Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Favorite Cookbooks?

Status
Not open for further replies. Please create a new topic or request for this thread to be opened.
dragonfly411

dragonfly411

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
7,378
Do you have any favorite cookbooks? If so, what are they? In case you couldn''t guess I"m on a cooking kick, and Julie and Julia didn''t help me any.
I''m still adventuring in cooking, and learning. I have tons of cookbooks but need to experiment more with them. I love The Gift of Southern Cooking and I have a Paula Deen book I like. I also really enjoy my Rachel Ray 30 min book.
 
I really like the company Taste of Home. They have three magazines as well as put out cookbooks. I''m a big fan of their magazine Healthy Cooking and I just bought one of their older cookbooks at a used book store. If you go to their website you can apply for a free sample magazine. But I''ll warn you, if you decide not to subscribe you will get a fair deal of mail from them trying to get you to subscribe.

I like them because their recipes are very practical. My parents subscribe to Food and Wine magazine and many of the recipes look good but chances are I''ve never heard of/wouldn''t know where to find half the ingredients since the recipes are very gourmet. Taste of Home uses much more common ingredients that I feel like I could buy if I don''t have and definitely use in other recipes. Not to mention their recipes make very tasty food.

Also its important for me to be able to see a picture of a dish otherwise I''m rarely motivated to make it. I''m much more of a "ohhh that looks good" than "oh that recipes sounds good" I find that Taste of Home includes many pictures of their dishes especially in the magazine.
 
I love Martha Stewart''s Cooking School. I think it''s a fabulous primer for any home cook. It teaches you how to make all the basics, there is a ton of great information about how to properly cut and prepare many different things. It''s really great, in my opinion.

I''m also currently using Bill Phillips'' Food for Life book because I''m doing his workout plan. The recipes are super easy, and really healthy. The food is a far cry from Julia Child and Paula Deen because it''s focused on preparing balanced, healthy meals, but they really do taste great.

I use All Recipes whenever I''m looking for inspiration, too. The reviews are the best.
 
Date: 8/17/2009 3:34:38 PM
Author: Haven
I love Martha Stewart''s Cooking School. I think it''s a fabulous primer for any home cook. It teaches you how to make all the basics, there is a ton of great information about how to properly cut and prepare many different things. It''s really great, in my opinion.

I''m also currently using Bill Phillips'' Food for Life book because I''m doing his workout plan. The recipes are super easy, and really healthy. The food is a far cry from Julia Child and Paula Deen because it''s focused on preparing balanced, healthy meals, but they really do taste great.

I use All Recipes whenever I''m looking for inspiration, too. The reviews are the best.
Click to expand...
Haven, thanks for All recipes, that''s a great site... Yes, great for inspiration...
 
I love Every Day Food: Great Food Fast. It is produced by Martha Stewart Magazine. Recipes are very easy to follow, and the best part is that there is a huge photo of every dish, so you have an idea of how something should look when it has been properly prepared (photos are a must for me in a cook book.) It is also organized by season, so the recipes take advantage of the fruits and vegetables that are best at certain times of the year. Best of all, everything that I have made from this book has been excellent! I haven''t found a bad recipe yet.

For an on-line website that I use frequently, I love www.foodnetwork.com. Has tons and tons of great recipes.
 
Giada De Laurentis - Everyday Italian is amazing. It''s as pretty as the food in it.

A friend of mine gave me The Improvisational Cook for Christmas last year, and it''s amazing. It''s based on flavor pairings, so it will have a recipe and then explain how you can improvise depending on what''s in season and what you have in your pantry. And, it''s just plain gorgeous to look at.
 
Date: 8/17/2009 4:54:02 PM
Author: Elmorton
Giada De Laurentis - Everyday Italian is amazing. It''s as pretty as the food in it.
Click to expand...
Ditto - this book is great. I am Italian and mostly cook by taste (trying to replicate grandma''s food), but I always reference this book to check seasonings. And the recipes are really delicious.

I love Sky High Cakes for layer cake baking - the choco peanut butter cake & the coconut cake from this book are ridiculously yummy.

I also enjoy Ina Gartens cookbooks (Barefoot Contessa). Most of her food is high fat/high calories, but it''s good for special occassions. I don''t have this recipe in a cook book I don''t think, but her Lentil Sausage Soup is the BEST. I found the recipe on the Food Network site.

I also love this Rosas Mexicano cookbook - the enchiladas verde is sooooooooooooo good, and the guacamole recipe/method is my staple now.

My favorite go to food blog is smittenkitchen. I tend to go there more than referencing my books as I love her tips and we seem to have similar tastes for food.
 
I just got "eat well" from williams sonoma (found it online cheaper). made a couple recipes already and were pretty good. most things are simple to make and don''t have a million ingredients. love that. and, i literally drool the pics of the food in there. i also like that things are slightly healthier and in the back of the book there is nutrition info for all the recipes. but healthy or not the stuff is yummy.
 
I love different cookbooks for different reasons.

''How to Cook Everything'' by Mark Bittman. He recently did a revised version that''s quite good. I love his concept that you can make simple food that tastes great. It would be a really good choice for those trying to sharpen their cooking skills because he talks about how to do all the basics as well.

''Joy of Cooking'' by Rombauer (I think it''s the son now or maybe the grandkids). The version before the most recent one that is my go-to cookbook. If I need a recipe for something, it''s in there and it''s good. They did a particularly good job with ethnic foods.

''Cooking Light'' cookbooks and magazines. I probably use them more than anything.

I also like Giada''s ''Everyday Italian'' but I usually end up adding or changing her recipes a bit.

There are lots of others, and I''ll add to the list if I think of specific ones.
 
dear dragonfly411-some of the most heavily read cooked books are comming out of the obama administration-they are really full of overly cooked info that is the perfect sauce to cover the sences of the people that want to know what is really going on. a mixture of twisted dough that will not set good on your stomach or any other organ you might have-HA HA-the jokes on us-my 2cnts...
 
My all-time favorite is the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, Anyone Can Cook. It has a HUGE help section in the front that tells you everything from how to store various foods properly to the correct way to chop an onion. It has a lot of really good recipes in it, too, and I love that every single recipe has a picture (and there are insets with step-by-step guides for anything that the editors think a beginner cook might find difficult or confusing). Many recipes also have a variations guide, so say for example you''re making chicken with pan sauce, it gives you six or seven different kinds of sauce you can make, which is great if you happen to have a random can of capers or something in your kitchen. LOOOOOVE this book (I bought four copies of it so my brother, sister, and best friend could all have one, too, haha!) and use it at least twice a week. I also love ANY cookbook where the proceeds go to charity, so I have everything from Rachael Ray''s Big Orange Book to the BHG New Cookbook Limited Edition Pink Plaid for Breast Cancer.
 
Oh, I''m so looking forward to seeing everyone''s recommendations and am going to definitely try Haven''s AllRecipes site!
18.gif


I am addicted to cookbooks but my faves are:
Good Cooking - the new basics by Jill Dupleix
The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters (I LOVE this cookbook)
 
HI:

I don't use CB's much, but if I do it is The Silver Palate or the Le Cordon Bleu. MS online is handy, but mainly my Mom/sisters/family remain the best resource for me. Just the other day my Mom gave me "her" Lobster Bisque recipe and my BIL told me "his" secret for a delish lasagne. Who knew?
9.gif


cheers--Sharon
 
Status
Not open for further replies. Please create a new topic or request for this thread to be opened.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top