If I had just one, and only one cookbook

I would be sure to have my Fannie Farmer Cookbook. I have several editions, each well loved and much used. Fanny Farmer teaches you everything from how to boil water to make an elaborate roast. You’ll find traditional American dishes as well as French, Italian, Moroccan and Mexican. I could not live without my Fanny Farmer!

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble dot com!

Here is the great basic American cookbook—with more than 1,990 recipes, plain and fancy—that belongs in every household.Originally published in 1896 as The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer, it became the cookbook that taught generations of Americans how to cook. Completely updating it for the first time since 1979, Marion Cunningham made Fannie Farmer once again a household word for a new generation of cooks.What makes this basic cookbook so distinctive is that Marion Cunningham, who is the personification of the nineteenth-century teacher, is always at your side with her forthright tips and comments, encouraging the beginning cook and inspiring the more adventurous. She knows what today’s cooks are looking for, and she has a way of instilling confidence and joy in the act of cooking.In giving the book new life, Mrs. Cunningham has been careful always to preserve the best of the old. She has retained all the particularly good, tried-and-true recipes from preceding editions, retesting and rewriting when necessary. She has rediscovered lost treasures, including delicious recipes that were eliminated when practically no one baked bread at home. This is now the place to find the finest possible recipes for Pumpkin Soup, Boston Baked Beans, Carpetbag Steak, Roast Stuffed Turkey, Anadama Bread, Indian Pudding, Apple Pie, and all of the other traditional favorites.The new recipes reflect ethnic influences—Mediterranean, Moroccan, Asian—that have been adding their flavors to American cooking in recent years. Tucked in among all your favorites like Old-Fashioned Beef Stew, New England Clam Chowder, Ham Timbales, and Chicken Jambalaya, you’ll find her cool Cucumber Sushi, Enchiladas with Chicken and Green Sauce, or a layered dish of Polenta and Fish to add variety to your repertoire. Always a champion of old-fashioned breakfasts and delectable desserts, Mrs. Cunningham has many splendid new offerings to tempt you. Throughout, cooking terms and procedures are explained, essential ingredients are spelled out, basic equipment is assessed. Mrs. Cunningham even tells you how to make a good cup of coffee and how to brew tea properly. For the diet-conscious, there is an expanded nutritional chart that includes a breakdown of cholesterol and fat in common ingredients as well as in Fannie Farmer basic recipes. Where the taste of a dish would not be altered, Mrs. Cunningham has reduced the amount of cream and butter in some of the recipes from the preceding edition. She carefully evaluates the issues of food safety today and alerts us to potential hazards.But the emphasis here is always on good flavor, fresh ingredients, and lots of variety in one’s daily fare, which Marion Cunningham believes is the secret to a healthy diet. Dedicated to the home cooks of America, young and old, this thirteenth edition of the book that won the hearts of Americans more than a century ago invites us all—as did the original Fannie Farmer—to cherish the delights of the family table.

For the Love of Food

Alexander’s Third Birthday is coming up in three short weeks. Like his siblings, Alexander loves to cook. We don’t take cooking lightly around here. Sure they start off learning the easy things, making chocolate chip cookies and brownies. They learn to follow direction and read and measure. Cooking is so beneficial on so many fronts. The older two even help their father with his paella. At 9 years of age my daughter is learning how to use a sharp knife. She is even learning how to use the stove. (We have electric — much to my chagrin, but I worry less than I did with my gas range.) At 7 years my son is not quite ready to tackle those yet. So when he made the meatballs the other night, he did everything except cook them. In essence he did the hardest work.

So it seems only fitting that Alexander get some cooking gifts for his Birthday. I fell in love with the little red apron I saw in the Williams-Sonoma catalog. Naturally he would need a little red spatula to go with it! I also decided we needed a new child friendly cookbook. But not a children’s cook book. I was looking for something that would grow with them over the years. Easy and enticing sounding recipes that a child could follow with supervision. I purposefully did not get a cookie, cake or cupcake cookbook. My kids do not need any help learning to like sugar. I see cooking as a means of living, learning and experimenting. I will not have my children eating mac and cheese from a box when they can make it from scratch. I want them to learn about and love all sorts of wonderful aromas and flavors. I don’t serve bland food and I want my children to appreciate all the different palates out there. I think the best way to achieve this is to have them cook all sorts of different cuisines. Cooking is not only a wonderful art, but it is a skill, that like all others needs to be fine tuned. Cooking instills confidence and pride and both are crucial in helping their little personalities form and mature.

So the cook book I chose was this one,

It seemed perfect!

Synopsis
Parent-tested and kid-approved, a comprehensive, practical resource for wholesome, healthful meals children of all ages will eat—and love
In an era of McDiets, packed schedules, and stressful jobs, it’s harder than ever to incorporate nutritious food into our children’s daily lives. But you no longer have to rely on microwaved hot dogs and frozen pizza. In this essential cookbook, food—and parenting—experts Tracey Seaman and Tanya Wenman Steel offer help and hope, whether you’re experienced in the kitchen or more inclined to head to the drive-through.
Real Food for Healthy Kids features more than 200 easy-to-make recipes for school days and weekends, including breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, and even parties. Each recipe has been taste-tested by children and analyzed by a nutritionist.
A power breakfast might feature Carrot Cake Oatmeal, Green Eggs-in-Ham Quiche Cups, or Hole-y Eggs!
Keep kids energized with a Real Food lunch, such as Hail Caesar, Jr. Salad, Turkey Pinwheels, or Egg Salad Double-Decker Sandwiches.
Seaman and Steel’s snacks include Zucchini Tempura with Horseradish Dunk, Chewy Granola Bars, Happy Apple Toddies, and much more.
Serve a mouthwatering family dinner: Peachy Keen Chicken, Super Steak Fajitas, or Princess and the Pea Risotto.
Enjoy a scrumptious dessert: Cheery Cherry Plank, Brown Mouse, or Chocolate-Covered Strawberries.
Seaman and Steel have spent the last four years developing and testing recipes to create nourishing dishes that kids of all ages, from babies to grad students, and even finicky eaters, vegetarians, and kids with food sensitivities will enjoy. Whatever recipes you choose, this indispensable cookbook is sure to become the resource you turn to every day for years to come. Equal parts cookbook, nutrition guide, daily menus, party planner, and parenting guide, Real Food for Healthy Kids will get your kids engaged in eating, happily and healthfully for a lifetime.

I am terrible

for not keeping up with this blog. There have been a few times I have made something fabulous up in my head and then served the dish without taking as much as a single photo or jotting down a single note. I promise to be better. I do!

We’re having 40 people — some friends, some family — over this weekend to celebrate my husband’s Birthday (a little belated since it was a month ago!) and Father’s Day.

I’ll share the menu with you… I’ll have everything on the table buffet style so people can pick and choose what they like. Or have a little this and a little that. It’s a casual uncatered affair. People will be able to make their own (gourmet, of course) sandwiches.

There will be Grilled London broil sliced super thin on the bias with my cilantro sauce and a mustard sauce on the side. There will also be chicken salad, I am going to try Martha Stewart’s lighter version. I am so excited to make Margot’s Pulled Pork! We will have potato salad — Don’s Grandmother’s recipe, Corn salad — the Barefoot Contessa’s, Lemon Orzo salad and a green salad that my sister in law, Jennifer is making. I will pick up some super divine rolls and baguettes from my favorite bakery!

I am happy to have my mother in law handle all the deserts. I do love to bake but I certainly could do with having to do so! She’ll bring her out of this world cheese cake. I really dislike cheese cakes. They are too heavy and sit in my gut for days. Hers is truly the exception to the rule. She’s making a chocolate cake and my favorite her strawberry tarte! I can’t wait! There will also be cookies and fresh fruit.

Appetizers will be light and sparse. We’ll have a few things but I want people to save room for the good stuff. My grandmother did not believe in appetizers. She thought it was cruel to serve them. (As a child, often having to wait til quite late to eat if I was to be eating with the grown-ups, we definitely did not see eye-to-eye on this topic!) She hated her guests to fill up before the meal so that their eyes, tongues and were bellies too full to enjoy the goodness yet to come. She thought it was an insult to whoever was in the kitchen. She had small bowls of nuts or Melba toast and caviar for light snacking. My love for cooking stemmed from her. It was through her — her fancy dishes and elegant table settings that, even as a child, I saw that food was an art form. But I digress. There will be more about the party on my other blog!

The party is on Sunday and as I come across my recipes I will post them here. Promise!

The Williams-Sonoma Catalog: The Best Things in Life Really are Free!

I am a magazine junkie. I just love the glossies. In my teens and in my twenties my table tops, desk tops and counter tops were piled high with fashion glossies. Lately I have traded haute couture for haute cuisine (or perhaps more like hot cuisine). I can not bear to simply tear out recipes as I know that each magazine is, in itself, a work of art and the result of a lot of talent, effort and hard work. I, for one, appreciate the end result immensely. I have never stopped to figure out how much I spend a year on all my magazine purchases. In this case, like a really decadent treat where you just do not want to know the calorie count, I prefer to remain oblivious.

So, when I get my Williams-Sonoma catalog in the mail I am truly over the moon. I savor my W-S catalog like a child savoring her favorite part of a meal, saving it for last. I toss aside the junk mail and the bills, quickly flip through the others then make sure that I have time to sit and savor my W-S catalog. Sometimes I enjoy it with a nice glass of wine, sometimes with a nice cup of coffee. As though I am about to embark on a great read by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, I immerse myself in the world of W-S! It’s a cookbook, home decorating book, catalog and history book all in one.

Open to page 03 in the February 2008 copy. I can practically taste that gumbo with enormous pieces of sausage and shrimp. I can smell the spices. I want to warm my hands and place them around that bowl filled to the brim right now, never mind that it is just 9:48 in the morning! Directly under the photograph is “the story of gumbo” and to the left of that a bit on the “White boot brigade.” This magazine is brilliant. Every issue I have ever read has been! On page 11 is a recipe for red beans and rice. I want some of this too! And I know Don would die over the Mufuletta recipe on page 15. I place a star next to that recipe.

I flag almost all the recipes and ogle and drool over the latest and greatest kitchen appliances. I want to touch, smell and taste everything I see on the pages. I would love a grown up Scratch’n’Sniff version of this.

My kids have been known to steal my W-S catalog from me. One night, around Christmastime I went up to tuck the kids into bed. There was my almost-seven year old with my Thanksgiving 2007 catalog. He was reading through every thing very carefully, pen in hand circling the things he wanted, the martini olive puffs (!), the spanikopita triangles, the old world salami, and the crab cakes. He also marked up recipes such as easy spaghetti bolognese. “Can we make this one tomorrow, Mama?” He asked? “Sure,” I replied.

I have never in my life made a frittata but I know I just have to have the Calphalon One nonstick frittata pan, and the Calphalon egg poacher, Oh and the Bialetti Mukka Express electric cappuccino maker! My almost seven year old wants the filled pancake pan pictured on page 23. He’s getting one for his birthday! Toward the back of the catalog is pictured the kitchen torch and just above it a recipe for tomato salsa that looks absolutely to die for! The pretty pastel cupcakes with flowers a top are beautiful and look easy enough to make… I make a mental note for future Birthday parties down the road. I love their dish and hand soaps… I make a mental note of all these wonderful things. Until we move from our Crazy Crowded House I have no room for all these wondrous appliances in my kitchen, but with my gift certificates that I have been collecting for a while now, I will be sure to pick up a few of these items when and if we do ever move. Meantime, I have a few new recipes to try in My Crazy Crowded Kitchen.

To get a free catalog of your own, or to peruse their wonderful website go to http://www.williamssonoma.com/