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"Slow Cooker Meals," Betty Crocker
And back once again to the glossy checkout lane booklets - after a brief break into the land of hardcover and respectable books, I had to start attacking this shelf again. This is one that I bought for myself, mostly because I love my crock pot, and I've used it at least a couple of times. There are a couple of decent, safe recipes in there for things like baked pasta and chili and the like.
I decided, though, not to slack off - I'm nearing the end of the project, and I don't want to succumb to the urge to slack off and make easy, safe stuff - and instead of falling back on one of those, to make something that I normally wouldn't. So we wound up making Thai Chicken.
(As an aside, one of the most positive side effects of this project is that I'm becoming more comfortable cooking with flavors in the Asian spectrum. I know this isn't real Thai food, but hey, a year ago I never would have approached a dish with peanut sauce, and now they're slowly becoming a go-to category....)
The Thai chicken was pretty good - if anything, it was a bit bland, but the meat came out nice and moist, and the sauce was a good base flavor. If I made it again, and I'm likely to, I'd double the lime juice and use a spicier salsa. That's all.
"Dishes Children Love," Shop-Rite Supermarkets
This book is one of a series of ancient, non-glossy booklets that I got as hand-me-downs from my mother. I admit that I've been doing my best to ignore the fact that they're on my shelf, since I've been desperately dreading using them, but I'm at the point where I can't dodge them any longer. Since this one was the most unfortunate-looking, I decided to bite the bullet and get it out of the way first.
Among other things, children apparently love dishes with stupid names made with MSG. Also, apparently, dishes that are either cream-based or deep-fried. When my sainted husband vetoed the concept of fried stuffed hot dogs (coward), we wound up making Grilled Tuna Salad Sandwiches instead.
They were, well, not as bad as I had feared. They were kind of a cross between tuna salad sandwiches and Monte Cristos, being dipped in egg before grilling, and the bread wound up kind of soggy, but they were edible, and decent enough for a quick dinner. I'm never going to make them again, nor am I likely to make anything else from this book, but I can't quite bring myself to get rid of it either - if nothing else, it's entertaining.
"The Joy of Cooking," Irma S.Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
I have mentioned before that ours is a mixed marriage. I am a Fannie Farmer purist, but my still-sainted husband comes from a Joy of Cooking family. As such, I have a copy of that book in my house, and that, unfortunately, means that I needed to bite the bullet and actually cook something from it.
I know, intellectually, that it's a perfectly fine cookbook. But I still feel like I'm betraying my mother, my lineage, and my beloved copy of Fannie Farmer by doing so.
After Thanksgiving, we had a turkey carcass just taking up room in the fridge. And giblets. And extra aromatics and herbs, and, blessedly, extra time. So I figured that this was an opportunity to... well, accomplish a few things at once, and looked up Joy's recipe for Turkey Stock.
One dead turkey, some carrots and onions and celery and bay leaves and peppercorns, and several hours of simmering and straining later, I had something magical. I had never made my own stock before; it always struck me as something fussy and time consuming and beyond me. But this was far easier than I had anticipated, and in addition to making the house smell amazing and using up a lot of leftover stuff, it's worlds better than any canned broth or stock I've ever tried.
I am not a convert. But I will grudgingly admit that this book may have earned its place on my shelf.
And back once again to the glossy checkout lane booklets - after a brief break into the land of hardcover and respectable books, I had to start attacking this shelf again. This is one that I bought for myself, mostly because I love my crock pot, and I've used it at least a couple of times. There are a couple of decent, safe recipes in there for things like baked pasta and chili and the like.
I decided, though, not to slack off - I'm nearing the end of the project, and I don't want to succumb to the urge to slack off and make easy, safe stuff - and instead of falling back on one of those, to make something that I normally wouldn't. So we wound up making Thai Chicken.
(As an aside, one of the most positive side effects of this project is that I'm becoming more comfortable cooking with flavors in the Asian spectrum. I know this isn't real Thai food, but hey, a year ago I never would have approached a dish with peanut sauce, and now they're slowly becoming a go-to category....)
The Thai chicken was pretty good - if anything, it was a bit bland, but the meat came out nice and moist, and the sauce was a good base flavor. If I made it again, and I'm likely to, I'd double the lime juice and use a spicier salsa. That's all.
"Dishes Children Love," Shop-Rite Supermarkets
This book is one of a series of ancient, non-glossy booklets that I got as hand-me-downs from my mother. I admit that I've been doing my best to ignore the fact that they're on my shelf, since I've been desperately dreading using them, but I'm at the point where I can't dodge them any longer. Since this one was the most unfortunate-looking, I decided to bite the bullet and get it out of the way first.
Among other things, children apparently love dishes with stupid names made with MSG. Also, apparently, dishes that are either cream-based or deep-fried. When my sainted husband vetoed the concept of fried stuffed hot dogs (coward), we wound up making Grilled Tuna Salad Sandwiches instead.
They were, well, not as bad as I had feared. They were kind of a cross between tuna salad sandwiches and Monte Cristos, being dipped in egg before grilling, and the bread wound up kind of soggy, but they were edible, and decent enough for a quick dinner. I'm never going to make them again, nor am I likely to make anything else from this book, but I can't quite bring myself to get rid of it either - if nothing else, it's entertaining.
"The Joy of Cooking," Irma S.Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
I have mentioned before that ours is a mixed marriage. I am a Fannie Farmer purist, but my still-sainted husband comes from a Joy of Cooking family. As such, I have a copy of that book in my house, and that, unfortunately, means that I needed to bite the bullet and actually cook something from it.
I know, intellectually, that it's a perfectly fine cookbook. But I still feel like I'm betraying my mother, my lineage, and my beloved copy of Fannie Farmer by doing so.
After Thanksgiving, we had a turkey carcass just taking up room in the fridge. And giblets. And extra aromatics and herbs, and, blessedly, extra time. So I figured that this was an opportunity to... well, accomplish a few things at once, and looked up Joy's recipe for Turkey Stock.
One dead turkey, some carrots and onions and celery and bay leaves and peppercorns, and several hours of simmering and straining later, I had something magical. I had never made my own stock before; it always struck me as something fussy and time consuming and beyond me. But this was far easier than I had anticipated, and in addition to making the house smell amazing and using up a lot of leftover stuff, it's worlds better than any canned broth or stock I've ever tried.
I am not a convert. But I will grudgingly admit that this book may have earned its place on my shelf.
