I was contemplating cookbooks while making breakfast this morning. [Four itty-bitty zucchini fried with butter, garlic and salt and four over-easy fried eggs.] A friend of mine, a former vegetarian, is looking for a new cookbook that incorporates meat-based recipes. That's what got me thinking.
I keep a regular rotation of library-borrowed cookbooks to sift through for inspiration and new ideas, which is very helpful. But I have two old standbyes that I reference on an almost-daily basis.
The first: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. This is my all-time, most-used favorite-favorite cookbook. I used this sucker to teach myself how to cook. It was a wedding gift from a much-loved Soc. professor in college. A paperback copy, it is water and food stained, scribbled in, and now exists in three pieces. I look at this one almost every day. If you have a piece of food or meal genre that you wonder what to do with, this book will provide 2-3 (or way more) answers. It awesome, just awesome.
The second: Simply in Season by Marybeth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert. When eating from a garden or CSA share, this book is extremely helpful in assisting the brain providing various options on how to use it on a daily basis. I reference this book year-round, but it is particularly useful while the garden is putting out.
All this made me wonder . . .
What is YOUR favorite cookbook?
Please dish.
3 comments:
i really like American Classics, by the authors of Cooks Illustrated. no photos so it surprised me how much i like it, but it was a wedding gift too with inscription so i couldn't return it! they give a detailed description about why they use each ingredient in the recipe. "when we used sour cream it ..., but with milk it was....and yogurt tasted more..."
i like to use a recipe as a guide, so this kind of information is helpful for an improvisor like me!
and, i just got Bittman based on your good opinion of him.
I use almost exclusively recipes from friends/family. When I have something someone makes and I really like it, I ask for the recipe. (The chicken/rice soup you put on your blog is a regular for us all fall and winter.)
I did get the Betty Crocker cookbook for a wedding gift and refer to it from time to time.
My other technique is to "google it".
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