, one of the very first books I featured was the Farmhouse Cookbook, by Susan Herrmann Loomis. I had picked it up at a thrift store and fallen in love with the way that the author had captured local, fresh, direct-from-the-farm cooking. Commenters on that post mentioned that she had written other cookbooks and that Loomis also had her own cooking school in France. Intrigued, I started looking around for copies of her other work, picking up the Italian Farmhouse Cookbook (surely to be featured here someday) and her memoir, On Rue Tatin.
It's On Rue Tatin that I want to spotlight here today. It took me several months after buying my copy before I actually found the time to read it, but once I started I became totally engrossed. It combines many of my favorite things: stories of exploring new places, old houses and the challenges of making them livable and lots and lots of food and cooking. Each chapter is followed by three or four or five recipes that were previously mentioned in the text. Reading them is nearly as good as reading the rest of the book, as she always includes a description of where the recipe came from and the situations during which her family has eaten that meal.
As someone who lives in a modern apartment building, in the middle of a big city, where farmers markets don't start until May, and the clerks at the corner convenience market are surly and decidedly unhelpful, I loved the opportunity for interior travel that reading this book allowed me. If you long to exist in a food world different from the one you know, this book will give you a chance to do that, even if it's only for a brief while.
I have something of a crush on Marion Cunningham. I love her Lost Recipes book and I often flip through my edition of Fannie Farmer, just to read her down-to-earth, wise words about cooking (and by extension, family and home). She is on my list of food writers with whom I would love to sit and talk (I would do most of the listening), as she has experienced the entirety of the modern-day food revolution.
Last Saturday, I found myself in a used bookstore and as I skimmed the food section, Cunningham's The Breakfast Book nearly jumped off the shelf and landed straight in my hands. At $4.50, it was a bargain and I do believe that it will pay dividends for years to come. It is chock full of recipes that work for everyday morning meals (the Cereals section will help you happily shake up your basic oatmeal routine) as well as ones that are better for special brunches and holiday celebrations (Featherbed Eggs on page 159, a baked dish of bread, custard and cheese that is similar to a Strata, is destined for my next festive brunch).
The Quick Breads section alone makes the book worthwhile, especially since that section is filled with recipes that appeal to people trying to increase their whole grain intake (I can't wait to try the Buttermilk Barley Biscuits). I realize that I've waxed poetic about a great many cookbooks and that you all can't possibly incorporate all of them into your collection. However, if you are a particular lover of breakfast, this is a book you must look over.
For years, James McNair was known as the master of single subject cookbooks. Throughout the eighties and nineties, he published volume after slim, well-photographed volume of cookbooks that each focused on a particular variety of food. Then, towards the end of the twentieth century, he took the best recipes from each of those small books and put them together into one, very large, very comprehensive book.
Clocking in at over 600 pages, James McNair's Favorites is full up with great recipes. It starts out with Breakfasts and Appetizers, and then continues with sections entitled Moving On, Big Adventures (full of food from all around the world), Along the Way (breads, condiments and other bits and pieces), Sweet Endings and finally, the Back to Basics section. It also has a bunch of glossy picture pages and lots of notes from McNair, in an appealing and helpful voice.
If you have one or two of McNair's single subject books and enjoy them, then this is a great book for you. Additionally, if you want a big book with recipes from an assortment of cultures, countries and ethnicities, then this would make a terrific addition to your cookbook library.
When I was growing up in Los Angeles, we lived down the street from one of the very first Trader Joe's (Eagle Rock). My family moved up to Portland when I was nine and one of the things that we all missed most was Trader Joe's. My parents, sister and I were all thrilled when the expanded north to Portland. These days I am lucky to live three blocks from the Center City Philly Trader Joe's and do more than half of my grocery shopping there.
I know that there are many folks out there who practically live at their local Trader Joe's and now there's a cookbook expressly for them. Written by Dana Gunn and Wona Miniati, Cooking with all Things Trader Joe's, offers more than 250 pages of recipes and photos in which all the dishes are made with ingredients from TJ's. Their theory is that we could all cook tasty and beautiful meals, if only we hand someone to help with the prep. Trader Joe's becomes your sous chef and these recipes makes it possible to create an array of dishes using just a few things straight off the shelves.
It's a fun book, with lots of big, colorful pictures and easy to understand recipes. It would make a great gift for a new cook or someone who doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook (most of the recipes come together really quickly). For those of you who are thinking about getting yourself a copy, the authors have a special deal to offer Slashfood readers. If you buy it from their website, you can get $5 off if you input the code SLASH5 when you're checking out (this offer is good through April 31st).
When Hip Kosher first crossed my path, I looked at it and thought, "Well, that's one I can skip, because I don't keep kosher." But I picked it up anyway and started to flip through. In the introduction, a few of the author's words caught my eye. She says, "You don't have to Jewish to eat or cook kosher food." I realized she was correct and so kept reading. I'm really glad I did, because this is a really nice cookbook, with lots of terrific recipes for all cooks.
One of the things I find appealing about this book is that it contains a good blend of vegetarian and omnivorous recipes. It would be a terrific book to have in your arsenal if some members of your family don't eat meat, while a few still do. You can flip between a protein and fiber rich dish like the Quinoa Salad with Beans, Corn and Peppers and Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tomatoes and Honey.
There is nothing dated or sacrificial about this book. It contains a whole bunch of herb-infused, well-spiced modern dishes that would please just about any cook out there.
101 Cookbooks was one of the very first blogs I started reading, way back in the fall of 2004, when I was first discovering the wonderful world of the blogosphere. I was thrilled when Heidi released her gorgeously photographed and thoughtfully written book, Super Natural Cooking, in 2007.
If you're looking for a way to incorporate more whole grains into your diet (as all the studies say you should), this is a great book to turn to. Not only are there lots of recipes that include whole grains (as well as natural sweeteners, super foods and greens), Heidi is careful to tell include an exhaustive section that details the benefits, cooking times and flavor palates of the different grains that she uses.
If that bowl of soup on the cover of the book looks tasty to you, you're in luck, as the recipe for it appeared on Design*Sponge a couple of weeks ago. It's for Spring Minestrone (how appropriate!) and sounds delicious.
Before I spent a year living with an Indian roommate, I had always though of Indian food as something you only ate in a restaurant. I was intimidated by the spices, the toasting and grinding, and the general foreignness of it. However living with Madhu for 11 months made me far more comfortable with Indian food, and when he moved out, I decided that I needed to get an Indian cookbook to continue my education.
Standing in the aisles of the bookstore, I settled on this volume, Quick & Easy Indian Cooking, by the first lady of Indian cookbooks, Madhur Jaffrey. I've found this book to be totally accessible and written in a voice that invites you to continue reading, even after you've studied the recipe you're planning for that moment. Everything I've made has turned out well and has been so delicious that I was momentarily stunned that I had produced it in my own kitchen. If you want to explore Indian cooking, this book is a great starting place.
I am a big fan of cooking in a slow cooker. I mentioned in this post that I have four slow cookers in graduated sizes for when I want to cook a little bit or a lot. I love that I can pop something into the pot and set it to cook overnight while I sleep (I often do this with chicken stock or a turkey breast).
I love this little cookbook called Crockery Cookery (there's something very pleasant about saying that out loud), written by Mable Hoffman. It was first published in 1975, when the slow cooking trend first started to sweep the nation. It contains recipes, tips, tricks and a guide to all slow cookers that were available in 1975 (not particularly helpful these days, but an interesting blast from the past).
My copy has a receipt in it from a Salvation Army Thrift Shop from 1983, marking the recipe for Turkey Tetrazzini. It uses canned mushrooms, but other than that calls for fresh veggies and good ingredients, showing me that not all recipes from the seventies are a wasteland of processed ingredients and horrible chemicals.
Have you ever stashed a Coke in the freezer, hoping to chill it quickly, then forgotten all about it, only to have it explode all over your frozen peas?
First published in 1971, 
I think the easiest way to describe 
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Before I spent a year living with an Indian roommate, I had always though of Indian food as something you only ate in a restaurant. I was intimidated by the spices, the toasting and grinding, and the general foreignness of it. However living with Madhu for 11 months made me far more comfortable with Indian food, and when he moved out, I decided that I needed to get an Indian cookbook to continue my education. 
I am a big fan of cooking in a slow cooker. 
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
