I wasn't able to go to the Library yesterday because we were out of town. Total bummer, but I still have PLENTY to read ! I finally found some hours on the weekend to sit and read some of the cookbooks that I've checked out over my last two visits.
Sunday afternoon, I just sat on the beanbag, surround by cookbooks. Rory was watching football in the same room so we were sort of just reading, watching and chatting. It was a nice afternoon.
Monday was a public holiday here so I didn't have to go to work. I spent close to TWO hours looking at cookbooks and reading my novel ... in the BATH TUB ! (my favorite place to read !)
Anyway ... I've got some cookbooks to tell you about ... You ready ? Here we go ....
Annie's Garden to Table ... This book makes me long for a big piece of land to be able to grow all of our own fruits and vegetables !! It is a 'garden diary" featuring recipes ... I didn't like the diary part, but maybe if I'd read that it was that first, I wouldn't have picked the book up. I felt like it was too much 'talking' and sort of like reading a blog rather than a book. Lots of the recipes felt complicated but may not necessarily be, it's just the overall feeling I had. But I've written down five of them that sound interesting ... like, Leek Custard. Asparagus with a boiled egg and herbed crumbs. Snapper with lemon and capers. Garlic prawns with garlic soup. YUM !! and Kasoundi.
The Homesick Texan is a COOL book. I loved it. BUT it has lots of ingredients that I can't get here in Australia and they do a lot of canning, which I'm not set up for. YET. I am going to try making Chipotle Ketchup, Breakfast sausage and Biscuits and gravy !
The Veggie Patch Cookbook through the year makes me wish I could GROW EVERYTHING ! It is filled with lots of little goodies, including when to pick, tips on how to eat, store, preserve and freeze your harvest. I wrote down 13 recipes that I want to try. One that I've put a big star beside is called Chicken roasted with fennel and lemon. Sounds so good ..... Lemongrass and chilli salsa !? Yes please. Coriander and walnut pesto. The list goes on !
Your Place or Mine ? I so wanted to love this cookbook ! It's written by George and Gary off of Masterchef. I love them on the show ! But I didn't love this book. I did love the text and how it was presented. The photos were great but in the big giant cookbook, there were four recipes that I want to try. The Fennel Mornay sounds so interesting. Beetroot and feta dip. YUM ! Asparagus baked in salt crust ... I'm all over this salt crust thing. And an Asparagus with goat's curd and green olive tapenade ... intriguing !
Jamie's America ... oh how I love Jamie ! I love the variety in this book. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the photos. I love the personal touches and stories he shares of the people he meets along the way. 13 recipes on my list ... the first one I will try is Stuffed Courgette (Zucchini) Flowers ... I'll try it as soon as I have enough Zucchini Flowers on my plant ... I noticed the first one yesterday !!
Pure Vegetarian. I have a little pet peeve with cookbooks. It bugs me when every recipe doesn't have a picture. This book didn't have near enough photos. Usually I won't even persist if there aren't photos but I did with this one for some reason. 10 recipes that I want to try .... all sound AMAZING !
The Farmer's Market Family Cookbook ... Really cool layout. The chapters were Veg, Fruit, Meat/Poultry/Seafood, Dairy, Nuts/Spices. It's all about using food you can find at the farmers or growers markets ... or even growing your own. Sweet potato ravioli is among the five recipes I'd like to try !
Movida Cocina is not a cookbook I would have picket up if I hadn't been to the restaurant. But, it's a lovely cookbook. The recipes are COMPLICATED but I'm going to try some of them because I've eaten the food and it is UNREAL ! So delicious ! Also ... I love the photos ... and the fact that this book is filled with SPANISH FOOD !!
Donna Hay - A Cook's Guide ... Her cookbooks are always beautiful. Lots of big, bright photos. I love to look through them. Also, her recipes are often simple which is great. This book is a great one for beginner cooks. It walks you through a lot of techniques and teaches you how to do very basic recipes from scratch. Probably a good one to give a young couple just starting out. I'm going to teach myself how to make Choux Pastry using this book ... and then I'm going to make that Choux Pastry into the Chocolate Eclairs just a few pages over !
Real Food Cookbook GREAT BOOK !! Lots of good, healthy, fresh sounding recipes. My only complaint ... the photos, though they are nice, there isn't one to represent every recipe ... I think it needs more photos ! But ... even without the photos, I'm going to try 12 of the recipes !
No excuses. Again, needs more photos. I like to see what the recipe looks like --> ALWAYS ! I wasn't overly excited with this recipe but there are a few low cal recipes that look nice and so I will try them ...
Modern Asian ... BEAUTIFUL book ! And there are photos with every recipe. And I want to eat EVERYTHING in this book ! Not even kidding. If I was going to buy one cookbook out of this list, it would be this one. Can't wait to try out some of the recipes ....
And that's as far as I got. I still have a stack as high as the one I just went through to read still ! But since I didn't get any new books this week, maybe I will have time again over the weekend to get through the rest of them !! :)
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I would love to see your pile of books ! Just take a photo of your library books ... post it somewhere ... anywhere (!) ... facebook, instagram (#thursdaysbooks), flickr, photobucket ... your blog ... and then come leave me a comment so I can come see.
So, tell me ... what are you reading ? And have you visited your library lately ?
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