Cookbook Recommendations | Pad Patter 07.30

Not a cookbook, but my best buy when it comes to books I use when cooking: The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit. A nerdy masterpiece about what flavours match. Love it!

 

Well, since I don't cook. - LOL. I used to but my hubby does most of the cooking now. I still have my old Betty Crocker cookbook and I learned to cook from her "Cooking For Two". It was like a cookbook for dummies. Hahaha

Actually, I hate to tell you this, but most of the recipes we/he (now) uses are family recipes. We have a pretty thick cookbook full of family recipes. Many years ago, the church Mom and Grandma attended put together a cookbook of homemade recipes. It's our go-to. They gifted all the families a book, several years ago and I'm the only one who still has it. I get lots of calls about how to make this or that. LOL

Chuck swears by the internet if what he wants to make isn't in one of our cookbooks. I actually have a binder full of online recipes.

 

I don’t have a tonne of cookbooks but most of my cookbooks are super specific to my dietary needs and food intolerances. I will say though 99% of the time I just modify existing recipes to meet my needs. I tend to use blogs mostly (Skinnytaste, Emily Bites & Kim’s Cravings mostly)

The two I use mostly are

 

I own many cookbooks, and borrow thousands from libraries. Mostly, because I don't have space to own them all!

America's Test Kitchen - this was (is?) my bible for learning things. I watched the show on PBS (now online) and I've learned so much about how to cook and why we do certain things. It was the first place I learned the secret to a juicy pork chop is to sear on the stove, then finish in the oven. There are some recipes that are more step and time consuming than they need to be though, but I found it highly helpful. I have the one that's all seasons from 2001-2019 and their Family Cookbook.
Along the same lines, but more comfort type food, and usually less technical is their cooks county cookbook. I find a lot of things in it like Cincinnati Chili and other regional delights.

I also have Good Cheap Eats in 30 minutes that I pull out on occasion. Usually when I'm stressed for time. She has a blog at goodcheapeats.com but the not all the recipes in the book are on the blog. I like that she has suggestions for making 1 thing that can become 2 different meals, or 1 ingredient that becomes more than 1 meal. My kid is starting to cook from this one.

Desperation Dinners is another in this category. It's not so much about the art of cooking as it is about teaching you how to use ingredients to toss food together quickly. Like cook some chicken, toss together a sauce in the same pan and add some frozen veggies for a quick mock chicken pot pie. Yummy, fast, but not as technical or involved as the ATK one. But it helped me learn about ginger frozen cubes and that is one of my favorite go to cooking ingredients.

No cookbook (yet, she just announced it) but I like the recipes from Tastes Better from Scratch blog. She's newer to me, but I haven't been disappointed yet. Most recently, I made Caribbean Jerk Chicken Bowls. Everyone loved them from the 12 year old to the 73 year old. Her Mexican rice is also really tasty. I love melskitchencafe for go to recipes. I make her spaghetti pie all the time. It feels like an upgrade from spaghetti, but not too much upgrade on work. Not all her dishes have a lot of spice, but I've only been disappointed by a handful in the decade or so of cooking from her blog.

Also, if your library has it, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter is a fabulous cookbook/teaching book. She talks about the benefits of cooking from scratch (like bread) but also when the work/cost savings/flavor just isn't quite worth it for most people (butter). I learned a lot, and it made me evaluate in my own cooking what is worth my time because I like the flavor better (homemade mayo), or the end result (refried beans!!), versus just buy (tortillas. Our Hispanic store makes them from scratch for me to buy!). I don't know that it's worth buying, but it's definitely worth reading.

 

These from Vivian Howard from PBS’ Chef and the Farmer are awesome. We have been to her restaurant too and met her in person .. deep run roots and this will make it taste good both have great down home recipes plus stories

 

One of the next books I'm buying is ATK's Just Add Sauce.
Just Add Sauce: A Revolutionary Guide to Boosting the Flavor of Everything You Cook: America's Test Kitchen: 9781945256240: Books - Amazon.ca

I still haven't unpacked all my cookbooks yet (so can't remember titles) but I have a couple of flavor/spice books that are really good b/c then you learn what spices work well with what foods and what combos work well together. I like to make my own spice blends.

 

My favorite blog with recipes is this:
https://www.pickuplimes.com/ Yummy!

 

This is more information on the cookbook https://alittlebityummy.com/low-fodmap-cookbook/ She also has free recipes on her website and a recipe club with a monthly subscription as well. I got the cookbook for a really awesome price on our equivalent of EBay (actually I got both of them the same way) after borrowing them from the library first to see if they’d be of interest to me.

 

My very favorite place to get recipes is:

https://www.skinnytaste.com/

She also has several cookbooks that are great too. There’s a newer one for the air fryer that intrigues me. She has a recipe for chicken breasts in the air fryer that are the best I’ve ever made.

https://www.skinnytaste.com/air-fryer-chicken-breast/

 

This show was so fun to watch too!

 

I'm intrigued by this one, but haven't had a chance to look through it yet. Have you?