Books Blog : baking, recipes

Christmas is Coming

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:48:00 GMT

I don't want to alarm anyone, but Christmas is coming; in fact it's less than two months away. Now, it's still entirely too early to be putting up tinsel and whatnot, but it is absolutely time to get on the waiting lists for these new Christmas cookbooks!

I'm personally very much looking forward to trying out the recipe for toffee thins on page 86 of Sweet Christmas: Homemade Peppermints, Sugar Cake, Chocolate-Almond Toffee, Eggnog Fudge, and Other Sweet Treats and Decorations by Sharon Bowers, with photographs by David Bowers.

Other new Christmas cookbooks to be excited about:

Christmas Baking: Fun & Delicious Holiday Treats by Mia Ohrn

A Home-Baked Christmas: 56 Delicious Cookies, Cakes, & Gifts from Your Kitchen

American Christmas

If you really can't wait for these titles, I recommend checking out a copy of an older title, A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies by Dede Wilson, which has a nice variety of cookies to try.

Thanksgiving

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:50:00 GMT

Thanksgiving is maybe one of our simpler holidays. We give thanks for what we have and we eat good food. The giving thanks part usually doesn't require a lot of preparation; maybe just a few minutes quiet consideration. The good food, on the other hand, can sometimes be a challenge. Last November, it seemed like a lot of people came to the library looking for Thanksgiving cookbooks, so I thought I'd highlight a few here this year.

Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well by Sam Sifton

Thanksgiving by Lou Seibert Pappas, with photographs by Lara Hata

How to Cook a Turkey and All the Other Trimmings by the editors of Fine Cooking

Betty Crocker Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook

Thanksgiving 101 by Rick Rodgers

Vegetarian Times Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook by the editors of Vegetarian Times

If you're looking for something beyond the food, try these titles:

The Thanksgiving Book: A Companion to the Holiday Covering Its History, Lore, Traditions, Foods and Symbols, Including Primary Sources, Poems, Prayers, Songs, Hymns, and Recipes, Supplemented by Chronology, Bibliography with Web Sites and Index by Laurie C. Hillstrom

Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday by James W. Baker

My Cooking Class Book Series

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:47:00 GMT

A new series of cookbooks has recently caught my attention. The My Cooking Class series includes Vegetable Basics, Sauce Basics, Chocolate Basics, Steaming Basics and Middle Eastern Basics. All the books have large color photographs to illustrate every recipe. I'm looking forward to spending some time with Vegetable Basics and Chocolate Basics, then maybe I'll try some more titles from the series.

The Mystery of the Secret Ingredient in the Chocolate Chip Cookies

kiya@evpl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:26:00 GMT

David Handler started it all. I had enjoyed his mystery series about the ghostwriter Stewart Hoag and his dog Lulu, so when he started a new mystery series, I was one of the first to read about Mitch Berger, a New York film critic, and Lt. Desiree Mitry, a Connecticut State Trooper. There are now six Berger & Mitry mysteries, and I enjoyed them all, and always eager to see a new one arrive. I definitely recommend reading them in order, as the relationship between Mitch and Dez grows.

An interesting sidelight to this recommendation is that the early books mention Mitch's neighbor, who makes the best chocolate chip cookies, but won't share the identity of her secret ingredient. Mitch does her grocery shopping, so he has a pretty good idea that the secret ingredient is sour cream, but he doesn't inform his neighbors (only the readers of the book). The recipe, however, is not included.

I'm always looking for good cookie recipes, so I've kept my eyes open for a chocolate chip cookie recipe with sour cream as an ingredient, but never found one. Even A Baker's Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies didn't have one that looked right. Then last month, Shh I'm Reading blogged about finding recipes online, and while playing with those sites, I located several chocolate chip cookie recipes with sour cream as an ingredient. My daughter and I are testing them now, and when we declare a winner, I'll post a link to that recipe. Meanwhile, enjoy some David Handler mysteries! (And if you have a good sour cream chocolate chip cookie recipe, feel free to post it!)

Mitch Berger and Desiree Mitry:

Stewart Hoag and Lulu: (these books have all been out of print, but the first four have recently been reprinted by Busted Flush Press, dedicated to reprints of fine hardboiled crime fiction)

1. The Man Who Died Laughing
2. The Man Who Lived By Night
3. The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. The Woman Who Fell From Grace
5. The Boy Who Never Grew Up - out of print
6. The Man Who Cancelled Himself - out of print
7. The Girl Who Ran Off With Daddy - out of print
8. The Man Who Loved Women To Death - out of print

David Handler's website

Busted Flush Press

My Favorite Baking Book

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:36:00 GMT

In January, I made a New Year's Resolution (even though I don't like New Year's Resolutions) to cook and bake more. I've used recipes from many sources but some of the best have been from Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine. I've made the banana bread on page 23 and also the variation with coconut and macadamia nuts on page 25 and both are quite tasty. The yellow cupcakes on page 343 will turn anyone who doubts the deliciousness of plain yellow cake into a believer. Oh, and the simple chocolate frosting for the cupcakes? It is quite possibly the easiest frosting to make and better yet, one of the most delicious I've ever had! On March 14th, Pi Day, I turned to page 178, the Pies & Tarts chapter, for guidance to make my very first pie, a yummy peach pie.

Baking Illustrated is part of the A Best Recipe Classic series of cookbooks. One of the really fun things about this series of cookbooks is that each recipe is preceded by a page or two describing how the authors came up with the final recipe. They discuss ingredients they tried in previous versions and why they felt the final product didn't benefit from them or what it is that an ingredient they kept in the final printed recipe brings to the mix.

Tell everyone about your favorite cookbook(s) below in the comments!

Additional Links:

Cook's Illustrated magazine

America's Test Kitchen