Cook Books
I love cooking. Really, I do. In fact my Yiayia always told me that I should go to school to be a chef. I probably should have... Now I feel it's too late to ever strive to be a head chef, so what would be the point.
Anyway - most of my recipes are from:
(a.) Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. You know that big red binder looking thing. It has the basics of everything in there. And I usually modify the recipes to make them healthier and more to my liking.
(b.) Eating for Life. This is Bill Phillip's cookbook. He wrote the Body 4 Life workout. It's pretty good. I've modified the chili recipe and combined it with the recipe from another book. It's among my favorite chili recipes I've ever tasted.
(c.) Muscle Chow. Cover model Greg Avedon wrote this one. Some of the recipes are pretty bland - they're for getting cut-up. But some of the recipes in there are awesome.
(d.) Tons of other healthy diet type cookbooks.
Here's the thing - so I know what makes a healthy meal. I know what substitutions to make to make something remain tasty but be healthy. I don't need the basics. I'm wanting to take it to "the next level."
I'm obsessed with Gordon Ramsay, so I'm wondering how his cookbooks are. He's got a few of them. Anybody have any? Cook from any of them?
Any other suggestions?
I'm looking for things that I can cook on Sunday and eat for lunch every day of the week from the left overs. That's generally what I do. At the bare minimum, I cook about 10 chicken breast on Sunday so I can add those to something else I whip together for lunch.
I thought this said Cool Books and I was going to jokingly post this, (it still works, i guess)
More seriously, I love these cook books:
I haven't made much out of this one, but I've been meaning to
You probably won't get anything too healthy out of two of those.
haha, yeah, I'm happy with the cookie recipes in the Better Homes and Garden one. They're good enough for the few times I've cooked homemade cookies.
I haven't read Kitchen Confidential but The Nasty Bits by Bourdain was fantastic.
It's neither cookbook nor biography BUT the essays are organized by flavor!
- Salty
- Sweet
- Sour
- Bitter
- Umami
It's dope.
Yeah, I'm down for essays too! I have The Nasty Bits on my books shelf and I've been meaning to read it since finishing Kitchen Confidential.
I have Gordon Ramsay "Makes It Easy" - the problem with a lot of his cookbooks is that they are really 5star recipes, not stuff you'd really make at home unless you were really trying to impress, this one has quite a few things that are more everyday and we cook fairly often. It also came with a DVD that shows him cooking 4 or 5 other things, which is pretty cool.
I think he has a couple of books like that now that showcase simpler recipes.
I'm gonna take pictures of my cookbooks later to show you what I've got, Pete. I love to cook, too. Like I LOVE IT.
My favorite thing lately is finding recipes on Pinterest. I print them out and I've made my own binder of recipes, and I've added some I've gotten from my mom and from Drew's mom.
I also have that Betty Crocker red/white cookbook!
I think the Better Homes and Gardens and the Betty Crocker Red and White and pretty much the same. They even look the same. My Mom has the Betty Crocker one though.
I think he has a couple of books like that now that showcase simpler recipes.
I guess this is what I was worried about. I want to take my cooking up a notch. I want to spend a little more time with it. But I don't want to go to the fine dining level.
I always improvise. I have a hard time with instructions/recipes. We have several nice cook books at home too.
I made this the other day and it was delicious.
I used ground turkey added seasoning(fresh minced garlic,yellow curry powder), coconut milk,chopped red onions, and chopped trail mix(peanuts,almonds,cashews, and raisins). Stirred in a pan until cooked.
I grilled baby eggplant with salt,pepper and I dipped it in the mango juice from the mango "salsa" I made.
I chopped a mango,plums, lil green chilies finely chopped,finely chopped garlic, finely chopped chocolate mint,pomegranate seeds, a splash of white wine(I wanted to use lemon juice instead but didn't have any), a splash of coconut milk. Mix.
(I poured the excess juice into the ground turkey).
I served it on naan but it would go good with tortillas or pitas or in lettuce wraps.
Yeah, I don't necessarily follow recipes. I mostly get ideas and combine recipes. Or I see something in them that I like and start using that technique.
Like I have this Paleo cookbook. And it has a recipe in there where she uses a food processor on cauliflower until it has the consistency of rice. She then makes a pork fried rice dish using that instead of rice. I think that is awesome because rice usually makes me feel bloated and I think it would be so much lighter with the cauliflower instead.
I also want to learn more about different spices so I can make smarter choices with them. All my food ends up tasting Mediterranean because that's how my Yiayia taught me to cook.
These are some of the ones I've had for years.
I've had this one the longest - since I was about 12.
I didn't steal it from the library, though, see?
I contributed to this one, way before I ever got married, so there's recipes under my maiden name. Just...wow.It was a charity fund raiser for my Polish friend Joann's aunt's orphanage in Monrovia.
This is one that Drew brought to the marriage. He also has an Emeril book but I haven't used that one yet.
I like to make stuff up as I go, too. I grow a lot of herbs that I dry out and reuse with grinders to make spice blends.
The Better Homes and Garden book at the top is the one I have.
I want this when it comes out
This is the first one I turn to when I'm entertaining or fancying a change:
When I'm cooking with my Mum, we live and die by Delia Smith:
I've often wondered about Nigella's books. They all look so nice.
That book looks interesting.
Have you read his other books? 4 Hour Workweet and 4 Hour Body?
The wife loves to cook. She also tries to cook healthy too. She likes the Williams & Sonoma cook books, the Barefoot Contessa cook book, and has a subscription to Cooking Light. She often tries new recepies from (mainly) these three sources and I like them.
Hope this helps--I can't cook to save my life. But I love to eat.
We have 2 Norwegian cook books, and I'm planning to buy a traditional Dutch one when we go to The Netherlands again. I can't say I've used the ones we have much though.. I tend to check the internet.
That book looks interesting.
Have you read his other books? 4 Hour Workweet and 4 Hour Body?
I've read both and both of them completely changed my perspective. I manage my time and i work differently since i read Workweek and i definitely eat and act better after Body. I actually taught myself to swim after reading that chapter in 4 Hour Body. It was a little surprising. Maybe i'm just a fan of his but that cookbook looks really cool.
I liked his video explanation of airing wine. The book just looks interesting to me.
I've often wondered about his other books too. Thanks.
They all just made it to the wishlist.
All the recommendations are great so far. I'm going to go to the book store today or tomorrow to see what of the ones posted are there so I can look through them.
I'm telling you, Pete, get on Pinterest if you're not there already. There are thousands of recipes linked there.
I refuse to go on Pinterest.
It took me a couple years to finally succumb to facebook. I have enough social networking in my life!
i hope i can present you guys my own cook book around this time next year.
That would be awesome.
might I bring another idea in here? food blogs. I follow several food blogs for recipes and they're AWESOME.
probably my favorite of all time would be how sweet it is: http://www.howsweeteats.com
for more classic recipes and basics, I like smitten kitchen:
http://www.smittenkitchen.com
and for healthy recipes with nutritional information INCLUDED, skinnytaste:
http://www.skinnytaste.com
“if you want to be a bird,” you said once, “with colorful plumage and buoyant trills, you must also be ready for hollow bones."
Thank you for the links, I love food blogs!
I'm more open to checking out some food blogs than I am joining Pinterest. Thanks Cam!
welcome! I check how sweet literally every day. she's so funny and her recipes are AMAZING. really nice pictures too. and it's a nice balance of veggies and cute baked things and HOLY CRAP BACON AND APPLE PIZZA AND CROCKPOT BEER MEAT
“if you want to be a bird,” you said once, “with colorful plumage and buoyant trills, you must also be ready for hollow bones."
Bacon and Apple Pizza!
My favorite sausage I buy is some generic brand Chicken and Apple. It's so good and actually healthy. Apple is good in places you wouldn't expect. And bacon - always.
Those are some badass food pictures.
Zucchini Lasagna sounds awesome! Zucchini is the only thing that grew in my garden this year. Bad summer.
My favorite sausage I buy is some generic brand Chicken and Apple. It's so good and actually healthy. Apple is good in places you wouldn't expect. And bacon - always.
I saved you the trouble of finding the recipe. IT IS SO GOOD. I made it last year.
http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/11/whole-wheat-autumn-apple-pizza/
“if you want to be a bird,” you said once, “with colorful plumage and buoyant trills, you must also be ready for hollow bones."
Awesome! I might make that this weekend, if I don't buy a cookbook with something in it that distracts me. haha
how sweet eats is definitely rad. smitten kitchen, too. they both have great recipes and a great writing style.
here are some of the other food blogs I follow:
The Bitten Wordtwo dudes making recipes from all the major food mags with commentary and what (if anything) they'd change about those recipes
devour : the cooking channel blog. always good links to other recipes from cooking channel and around the web. also, they do a 'thirsty thursdays' post with cocktail recipes
What Katie Ate
amaaazing blog by Australian food stylist/photographer Katie Quinn Davies. her photography is always beautiful, and she puts her recipes up on scribd so they're easy to read and print out
oh and here's one for you, Pete
Souvlaki for the Soul .. Greek-Australian photographer dude (also named Peter!) , nice recipes and photos
here's my Pinterest recipes board, if you're curious..
http://pinterest.com/rebeeka/epicureans/
Awesome! Tons to look at here.
what's also cool, if you like Gordon Ramsay - there are a bunch of videos of him cooking meals on youtube, my husband and I cook all of the below pretty regularly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cAFkYm3u1Q
Crispy Salmon with Crushed Potatoes + Roasted Cherry Tomatoes (I leave the crab out of the potatoes, it's still hella good)
This is easy as a weeknight dinner but also pretty impressive if you're cooking for other people
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oORJ3rdeQTI
Chicken Tikka Masala - really easy version of the classic Indian curry. So good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32x1sHcWd1w
Saffron Marinated Sea Bream - I've never seen bream here but I've made this with Perch, Tilapia and Cod and it's pretty tasty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk_CGtA4HIY
Gordon's take on a quick and easy bolognaise sauce ... I'm making this one tonight 
I watched a Gordon Ramsay video on how to cook perfect scrambled eggs. They were really good.
I put garlic in my scrabled eggs. I put garlic in pretty much everything.
That crispy salmon recipe is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. That looked awesome. I would probably try to make the potatoes with cauliflower instead. I don't really eat potatoes.
I love our food threads. I'm hungry now.
ah.. you could probably do that. or brown rice or quinoa or something? whatever you do definitely make the roasted cherry tomatoes. the flavour of them is so good with the salmon!
he says put them on a pilot light, but I just put the oven on about 250 and leave them for 10 mins or so
Yeah, I was definitely going to do the tomatoes! Those are great for you.
That recipe alone made me order a couple of his books.
I also am going to spend a good part of today browsing those websites. I'll be busy!
After going to the book store and flipping through his other two books, I came home and ordered them. They were just so packed with interesting information. I've known about them for a long time (since Workweek came out), but always thought they must be gimmicky. I mean, I enjoy self-help books, but 90% of them are garbage.
make sure you post pics of your cooking exploits, Pete!
Okay, I will.
Nekkid!
I second this!
Ummmm...
No no no... guys, he's cooking the piece of meat... not being it.
ha right!
I'm also interested in the chef biographies.
I read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and loved it. I've often wondered how Ramsay's is.