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Favorite Cookbooks

abecedarian

abecedarian

Well-Known Member
I'm always on the lookout for new cookbooks to explore. Does anyone have any they'd like to reccomend? Some of my favorites are: The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals, The Tex-Mex Cookbook, and Square Meals. Come on, I need some new ideas for feeding my picky crowd!
 
Will they eat vegetarian? I really love the Moosewood cookbooks. I had a New Years party two years ago where every recipe came from their books. Not a single one of my friends made a bad comment about the lack of meat. Plus, they have a lot of sides in them, so you could always serve them next to a big hunk of meat (although the cookbook might cry).

Other than that, I use Betty Crocker for cookies, Fix It and Forget It for crockpot cooking and often try recipes from the Food Network (www.foodtv.com).
 
mehastings said:
Will they eat vegetarian? I really love the Moosewood cookbooks. I had a New Years party two years ago where every recipe came from their books. Not a single one of my friends made a bad comment about the lack of meat. Plus, they have a lot of sides in them, so you could always serve them next to a big hunk of meat (although the cookbook might cry).

Other than that, I use Betty Crocker for cookies, Fix It and Forget It for crockpot cooking and often try recipes from the Food Network (www.foodtv.com).
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I forgot about the Fix It and Forget It cookbook( no pun intended ;) I have a favorite chicken breast recipe I got from there. I'd like to explore vegetarian cooking more. Several of us need to lose weight and the price of groceries won't be going down anytime in the forseeable future! I'll check the library for the Moosewood books. I'm sure you could even had small amounts of meat to some of those dishes-I'm getting a mental image of a crying moose-not pretty :p
 
My wife really likes How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and she has recently been trying lots of recipes from America's Test Kitchen and let's just say neither me or my waist line are complaining! :D
 
pwilson said:
My wife really likes How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman :D
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I've got that one. It has a recipe for squirrel in it which may help if your grocery costs get too out of control. My only complaint about that book is that the food is often too complicated. I think it is similar to The Joy of Cooking. I find that there are always spices I can't find or can't afford or bizarre ingredients (like the squirrel). It is fairly comprehensive though.
 
Another cookbook we use a lot is The Fanny Farmer Baking Book. There's a wonderful peanut butter cookie and biscuit recipe. Before I tried the biscuit recipe, my biscuits never turned out..I won't use commercial Bisquick, but I sometimes make my own mix. That recipe was in the original Make a Mix Cookbook.
 
I have several cooking magazines I subscribe to, they are very good and have no advertisements. They are all from the Taste of Home company.

The cookbooks I find myself using the most are (I have an entire bookshelf of them)
Healthy Homestyle Cooking: Evelyn Tribole
The Good Housekeeping Cookbooks (I have several)
Preventions Ultimate Quick and Healthy Cookbook
The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook

To make things real easy though I have my own 'cookbook'. I have recipes I use frequently sorted into an archive on my computer so I don't have to dig through the books anymore. The cookbooks I mentioned have nutritional information on all their recipes, and pictures of the dishes. I need the pictures as assurance I didn't screw up.

For really fun cookbooks my father has some very old cookbooks that actually involve recipes for roadkill. HA HA!!
 
I have a collection of 3-ring binders with recipes in sheet protectors. The main one has the main dishes and the next one has desserts, with breads in both. I found a clear acrylic stand that had been in dr's office advertising some antibiotic, that I used for a recipe stand intil somone broke it. I was sad when that happened and I lost my 10 cent investment! I keep thinking I'll ask my dr for another, but I keep forgetting.
 
The books I use more than anything are How it all Vegan, Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan, all by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramar. I do eat meat, but I try to eat veggie for at least half of my meals. Great books.
 
mom2kngr said:
I have gotten a few Taste of Home Cookbooks and have loved them both!! :D
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I also really enjoy the Taste of Home company as well. I like their books, and subscribe to 4 of their magazines. All enjoyable.
 
My total favorite is Pillsbury's Fast & Healthy cookbook. It has lots of easy, healthy recipes that usually take about 30-40 minutes to prepare, start to finish. It includes lots of vegetarian options along with meat, and has very tasty stir-fry recipes. It also has little blurbs with helpful information about different kinds of more unusual foods (like scallops or Chinese five-spice powder) and how they can be used in different kinds of recipes. Great for a college kid in her first apartment, which is what I was when my dad gave it to me.
 
You might also want to try Rachael Ray's cookbooks. A co-worker just suggested them to me because I like to cook once in a while for my co-workers when I work OT during the evening. I need things that are cheap, quick to prepare and easy enough that my talentless co-workers can take over if I get a call. I'm usually cooking for six to nine adults, so it's probably close to cooking for a bunch of kids. I've watched her show a zillion times on Food Network and everything she makes looks great. My co-worker suggested Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Get Real Meals to me because I'm really into veggies and trying to incorporate whole grains into our food. However, she says 30-Minute Meals is also very good, just not as much emphasis on healthy cooking.
 
We only have one cookbook, one produced by a high school future homemaker's group that compiled some family favorites. My sister in law got it for me for christmas a few years back when I was interested in increasing my cooking ability-the key word here is "was." :p
 
Someone in an earlier response mentioned the Fix It and Forget It series. I found a Fix It and Forget It Lightly at the library a few weeks ago. It had some really great recipes--easy preparation, but low-cal. I'm thinking about buying it. I also use online resources a lot.
Allrecipes
CDKitchen
Foodnetwork

I really like Rachael Ray too. She's usually my first stop on the Food Network link. I also belong to an online group, Saving Dinner. They offer weekly menus and shopping lists.

Other than that, I have been on a French cookbook kick lately, but those recipes aren't as practical for family dinners. I'll post again if I can think of more titles.
 
I went through my cookbook shelf in the kitchen this morning, and found some more to run past you guys:

More With Less Cookbook, by Doris Janzen Longacre- full of great practical recipes and advice on frugal living.

Extending the Table,by Joetta Schlabach-similar to the above book, but with a world-wide collection of recipes and cultural anecdotes. Very interesting, and humbling book to read.

Dinner's in the Freezer, by Jill Bond-the first practical book I read about cooking ahead. I love her Wassail recipe...

Mega Cooking,by Jill Bond-more of the same as the above book,but with many more recipes and adaptations, and tons of practical advice on buying and cooking in bulk. This one is work the money. Her spaghetti/pizza sauce is wonderful too.

Uprisings: the Whole Grain Baking-if this book doesn't inspire a baking session, call the mortician...

Campbell's Great American Cookbook-my favorite carrot cake variation came from this book: Tomato Soup Carrot Cake..yum!

Saving Dinner,by Leanne Ely-full of interesting recipes and menue ideas

The 30 Day Gourmet Cookbook, by Tara Wohlenhaus and Nanci Slagle-I love the format of the recipes, and the practical advice for adjusting my favorite recipes to 30 Day style. Their website, www.30daygourmet.com has a terrific forum to check out.

Betty Crocker's New Cookbook- I bought this and another copy a few years ago. One for a friend of my dds' and one for them. They were wanting to learn to cook, and since the friend was here most of that summer, I bought two copies so my girls and the friend could have the same "text." I like the way the recipes are so clearly written and easy to follow. Oh, and the photos and illustrations help challenged cooks like me ;)

Cookin' With Home Storage-can't remember the author, and the title page is gone.. this book has lots of good recipes
 
abecedarian said:
I'm always on the lookout for new cookbooks to explore. Does anyone have any they'd like to reccomend? Some of my favorites are: The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals, The Tex-Mex Cookbook, and Square Meals. Come on, I need some new ideas for feeding my picky crowd!
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I've used Harriet Roth's Cholesterol-Control Cookbook for years. It has some great recipes that family and friends who are not even concerned about their cholesterol have enjoyed thoroughly - including her chocolate cake recipe. The Moosewood cookbooks are referred to frequently here, and I pull a recipe from one of Natalie Dupree's books or Jacques Pepin's books now and again. Most recently I discovered some tasty dishes in The South Beach Diet Cookbook.

I prefer tasty, healthy, meatless, easy to prepare dishes, and the books I've mentioned fit the bill for me.

Nancy
 
As I posted elsewhere, I recently bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes by Jeff Herzberg and Zoe Francois. Last Thursday, I made a batch of dough from their master recipe. I didn't have time to bake til Saturday. Since I don't have the 'required' peel and baking stone yet, I have to make do with what I have, so I used a regular baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and the bottom of a broiler pan became my 'peel'. Everything went fine til I had to get the loaves(I made two) off the peel and onto the preheated pan...that's when I learned WHY a peel is better! My loaves rolled off the cornmeal dusted pan and rolled right over on their heads. I had to reach into the 450 degree F. oven and flip then upright. No harm done, but one loaf looked a little funny. The bread turned out great though, as did the batch I baked Monday night. This method is similar to the link I posted above, as there is no kneading. A friend on facebook tried the recipe from a link I posted, and she used whole wheat flour instead of unbleached white, and had great results. I understand the authors are working on a second book that focuses on 'healthier' recipes, so I imagine there will be more wholegrain focus there. I'm looking forward to seeing it myself, but knowing of her success lets me know there's room to play with what's in the book I already have.
Here's the link for a video demonstration of the master recipe:
Macmillan: Videos for Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking: Books: Jeff Hertzberg, Zoe Francois


You can also go to Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
To see more recipes and videos.

This is a great method for busy people who still want to enjoy fresh homemade bread. There is very little mess involved, as there's the one bucket for mixing and storing the dough, the baking sheet(less if one uses a silicon sheet or parchment paper), and the baker's hands..well, THIS baker managed to get flour and cornmeal on the counter, but your mileage may vary:whistling:
 
Some of my favorite food sites are:
Recipezaar - Recipe index with thousands of free recipes
www.discusscooking.com
Recipelink.com - Find Lost Recipes - Cooking on the Net Since 1996

Discuss Cooking is a very active cooking forum, with all kinds of great food talk and information. Recipezaar has a good forum too, and like all recipes, there are recipes for everything. I like the feature that lets me change the serving sizes and recalculates the ingredients for me. It is a free site, but for a fee, there are some other features available, like the ability to create separate cookbooks for various types of recipes. The rest of us can still create a searchable cookbook, so I don't bother.
 
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