Monthly Archives: June 2010

[16] Everyday Scrambled Eggs

Cover of How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition, by Mark Bittman

We’re going to the housewarming of a couple of friends tonight, so we won’t be cooking dinner at home. Luckily, we had time for a speedy breakfast before Bill was supposed to go to work. He doesn’t normally work weekends, but he’s got something going on today that was supposed to start at 10:00 am, but got delayed after breakfast.

Given our presumed time requirements, I figured we could whip up some quick eggs. On top of that, it would allow us to use some of the cream we’d purchased for the “Best Scrambled Eggs”:http://metacookbook.com/archives/26-14-The-Best-Scrambled-Eggs-So-says-Mark-Bittman.html AND allow us to compare.

h2. Ingredients

4 – 5 eggs (We used four.)
Salt & freshly ground pepper

1 – 2 tbsp milk, cream or water (We used 2 tbsp cream, obviously.)… Continue reading →

Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook

cover of Cook With Jamie

This is, as far as I can tell, an awesome cookbook. It’s part recipes, part concepts (“here’s how to match things together so they taste good! Here’s how to use a knife properly!”) and part stories about the students he works with. All of it is written conversationally, and if you’ve heard Jamie Oliver speak on TV (or in his TED talk, which I recommend), you can imagine him reading it. I love that there are full page pictures of every recipe so that you can know what you’re expecting when you make a dish.

As you can tell from the title, it’s a book about learning to cook. As such some of the recipes are loose. “A large knob of butter”, “a few bay leaves”, “a good glug of olive oil” and “a splash of red wine vinegar” are some of the ingredients I see flipping through a few pages.… Continue reading →

The Super Smoothies Deck – DONATED

Cover of The Super Smoothies Deck

The image at right links to the Amazon Kindle version of this “book”. The physical deck appears to be out of print.

This set of smoothie cards is not going to see any play for at least a month, I am sad to say. Bill and I don’t own a blender. Well, we own an immersion blender that Angelique, Marty and Mike were kind enough to give me a long time ago, but that’s not going to cut it for these smoothies.

Frankly, that’s kind of a bummer, because some of these recipes look delicious! Of course, the ones that look most delicious are going to require me to ask my cousin A.J. to cover the eyes of our dear grandmother, because the best looking ones have names like Libido Lifter and Honeymooner’s Tonic.… Continue reading →

The Recipe Deck: Quick & Easy

Cover of The Recipe Deck: Quick and Easy

Okay, this one definitely entered this relationship with me. Where did I get it? Did I purchase it or was it given to me?

I really just don’t know. However, it’s ours now, and so into the “books” pile it goes.

I like it, in concept. One card, one recipe, one huge and gorgeous photo on the front. What’s not to like? And with recipe names like Peaches & Berries in Toffee or Tuna & Golden Onions it’s hard not to think this could go well for us.

Also, the Mediterranean Spinach photo makes me drool.

Number of recipes: 52 (from the outside of the box)
Number we’ve made: 0

You can find all the recipes we’ve made from this deck by clicking the “Quick & Easy Deck” tag below.… Continue reading →

Quick & Easy Thai by Nancie McDermott

Cover of Quick and Easy Thai by Nancie McDermott

It feels like we’ve been here before, doesn’t it? Except, I have no idea the providence of this book, so I can say with confidence that Bill definitely had it before we started dating.

It’s a Thai cookbook. It’s surprisingly large for only 70 recipes, and there are some gorgeous photos. Again, though, not as many as one would expect from all these pages and only 70 recipes.

However, Bill is welcome at any time to make Spicy Fish Cakes with Green Beans and Wild Lime Leaves or Chicken with Fresh Basil. I’ll probably cry as I eat them, but they sound tasty.

I wish I could say more, but I just don’t know much about this cookbook. Maybe Bill will wander in and add some edits about it.… Continue reading →