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teachingmyown
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| Posted: March 15 2005 at 3:43pm | IP Logged
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Can you all share some of your favorite cookbooks? I was thinking about buying the Frantic Family Cookbook and wondered if any one could give it a review.
Too often I find myself pouring through cookbooks looking for anything that can find the diverse tastes in my home.
Thanks!
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Mary Chris
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| Posted: March 15 2005 at 4:43pm | IP Logged
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I absolutely  love Chinaberrys cookbookEat, Drink and Be Merry. In that cookbook I found great recipes for chicken enchiladas, meatloaf, overnight french toast and the most delicious chocolate chip cookies! It is available from Chinaberry.
I also like the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. On Elizabeths recomendation I bought Sunlight Cafe, great breakfast ideas in there.
I do think this message board will turn into a great place for sharing recipes 
I am sorry but I do not know anything about the Frantic Family Cookbook.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: March 15 2005 at 6:04pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Mary Chris! I had not heard of any of those. Are they full of exciting recipes that you and I may like, or down-to-earth recipes the majority of kids would like?
I tried Menu Mailer for months. I loved it, but my kids were going crazy with having something different and unusual every night. It also was too expensive for our large family, but that is another issue.
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Mary Chris
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| Posted: March 15 2005 at 8:34pm | IP Logged
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The Chinaberry Cookbook is one where people submitted their favorite recipe, so that is very family friendly. The Barefoot Contessa you may want to check out of the library before you purchase. 
I will have to look in my cupboard to see what other cookbooks I use often.
Have you tried
Sue Gregg? I printed off a bunch of her recipes from her website and sent off for her free sample book, but I only use her blender waffle recipe  . I have read good reviews of her recipes on other forums.
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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teachingmom
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| Posted: March 15 2005 at 11:11pm | IP Logged
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It's not a cookbook, but one of my favorite new places to find a recipe is Allrecipes.com.
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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Molly Smith
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Without question, the best cookbook is Creme de Colorado! It is one of those cookbooks where every single thing I've made has turned out great, and anything I make from it is a huge hit. I don't feel like I have to do a test run to make sure it'll turn out--everything always turns out the first time and I've never once been disappointed with the results.
My next favorite is the trusty Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. It's the red-and-white-checked binder book, updated. I refer to this for making homemade muffins, quick breads, gravies, stuff like that.
My favorite cooking magazine is Cooking Light. It's so expensive, something like $6 per issue. I only buy the holiday issues. It is worth the price, though, and a subscription would be a good gift suggestion.
I usually end up at allrecipes.com when I search online. I have found some real keepers there! I like it because they are rated--I rarely even look at anything that doesn't have 5 stars.
I just want to add, too, that I have what I would consider to be some picky eaters. My dh and boys don't eat most veggies  , so we are limited to veggies mostly as side dishes not mixed in with a recipe. (Or I process them so small and sneak them in!) We don't eat weird stuff, pretty much just chicken and beef. We try to go meatless on Fridays all year round, but it has to be something very hearty. We do like ethnic foods, and dh and I both love spicey foods, so sometimes I'll just heat up chicken nuggets for the kids, but that's not very often--I like us all to eat the same thing.
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Molly Smith in VA
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stefoodie
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My favorite "learn-to-cook" cookbooks are anything Julia Child's; even now 15 years later I still benefit from both the basics and the more complicated variations. Next to those I love the cookbooks/annuals/magazines by Christopher Kimball et al. (the people from America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated), especially "The Best Recipe" -- I've found that they really do have "the" best recipes for a lot of our favorites -- cream cheese brownies, barbecued ribs, scones, meatballs, etc..
I tend to cook rather haphazardly: I take recipes from a myriad of sources including library books, online (faves are epicurious.com and egullet.com) -- depending on the "phase" I'm in -- right now it's healthy, semi-vegetarian, allergy-free cooking... so I may look at a recipe online and tweak it to my liking. Last night I was looking for a recipe for no-egg, no-wheat, no-dairy chocolate chip cookies, and I found instead a link to an online store selling them for $22 a dozen! So I looked at their ingredient list and will try to come up with something of my own today, with a few revisions.
One tip that you may find useful when searching online: when I've got some ingredient(s) I need to use up and a vague idea on what I want to do with it, I stick it in the search engine and just see what comes up: black beans soy sauce catfish bake brought me to an epicurious.com recipe for baked catfish with black bean sauce. the kids loved it!
Recently I've taken my 15-yr (and growing) collection of cooking mags (Saveur, Gourmet, F&W, among others) and started to cull only the recipes that I know I may really cook at some point (like anything with lots of cheese had to go, since my family is allergic): I do this at the beginning of the month, all the March mags, for example, then put the culled recipes in a binder: what's great about this is the recipes are seasonal and will take advantage of most things available in the grocery. Plus there's enough variety to make the month really interesting foodwise! Eventually what I hope to do is index these recipes on a database so I have a year-round searchable reference. (Another project that may take the next 15 years to accomplish LOL)
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: March 16 2005 at 7:23am | IP Logged
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Thanks Molly. I have picky eaters here as well. I find myself going through recipes saying "no, this one has tomatoes, no that one has beans, or onions, or broccoli", and so on. I gets quite limiting.
I have used allrecipes.com with some success. My problem with that is I usually turn to it at 4pm and can never find something that I have the ingredients for.
If we had the money, we would eat a roast every night with mashed potatoes and salad. Maybe alternate with chicken fingers and something Mexican.
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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lilac hill
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Because of picky eaters and 2 vegetarians my recipes often have the objectionable ingredients in side dishes or in one half of the casserole. Vegetables are usually raw with dip and flavoring ingredients--like onions and peppers and garlic can be ground into an unremoveable paste in the food processor. "Cream" soups and stews were the basis of many meals. I always liked an assortment of veggies, for what I felt was better nutritional coverage, and turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, mushroom, carrots, etc. Pureeing them made them inidentifiable. Sauteeing before pureeing worked much better for me, too.
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Viv
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Janette Cascio
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Can anyone suggest a cookbook for teaching cooking to kids in grades 4-6? I'll be teaching at a co-op and will only have about an hour per class. Thanks!
Janette
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MaryM
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| Posted: March 16 2005 at 3:26pm | IP Logged
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Molly Smith wrote:
| Without question, the best cookbook is Creme de Colorado! It is one of those cookbooks where every single thing I've made has turned out great |
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I love that cookbook, too (and the companion, Colorado Cache) but I live in Colorado. How did you hear about it Molly - do you have past Colorado connections?
Quote:
| My favorite cooking magazine is Cooking Light. It's so expensive, something like $6 per issue. |
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Funny, just in today's mail I got a promotional subscription offer (I've been a subscriber in the past). It is a really good deal - only $9.99/year. It does have great recipes. I wonder if anyone could get the deal if they called them and asked for the "Editor's Discount."
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Mary M. in Denver
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Molly Smith
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| Posted: March 17 2005 at 5:34am | IP Logged
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Well, I sort of have a Colorado connection. At the time of my wedding my best friend's parents were stationed in Colorado (I forget the name of the Army base) and they gave the book for a shower gift. My sister and her husband had been stationed there, too. Two of my uncles and their families live(d) in Littleton. I only visited once long ago, but I loved it.
Is Colorade Cashe as good as Creme de Colorado?
I'm going check on that Cooking Light deal to see if I can get it. For $10 it's worth a try!!
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Molly Smith in VA
Mom to seven beautiful children, ages 1-14
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Mary G
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I love the online Cooks.com because I can type in one or two ingredients and get a plethora of recipes....I even found how to substitute for self-rising flour (which I never buy).
On my cookbook shelf, I've weeded them down (I used to have about 100 ) to a dozen or so. My particular favorite is one from HPBooks, The Sourdough Cookbook -- I was born and raised in San Fran and I love the tang of sourdough -- this cookbook has breads, breakfast treats, dinners and even cakes using the sourdough -- excellent stuff!
And of course the old standbys -- Betty Crocker (the red/white gingham cover) and Better Homes and Gardens
Hope this helps!
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: March 17 2005 at 9:27am | IP Logged
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Molly Smith wrote:
| My favorite cooking magazine is Cooking Light. It's so expensive, something like $6 per issue. I only buy the holiday issues. It is worth the price, though, and a subscription would be a good gift suggestion. |
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We bought the book at Sam's. It contains all of last year's recipes from the magazine and cost $22.87. I've also heard that you get a GREAT deal on the subscription if you buy it at a Southern Living at Home Party.
This is one of my favorite cookbooks too, along with a couple of comb-bound regional books.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Favorite Cookbooks
