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Cookbook Project, Books #34 and 35
Mar. 31st, 2009 02:36 pm"Great American Cookbook From Your Favorite Brand Name Companies"
This was another holiday present from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flakra, who understood exactly what benefits came with living with my boyfriend. It sounds cheesy and mediocre, but this one actually has some seriously decent recipes - it's not the usual collection of canned junk food dumped in a pot or a casserole dish and baked until the ingredients are indistinguishable. I figure this is at least in part because the brand name ingredients are things like chicken, or chocolate, or soy sauce, instead of canned green beans or crescent rolls.
Anyway, I've used this book at least a few times before, and had good luck with it. It's not an everyday go-to staple, but it's not one I hide at the back of the shelf in shame, either. And the recipe for Tortellini with Three-Cheese Tuna Sauce sounded interesting enough to try.
It was surprisingly good, too. Kind of like a slightly upscale tuna-noodle casserole, but made on the stovetop so that it only took about 15 minutes start-to-finish, and a good way to use pantry staples. It's not about to replace my favorite quick tuna pasta recipe (Cook's Illustrated's Tuna Sauce with Capers, which I would eat every day in the summer if I could), but it's still a keeper.
"Cooking for 1 or 2," Taste of Home
I mentioned earlier that, until recently, I've been a pretty loyal Taste of Home subscriber. Their recipes are usually... good. Not necessarily great or classy, but useful. And this is a collection of their recipes, that I think we got as a stocking stuffer fromumbran's parents a few years ago. I don't think I'd ever used it before, but I was looking for a quick dinner option that wouldn't load us down with too many leftovers, and it seemed like a good place to look.
Unfortunately, the Chicken Red Pepper Saute was a lot better in theory than it was in practice. It was easy and quick enough to make, sure, and the technique was a good one that I'll probably use again, but the food itself was bland beyond belief. I'm tempted to make it again, but triple the amount of lemon pepper, add some salt, and maybe another clove or two of garlic, and see if it goes from 'edible' to 'actually tasty.' Meanwhile, while this book isn't quite ready to be tossed, it's definitely not going into major rotation.
Now all I need is a few minutes to sit down and plan out meals for the rest of the week. So far, the past four days have been a series of plans failing to survive their first encounter with reality....
This was another holiday present from
flakra, who understood exactly what benefits came with living with my boyfriend. It sounds cheesy and mediocre, but this one actually has some seriously decent recipes - it's not the usual collection of canned junk food dumped in a pot or a casserole dish and baked until the ingredients are indistinguishable. I figure this is at least in part because the brand name ingredients are things like chicken, or chocolate, or soy sauce, instead of canned green beans or crescent rolls.Anyway, I've used this book at least a few times before, and had good luck with it. It's not an everyday go-to staple, but it's not one I hide at the back of the shelf in shame, either. And the recipe for Tortellini with Three-Cheese Tuna Sauce sounded interesting enough to try.
It was surprisingly good, too. Kind of like a slightly upscale tuna-noodle casserole, but made on the stovetop so that it only took about 15 minutes start-to-finish, and a good way to use pantry staples. It's not about to replace my favorite quick tuna pasta recipe (Cook's Illustrated's Tuna Sauce with Capers, which I would eat every day in the summer if I could), but it's still a keeper.
"Cooking for 1 or 2," Taste of Home
I mentioned earlier that, until recently, I've been a pretty loyal Taste of Home subscriber. Their recipes are usually... good. Not necessarily great or classy, but useful. And this is a collection of their recipes, that I think we got as a stocking stuffer from
umbran's parents a few years ago. I don't think I'd ever used it before, but I was looking for a quick dinner option that wouldn't load us down with too many leftovers, and it seemed like a good place to look.Unfortunately, the Chicken Red Pepper Saute was a lot better in theory than it was in practice. It was easy and quick enough to make, sure, and the technique was a good one that I'll probably use again, but the food itself was bland beyond belief. I'm tempted to make it again, but triple the amount of lemon pepper, add some salt, and maybe another clove or two of garlic, and see if it goes from 'edible' to 'actually tasty.' Meanwhile, while this book isn't quite ready to be tossed, it's definitely not going into major rotation.
Now all I need is a few minutes to sit down and plan out meals for the rest of the week. So far, the past four days have been a series of plans failing to survive their first encounter with reality....
