Complete Vegetarian Kitchen by Lorna Sass

I've had this cookbook forever, but didn't really start using it until recently. I think I was a little turned off by it because most of the recipes include instructions for making everything in a pressure cooker, and honestly, has anyone bought a pressure cooker since the 70s? That being said, all the recipes do also have conventional instructions and are relatively simple to make.

This book is a fabulous resource for how to cook, and make tasty, all those things we're supposed to be eating like whole grains and lentils. The recipes are all vegan. Ingredients run from the readily available like quinoa and couscous, to the harder to find like amaranth. It included recipes for grain salads, tofu, quick breads and even an entire chapter on rice and risotto. There is also a nice section on how to cook with a pressure cooker, as well as how to stock a vegetarian pantry.

Recipes I cooked from the Complete Vegetarian Kitchen were:

Casserole Millet with Herbs (delicious, but I adore millet)

Quinoa and Potatoes with Caraway (good basic grain recipe)

Wheat Berry-Bean Stew (honestly, this one needed some cream and cheese to really elevate it)

Lentil-Quinoa Salad with (probably the most delicious lentily/quinoa salad thing I've ever eaten)

Lime-Curry Vinaigrette

It's looking like this is yet another book I'll have to keep on my shelves. It's just too valuable a resource to get rid of between the grain cooking instructions and the flavorful recipes.

Cooking Light Superfast Suppers

I love love love this cookbook! I don't even know where it came from...it seems to have just appeared on my shelves one day, but it is fantastic. The title certainly doesn't lie as all the recipes are very healthy, and very fast to make. They also happen to be delicious which is a rare thing when combined with the words healthy and fast.

I made the White Bean Chicken Chili. It's beany and cheesy and chicken-y and was a huge hit with my husband. My absolute favorite recipe here is Barley-Black Bean Burritos. It's a crockpot recipe and is chock full of protein, fiber and flavor. I could seriously eat this every day for a month. It's that delicious.

One of my favorite things about this book is that it includes a menu plan of sorts for each of the main dish recipes. This is usually either a short recipe for a side dish or for a dessert. Many of the recipes also include several variations or additions so that you can mix things up avoid boredom. I will absolutely be keeping this book and cannot wait to put it to better use.

The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever

The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever is a great little spiral-bound book that I've found invaluable for quick crock-pot recipes. I've found the most crock-pot success cooking soups and meats, and used this book for recipe sources for both.

I made Cabbage Soup with Rice and Dill which while it didn't look very appetizing, had a great flavor and was very healthy. I also made the Barbeque Beef Brisket which turned out absolutely fantastic and is the worlds. easiest. dinner. Seriously. You dump a beef brisket and a load of BBQ sauce in the pot in the morning and by the evening you have a fantastic melt-in-your-mouth brisket ready to feed your family.

One recipe I did not have rousing success with was the Red Bean Beef Chili. It called for dried beans, and even after soaking overnight and then cooking on low for 9 hours, the beans were still too hard to eat. Had to transfer them to a stove top and simmer for another hour and a half before they were edible. I also made Beans Slow Cooker Style and had a similar problem. I'm not sure if this is an issue inherent to the recipes in this book though, or just an adjustment I need to make for my crockpot.

The book also includes recipes for appetizers like Spinach Artichoke Dip and Glazed Cocktail Sausages, Vegetarian Main Courses like Vegetarian Enchilada Casserole, and desserts and beverages like Candy Bar Cheesecake and Hot Mulled Cider.

There's also a fantastic section at the beginning of the book for basic crock-pot information. It includes information about different makes and models, and hints on getting the most out of cooking in a crock pot such as how to get the best flavors and textures, using the appropriate size pot, etc.

The one main drawback to this book is that many of the recipes do call for convenience or processed foods. However, using ingredients like that can definitely make for faster-made meals and there are quite a few recipes using healthier ingredients and whole foods. I've found this book to be a valuable addition to my shelf.

Kitchen Aid Bowl Lift Stand Mixer

This handy little spiral-bound book is the manual that came with my Professional Kitchen Aid mixer. I have yet to really broach adapting traditional recipes for use in the KA, so I've been steadily relying on this book. So far, the recipes are pretty solid, and I'm learning to rely quite heavily on it.

The majority of my efforts here were spent on bread recipes. I've made several variations of their basic white bread, which includes options for cinnamon bread, quick rolls, curlicues, and cloverleafs. Depending on the weather, I've found I frequently have to add extra flour. Typically the recipe is foolproof, although I did have one disaster loaf that was absurdly sticky, and although I ended up adding more flour, the final loaf ended up incredibly tough and spongy. I'll probably have to play around with the recipe some more to gain a consistent bread. I've also made the Honey Oatmeal Bread an Dill Batter Bread. The Honey Oatmeal Bread was delicious and made a great all-purpose loaf for sandwiches. The Dill Batter Bread was probably the oddest bread I've ever made, seeing as how it was both a yeast and a batter bread. It was absurdly sticky and took a lot of heat to rise, but surprisingly turned out great, and oddly tasted a bit like rye even though there was no rye in it.

The only recipe in here I've made that wasn't a bread, was Peanut Butter Cookies. It was an absurdly easy recipe to make, but the dough was insanely soft, and I'd definitely need to add more flour if I was to make them again.

In addition to breads and cookies, this also includes recipes for cakes, candies, appetizers, quiche, and meatloaf.

Real Fast Vegetarian Food - Ursula Ferrigno

The title of this book is certainly a misnomer. There is nothing "fast" about a lot of these recipes, as many of them involve numerous steps. The Southern Italian Layered Potato Pie sounded great on paper. It's chock full of mozzarella, potatoes, onions and mushrooms. But you have to chop about a billion onions, and then cook everything separately, before smashing the potatoes into oblivion and then layering everything into a baking pan. In the end, you basically get glorified mashed potatoes and I really didn't see the need to bake the whole thing when you could just as easily just stir it all together. The Beetroot Salad however, was fast, very simple, and incredibly delicious. The longest step for this recipe was boiling the beets, which let's face it, doesn't exactly take a whole lot of attention or effort. After that you add some chopped onions, basil, parsley and a little oil and vinegar and salt and pepper. I also made Parmesan Potato Pancakes (glorified hashbrowns) and a Wild Mushroom and Basil Tart, which, while not fast, was probably one of the best things I've ever eaten. So I don't know, I'll probably hold onto this one for the time being and do a little more exploration in it once I'm through the first round of all my books. It may end up being one of those that I only pull a couple of recipes out of and then dump the rest. We shall see.

Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection

Mmm. That's all I have to say about this book. It's a collection taken from some of Le Cordon Bleu's best recipes. Some of the recipes require numerous steps, but none of it is terribly complicated...just time consuming. And so, so worth it in the end. First thing I made was a Salmon, leek, and potato gratin and omg was it ever good. Chock full of two smoked and fresh salmon, cream, leeks, Gruyere. Yeah, pretty much to die for. 

Yesterday I did a little entertaining and did a menu of 

Melting Morsels

Chicken with mushrooms and onions

Sauteed Potatoes

Lemon Delicious (which I mistakenly, but more appropriately called Lemon Surprise)

The morsels were these little cheesy pastry things. I was expecting them to be like, well, little pastries, but they ended up being the size of puffy crackers. Still tasted crisp and buttery and cheesy, but I'd definitely cut them larger next time. The chicken recipe was rather involved, but ended up being the quintessential country French chicken dish...baked in the oven and chock full of browned chicken, bacon and mushrooms. Who doesn't like that? The Sauteed potatoes are now going to be in my personal arsenal. They were SO easy and so delicious. I think I will be making them very, very frequently. 

And then we have the Lemon SURPRISE. It was supposed to be one of those pudding-on-the-bottom type things, only I had to double the recipe to feed my crowd, and let's just say the pudding didn't really pud. So it was more like a runny-lemon-slop-on-the-bottom type thing. Still tasted good and lemony, it just wasn't very appetizing to look at. I may try a do-over on that and just follow the recipe exactly.

One of the best things about this book (besides everything from it tasting fabulous) is that each recipe has a large color picture, so you always know exactly how it's supposed to turn out. The recipes aren't new, and if you have a number of other Cordon Bleu cookbooks, it's probably not worth your money to get this one (they'll be all repeats), but if not, this is a lovely book to look through and use!

The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas

Can I just say, I love this book? I love everything from it's earthy hand-drawn illustrations to it's crazy hippy recipes for potato peel soups. The Vegetarian Epicure was originally published sometime way back in the early 70s and came to me sometime in my early college days and it is one of the iconic vegetarian cookbooks of the time. It's like an artifact or something now. 

But despite how adorable it is, I actually like cooking from this book. Most of the recipes have stood the test of time and are thankfully older than some vegetarian frankenfoods, so the ingredients are all still familiar, normal things like regular fruits and vegetables. The book is organized by type of recipe, and includes the familar soups and sauces chapters, but also includes ones for souffles, crepes, and curries. From this book, I've made whole wheat orange pancakes, a lasagne with wine sauce, a potato cheese casserole and a fruit tart.  While some of the measurements were off, like the fruit tart that called for 6-7 plums, two peaches, and a whole pint of strawberries, but that only fit 3 plums, everything turned out delicious, and normal enough to serve to company. 

I don't think I'll ever get rid of this book. It brings back warm fuzzy memories of college, and  cooking for other people, because of course, everyone is vegetarian in college. And it's just plain adorable to read and think about baking bread and making a steaming pot of soup from on a rainy winter day. So nostalgia. I guess that's why I'm keeping it.