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ladysprite"Toll House Best Loved Cookies"
Like many of my other books, this is a little glossy booklet. Unlike most of the rest of them, though, this one is full of delicious cookie recipes. Or at least, I'd assume so. It's yet another hand-me-down - I think from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran's mom, and yet another one that I haven't used yet - mostly because, if I'm going to make cookies with chocolate chips, I'm almost always just going to make plain old back-of-the-bag chocolate chippers.
Just looking through this book was a blast, though - baking cookies is like therapy for me, even ignoring the end result. The very process of making them is comforting and happy-making, and the hardest part was choosing just one recipe. Ultimately, though, things were narrowed down by the presence of a bag of mixed chocolate and peanut butter chips in our pantry, and we wound up making Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies.
Do I need to spell out the results? They were awesome. Of course. It's hard to go wrong with butter, flour, sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate, in my humble opinion. And I need to come back to this book once the holiday cookie season is over, and make everything else in it.
"Soup, Chili, and Bread," Betty Crocker
And another glossy checkout lane booklet, and another from my mother-in-law - actually, I think this entire entry is full of mother-in-law hand-me-downs. As are at least two of my bookshelves. I pulled this one out because we're starting to get towards soup-and-stew weather, but unfortunately, very few of the soup and chili recipes looked actually good. This doesn't actually say anything bad about the chili; my husband's thrown-together-without-a-recipe chili is just amazing enough that nothing else will measure up to it. But the soups were pretty mediocre-looking at best.
On the other hand, some of the breads didn't look too bad. So one night when we were feasting on leftovers, we wound up making Cheesy Roasted Red Pepper Bread. And aside from the name (as much as I like cheese, I instinctively dislike eating anything that refers to itself as 'cheesy'), it was pretty darn good. A loaf of Italian bread, sliced lengthwise and filled with mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and spices, wrapped in foil, and heated through - yet another collection of ingredients that it's hard to screw up. I'd make this again. But I don't know if it's enough to convince me to try any of the other recipes from this book.
"Flavors of the South," Jeanne A. Voltz
This one, at least, is an actual book, full of "southern" recipes, which apparently means lots of things with greens or bacon or both, often cooked on a grill. I had meant to use this book over the summer, but it kept getting postponed as I was distracted by other projects or meals, and I just realized a few weeks ago that I had never gotten around to it.
I wanted to be brave and try something strange and different, but honestly none of the recipes were that unusual, and I don't really have any interest in red eye gravy. But the Chicken Breasts with Celery Pecan Stuffing sounded decent enough, and required little enough shopping that I decided to go for it.
And it was honestly pretty darn good. It reminded me of the kind of stuff that my mom would make when I was growing up, in spite of the fact that no one in my family has ever come from anywhere near the south - stuffing mix, doctored with enough add-ins to make it tasty, with chicken breasts wrapped around it and baked. Yet another dish I'd make again, and I hope I find a chance to use this book again, too, and maybe make something a little more daring.....
Like many of my other books, this is a little glossy booklet. Unlike most of the rest of them, though, this one is full of delicious cookie recipes. Or at least, I'd assume so. It's yet another hand-me-down - I think from
umbran's mom, and yet another one that I haven't used yet - mostly because, if I'm going to make cookies with chocolate chips, I'm almost always just going to make plain old back-of-the-bag chocolate chippers.Just looking through this book was a blast, though - baking cookies is like therapy for me, even ignoring the end result. The very process of making them is comforting and happy-making, and the hardest part was choosing just one recipe. Ultimately, though, things were narrowed down by the presence of a bag of mixed chocolate and peanut butter chips in our pantry, and we wound up making Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies.
Do I need to spell out the results? They were awesome. Of course. It's hard to go wrong with butter, flour, sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate, in my humble opinion. And I need to come back to this book once the holiday cookie season is over, and make everything else in it.
"Soup, Chili, and Bread," Betty Crocker
And another glossy checkout lane booklet, and another from my mother-in-law - actually, I think this entire entry is full of mother-in-law hand-me-downs. As are at least two of my bookshelves. I pulled this one out because we're starting to get towards soup-and-stew weather, but unfortunately, very few of the soup and chili recipes looked actually good. This doesn't actually say anything bad about the chili; my husband's thrown-together-without-a-recipe chili is just amazing enough that nothing else will measure up to it. But the soups were pretty mediocre-looking at best.
On the other hand, some of the breads didn't look too bad. So one night when we were feasting on leftovers, we wound up making Cheesy Roasted Red Pepper Bread. And aside from the name (as much as I like cheese, I instinctively dislike eating anything that refers to itself as 'cheesy'), it was pretty darn good. A loaf of Italian bread, sliced lengthwise and filled with mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and spices, wrapped in foil, and heated through - yet another collection of ingredients that it's hard to screw up. I'd make this again. But I don't know if it's enough to convince me to try any of the other recipes from this book.
"Flavors of the South," Jeanne A. Voltz
This one, at least, is an actual book, full of "southern" recipes, which apparently means lots of things with greens or bacon or both, often cooked on a grill. I had meant to use this book over the summer, but it kept getting postponed as I was distracted by other projects or meals, and I just realized a few weeks ago that I had never gotten around to it.
I wanted to be brave and try something strange and different, but honestly none of the recipes were that unusual, and I don't really have any interest in red eye gravy. But the Chicken Breasts with Celery Pecan Stuffing sounded decent enough, and required little enough shopping that I decided to go for it.
And it was honestly pretty darn good. It reminded me of the kind of stuff that my mom would make when I was growing up, in spite of the fact that no one in my family has ever come from anywhere near the south - stuffing mix, doctored with enough add-ins to make it tasty, with chicken breasts wrapped around it and baked. Yet another dish I'd make again, and I hope I find a chance to use this book again, too, and maybe make something a little more daring.....
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Date: 2009-11-19 07:43 pm (UTC)It is VERY easy to go wrong with that combination. You might put in the peanut butter, turning something potentially yummy into icky-tasting poison substance.
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Date: 2009-11-19 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-19 07:54 pm (UTC)Of course, after eating the peanut butter you'll have to refrain from kissing me. :)
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Date: 2009-11-19 09:48 pm (UTC)