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Cookbook Project, Books #61 and 62
Jun. 7th, 2009 09:15 am"The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines," Jeff Smith
I've been working a lot with pamphlets and commercial books lately, so I wanted to reach back into the actual cookbooks for a little while. This is one of my husband's books, and like the rest of his, I haven't really looked at it. This, as I've been learning, is a tragedy. Glancing through this, there are so many things I want to try. It's a collection of Chinese, Greek, and Roman recipes, and while not all of them are reasonable for a dinner-for-two, many of them sound fascinating and fun.
As I looked through it, though, I kept finding myself drawn to the lamb recipes. We don't use lamb too often, but I do love it, and the recipe we finally decided upon was Souvlaki. I've had it before, but I've never made it. I will again, though - it was delicious, and fairly simple, and the blend of ingredients and flavors was perfect for summer.
"Pillsbury Quick and Easy Bake-Off Contest #39"
I know I said I wanted to get back to actual cookbooks, and I did. I had another book, and another recipe, that I had planned to use as a side dish to go with the souvlaki. Alas, the book, and the recipe, both failed abysmally upon an actual read-through. ('combine green beans, 1 1/2tsp olive oil, and garlic. bring to a boil.')
Since this was the *only* even vaguely edible recipe in the entire book, and it was broken beyond usefulness, the book was tossed unceremoniously into the Books To Be Recycled box - only the second one in this entire project - and I had to scramble to come up with a veggie dish in little to no time.
Luckily, my shiny commercial booklet came to my rescue with "Broccoli Bonanza," which, in spite of its stupid name, is actually a pretty tasty dish, and one that I at least had all of the ingredients for. Broccoli, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and tiny pasta.
I've used this book before, I'll use it again, but this was a good reminder that there are more than just appetizers and main dishes in there.
Incidentally, I have to mention how happy I am to be half of a marriage where we can use the phrase 'nonconsentual monkey suckage' to describe a particularly useless cookbook without either of us scaring the other away.....
I've been working a lot with pamphlets and commercial books lately, so I wanted to reach back into the actual cookbooks for a little while. This is one of my husband's books, and like the rest of his, I haven't really looked at it. This, as I've been learning, is a tragedy. Glancing through this, there are so many things I want to try. It's a collection of Chinese, Greek, and Roman recipes, and while not all of them are reasonable for a dinner-for-two, many of them sound fascinating and fun.
As I looked through it, though, I kept finding myself drawn to the lamb recipes. We don't use lamb too often, but I do love it, and the recipe we finally decided upon was Souvlaki. I've had it before, but I've never made it. I will again, though - it was delicious, and fairly simple, and the blend of ingredients and flavors was perfect for summer.
"Pillsbury Quick and Easy Bake-Off Contest #39"
I know I said I wanted to get back to actual cookbooks, and I did. I had another book, and another recipe, that I had planned to use as a side dish to go with the souvlaki. Alas, the book, and the recipe, both failed abysmally upon an actual read-through. ('combine green beans, 1 1/2tsp olive oil, and garlic. bring to a boil.')
Since this was the *only* even vaguely edible recipe in the entire book, and it was broken beyond usefulness, the book was tossed unceremoniously into the Books To Be Recycled box - only the second one in this entire project - and I had to scramble to come up with a veggie dish in little to no time.
Luckily, my shiny commercial booklet came to my rescue with "Broccoli Bonanza," which, in spite of its stupid name, is actually a pretty tasty dish, and one that I at least had all of the ingredients for. Broccoli, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and tiny pasta.
I've used this book before, I'll use it again, but this was a good reminder that there are more than just appetizers and main dishes in there.
Incidentally, I have to mention how happy I am to be half of a marriage where we can use the phrase 'nonconsentual monkey suckage' to describe a particularly useless cookbook without either of us scaring the other away.....
