![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cookbook Project, Books #24 and 25
Feb. 28th, 2009 08:04 pm"Williams-Sonoma Soup & Stew," Diane Rossen Worthington
This is another of my collection of shiny, beautiful Williams-Sonoma cookbooks, and I think another one that was a Christmas gift from my mom. I remember looking through it with delight and anticipation when I first got it, but to be honest I don't think I've ever used it. Every once in a while I take it out, and look through it, and make notes about recipes I want to try, because soup is one of my true comfort foods, but for some reason I've never quite followed through. This project was the perfect excuse to fix that.
So earlier this week I made Cheddar Cheese Soup with Ale for dinner (bonus points for frugality; this used up the second half of a mega-bottle of beer that we had bought for a previous recipe - for teetotalers, we wind up with an alarming variety of booze in our fridge and pantry).
Yum.
Yum yum yum. Heinously bad for you yum - this is essentially fondue thinned with a little chicken stock - but... oh wow tasty. Now all I need to do is remember to use the darn book again in the future, since picking one recipe out of all the tasty-looking ones in there was almost impossible. There's a Mexican corn chowder that looked delicious, and come garden season I really want to try the summer squash and leek soup, and fish chowder, and tortilla soup....
"Pillsbury Bake-Off 40th Contest"
Don't laugh; there are actually some useful everyday recipes in here. I've got a couple of editions of this, and I've used them all at least once. I am as susceptible to impulse buys in the supermarket as anyone else; I just tend to fall for the little glossy recipe pamphlets instead of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream or the jumbo candy bars.
Okay, sometimes I get the ice cream too.
Anyway, I needed a last-minute side dish to go with the fish cakes my husband picked up for dinner tonight, and after scouring half a dozen other books and not finding many starch options that weren't either potato casseroles that baked for an hour (too long for a quick dinner on a Saturday that I had to work) or fussy risottos (too much work), I broke down and grabbed this book, and found the recipe for Three Cheese Broccoli Couscous.
And it was quick. And easy. And while it is not deathless cuisine art, it was tasty. And it made enough that there are leftovers to go with whatever main dish I put together for Monday, which leaves me a little more freedom to come up with something slightly more intricate.
2 months. 25 cookbooks. Not a bad pace, and I'm still having fun....
This is another of my collection of shiny, beautiful Williams-Sonoma cookbooks, and I think another one that was a Christmas gift from my mom. I remember looking through it with delight and anticipation when I first got it, but to be honest I don't think I've ever used it. Every once in a while I take it out, and look through it, and make notes about recipes I want to try, because soup is one of my true comfort foods, but for some reason I've never quite followed through. This project was the perfect excuse to fix that.
So earlier this week I made Cheddar Cheese Soup with Ale for dinner (bonus points for frugality; this used up the second half of a mega-bottle of beer that we had bought for a previous recipe - for teetotalers, we wind up with an alarming variety of booze in our fridge and pantry).
Yum.
Yum yum yum. Heinously bad for you yum - this is essentially fondue thinned with a little chicken stock - but... oh wow tasty. Now all I need to do is remember to use the darn book again in the future, since picking one recipe out of all the tasty-looking ones in there was almost impossible. There's a Mexican corn chowder that looked delicious, and come garden season I really want to try the summer squash and leek soup, and fish chowder, and tortilla soup....
"Pillsbury Bake-Off 40th Contest"
Don't laugh; there are actually some useful everyday recipes in here. I've got a couple of editions of this, and I've used them all at least once. I am as susceptible to impulse buys in the supermarket as anyone else; I just tend to fall for the little glossy recipe pamphlets instead of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream or the jumbo candy bars.
Okay, sometimes I get the ice cream too.
Anyway, I needed a last-minute side dish to go with the fish cakes my husband picked up for dinner tonight, and after scouring half a dozen other books and not finding many starch options that weren't either potato casseroles that baked for an hour (too long for a quick dinner on a Saturday that I had to work) or fussy risottos (too much work), I broke down and grabbed this book, and found the recipe for Three Cheese Broccoli Couscous.
And it was quick. And easy. And while it is not deathless cuisine art, it was tasty. And it made enough that there are leftovers to go with whatever main dish I put together for Monday, which leaves me a little more freedom to come up with something slightly more intricate.
2 months. 25 cookbooks. Not a bad pace, and I'm still having fun....
