Showing posts with label cookbooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookbooks. Show all posts

April 21, 2010

From such humble beginnings...


comes such deliciousness!

This recipe, for chunky lentil soup, from Heidi Swanson's beautiful Super Natural Cooking (a gift from my beloved Tara, of course) is one of my current faves. (Her website is chock full of yummyness, too!) It's a quick, healthy meal that leaves enough leftovers for a couple of lunches. Heidi's work is inspiring to me because it shows how simple healthy cooking can be. Not that the lily can't be gilded, mind you -- I served this last night with a pile of freshly-grated parmiggiano reggiano and garlic-basil toasts. Mmmmmmmmmmm!

November 9, 2009

crepes two ways

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or, how to make something when there's nothing to eat.

there's something quite satisfying about cooking with what you happen to have in the fridge or pantry (or, more accurately, the cabinet). there is something even more satisfying about cooking without spending money when you have recently relocated across the country in the midst of this current economic ridiculousness.  but i digress!

where was i? oh yes, crepes. crepes are one of those things i have made over the years when i didn't have anything sweet in the house and really wanted dessert. so the other day, while thinking of what on earth i could make to eat with the cupboards nearly bare, i thought crepes. (well, i thought pancakes, but i didn't have any baking soda or powder!)

it was too late for breakfast, and i wanted 'real' food as well as something dessert-y. i decided to try savory and sweet versions of crepes. i used the same crepe recipe for both options, deciding to not add sugar as is suggested in most sweet crepe recipes. while i usually use the betty crocker cookbook (my all time fave) for these kind of recipes, this time i was too lazy to even walk the four feet to get it out of the bookcase, so i used this one by alton brown.

why is it so much easier to look recipes up on the internet, even when you have cookbooks galore, as we both mentioned earlier? damn that modern technology.

jamcrop~

i filled the savory crepes with the carrot-habanero jam that my bro made, a combo of grated sharp and smoked cheddar cheeses, and some chopped scallions.

dulcebananas

i had some dulce de leche that i had made in the fridge, so i thought that would be lovely as the base of the sweet crepes. we also had two bananas laying about, so i decided on a 'bananas foster' type concoction. butter, brown sugar, dulce de leche, and bananas, melted together and poured over the folded crepes. the gorge went nuts over it. of course, he has rarely met a sweet food creation he didn't like, but still, it was quite tasty.

November 3, 2009

Even More New Cookbooks

Proof for my husband that we need a bigger house (to house all the cookbooks): The BA Foodist's list of new cookbooks, with commentary by the owners of Rabelais in Portland, ME, which is apparently a culinary bookstore. WHAT? Wait -- we don't have one of those here! All the bookstores here only sell crappy diet books and Gossip Girl novels! Well, at least I can visit Rabelais online. Which ones will you add to your Christmas list?

October 31, 2009

design*sponge cookbook reviews

i'm just a tad obsessed with blog reading. the problem is that so many cool blogs highlight other cool blogs and then they highlight even more cool blogs, and so on, and so on! i find myself adding so many blogs to my reader that i cannot possibly keep up. but i can't stop!

design*sponge is one of the blogs that is always sending me on a blog-adding spree, as well as leading me to bookmark 8,000 items i would love to buy, have to own, and can't possibly live one other day without. unfortunately for my desire to own every cookbook on earth, they sometimes highlight new offerings in that category as well. such as these. people looking for gift ideas, take note!!