Cookbook of the Month: May 2011

This month I am picking a cookbook we recently got on a weekend trip.  We went to Washington, Virginia and stayed at the Foster Harris House.  It was a great bed and breakfast, the highlight of which was a four course breakfast!  I planned the trip as a surprise getaway for the 5th anniversary of our first date.  Washington is about an hour and a half away from our house, so we left mid-afternoon, stopped at a few wineries along the way and then arrived at the Foster Harris House.  I picked Washington so we could have dinner at the fabulous Inn at Little Washington.  We've seen it on the Travel Channel and knew of it's prestigious reputation.  It is often ranked on lists of the top restaurants in the country and even the world.  It was absolutely phenomenal, exceeding our expectations, which were high to begin with!  It's definitely one of the top three meals I've ever had, ranking up there with our Table 21 experience at VOLT and a tasting menu at Graham Eliot. 

One of the best parts of our stay was getting to take this cookbook home with us!  I added it to my collection, close to 60 cookbooks now, and it's gotten some use so far!  I'll be sharing a few recipes over the course of the month, and hope to recreate our four course breakfast as well!

Cookbook of the Month: April 2011

I haven't had a cookbook of the month in awhile.  I started it last year sometime then as life got busy it got abandoned.  But I'm bringing it back. Just call me Justin Timberlake. 


So for April 2011 my cookbook of the month will be America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook. I was super excited when this cookbook showed up in stores.  I buy most of my books at Costco -- it's almost impossible for me to leave there without a book.  We've recently acquired an iPad though so I think my physical books purchases will be declining in favor of ebook purchases. Not cookbooks though; I suspect I will always buy those in actual book form.  But, when I saw that the newest ATK book included nutritional information I was quite excited.  That was my biggest complaint about their products for awhile -- obviously not a major gripe since I'm still a subscriber and managed to procure all back issues to make a complete set of Cook's Illustrated editions.  But, since I knew that science is a main tenant of their recipe creation I always wondered why they didn't include nutrition info in their recipes.  I figured for a publication as into food science as they are it was surprising that they would not include those statistics.  


Anyway, this book solved that problem so I bought it immediately.  We've enjoyed just about everything we've made out of it and we've barely scratched the surface.  Look for at least three recipes this month from America's Test Kitchen's Healthy Family Cookbook.

Cookbook of the Month: June 2010

For June I've chosen one of our newer cookbooks as the Cookbook of the Month -- Alton Brown's Good Eats: The Early Years.  Zach and I both have always loved watching Good Eats on the Food Network.  We enjoy Alton's crazy blend of science, humor, and of course, good eats.  We got the cookbook pretty much as soon as it came out.  It's not a typical cookbook though, organized into 'Meats', 'Side Dishes', 'Bread', 'Desserts", etc.  It's organized by episodes of the show, in chronological order.  It gives lots of background info about the episode and a lot of the science behind the ingredient/recipe.  This makes it a cookbook you really want to sit down and read.  

We are in the process of choosing our recipes for this month, but here are some recipes I've previously made, using FoodNetwork.com as a resource, that are also in this book:

Southern Biscuits and Sawmill Gravy  This makes a great breakfast!

Good Eats Meatloaf  This is still our favorite meatloaf recipe, mostly for the tasty sandwiches it makes afterwards!

Cookbook of the Month: April 2010

For April I'm choosing a cookbook I've been very excited about since we got it in December.  Even before we moved down to the Washington DC area and got to live near his fabulous restaurants we've been fans of Jose Andres.  We started watching his show Made in Spain on PBS, and love his enthusiasm for his Spanish culture, traditions and cooking.  We wanted to learn more about him as a chef so we googled him and we were surprised to discover we had actually already been to one of his restaurants!  On a trip to DC the year before we had dined at Jaleo, Crystal City.

We ended up there by chance, since it was a short walk from the hotel I was staying in and the menu looked good.  After reading more about him, and knowing we'd be moving to the DC area soon, we set ourselves a goal of eating at each of his restaurants.  So far we've been to Oyamel and Jaleo Bethesda.  We went to Jaleo Bethesda for a chance to meet the chef himself.  He had a cookbook signing there in December of 2009.  We went, had dinner, then waited in line to get our own signed copy of Made in Spain.  I've been waiting patiently to make it our Cookbook of the Month!  I can't wait to make some of the dishes and blog about them.

Cookbook of the Month: March 2010

I am a little late on this, but I have been working on a few recipes from the cookbook, I just haven't posted the intro post.  I chose my Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook as the Cookbook of the Month for March.  Since we've been following the program, and getting excellent results so far -- I'm down 12.5 pounds, Zach has lost 16! -- I decided it was a good choice.  I like that the cookbook lists calories and other nutrition info plus calculates the WW points.  I always double check the points though, since this was published several years ago, and the WW program has undergone a few changes since then.  Nothing major I think, since I've never found a major issue with the previous points calculations, but they do revamp the program every year.  So, look forward to some recipes from the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook!  I normally link to an Amazon or Barnes and Noble page for more information about the book, but I believe this one is out of print, as I bought it 4-5 years ago. 

Cookbook of the Month: January/February 2010

As the new year hit us, we decided that a good resolution would be to start eating healthier in the hopes of losing some weight.  We started following the Weight Watchers program, a program I have used successfully before.  So far in our first three weeks I am down over 5 pounds, and Zach has lost over 7, and we hope to stick with it to meet our goal weights sometime this spring.  So, you can expect to see many more "light" recipes popping up in this blog.  Right now we've been using The Best of Cooking Light to plan many of our meals, since it provides nutritional info for each recipe, which makes it very easy to figure out the Weight Watchers 'points'.  It's also my Cookbook of the Month for January, and since it's so large (over 400 pages and 500 recipes!) February too!  We've already made 4 recipes from it this month, and have enjoyed them all.  I found it on a clearance rack at Borders for $7.99 and it's become a great resource as we search for ways to lighten up our meals and still have great flavor.  Now that I have it, I know I'd gladly pay twice or three times as much for it, since it's got so many great recipes.

November/December Cookbook of the Month

So, I've been a bad blogger, a very bad blogger.  November has been a crazy month, and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet!  I had two weeks at work where I had to stay each night, and if I stay late, the traffic increases and my evening commute lengthens from just over an hour to almost two hours.  Yeah, not fun.  So, those nights have been devoid of trying any new recipes and filled with leftovers, frozen pizzas and quick non-recipe meals -- quesadillas, rice and beans, nothing good to really blog about.  I like my entries to be something I tried for the first time, or an old favorite, but I like them all to be actual recipes, not general, anyone-can-throw-this-together-kind-of-food.  Also in November was my birthday - yay!  Which also resulted in a string of meals out at restaurants.  I will blog one of those visits soon, to Vintage 50, which was amazing, but back to the point of this post, we haven't been doing too much blog-worthy cooking lately in our kitchen and it's time to fix that.  Of course I say this as we are about to leave town for Thanksgiving, but since we also tend to do a decent amount of cooking at my parent's house, I'll be sure to take any pictures for new entries.

As a result of the craziness of November, I won't be able to get three recipes out of my cookbook of the month choice, partially because of time, and partially because it was so hard to pick just three!  So, I'm making it a double month book and will try for 5 or so between November and December.  I've chosen The Best Light Recipe, by the fine folks at Cook's Illustrated.  I love their extensive testing of recipes to determine what really is the 'best' version of something.  Also, Zach just got me a subscription to the monthly magazine as part of my birthday present, so look for some of their regular recipes too!

Apple Scones

This is another recipe from the Apple Cookbook.  I've never made scones before and think that these turned out pretty well for my first attempt!  We had Zach's family visiting and I never got to eat one, so I think it's a good sign that they were popular!  The dough was rather wet to work with, so I was a bit nervous, but I think it was a very humid day that caused it.  Hopefully next time I make them I will actually get to taste one!  I actually deviated from the recipe when it came to the cooking method.  It said to cook on a griddle or skillet, but I baked them at 450 for about 20 minutes.  Here's the picture, the scones are on the left :-)

Apple Scones
The Apple Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter
1 egg
1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
1 large apple (McIntosh, Golden Delicious are suggested in the book, I used Paula Reds.)

Directions:

• Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl.  Add the sugar and mix.
• Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles large crumbs.  Make a well in the center.
• Beat the egg and yogurt together in a small bowl.  
• Peel, core and finely chop the apple.  Stir into the yogurt mixture.
• Pour the yogurt mixture into the center of the dry ingredients and, using a fork, stir to form a soft dough.
• On a floured surface, pat the dough into a 1/2 inch thick round and cut into 8 triangles.
• Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over low to medium heat and sprinkle lightly with flour.  Cook the scones triangles for 5 minutes, until they are golden brown on the bottom.  Turn and cook for 4 minutes longer, serve warm.

Apple Crumb Pie

This is the second recipe from the October cookbook of the month, Apple Cookbook.  I made it for dinner we had when Zach's parents and brother were in town.  It was very delicious and everyone enjoyed it.  It's the first time I've made an apple pie anything other than the standard two-crust version, and I think it turned out pretty well.  I used a store-bought pie dough (yay for the doughboy!) since I've always failed pretty miserably at any pie dough I've attempted.  And, it's what I grew up on since my mom has always used it.  I figure I can't make it any better, so why end up with an inferior crust just to say I made it myself?  No need to re-invent the wheel.  Plus, it was a busy week for us anyway and it saved me a significant amount of time.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture, we forgot before eating it!  Next time I make it I will add one to the post.

Apple Crumb Pie
from the Apple Cookbook

Ingredients:
pastry for a single 10 inch pie crust
5 large apples (Northern Spy, Fuji are suggested in the book, I used Paula Red.)
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup chopped pecans (I omitted these.)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450.  Grease a ten inch pie plate.
• Roll out the pastry and fit it in the pie plate.  Flute the edges and refrigerate.
• Peel, core and cut the apples into 1/4 inch slices.  Arrange in chilled pie shell.
• In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, sugar, 1/4 cup of the flour, egg and vanilla.  Beat until smooth and pour over the apple slices.
• Bake for 10 minutes, reduce the oven to 350 and bake for 30 minutes longer.
• Mix the remaining 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar and butter until the mixture is crumbly.  Stir in the pecans and sprinkle over the baked pie.
• Return the pie to the oven and bake 15 minutes longer or until the stopping is golden brown.  

Apple Cookbook: Cookbook of the Month, October 2009

The cookbook for the month of October will be the Apple Cookbook by Owen Woodier.  I received this cookbook as a gift when participating in a Fall Gift Exchange on the 'What's Cooking?' board.  I can't wait to dig into it and find some great recipes.  I skimmed it already and it has lots of great information about apples, their history and all the varieties and their differences.  Yay for fall!

Cookbook of the Month

In an effort to try and better utilize my ever growing collection of cookbooks, I've decided to start a "Cookbook of the Month." I'm going to challenge myself to make at least three recipes from the cookbook in that month and blog about them. So, for September and the first Cookbook of the Month, I've chosen my Food Network Kitchens cookbook. I got this as a present at one of my bridal showers and have really only used it for one recipe up until now -- Peruvian Roasted Chicken which will be my first blog entry from this cookbook. I've chosen one other recipe I've been dying to make from it, then will have Zach choose the last one to round out the three picks for this month.