No further elaboration, just curious to know other's favorite cookbooks...
Thanks!
Love all the local cookbooks that groups put together for fundraising. You get the best family recipes from them.
Honestly my first instinct is to search for a recipe on-line. However, I do have some wonderful cookbooks in my collection that have inspired me to try recipes that I may not have searched out online:
- any Barefoot Contessa cookbook
- The Martha Stewart Living cookbook
- Southern Living Easy Weeknight Favorites
I also have some vintage cookbooks from my late MIL's collection - Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, The Fanny Farmer cookbook, New York Times cookbook, etc. I don't recall ever using them for recipes (the chances of me whipping up a tomato aspic for lunch with my bridge club is pretty slim) but I do like flipping through them every now and again. Some of the recipes are horrifyingly funny - especially the BHG book, which has inserts for recipes published in the magazine that are clearly sponsored by advertisers.
My old red plaid "Better Homes and Garden" cookbook. Totally falling apart. It has all the basics in there: how long to roast the turkey, how to make vanilla custard. Other than that, I use the internet for special recipes.
I like church cookbooks. The recipes are easy, quick, and require few ingredients.
Betty Crocker (oldie but a goodie)
or
The Cooking Channel!!!! (Easy. View & cook.).
allrecipes.com
I love that site. It's so easy to use, I can save all my recipes, and I can find lots more. Best cookbook ever.
I have an old Betty Crocker cookbook that my mom used when I was a child. Maybe it's because I remember reading the ingredients off to mom and helping her with the dishes. :)
The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. It's like my "bible" of all my cookbooks, since everything's in there I could possibly need....Cakes, cupcakes, cobblers, how to butcher a chicken, Hollendaise sauce, stews, calm fritters, etc. If I could have only one cookbook, Fanny Farmer would be it. Old fashioned, comfort food, useful recipes.
Old lady Southern church fundraising cookbooks. I cannot do them well but I like nostalgia.
Moosewood Cooks at Home is my favorite, but all of the Moosewood books are great. I also like the red and white checked Betty Crocker book for basics! I have a Mario Batali book for impressing dinner guests and a couple of Indian cookbooks for when I want to break out the spice collection :)
I have an edition of Better Homes and Gardens that I love. Though honestly, I don't know if it's that I love the recipes so much, or that the book is in a binder format, so it's easy to lay open. Probably the latter, since I have so many notes in the margins, and my own tweaks paperclipped to the pages!
Also, I enjoy The Mafia Cookbook. Because it's in chapter format, and reads like a story - with recipes spaced in (ie, this is the recipe I used when the FBI first approached me...or This is the recipe I fixed when we were planning that last heist....). It's amusing.
But the best, is the comb-bound cookbook that my mom's sorority group compiled for a fundraiser for a charity event one year. Among other good recipes in there, are my mom's, for easy yeast rolls, and my grandfather's - for homemade wine. I've never used the second one (I don't have producing grape vines, yet), but it feels good knowing it's there.
I like 'Cuisine at Home' it's a magazine cookbook. My MIL bought me a subscription and its been amazing! Delicious food, always!! I can't wait for my next one to come so I can try something new! I have loved every single recipe I have made from them, and that is very rare at my house!
I can never go wrong with my Joy of Cooking! My mom had one growing up and she got me the updated one a few years ago.
Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone"... I rarely make a recipe verbatim, but I often use it as a reference book as it has a wealth of information regarding which spices for which veggies, etc. . "Joy" is great for substitutions and basic ideas for recipes also.
Online options: usually Google and Allrecipes.com.
The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook -- it has lots of useful pictures, and they test out different products/recipes and tell you why they
work best. It has the best french toast recipe ever!! Good luck!
Oh gosh, I have so many and love them all.
I do Love Everyday Italian by Giada DeLaurentis..
I have a cookbook my mom gave me from a cruise she went on that had recipes they had on the cruise. I love that book.. very gourmetish but great.
A couple of favorites are ones I have purchased from schools for fundraisers. Great family recipes in them
I have a shelf full of cookbooks and sometimes I just browse through them. I tend to find a recipe or two that I like and then make it my way. I don't follow the directions to the tee. I add my flavors to the dishes.
Anything by Martha Stewart
