contemplations on the kitchen

[lagilman]

Dinner tonight was roast chicken, quartered & rubbed w/ truffle oil & balsamic vinegar w/ maple syrup, roasted in butter w/ anchos & a scattering of mild chili powder. Nom. Adapted from the basic recipe in Mark Bittman's HOW TO COOK ALL THE THINGS (ok, How To Cook Everything. My title's better)

This is, btw, the cookbook that I recommend to everyone who is either just learning how to cook, or wanting to expand beyond "follow the recipe inch-by-inch."  It really does teach how to cook all the things, both the base recipe, and how to improvise on the theme.  (Then, I hand people the Silver Palate New Basics.)

It frustrates me, sometimes, that I don't have more opportunity to cook.  Back in the before years, when my partner's ability in the kitchen was limited* to pasta or nuking hot dogs, it became such a chore to have to cook, that I began to hate it.  It took, mmm, three years before I got the kitchen-love back.  Step by step, reclaiming the joy.  Now that it's a pleasure again, I keep looking for reasons to try spiffy new recipes and improvisations... but living alone, and in a different borough from most of my friends, limits my audience.  And in NYC, you don't really have dinner parties...

[I used to cook up a storm for people in New Haven.  OK, that's one point in favor of the 'burbs/smaller cities]

I probably should start hosting dinner parties again.  Dog knows, most of my friends do love to eat....

Do you have a favorite cookbook?  Are you the kitchen-elf (cook, or baker)?  Or are you the "what did you create for me" guest-type?  :-)



*by his own choice.  His theory was "well, you enjoy doing it, so why should I learn?" 

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

And in NYC, you don't really have dinner parties...

Huh? Why in the world not?

And to answer your questions: I don't think I have a favourite cookbook. My favourite contemporary foodie writer is Nigel Slater, with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall coming a close second; historically I adore both Elizabeth David and M F K Fisher. I am the kitchen-elf (both cook and baker); K says it is my man-cave. But I also do the guest thing, I do love being cooked for (which is almost a problem, as I have a growing list of people who refuse to cook for me, bah humbug. I'm easy! I like everything!).

[lagilman]

Huh? Why in the world not?


Small apartments, many fabulous restaurants. Like Paris, we have a cafe society (more in Manhattan but also B'klyn and my part of da Bronx. Not sure about much of Queens or SI).

Come to NYC and I will cook for you. And there are two cats who will Demand Attention while I do so...

[llwheeler.livejournal.com]

I love cooking and baking. It's something my boyfriend and I are learning together, since neither of us cooked that much or with much variation before we moved in together. So we have fun trying out new recipes. (Except with baking. I for some reason get territorial. People can help, but I like to be in charge with baking. No clue why.)

I usually go to the internet for recipes, look up a whole bunch and do whatever seems to be the consensus. Except for Greek food. I love my Greek cookbook. But I may have to check out the one you recommend, too.

[spiziks.livejournal.com]

I'm a kitchen Legolas.

My favorite cookbook is my loose-leaf Binder of Mystic Food, with recipes I've collected over the years. Out of that came the pumpkin cake with caramel frosting I made last weekend. So decadent!

I also like Julia Child's original MASTERING FRENCH COOKING I and II.

And, when I need something quick and simple, or have to look up how long to put a beef roast in the oven, Betty Crocker is the perfect reference.

This weekend, I've volunteered to bake Maksim's class a sugar cookie in the shape of the USA, with various toppings for different geographical features (M&Ms for the Rockies, brown sprinkles for the deserts, etc.) The teacher suggests using a can of store-bought dough. I cringe! I cringe! Butter is already softening on the counter.

[lagilman]

I have one of those binders, too. My mom is compiling all the various family-favorite recipes digitally, but I still love my rag-tag and stained collection....

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Moi? Well, once a month I usually frantically race around Grocery Outlet/Trader Joe's/etc to find ingredients for soup or salad for the staff potluck. Soup stuff is always crockish; however given that we work up on Mt. Hood where it is a.) cold and b.) wet a good chunk of the school year, soup is a favorite.

My latest finding is a butternut squash/sweet potato bisque base soup with either canned/frozen veggie mixtures of Interesting Combinations tossed in, plus the Trader Joe's precooked carnitas pork. Sometimes if I'm at Grocery Outlet I'll go for a good quality ham slice instead. But dang, the TJ's carnitas pork makes a nice meat for a soup. And then there's other times when I'll do a tomato-based soup.

And yeah, depending on the veggies, I'll either go with a clove/cinnamon/nutmeg/mace seasoning mix or a basil/fennel (I have naturalized wild fennel in the back yard, never bothered to dig the roots but I have both seeds and dried greens)/thyme mix.

Otherwise, I tend to be the family baker. DH is the family cooker. Except I also make a mean wheat-free, dairy-free lasagna as well. With tempeh and sausage.

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

I'm the cook but I only cook on weekends. Week days I've limited to nuking something or eating out. I just don't have the time or energy for more. Occasionally during the week I do make brownies, cookies, or other things in the realm of the pastry chef.

My favorite cookbook? I think it has to be Larousse Gastronomique. Fun reading of the "someone would actually do that?" variety. It gives me ideas on paths to follow since it gives very few measurements and tends to say "add some" and "cook until done".

My favorite book for cakes and cookies and such is a 1950's era Betty Crocker that was my mother's.

I have a huge cookbook collection and use it for ideas rather than exact recipes.

[lagilman]

I have a huge cookbook collection and use it for ideas rather than exact recipes.


Yeah - I can't remember the last time I didn't, erm, amend a recipe as I was cooking.... I also read cookbooks like novels. i didn't know that was odd until I was in my 30's.

[cailleuch.livejournal.com]

Most of my friends also read cookbooks that way. I just attribute it to being food geeks.

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Mark Bittman is my hero. I give his cookbook for various occasions for just the reasons you describe.

I have been cooking for nearly 40 years. In our household of four adults, there is one other cook, but his style is different from mine, and we do not cook together.

I love cooking. I do get tired of it sometimes, but the truth is, I am quite used to spending a good chunk of time each week figuring out who is going to be home when, who likes to eat what, and getting it on the table. I love my many cookbooks and I read them for fun. I have a looseleaf notebook, too, for web printouts. I love to adapt friends' recipes (your lamb tagine, which has now turned into my lamb tagine, is a current favorite.)

Sometimes I say food is my religion. Or family is. Sometimes there isn't a difference.

[elektra.livejournal.com]

My favorite cookbook is Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking. I know, limited concept . . . . it stems from moving away from within blocks of one of the best damned Indian restaurants in the Boston area to somewhere where there wasn't any at all. I learned to cook Indian food from that cookbook, and I will always treasure it.

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

LOVE Bittman's book. My copy is worn, stained and the binding is cracked, and I refuse to give it up.

[lagilman]

They just released an anniversary edition, she said coaxingly...

(I replaced my old one and picked up a copy of HTCE Vegetarian as well - boxed set!)

[smoemeth.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of cooking, but every once in a while (usually this time of year when the weather changes and the nesting impulse kicks in) I get the bug. I swear by HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING, I couldn't begin without it. My other can't-live-without-it is Marjorie Standish's COOKING DOWN EAST, which contains pretty much every single comfort-food recipe of my childhood, because it was my mom's standby cookbook, too. :)

I also love the Cooking Light recipes. I don't have any actual books, but Google usually provides, and now that I have a tablet computer I can set that up on the countertop and go.

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

His theory was "well, you enjoy doing it, so why should I learn?"

Aaaarrrggghghgh. Welcome to my world. I won't say more in an unlocked post.

[lagilman]

Do people not realize that that's not a compliment? it's saying "no, you do it (whatever IT may be), I'm too lazy to bother."

*sighs*

[pbray.livejournal.com]

When my brother was newly single, and had lost access to all the recipes he'd accumulated over the years, I sent him a copy of Mark Bittman's HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING. Just what it says on the tin, it's perfect for someone who needs things like a basic marinara recipe or to look up how long to cook something.

Though I agree your version of the title is more awesome.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

I'm the kitchen elf/cook/baker. My husband blames me for his pot belly that he's growing and can't get rid of.

I'm also a member of The Daring Kitchen (http://daringkitchen.com) as well, both as a Daring Baker and as a Daring Cook (I just finished this month's Daring Cooks Challenge tonight as a matter of fact). It's an excellent place to learn to stretch your self, to be more 'daring' in the kitchen and learn how to make things you'd never thought to try on your own.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Like Chaz, I'm a big fan of Nigel Slater and I like some of Nigella Lawson's as well, although a friend had a disaster with her Xmas cake for which she has never forgiven Nigella. I read cookbooks for fun, as well.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I was thrilled that the local Starbucks' free app of the week was Bittman's How To Cook Everything for the iphone.

As you know, there's the growing Wall o' Cookbooks, but I'd say that THE go-tos are the 1940s era Joy of Cooking ('cause I grew up with that), the pink plaid Better Homes and Gardens ('cause I've never had a bad recipe out of it) and the wonderful charts in the back of Good Meals and How To Prepare Them, which you could get free with a subscription to Good Housekeeping... in 1928.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Das Boy and I are both Kitchen Elves. We love to cook, and we love to eat, and we love to cook for other people. It's awesome.

My favourite cookbooks are "The Encyclopaedia of Cookery" from the late 40s or early 50s, and this weird QVC cookbook my mum found, that contains "baseline" recipes and instruction, sort of like Bittman's book, with ALL THE VARIATIONS EVAR, and also diagnostics for what you might've done wrong. It's like cooking school in hardback. Love it.

I wish I had more local friends I could throw dinner parties for. I really miss cooking for more than just myself.

[ceosanna.livejournal.com]

I love to cook and bake, but I also enjoy letting someone else do it for me.

I, too, have a loose-leaf binder of recipes I've collected, as well as several food magazines, that I like to flip through for ideas. Out of all my cookbooks (of which I have many), I've probably used the Culinary Institute of America's Professional Chef (http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/B0031569VA/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320690196&sr=1-4) the most which rather amuses me since I'm anything but a professional chef (although, I recently have started to think about it).

[naienko.livejournal.com]

You. Out of the collective brain of my MMORPG group. You don't even hang out anywhere NEAR us, so how is it you reference the EXACT book that was recommended to me, AND do so using the words that are OUR meme?

Yes, we do kill ALL THE THINGS. Frequently.

Maybe I'll wrangle a copy of it for holidaze this year ...