I have a lot of cookbooks. Over 35, more or less. I got Betty, I got Moosewood, I got Silver Palate, I got The Campbells Soup Cookbook of 1968. I got French, Russian, Amish, Kenyan and Danish (in Danish). I got pies, soups, appetizers, garnishes and How To Cook His Goose (and everything else). Beautiful hardbound with luxurious ribbon markers and luridly appetizing pictures compete for shelf space with wirebound fundraisers and food manufacturer's pamphlets. I love them all equally, from The Cordon Bleu Handbook of Dessert Techniques to the St. James Episcopal Church Altar Guild Cookbook.
I try to pick up old cookbooks every chance I get. I prefer them used, well loved, grease stained, oh! and annotated I love annotated. A few weeks ago I had a tiny seizure of grief when I had to leave a delightfully splotched and scrawled 1972 edition of the Bloodroot Lesbian Feminist Bookstore and Cafe Collective Vegetarian Cookbook - the price just barely eclipsed the pocket money I had on hand. That would have been quite a prize. But I really can't resist any of them, no matter what shape they're in. I feel like I must give them all a home.
So, like, why? Why cookbooks? Short answer - Because once upon a time, after a freak accident involving an oven and some tupperware, my (now ex-) husband destroyed - DESTROYED - the five or six cookbooks which comprised my...er...dowry. To be fair, I did insult his mother (to wit, "what kind of idiot keeps her tupperware in the oven?"), but jeez...watching him tear up the pages of The Sixty Minute Gourmet, my medieval redactions cookbook, and, oh, my Horn of the Moon! my American Frugal Housewife! my friends, my oracles! all in piles of fragments of tatters of shreds. Well, that was then - this is now. You may thank that despicable sumbitch for my cookbook habit, which I am now delighted to share with you on this new website.
Anyone want to know how to make bokoboko?
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18 comments:
bokoboko sounds dangerous. Like something made of calves brains and tuna and served in a banana leaf.
served elegantly in a banana leaf.
it's actually a brains-free Kenyan rice dish. I think.
how fun is this?!
dude-I'm still killing myself over the Bloodroot Angry Lady Cookbook.
Ever want authoritative source material for lentil loaf?
I got a copy of Laurels Kitchen with a perfectly awful recipe for Lentil Loaf. I have been forbidden to ever again fix it as long as He is the Man of the House.
a pal used to call that stuff "Hearty Lesbian Sludge" (tm)
blech lentils. They are part of the whole conspiracy. They are the Anti-Steak.
may I suggest a Lentil Loaf smackdown?
with a prize going to:
most authentic
most closely approaching edible
weirdest ingredients
so, what's the most delicious thing you've ever made?
I clip. Usually from the newpaper, because I'm too cheap to buy magazines although I have been known to bring them home from the library just so I can copy out a recipe.
Yesterday's paper recipe was for grilled mushrooms with tomatoes. It will give me a chance to use portobello mushrooms for the first time.
Elizabeth, if you like the recipe you must post it here! I insist!
Lentil Loaf smackdown...who's gonna be the judge? Not me. Since it's your idea you have to make the loaves and give us your opinion.
Most delicious thing I ever made.
Oh! Cinnamon-nut caramel rolls. Pure unadulterated culinary sin. I love making bread. Tho Jewish Penicillin comes a close second.
most delicious thing we made recently was a ridiculously dense and rich and preposterous chocolate cake "le diable" out of a really pretentious cookbook. (it was the first time I've ever encountered "baking parchment".) we smooshed up some raspberries to glop on top, served it with whipped cream. decent.
le diable? like, the devil's? Would that be a snoot form of Devil's Food Cake?
anything chocolate with raspberries and whipped cream...now my mouth's watering...
Baking Parchment is a Martha Stewart conspiracy. I've never used it and don't see the need.
Would that be a snoot form of Devil's Food Cake?
snootay.
it was a decent recipe, pretty easy, called for that doily trick with the powdered sugar for the top, but we went with the raspberry glop (oh, pardonnez-moi - la coulis de framboise) instead.
I use parchment paper when I cook fish.
Usually salmon or trout..I line my baking sheet with the paper put on enough thin slices of lemon to rest fish pieces on and then throw on whatever herbs I want to use ( herbs d' provence as current fav ) and bake at 400 or 425 til done.
No need for oil, fish doesn't stick and I can recycle the paper with my garden garbage.
I buy the store brand and it works fine.
I love parchment, particularly when making sticky things - like pecan lace cookies, which is essentially caramelizing sugar in the oven. It makes the whole process a lot easier and doesn't alter or compromise flavor the way an oil or butter can.
Hello! You'll be happy to know that Bloodroot just published gorgeous new cookbooks, which you can get at bloodroot.com. If you really really want the older one(s), I could get you a copy - just email me at lagusta@lagusta.com. Best, Lagusta
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