Cookbook Project, Books #161 and 162

[ladysprite]

"I'm Just Here For the Food," Alton Brown

umbran and I have been fans of Good Eats for manymany years, and I had wanted to check out Mr. Brown's cookbooks for most of that time. I've used a handful of recipes from the tv show, and always had good results with them - his corn dog recipe is surprisingly good, and so is his pancake mix. This book was a wedding gift from one of my husband's friend, and I had the best intentions of using it all the time.

Unfortunately, like most of the rest of my cookbooks, I never quite got around to it. So I was looking forward to actually getting off my butt and working with it as part of the project. But as I looked through it, I realized it's not quite exactly what I'm looking for in a cookbook. A lot of the instruction is basic science, which, while it's cool on the show, isn't quite what I need or want - and there are a lot fewer recipes than I'd like.

There are recipes, though, and a bunch of them sounded really good. We wound up making Salisbury Steak, mostly because I wanted to try to redeem that particular dish from the mediocre niche of tv dinners, and I figured if anyone could do that, it'd be Alton Brown.

Unfortunately, the dish wound up... well, kind of rubbery and bland. I don't know if I overcooked the meat, or if I misread the recipe, or if it was just a poor choice to begin with - or if I just had unnaturally high expectations given the source. I'll try the book again; I'm not going to write it off after one so-so dish. But I am a bit let down, overall.


"Illustrated Library of Cooking Volume 7 Des-Eas," Family Circle

This is another in the series of scary hardcover hand-me-downs from my mother, that I took in order to keep it from being thrown away and have never looked at since. It has been staring at me since the project started, along with the rest of its kind, taunting me with jello molds and discolored old photos. This volume in particular covers Desserts, Dinners In A Dish and/or Dash, Do-Ahead Dinners, and Easy-on-the-Cook Dishes.

I had originally planned on trying one of the desserts, but the biggest problem there was scale. Aside from the fact that almost all of the recipes were for puddings, custards, and molds (didn't anyone chew in the 70's?), they almost all were made to serve at least 8, and were challenging to downscale. Since it's just the two of us most of the time (and since I'm rather picky about desserts that I'll serve to guests), that would just be ridiculously wasteful.

Daunted but determined, I set out to search the rest of the book for a recipe worth making, eventually settling on Macaroni-Tuna Mornay, which seemed to be a way to make tuna noodle casserole sound exotic and cool. I wasn't looking forward to making it, but I figure I had to. It got postponed at least once, but finally I set in to make it, preparing to either suffer through it or abort to pizza once the glop was actually in front of me.

Except it was good. Seriously good. Not 'I would serve this to the President' good, but definitely in the darn-good comfort food zone. Tuna noodle casserole was one of the first things I learned to make, and a staple in our house while I was growing up, but it's been over a decade since I had it, and this was better than the stuff I remember. It's closer to homemade mac-and-cheese, with added stuff, than anything else, and there's no cream-of-mushroom soup or potato chips. In fact, other than the tuna, I don't think there's a single canned ingredient. Okay, it called for canned corn, but we used frozen. Minor cheat.

I'd make this again. I'd even brave the dessert section and the affection of my friends to try another recipe from here....

Comments

[medeaschild.livejournal.com]

mmm... tuna noodle casserole and/or homemade mac and cheese casserole...

Okay, maybe I need some comfort food myself, those sound heavenly.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Comfort food is a goodness, and macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite go-to dishes, both to make and to eat. It's like the edible equivalent of a blankie and your favorite book. :)

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

I like Alton Brown more for the "how-to" basics but not so much for the recipes - he sometimes likes combinations of flavors that just don't do it for me. Sorry the Salisbury steak was a wash-out, but the tuna casserole sounds fabulous. I may have to add that to my list to try - I think I have that same cookbook.