So, what is your favorite cookbook? I need to know.
My all-time favorite resource is The Joy of Cooking. There are days when I’m so tired I have actually forgotten how long to hard boil an egg. Or the time I was 1/2 way through an artichoke and I needed to know exactly how to get the heart out in tact I went right to JOC. What does the internal temperature of a medium-well tenderloin register? Consult JOC. But, beyond an amazing reference book, I have seldom (ok never) tried one of the thousands of recipes in my well loved JOC. Please let me know if I am missing something and which recipe(s) you recommend I try immediately.
My latest cookbook craze is over Every Night Italian and Barefoot in Paris. My longtime reader(s) will recall, I was given both of these gems by Husband for Christmas and most of my cooking since the holidays has been inspired from these sources.
Giuliano Hazan is famed Italian cook Marcella Hazan’s son. I would so love to be invited to the Hazan’s family Christmas dinner. Can you imagine? In Hazan-the-son’s newest release, he offers up simple Italian meals with the promise that they can be prepared in 30 minutes or so. His recipes are not designed to be a hurried affair aimed to beat the clock, but because the simple and well paired ingredients are so perfect the preparation is really minimal. And the results delicious.
I love everything about Ina Garten. I’m a sucker for her cookbooks and her Food Network series. I love her mis en place, her table settings, her flowers, even her husband Jeffrey is cute! With her of course. So, it came as no surprise that I would love Barefoot in Paris. When I read and follow her recipes I feel like I am back in Paris learning to cook for the first time. Her recipes remind me of living in the 7 eme chez Mme de la Pereuse and the amazing feasts we used to prepare. Everytime I open the Contessa’s cookbook I feel like I am transported to un petit bistro a Paris. See how virtual The Schell Cafe is?
I have about 150 cookbooks. I would have thought more, but I counted twice. So, after almost two months of wearing the pages thin on my newest favorites, it’s time to mix it up a bit. Here is my latest cookbook wishlist. Feel free to send me any or all of my objects of desire! And, if you don’t actually feel moved to send me a cookbook, please send me your recommendations and reviews! And, don’t forget to tell me your favorite cookbook. I’ll add it to my list.
SaucyMomma’s Cookbook Wish List
Lost Recipes Marion Cunningham
Fannie Farmer Marion Cunningham
Spice Island
Cooking for Mr. Latte Amanda Hesser
The Man Who Ate Everything Jeffrey Steingarten
The Artful Eater Edward Behr
How to Cook Everything Mark Bittman
LuLuÂs Provencal Table Richard Onley
Cooking at Home CIA
Classical Southern Cooking Damon Lee Fowler****
The Silver Spoon
**** This cookbook is out of print. PLEASE check your shelves, your mother’s or grandmother’s. If you have this cookbook I will promise to cook you every meal in it as payment! (Yes, I know I can get it on ebay. But, the last price I saw was over $300. ) Now go call your mother!
I must have 50 cookbooks that have the word “Southern” in them. I realize that reflects a grandmother and great-grandmother who were true southern cooks. Favorite? Yikes….that’s like asking who your favorite child is! The one I used as a mother and young hostess the most was from Saint Michael and All Angels Church in Dallas. It doesn’t even have a binder, a rubber band holds it together. I aspire to cook just one thing out of my three new Diana Kennedy cookbooks—totally Mexican cooking. The cookbooks I treasure most have been entrusted to me from great-grandmother, grandmother,and mother. They bring a smile to my face each time I read them. The first is The Pleasures of the Table by George H. Ellwanger, M.A. 1902 Doubleday Page and Co. New York. The second one is:Good Housekeeping’s Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries,1922. It still has a handwritten recipe of my grandmother’s tucked in the front pages.
Baby I wish I had that– I would love to gift it to you.
I have a core group of cookbooks:
Julia Child’s ‘The Way to Cook’
Cooks Illustrated: 1993-present
Peach Tree Tea Room– green one
‘American Home Cooking’ — by the Jamisons
and a group of old Junior League cookbooks, from Monroe, LA; the old Houston (pineapple); and two others from Lousiana/Mississippi–can’t remember the towns– ANYWAY I have relatives in all those books and so must look often.
MWAH!!!
My favorite is Ann Byrn’s “The Dinner Doctor.” Almost everything I make from it gets raves. And you’d be surprised how few of her recipes call for a can of cream of mushroom soup. 🙂 Her version of Chicken Marbella is becoming my signature dish. Second favorite is “The Minimalist Cooks Dinner” by the minimalist himself, Mark Bittman. His recipes are incredibly flavorful for the low number of ingredients he calls for.