Favorite Cookbooks!

I use the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book quite a bit. Lots of just the basics in there. It's the red and white one that nearly everyone has.

Taste of Georgia is one I've used a little. I'm not a big cookbook person. My husband doesn't like experiments, just the same ol' things, and I really don't like to cook anyway. LOL! But I do have a few years of Quick Cookin', Country Women, and Taste of Home that I need to go thru.

Oh, and have found a few good recipes in Southern Living Magazine when I used to get it.

These are the ones I pull out most often:

BHG New Cookbook, 'cause that's what my mother used and I know and love the recipies. Except the one I have doesn't have the Blonde Brownie recipe that my mom's edition has, which still bugs me, I love blonde brownies. Incidentally, DH's mother used Betty Crocker cookbook which I detest but he prefers (he likes to cook too). So we have dueling cookbooks.

The Grilling Encyclopediaby A. Cort Sinnes that tells you how to grill anything. Split the fryer down the back and grill the whole chicken flattened out--never would have occured to me to do it, but we love chicken done this way. The sauces and marinades for the meats and veggies are fabulous. I love that book.

The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes by Judith Finlayson. These are four and five star gourmet recipies for your crock pot.

The Best of Country Cooking by the folks of Country, Country Woman, and Reminisce magazines and A Taste of the Country cookbooks. These recipies are arranged in order of the seasons, so in spring you get the asparagus recipies, summer you get the berry recipies, etc. I love that about it and the recipies are fantastic.

50 Classic Curries by Manisha Kanani. We LOVE curries and Indian food, and this book simply, clearly, and deliciously shows you how to make the scrumtious sauces, curry powders and pastes, dips and relishes, and dishes that you find at the Indian restaurants.

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"If you want yor children to be bright, read them fairytales-- if you want them to be brilliant, read them even more fairytales" Albert Einstein

I generally think of cookbooks as collections of recipes, because that's what the majority of them are. I pored over a 1967 edition of The Joy of Cooking as a teen, and studied the detailed explanations of methods and ingredients, equipment and history, and thus began my real education.

So even though I will probably never skin a squirrel, or make Chicken A la King, or anything at all in tomato aspic, the old Joy of Cooking is my fave.
I still turn to it for the White Bread Plus (or Wheat Bread Plus) recipe that makes 3 loaves, or the very simple, very easy, Flour Paste Pie Crust recipe.

Other cookbooks I can cheer for are 'The Hows and Whys of French Cooking' by Alma Lach, which is like taking a culinary class in terms of depth and understanding.

Also the magazine Cook's Illustrated! In addition to offering top-notch recipes and methods, it's a great entertaining read.

Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book is how I learned to make bread without anyone to teach me, and have baked passionately ever since.

For some reason, I could never get behind the Betty Crocker cookbooks like The New Cookbook. They seemed more like recipe collections than cookery books, and I wasn't too impressed with the recipes or methods. I know, I am trampling sacred ground, and don't mean to. Maybe I feel that way because my mother always used that book, and she was a terrible cook. I am certainly biased, so forgive my words if you are a lover of that book.

*** It is in the nature of man to search for the meaning of Wife. But one man said it best: 'Wifeys like a box of chocolates'. ***

It used to be that my one and only cooking bible was the Joy of Cooking.
I have both of my grandmothers books with their notes and 2 copies of my own...talk about overkill eh?

My favorite one in recent months has become Nourishing Traditions.
While some of the recipes seem a bit "out there", the whole book is loaded with great info and great recipes. The first recipe I attempted with this book was the banana bread. I thought it would be "healthy" to try using kamut flour...blech! Wrong! The next one I tried was the Chicken curry...OH man that was great! I even made the liver dumpling soup...DH and DD do not like liver, but they had no clue that was what they ate and they loved it!

I am still learning a lot and have some Turkish preferences in my recipes (DH is Turkish). I usually use a recipe as a guideline only and hardly ever use a measuring spoon or measuring cup...all by eye. God help my daughter if she wants my recipes...LOL

Kathy

Well, I can't find the old thread about cookbooks. But I remember one where Lynn was talking about her favs - Mark Bittman, something else, and I think Laurel's kitchen. I bought that at a library sale a year ago and am finally reading it. I remember Lynn talking about how the first section - an essay about families, time, and cooking, really spoke to her. It does to me too. Now to digest what I've read! We are not vegetarian, though eat veggie meals once or twice a week. I do better with meat based proteins. Anyway, I love the recipes in this book. Anyone else have experience with it?
Andrea