Tag Archives: cookbooks

Project: Cooking thru my cookbooks or else…

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So I’m moving thru the books at a good pace.

Going, going gone…

I always like her books because she is sexy and cooks food that means something to her. But, I will never eat octopus or squid or?? It’s fun to look thru but not keep.

Deb Perelman is iconic. I love her embracing her Jewishness and some of the foods are great. But I’m never going to make any of it. This was a pet bookstore find. Fun to read and look at but not to keep.

These are harder to get rid of simply because of the sentimentality. I mean, I used these books in the 70’s and yes, my whole bread were like bricks, but hey it was the 70’s. I always liked the drawings. I do and did like to read the Buddhist stuff thrown in but since I’m past any of that now. They are going.

Back in 1970, when I first became vegetarian, I knew absolutely nothing about food or nutrition. Then along came Frances Moore Lappe. Believe me the soybeans were getting cooked into really awful soy burgers but the food combining was the biggest thing to hit vegetarianism. That along with Adele Davis were the big hits of the time. Anyway, most of that is debunked now that you need to combine beans with rice or whatever. But at the time it was cutting edge in being vegetarian. I mean you couldn’t find tofu to save your life and brown rice, forget it. Now , it all seems so easy.

Anyway, going, going, gone.

That’s five more off the shelf.

Keeping:

I found this at the pet bookstore a few years ago. I love Julia Child and how she changed American cooking. But the real reason i will keep this book is the colors and pattern. It looks like Catherine Holm which I do love.

Next keeper:

Alice Waters book is a classic on just how to cook things right. I don’t think I’ve made any recipes but I do use to look up things.

I’ve made quite a few things from this Deborah Madison book and I have a letter from her tucked in the jacket. I wrote her how much I loved the book back in the 80’s and she wrote me back. Cool, right.

Project: cooking thru my cookbooks or else…

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“Field of Greens” and “The Greens Cookbook’ both make the cut.

I’ve made lots of recipes from both these books. They are EXCELLENT vegetarian cookbooks and worth having.

Lots of great recipes.

The next 2 are also keepers.

This is a classic and has all the basics you could ever want. I refer to it regularly.

Funny story behind this book. I got this book when I got married( not this one though). I used it for a few things but one time I was looking thru it and saw this recipe:

One of my few pleasant childhood memories is my mom making these at Christmas although she called them by their Polish name of Kruschicki Recipe | Allrecipes I believe this was the recipe. I used to make these at Christmas too but only every other year. I didn’t make them last year so maybe this year.

So, I think I’m getting into mostly the cookbooks I’ll be keeping butI may still have a surprise or two.

Project: Cooking thru my cookbooks or else…

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Next on the chopping block.

This is a signed Alice Waters book. It really is a lovely cookbook with linocut images. Quite beautiful. But I’ve never made a recipe from this book or unfortunately never went to Chez Panisse. Probably the time to have gone would have been the 1970’s right when we moved here. Probably it could have been one of those Berkeley trips we made to visit our friend Jim. Also, when we had our bookstore later in the 1980’s we would drive down to Berkeley to go to

Bookpeople and buy literally $1000’s of inventory. It was a huge warehouse and fun too. But never ventured into town where Chez Panisse was.

So, I might look one more time if there is a recipe to make but I doubt it.

Bookcases filled and freshly painted…

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Here’s a picture of the bookcase filled. There are 7 shelves.

One is the Harry Potter shelf, one is the Bob Dylan shelf, one is classics I don’t want to part with quite yet( Farmer Boy, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder) the rest are cookbooks and my simple living/decluttering books. I tried to get all my cookbooks here but there’s still about one shelf’s worth of cookbooks on the other bookcase. I could move the Dylan books and try fitting them there. I guess I’ll see.

I am happy with how bright and clean it looks and am looking forward to doing more. I also did the french door on the one side. I’ll do the other side later this week.

I only found one book to get rid of otherwise all these are useful and I do re-read many of them.( I’ve read the Historian at least 6 times!!!). This is all the books except for the collection of Easton press which is admittedly quite a few. That bookcase is a teak wood so I wouldn’t paint that.

I’ll show that again when we paint the front room.

Frugal Friday

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My doctor’s appt went well. He’s clearly aware of my increase in kappa light chains and now the m -spike. So I feel reassured that when we move forward with treatment it’ll be the right time. Again at this rate, probably by the end of the year.  I definitely will not let them get over the 1,000 mg/L mark which is where it was when the other treatment of Pomalsyt( an oral chemotherapy) wasn’t working. But for now, I have a few more months of “freedom”.

  I also had a brief dental appt to check on the cold sensitivity where she had done the crown. It seemed it was all ok and she recommended using Sensodyne toothpaste.

We’re heading to Costco so as to take advantage of the coupon sales. Dish soap, laundry soap, and a number of other things are on sale and I’d like to get them. It will probably end up another $500 shop but that will go on September’s food budget.  I’m planning on about $600-$700 including alcohol( wine for me, beer for B).  Plus it’s our birthday month so we may have a take out dinner or two.

I bought some books from Goodwill books online.

58586D87-99AF-4585-9586-DEF2F9C1B52A.jpeg

Of course, cookbooks!! The prices were good but not exceptional. the Pioneer woman one was $15 I think. Goldy’s was $7.00. Still, with the pet book store closed( where books are $1.00 each) there’s not a supply of cookbooks coming into my house which for me is cheap entertainment.

Last night I made a breakfast bake with hashbrowns, eggs, cheese, and some sausage on the meat side. It was very good and a good way to use up the eggs were getting from the chickies.

Tonight is pizza night. I might get a take and bake from Costco.

This weekend I have more tomatoes to process and I’m going to do a large pan of baked tofu as I need to use some up. Baked tofu is good cold or in sandwiches.

The days are really getting shorter and sunset now is about 7:40 and sunrise is 6:30am.  We’re still getting out to walk at 5:30 am but I think fairly soon we will bump it out to 5:45am.  This morning was busy down there with dog(jerk) walker getting there at 5:40am. We were almost done and he came blasting by and I yelled at him saying” On your left”. He does irritate me something wicked.

Well, I’d better get some things done so we can leave to get to Costco by

 9am when they open.

Midweek

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We went over to the pet bookstore this morning. I love that ALL the books are $1.00.

I picked up 3 new cookbooks to peruse and maybe get some ideas. One is a Classic French cooking book. For $1.00 if I don’t like it I can just give it back. Plus it supports the Foothills SPCA.

Then, my van wouldn’t start the other day which was weird as it always starts. So we thought it was the battery and B went dutifully to go buy one to the tune of $157. ( that includes the fees). Well, it wasn’t the battery but I’m sure we needed one anyway. So he called and had AAA tow it 1/8 of a mile away to the garage in town here.  So, today, I stopped in to check and the mechanic and owner said the grounding wire had deteriorated so he fixed it. All is well in van land. Not that I use it that much but I still love it. And we do use it to haul hay and Ikea (ha ha) stuff.

Tomorrow is gym day and then some errands I need to run. No one will be here, so I’ll be on pet duty for the day. The doggies expect lunch promptly!!:)

I may venture out to the barn to view what I need to do.  I went out there the other day and it looked pretty good. B’s work samples are on one side and he needs these for work so that’s where they live. The middle area is where I need to just kinda re -organize. Most things have been decluttered once, twice, three, four times but there’s always room for improvement.  Until the temperatures start hitting 70 which is now, it’s too cold out there plus it’s dark. I mean there are lights but it’s much better if the doors are wide open. My plan is to start with bring out a vinegar water solution and at least wipe the bins down and then look at a little better system of organization.  Last year, I must have given away 4 bins of magazines so I’m not sure there is more to get rid of right now. I’d still like to only have 2 bins of the best but that’s still aways off.

Dinner is a stir-fry with leftover chicken from last night.

 

‘plated’, cookbook review

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61FVX5weZRL._SX442_BO1,204,203,200_‘plated’ is a cookbook that is a spin-off of their cook-at-home- dinner service. I’m guessing it’s like Blue Apron which is so popular right now.

I liked the recipes as they seem uncomplicated and used ingredients I usually have on hand. Its well laid out with different sections such as weeknight dinners, make ahead, great for leftovers and more.  I’ve made 3 of the recipes. The quinoa with toasted chickpeas and roasted carrots though didn’t come together  or taste very good. I’m not sure if maybe it was the carrots or the chickpeas that didn’t cook quite right.  The rosemary chicken was fine but it’s a classic roast chicken. The polenta with fried egg was good, but something I have made in the past.

The pictures of the food presentations though is quite nice. I think this book is a good start for someone starting to meal plan and also utilize leftovers.

I think this would be a good book to get from the library as opposed to buying it.

This book was given to me from bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for my honest opinion.