screaming like a little child. There are few things that excite me as much as a great cookbook. It combines two of my favorite things: a book, and the promise of good food.
I remember really wonderful moments, most often, by how good the food was. I remember our wedding reception, and how lovely it was to be with all of our friends, but I also remember thinking, I probably won't go with this caterer again....
Or the time when I re-met my Uncle who I never got to spend time with because he lived on the opposite side of the country, and I had only heard his voice on the phone a few times. That amazing time getting to hang out with him where he and I just looked at eachother in shock that we were actually seeing the other. Then hanging out with my aunt and cousin. Add to that, we went out for amazing Indian food at the Bombay house.
Or the day my friends and I were lost and poor in Edinburgh, and were soaked clear through because of the rubbish rain. We were a pitiful lot, and almost went to eat at some American chain restraunt, until someone saw this tiny pub tucked in the side street called Filthy McNasty's. I don't remember much else about the day, except for the amazing cream of mushroom soup, the way we had the entire pub to ourselves, and the rotten rain. But because of the amazing cream of mushroom soup, it is a treasured memory.
Or on sad days in New York, finding my way to Tea and Sympathy, and just soaking up the place with a good pot of tea, and finding comfort in an amazing macaroni and cheese. I know the name is a pun on some song, but it still serves up what's advertised.
Or as simple as the Pecan Pie that is always made at every Thanksgiving, from my great grandmother's recipe. It's one of the only things I have of hers.
My life bookmarked by food. It's weird I know. But there it is.
So cookbooks are treasured.
Yes it looks cheesey. Yes, it smacks of money grubbing, and marketing and merchandising. But you know what, that silly little book has some of the best recipes in it, including a recipe for chocolate waffle sundaes, and a pretty mean meatloaf. (Having never grown up on meatloaf as a child, I had no idea how to make the dish. And when my husband confided that it was one of his favorite meals, I set out. This recipe has become the backbone for all further meatloafs I have ever made..)
It's a silly, gimmicky, cook book, but it's definitely a goody.
My very first cookbook was a shared cookbook between the three of us, and it was called Kids in the Kitchen. I have it to this day. It is in tatters, there is no spine left, and I keep it in a plastic sheet protector so the pages that remain don't get lost. I learned how to make Ants on a Log (or whatever it is, where you put peanut butter on a piece of celery stick, and then raisins on top?), meatballs..... Some of the recipes were incredibly simple looking back, but it was my beginning, and I still love it.
Then comes the heirloom cookbooks. Specifically The Joy of Cooking. The story goes, that when my great grandmother passed away, and her husband remarried the woman we would eventually call Grandmother Carol, Grandmother Carol couldn't cook. She was raised rather well to do, out in Boston, educated at Ratcliffe (the Harvard for Girls at the time) She could throw a mean tea party, but normal every day cooking wasn't something she could do. And having just married a man of the earth - he was driller for the mining companies out west - cooking became a necessity.
So into her hands comes The Joy of Cooking - the Bible of cookbooks. It tells you everything, how it all works, how to do pretty much whatever has to be done. And from that book, she became an excellent and a very precise cook.
On a side note, when my sister was in Denver doing graduate school, and needed a recipe for something. The immediate response by the older generations (our grandmother Earline, and her sister Billie June - both daughters of the previously mentioned Driller) was, "It's in her Joy of cooking..."
But uh oh, my sister didn't have a Joy of cooking. The Shame!
Grandmother her sister and our Billie June shipped out copies of The Joy of Cooking out to her. Billie June actually shipped out two from how the story goes. Only one got to her, but still.
Another very special couple of cookbooks that come from my dear Scottish friend Danny, who now lives in England. He was a trained chef/cook/somethign wodnerful in the kitchen who on the first day I met him, made me an excellent trifle that I still have dreams about. We got to talking about food, and I said that we basically lived on chicken back home. So when the time came for me to leave my new spiritual home in Glasgow and come back to the states, Danny gave me a gift. One of his own cookbooks - 500 ways to cook chicken. and a children's cookbooks. I asked him if he was certain. "This was my first cookbook. I have it memorized now." And two small souvenir Recipes from Scotland cookbooks, a litle larger than poastcards.
Or the cookbooks given to me from my friend Jane's kitchen after she passed away. she knew I was a vegetarian, but she also knew that my favorite dish was chicken tandoori. So every time she had me over for dinner, she amde me some chicken tandoori. And I didn't feel guilty, not one whit, even when I took home leftovers (which was every time). In those cookbooks, I can see her side notes, her alterations, and it's as close as I'll get to having her cook for me ever again.
Now we move on to my new favorites.Deborah Madison "Vegetarian Suppers." My parents gave this to me for my birthday. I have long vascillated about being a vegetarian. I was unintenionally almost a veggie while I was in Scotland, not because of ethics, but because there were still outbreaks of Mad Cow disease (to this day I don't know if I'm allowed to donate blood because I was exposed to the disease. For some time I was completely prohibited. All over three hamburgers.) and because I was too poor to afford meat. I ate a lot of chicken. A LOT of chicken. That was as ritzy as I got.
Then in college, I was veggie for about a year but dining hall food didn't help support a healthy diet if it wasn't processed, meat based or deep fried.
So like I said, I have gone back and forth. I lean very heavily towards vegetarianism, just for the health benefits. But when I tried to cook vegetarian meals, the majority involved tofu (which my husband won't eat), pasta, or they all tasted like Mexican food.
Then enters Deborah Madison. Beautifully produced books. The food portraits are stunningly lovely and just make your mouth water. the ingredients are easily gotten. (And if I can get it in our local Weis Markets in hickville USA, you can get it wherever you are..) No weird things that you can't pronounce, that you don't recognize. It's all good food. And it all tastes divine.
There is no use of a common spice to cover up the food. It doesn't rely on chili powder or curry (though I love a good curry). This book, the recipes, and flavors in the recipe, they all speak for themselves. There is no need to cover up the flavors of the food, with spice when the food tastes this good. There's definitely spices used but it's all to enhance and draw pout the natural flavors. Just lovely.
This book also doesnt solely rely on tofu in every recipe. There is a section that uses tofu, but it's only one section in contrast to over ten others that don't? So if you don't like tofu, you will absolutely not be left out in the cold here.
Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING I have made out of this book has been amazing, and delicious, and uncomplicated. That's probably one of my other favorite things about the books. It's not difficult to get great results.
Even my picky husband likes the food from this book.
LOVE this book.
My next favorite cookbook of the moment is Jamie Oliver's Jamie At Home.
There's a few really interesting things about the book.
The tone of the book is conversational and laid back. It's not uppity, or presumptious. If you've seen his shows, Food Revolution being one of them, this book is written pretty close to the way he speaks. Terms of endearments, rhetorical questions, the lot. So it's easy to follow and read.
Gorgeously shot. again the food portraits are just beautiful. There's a few shots of jamie cooking over a BQ or hosting a cook out. It's really just lovely to look at if nothing else.
I also love some of the story behind this book. Everything he uses in these recipes, save the meat, and the liquor (there's a couple drink recipes in there), all of the veg and such, he grew himself in an unloved garden. He and some friends brought it back, and the recipes here are the result of that experience, of his connecting literally with the earth to coax the vegetables out of her soil. Because of that, on the page preceding the recipes for each section, Jamie talks about how to grow that specific vegetable, tricks he learned, his experience, and so forth. I found it really inspiring to start gardening again. (I'm not a huge fan of it, though I am a huge fan of having vegetables grow in my garden, and having fresh produce, and knowing where my food comes from. So I have to suck it up, I suppose.)
Again, the ingredients aren't hard to come by. They're mostly things you could grow in your garden, or get at a farmer's market.
I recently purchased a whole bunch of strawberries, and I recalled seeing asection on Rhubarb in the Oliver book. And while I didn't make anything out of the cookbook, it was enough for me to go, oh yeah I want to do this or this.... and to start experimenting and cooking again. so if a cookbook will inspire you to cook, even if it's not necessarily one of its recipes, I'd say that's still a positive result.
Other essential cookbooks: I think the only other essential cookbooks would be The Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day series by Zoe Francois. These books deliver what they say they will. How to make bread, mix the ingredients, no kneading, let it rise, and then keep the dough cold until you are ready to use it. Really indispensable when it comes to bread making. Multiple recipes and multiple uses for each bread recipe. Fantastic and simple.
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