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Cookbook Project, Books #120, 121, and 122
Dec. 2nd, 2009 08:57 pm"Great Bread Machine Baking," Marlene Brown
I got my first bread machine as a gift while I was in vet school, and I loved that thing. I've always been a cook and a baker, and while I was in vet school - especially my senior year - I didn't have much time for either. The machine, while not quite as much fun as baking from scratch, at least let me have some semblance of fresh bread. I got this book on deep deep sale at Barnes and Noble, and I think I have used it more than any other one cookbook I own. I have yet to find a recipe from it that doesn't work.
It has been languishing, however, since I graduated. My old bread machine eventually succumbed to old age and overuse, and I have yet to find a machine that works quite as well. Between that, a mismatch of time and energy, and the fact that I manage to squeak in other baking endeavors, I haven't been using the machine nearly as often as I used to - something I realized when I saw that I still had half a shelf of bread machine cookbooks to use for this project.
Easily solved, though. While part of me wanted to hunt down an odd, obscure recipe I haven't used before, I decided to make something both safe (since I'm still learning the ins and outs of our new machine) and useful (since most of the bread I make winds up used for sandwiches), and made a loaf of Sally Lunn bread. It was awesome, like I knew it would be - slightly sweet and rich, good for sandwiches, amazing for toasting. Even if all of the other bread machine books I use turn out to be perfect, this one will always be the first one I reach for, just for recipes like that.
"Caramel Knowledge," Al Sicherman
I admit I bought this book because of the title alone. Well, that and the fact that it promises "...culinary musings for the twisted mind." How could I say no to it? Especially since it was on the half-price rack at a secondhand bookstore?
It's actually a collection of columns from a newspaper food writer. I read through it when I first bought it, and loved it - the guy has a wonderful sense of humor and a writing style that I adore, and most of the articles take the form of theme menus. But somehow I never wound up quite getting around to trying any of the recipes, no matter how odd or interesting they sounded.
Picking one recipe was challenging - while not everything sounded delicious, nearly all of the recipes and/or menus seemed odd and quirky enough to engage my imagination. But I narrowed it down to half a dozen options, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran chose from there, and we wound up making Fettucine With Five Cheeses (from his Digital Theme Dinner, along with Two-Na Appetizer, Three Bean Salad, and Six Legume Soup).
It was *amazing.* Not even vaguely healthy, but rich and delicious and complex and perfect. I would eat this every night, if it wouldn't lead me to an early grave as I turned into a walking (or rolling), talking nugget of cholesterol. A happy one, though. I must try the rest of the recipes. As soon as this project is done.
"Cakes & Tortes," by the Staff Home Economists of the Culinary Arts Institute
This is a little paper booklet - rather like the ancestor of the glossy checkout lane booklets - that I got as a hand-me-down from my mom. I've had it forever, give or take, and I don't think I've ever even looked through it. It's old and smudged and unimpressive-looking, and I think I liberated it from her kitchen just to keep it from being thrown away.
It does, though, have some decent looking recipes in it. Unsurprising, since cake isn't that hard to make tasty, but I'm still glad I rescued it, and it was fun trying to pick out a recipe. Since I had played it safe with the above two recipes, I decided to try something different, and bypassed the standard chocolate cake and angel food cake recipes to make an Applesauce Torte - doubly awesome because we had homemade applesauce waiting to be used up.
It was, unsurprisingly, excellent. The recipe, coming apparently from an era when it was assumed that people had at least some basic baking knowledge of their own, doesn't specify any particular icing - it just tells you to fill and frost "as desired," so I layered it with spiced whipped cream, which was just right. Not too sweet, not too sticky or heavy, and the perfect balance for the flavor and texture of the torte. I will keep this little book forever, if only to remember this one recipe after future years' apple picking expeditions....
I got my first bread machine as a gift while I was in vet school, and I loved that thing. I've always been a cook and a baker, and while I was in vet school - especially my senior year - I didn't have much time for either. The machine, while not quite as much fun as baking from scratch, at least let me have some semblance of fresh bread. I got this book on deep deep sale at Barnes and Noble, and I think I have used it more than any other one cookbook I own. I have yet to find a recipe from it that doesn't work.
It has been languishing, however, since I graduated. My old bread machine eventually succumbed to old age and overuse, and I have yet to find a machine that works quite as well. Between that, a mismatch of time and energy, and the fact that I manage to squeak in other baking endeavors, I haven't been using the machine nearly as often as I used to - something I realized when I saw that I still had half a shelf of bread machine cookbooks to use for this project.
Easily solved, though. While part of me wanted to hunt down an odd, obscure recipe I haven't used before, I decided to make something both safe (since I'm still learning the ins and outs of our new machine) and useful (since most of the bread I make winds up used for sandwiches), and made a loaf of Sally Lunn bread. It was awesome, like I knew it would be - slightly sweet and rich, good for sandwiches, amazing for toasting. Even if all of the other bread machine books I use turn out to be perfect, this one will always be the first one I reach for, just for recipes like that.
"Caramel Knowledge," Al Sicherman
I admit I bought this book because of the title alone. Well, that and the fact that it promises "...culinary musings for the twisted mind." How could I say no to it? Especially since it was on the half-price rack at a secondhand bookstore?
It's actually a collection of columns from a newspaper food writer. I read through it when I first bought it, and loved it - the guy has a wonderful sense of humor and a writing style that I adore, and most of the articles take the form of theme menus. But somehow I never wound up quite getting around to trying any of the recipes, no matter how odd or interesting they sounded.
Picking one recipe was challenging - while not everything sounded delicious, nearly all of the recipes and/or menus seemed odd and quirky enough to engage my imagination. But I narrowed it down to half a dozen options, and
umbran chose from there, and we wound up making Fettucine With Five Cheeses (from his Digital Theme Dinner, along with Two-Na Appetizer, Three Bean Salad, and Six Legume Soup).It was *amazing.* Not even vaguely healthy, but rich and delicious and complex and perfect. I would eat this every night, if it wouldn't lead me to an early grave as I turned into a walking (or rolling), talking nugget of cholesterol. A happy one, though. I must try the rest of the recipes. As soon as this project is done.
"Cakes & Tortes," by the Staff Home Economists of the Culinary Arts Institute
This is a little paper booklet - rather like the ancestor of the glossy checkout lane booklets - that I got as a hand-me-down from my mom. I've had it forever, give or take, and I don't think I've ever even looked through it. It's old and smudged and unimpressive-looking, and I think I liberated it from her kitchen just to keep it from being thrown away.
It does, though, have some decent looking recipes in it. Unsurprising, since cake isn't that hard to make tasty, but I'm still glad I rescued it, and it was fun trying to pick out a recipe. Since I had played it safe with the above two recipes, I decided to try something different, and bypassed the standard chocolate cake and angel food cake recipes to make an Applesauce Torte - doubly awesome because we had homemade applesauce waiting to be used up.
It was, unsurprisingly, excellent. The recipe, coming apparently from an era when it was assumed that people had at least some basic baking knowledge of their own, doesn't specify any particular icing - it just tells you to fill and frost "as desired," so I layered it with spiced whipped cream, which was just right. Not too sweet, not too sticky or heavy, and the perfect balance for the flavor and texture of the torte. I will keep this little book forever, if only to remember this one recipe after future years' apple picking expeditions....
