Category Archives: Cookbooks

No Red Meat by Brenda Shriver

Cover of No Red Meat by Brenda Shriver

This is one of the books that I gave to Corrine when I moved from Baltimore to Chicago and she gave back to me a couple of years later. Prior to its vacation at her house, I’d owned it for several years. Maybe five or six? I can’t remember, but I think I bought it at Half-Price Books in Dallas while visiting my friend Turtle-Maria’s family around my 21st birthday.

I bought it because I simply stopped eating red meat1 for a good long time. I think this was a year or two into that phase, but I also don’t remember exactly how old I was when it started. Just that I was already in college and living on my own. I’d be curious if my mother would have been willing to cook for my diet if I’d been living at home when this started.… Continue reading →

The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving.

Cover of The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard

This is the other book I bought for canning fairly recently (where recent is before 1 June 2010). I bought it at the same time I got the “Ball Book of Home Preserving”:http://metacookbook.com/permalink/ball-book-of-home-preserving.html because I knew I wanted this one as well.

My friend Corrine and her husband Dave own this book. My understanding is that it was a gift to Dave a few years ago, but that Corrine uses it more often than Dave does. It’s where we got the “Fuzzy Navel” jam recipe (though the authors don’t call it that). I’ll be making that one again, for sure. Possibly not until next peach season, but it’s going to happen.

This book focuses on preserving for the home as well, but on a much smaller scale than the Ball book.… Continue reading →

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Cover of Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving edited by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine

I don’t recall exactly when I bought this book, but I know that it was earlier this year.

I have been interested in canning for a long time, particularly since my friend Corrine taught me how to make jam in her kitchen. This was back in 2007, and we made some delicious jams (Fuzzy Navel jam was my favorite and our “Harvest Jam” apparently rocked a lot of other folks’ socks). We also made some killer apple butter from a recipe we got from my Grandma L.

Between that and my long-time (though waxing and waning, at times) interest in eating more locally, it was only natural that learning to preserve foods would pique my interest and canning all sorts of things would be a part of my life.… Continue reading →

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond

Cover of The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond

If you know us personally, you already know about “The Pioneer Woman”:http://thepioneerwoman.com/ because you’ve either gotten a link from us to something wonderful or funny she’s posted about, or because we talk about our imaginary internet friends all the time (note: unlike some of our imaginary internet friends, Pioneer Woman does not actually know us in any way, shape or form – she just has a lot to say that’s worth sharing beyond her blog).

I don’t know how long Bill has been reading PW, but I’ve been reading it for a little over a year now. If I recall correctly (and I may not), at the time I started reading, she just had the “Confessions” and “Cooking” sections up. Now she’s got five sections, and I read them all, daily.… Continue reading →

Eating Well Serves Two by the Editors of Eating Well Magazine

Cover of Eating Well Serves Two

This book, unlike the previously posted book, was a blatant cookbook grab on my part just before the challenge started (the challenge stated we’d buy no more cookbooks after 1 June 2010, and this one was purchased 30 May 2010). Mostly because I’d heard good things about it and I am always looking for a cookbook that is scaled down.

I haven’t, I have to admit, purchased a large number of “cooking for two” cookbooks, though I’ve thought about it. As is quite obvious, it’s not because I don’t like cookbooks or because I hesitate to buy them. It’s because most of them look dull or simplistic. In the case of this one, I bought it because it came extremely highly recommended by a person on one of my internet haunts.… Continue reading →