#11 – Stuff Cookbooks Have Taught Me
So thinking of Stuff Books Have Taught Me, cookbooks actually come to mind. I *love* cooking! I suppose it was actually my mom who taught me much of the stuff I know about cooking (she used to cook & bake with me and my sister all the time when we were little), but the recipes came from cookbooks or magazine (remember, this was in the ancient pre-Internet times1).
My go-to cookbook for the basics is The Good Housekeeping Cookbook. It’s got all the basics in it and is easy to grab when you want to look up something simple, like chocolate chip cookies or how long to hard boil an egg for2. Other cookbooks I own include:
- The Looneyspoons cookbook3
- One by some chef dude (the name of who escapes me at the moment and I’m not at home so I can’t just look on my shelf) from which I learned this important lesson: Add lots of spices to your cooking. Add spices until you think you’ve added too many spices. Then add some more spices. Then it will rock.
- An Indian fusion one that my friends Shalu, Daniela and Jenny gave me one year for my birthday.
- Another Indian vegetarian one that Shalu gave me. But try as I might, no matter how closely I follow the recipes, I never seem to be able to make Indian food that tastes anywhere near as good as Shalu’s. And Shalu’s mom. Omg, Shalu’s mom is the best cook in the entire world! I need her to teach me how to cook!
- Every Canadian Living Christmas recipe magazine ever. My mom sends them to me every year. Three of my go-to recipes (bean & salsa phyllo5 triangles, chocolate truffles shaped like mice and cupcakes that look like reindeers) come from these magazines.
Recently Tod got the Rebar Cookbook from his mom4 and we made some *awesome* spinach rice from there. It was so freaking delicious. Mmm… I could go for some of that right now!
1Come to think of it, I don’t even know why people buy cookbooks anymore.
2And I seem to have a serious mental block, for some reason, on remembering how long to boil an egg.
3Thanks Tod’s Mom!
4Which inexplicably calls for *chicken* stock in all of its “vegetarian” recipes. Despite the fact that the cookbook itself includes a recipe for homemade *vegetable* stock. FAIL!
5Does anyone know if the correct pronuciation of this is “feel-lo” or “file-lo”?
Don’t forget to Read about the charity that I’m supporting, Options for Sexual Health!
Comments |3|
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Tags: BETH HUNGRY!, Blogathon, Blogathon 2009, Blogathon Vancouver 2009, cookbooks, food
I still like cookbooks, though I do dig up recipes online. I have three (yes, three) of the almanac style ones and to date, Good Housekeeping is my least favourite of the three. In order, I like:
1) The Joy of Cooking
2) Betty Crocker (mostly for baking)
3) GH
Oh, TJoC. It's so, so awesome. I have yet to get a bad recipe from there. My Dad gave it to my Mom back in 1971 (the Xmas before they were married and she wanted a cookbook) based on a recommendation from the home economist who ran the General Foods Test Kitchen. Some of my Mom's best stuff came from there, and I have the 2006 edition and oh, it's wonderful! It's also very conversational in nature, so it's a fun read.
When this is done, I'll have to pick your brain for essential GH recipes. Mmm…cooking.
I say FEE-low. And we all know I am the authority. On everything. Especially cooking.
wiktionary says FEE-low too: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d…
M-W.com says both, but lists FEE-low first!
Damn, I always say file-lo. Because that's how my mom pronounces it. Maybe I should watch a bunch of cooking shows and see how the great chefs say it.
But not Rachel Ray's show because she drives me batty! Maybe I should watch her show to see how she pronounces it and then pronounce it the opposite way!