Favorite Cookbooks

[Darrell]

Quote:There's a reason the picture on the cover shows him probably exceeding 400lbs...

Never trust a skinny cook.

[drvenkman]

The sweet potato pecan pie is out of this world. After my first failure at making a pie crust, I broke down and went with the pillsbury crust. Followed everything else as written and watched it disappear amongst friends and relatives each time I 've made it.

[elfdream]

Just for our esteemed leader's information my husband LOVES to cook. Its funny because he grew up in a ultra fundy home where the 'man' was king but hey..he was the oldest of four boys. SOMEONE had to help mom out. All four of them became pretty good cooks in spite of their background.

But as for me I am lactose intolerant (Native American genes-thanks Dad) but I can eat cheese. Gluten intolerant. Pre-diabetic ( thanks mom. But that one is under control) . I can't just whip out a cook book and prepare any old thing without scrutinizing the ingredients or trying to find substitutes. Gluten Free Bisquick Baking Mix is a life saver! I also use a lot of brown rice and quinoa. No barley, wheat or rye.

It 'looks' like a negative but on the plus side it prevents me from eating a lot of 'junk'. I'm close to normal weight and pretty healthy.

But the things in my library that I use the most are...

Weight Watchers Cook it Quick!
The Complete Diabetes Prevention Plan
Splenda Cookbook (but you can substitute Stevia for Splenda).
The Joy of Cooking
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
Fix It and and Forget it! (Crock Pot Cooking.)
I've also taken the odd recipe here and there from the South Beach Cookbook.

Its a challenge but its worth it.

[LMcC]

Ah, favorite cookbooks:

This one is out of print, "The Official Single Woman's Cookbook", but there may be some used copies out there. Very funny stuff. I liked this one a lot back in my bachelorette days. A friend had the men's version of the cookbook, which was also pretty good. I also have the original version of "The Starving Students' Cookbook" which was quite useful in the early years out of the house and dorms.

Oldies but goodies.

[WifeofBill]

So I guess I'm the only one who doesn't cookbooks. I live by the internet to cook, I love http://www.allrecipes.com and crockpot365.blogspot.com. AllRecipes is great because you can read others reviews and suggestions. I rarely make a recipe as it's written, that bores me, so the suggestions on the reviews helps me to know ways to tweak it. I also came across a website this week for copycat restaurant recipes. Made some yummy cheddar bay biscuits this afternoon.

[Bookgirl]

Boy, have I been gone a long time. I've lurked a little but I haven't had time to post. Naturally, it's a food post that draws me out of the woodwork again.

Okay, cookbooks. More with Less--I still have a beat-up, coverless copy from the old days. Anybody remember Colorado Pie? I also like Joy of Cooking and the new Good Housekeeping, and I have a couple of mega-cooking cookbooks but I never use them anymore. Anybody remember the megacooking craze? I didn't have a big family to cook for, but it was nice to have a bunch of meals stockpiled in the freezer anyway.

Simplyrecipes.com is good. I like every recipe I've tried from that site.

[UptownHippie]

For those who like to browse recipe sites, I have found the recipe finder at the Whole Foods website to be amazing. (There's also an iPhone app that pulls from the same recipe database.) You can search for recipes that include ingredients you have on hand, search by course, or (this is the best part) narrow recipes down by dietary restriction - low-sugar, gluten-free, vegetarian, etc. It's wonderful.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/...search.php

[senda wales]

I too primarily use AllRecipes.com to look up recipes when I need to cook or try something. However, I'm starting to think that I need to develop a long-term strategy besides looking up random recipes so that I can track favorites and modifications.

Do any of you use a recipe organizer? Like, do you use index cards? Cook book binder? Moleskine recipe journal or other notebook?

[drvenkman]

Unfortunately, I'm not very good at organization consistancy. I have a mishmash of cookbooks with hand-written notations, index cards, and random printed or handwritten pages.

It really depends on the complexity of the recipe as to which form works best:

Sauces, marinades, dips, and other such small things can fit on index cards.
Main dishes (especially those with elaborate spice mixes/instructions) go better in books/binders.
Desserts probably also go better in binders

[Darcy]

AllRecipes has a free "cookbook" where you can put favorite recipes. You can even file them under different categories.