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. 

Betty Crocker More Slow Cooker Recipes

I think I may have found my first book that I'm willing to give up! Did my standard five recipes out of this book, and I made a variety of things, from a Mexican Beef Stew, to Sherry Buttered Mushrooms, to Cauliflower Curry, but few of the recipes were really spectacular. With the exception of the mushroom recipe, which was fantastic, none of these really knocked my socks off. The Cauliflower Curry was rather bland, and honestly, how do you make bland curry?? I also made Southwestern Pinto Beans, mainly because I have three one-pound bags of raw pinto beans in my pantry (don't ask), and they were decent, but really kind of dry in the end. They were cooked in a bit of water, chipotles in adobo, and tomato paste, and the sauce turned out kind of, well, paste-y in the end. The flavor was good, but I guess I really like my beans to have a little more juice to them. I also had a total disaster of a recipe, but I'm not sure if I can really blame the book on that one, as it was for corn bread in the oven. Hard to screw up, I know, but this is a crockpot book, not a bread/baking book, so I guess I have to take this one with a grain of salt. But good god was it awful. The bread turned out utterly bland unappealingly moist...like...wet bread. Ug. My notes in the margin say:

I would only make this again if I added more salt, sugar, cheese, jalapeno, paprika, etc. 

I do have to admit though, that the beef stew was successful and did taste good. Maybe I just need to give up trying to cook anything but meat in the crockpot, as it seems like every meat recipe I make in the slowcooker turns out magnificent, while every other recipe is better suited for the trashcan. Hmm. There are a couple of other recipes I want to try out of this book, but in honor of its mediocrity, I've created a new tag, burn, for my burn list of books that are on their way out the door. 

Celebrate! - Sheila Lukins

This one's a solo endeavor by Sheila Lukins of The Silver Palate fame. As are many of her books, this one's focused on entertaining. However, rather than organized traditionally by recipe type, this one is laid out by holiday and includes national ones like New Year's Eve, Valentines Day, and Christmas, as well as other reasons to throw a party, such as a graduation or the Kentucky Derby. Each event includes a full menu for a set number of people (it varies by party), as well as suggested music and drinks. Lukins typically also includes a bit of festive decor advice along with each menu. 

I've had pretty resounding success with most of Lukin's recipes and have learned that for the most part I can trust them. I must admit, I did not make an entire meal from any of the chapters, but rather did a pick and choose with the recipes, so I really can't attest to how the recipes in a chapter come together as a whole. I made a variety of things, including Red Snapper In An Aromatic Broth (from the Celebrate India chapter), Summer Corn Salad (Glorious Summertime chapter), and Molasses Cookies (Super Bowl chapter). All were delicious, but I did have a good bit of technical difficulty with the cookies. The recipe calls for mixing the dough and then wrapping in plastic wrap to chill awhile, but using the word dough would be a stretch...it made more of a batter. I tried, very unsuccessfully I might add, to wrap it in plastic wrap, but it just oozed all over the place, and I'm really not sure why. I ended up just tossing the whole mixing bowl in the fridge for a while and it firmed right up and made great cookies. 

Taste-wise I think I prefer the recipes from the Silver Palate books, but I really enjoy the way Celebrate! is laid out, and that it takes the guess work out of menu planning for a mass, and puts the fun back into large entertaining events. 

Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh by Barbara Fairchild

I love this book. It's the companion volume to the new orange Bon Appetit book, and the recipes in here truly are fast, easy, and fresh. They're elegant enough for company, and yet simple enough for everyday eating. By far my favorite thing I made out of this was Red Beet Risotto with Mustard Greens and Goat Cheese. Good Lord it was delicious. And beautiful. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of it. Essentially, you make this blood-red colored beet risotto and then top it with uber bright green chopped greens and then goat cheese. The intensity between the white-red-green color combination is not one usually seen in my food, and it was seriously a thing of art. Oh yeah, and it was freaking delicious. The only other time I've had mustard greens and I hated them. They were way too bitter and too...sharp and mustardy. For some reason, when combined with the beets and creamy goat cheese, it becomes the perfect compliment and the thing that really elevates the dish.

Another huge success of a recipe was Spaghetti Ala Carbonara di Zucchine. Unlike most carbonaras, this one has no meat, but it does have the traditional egg-cheese combination. I swear, this is probably one of the easiest things I've ever made and it was mild enough that even the kids ate it!  Also made were Honey-Glazed Oven-Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges, Rosemary Lemon Pinto Beans, and Banana Cake With Sour Cream Frosting. 

Fast, Easy, Fresh is divided up by type of recipe: starters, soups, chicken, fish, breakfasts, etc. Great extra bonuses include a shopping guide that details how and when (seasonally) to shop for fruits, vegetables, meats and fish. It is a definite keeper!

Halfway point reflections and More Recipes From a Kitchen Garden

It's been a while since my last post. I have in fact been cooking. Just not keeping up with the writing portion of things. I suppose I should take a moment to reflect now that it's halfway through the year. My lofty ambitions at the beginning of the year had me thinking this was going to be a nice little one year project. Ha! At the rate I'm going it'll probably take me three years. Ah well, I can't say it hasn't been enjoyable cooking my way through my collection, although it is starting to prove a bit more challenging now that I'm running into more and more specialty cookbooks, which means I might be cooking nothing but cheese or lemons or ice cream for a week. 

My book for today is More Recipes From a Kitchen Garden by Renee Shepherd & Fran Raboff. Lamely, I don't have the prequel to this, Recipes From a Kitchen Garden, but I became enamored with these two when I was working at a plant nursery a number of years back. It's one of those perfect companion books for an avid cook-gardener, and includes recipes for more uncommon ingredients like lemon thyme and scented geraniums. I'm a total sucker for a cookbook like that considering I grow the stuff but haven't the foggiest notion of what to do with it.  I made a couple of soups out of this as I'm also a sucker for soup, and I must say I LOVED the Cauliflower-Brie Soup. Here's a not-very-appetizing picture for you, because, well, my photography skills pale in comparison to my cooking, writing, and gardening skills.

You basically make a cauliflower puree and add hunks of brie that go all melty into the soup. 

I like the organization of this book, as it's clearly done from a gardener's point of view. The recipes are arranged by type of vegetable and include common things like asparagus and potatoes, in addition to more uncommon like kohlrabi and celeraic. I like how it provides a good range so you can stick with something familiar and comfort-foody, or you can branch out and try something new. They also include a great chapter at the end for herbs and edible flowers, with both recipes and also tips on how to make use of some of these extras.

All told, I'll most likely be holding on to this book too as it makes itself a bit of an asset in a cook-gardener's household. It's not easy to track down recipes making use of lavender and viola petals, so why get rid of a good thing when you have it right in front of you? 

The New Crank's Recipe Book by Nadine Abensur

Crank's is apparently one of the UK's top vegetarian restaurants. They've produced a number of books, but I was lucky enough to receive this one after a family member's foray to London. I've never eaten at a Crank's, nor have I ever perused any of their other books. This one was kind of hit or miss for me. For starters, it's a very tightly glued paperback...one of those ones where if you open it too wide, the spine starts to crack and the pages fall out. I hate that! Especially in a cookbook when you know, you kind of have to prop the thing open a lot. However, it does include a few nice color pictures in the middle, which is a huge plus. 

I found some of the recipes a little unaccessible. I'm not sure if it's because something was lost in translastion...it can be a bit like reading a Jamie Oliver book...heavy on the British vernacular, but minus his heavy slang. If you can get past that, i.e. translate it, then you'll find the recipes easier to manage. I believe my favorites of those I made, were Red Onion Soup with Toasted Cheese Floats, and Couscous with Roasted Vegetables. If you're a vegetarian and looking for a close proximity to the traditional French Onion Soup, the Red Onion Soup is a wonderful stand-in. It has a very full flavor and you'll never miss the beef broth. The couscous was delicious mainly due to the roasted, caramelized vegetables. Between the chopping and separate preparation of couscous there are a number of steps to this recipe, but none of it is difficult and the end result is very appetizing and healthy. 

I did have one pretty big bomb...Spinach Risotto Pie. Thought it sounded great...I love spinach, pie, and risotto, but basically it was just...dried out risotto smacked into a pie plate and then baked. Big waste of rice. 

Although some of these recipes are a bit complicated, and I don't yet feel I can trust them implicitly (meaning try cooking them before you try cooking them for guests), I think I'll keep this book around to explore a bit more. 

Everyday Italian by Giada de Laurentiis

Does Giada ever make anything that doesn't sound/taste/look delicious? I didn't think so. This is her debut book and one I've had on my shelf for quite a while now. Heck, I've had it for so long, I was able to bring it with me when she did a signing when her third book came out. In fact, here we are. I am not the one in the yellow sweater. 

Anyway, I love Giada's food. Everyday Italian is a great starter book if you're interested in Italian food with a California flair. Most of the ingredients are very easy to find if you're on the west coast, and all the recipes tend to incorporate fresh, light flavors. Practically everything she does incorporates something I love (and sometimes, all of it): garlic, lemon, fresh basil, pasta. I mean really, how can you go wrong with that? 

Out of Everyday Italian, one of the highlights I made was Creamy Polenta with Gorgonzola Cheese. This makes for a fantastic comfort food and is a good one to try if you're leery but curious about either polenta making or blue cheese. Gorgonzola is very mild and a good starter blue, and her technique for making polenta will almost assure you will not have yellow paste stuck to your pan, as is wont to happen with some recipes. 

She also includes some great deserts, which if you haven't been able to tell by now, are sadly not something I frequently cook. But I'd be willing to be we'd all enjoy Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream and Rice Pudding with Vanilla, Orange, and Rum.  Who wouldn't?