book reviews

Quinoa Salad

June 28, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

My niece got me inspired to try quinoa again. I was not too crazy about plain as a side dish, but dressed up with some veggies and a Dijon vinaigrette it was really good!  I cooked the quinoa in my rice cooker on the regular rice setting, then let it cool. 1 cup quinoa 1/4 [...]

Easy Appetizers

June 1, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

I entertained twice this weekend and while I cooked a fair bit, I was a bit too busy to take pictures of everything! Both nights I wanted some easy appetizers and used a few items from Jacques Pepin More Fast Food My Way, including the idea of this simple appetizer with sliced radishes (from my [...]

Church’s / KFC’s Fried and Oven-Baked Chicken

May 25, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

My daughter asked if I’d make up some fried chicken tonight as she and her friends wanted to do a “party” at lunch and have everyone bring something to eat together like a picnic.  This is a cross of two popular restaurant versions of friend chicken. The seasonings are a Kentucky Fried Chicken lookalike and [...]

How to Cook Everything

April 19, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

I now have two new cookbooks thanks to Chowhound. Okay, it’s even worse. I already owned (and loved) the first edition of How to Cook Everything but the comments convinced me that I needed this one too, or maybe instead of…. I also bought Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen. [...]

Butterflied Roast Chicken: New to Me

April 12, 2010 by Ellen · 2 Comments 

I went to our farmer’s market yesterday with a friend and vowed, again, to make this a Saturday habit. I came home with kale, carrots, strawberries, asparagus, tomatoes (a disappointment, but still better than grocery store ones), fingerling potatoes, and some fantastic mustard! The lady who sold the mustard said to rub it on a [...]

Roasted Cauliflower from Katie Lee Joel

March 29, 2010 by Ellen · 2 Comments 

A friend loaned me Katie Lee Joel’s cookbook, The Comfort Table, and I’ve really enjoyed the recipes I’ve tried so far. My daughter was eager to try them as well as she recently became a fan of Billy Joel. (Katie Lee is his wife for those of you like me who do NOT follow these [...]

Garlicky Green Beans

March 21, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

This is one of my standby recipes and I got it from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, Desperation Dinners. If you need to get dinner on the table in a hurry, this is the cookbook for you. But it’s not just fast recipes; they all taste great! I told my sister about it years [...]

Spring Salad: Sugar Snap Peas and Radishes

March 21, 2010 by Ellen · 2 Comments 

This was a fantastic spring salad recipe, from The Comfort Table, which a friend had loaned me. There are some fantastic sounding recipes in here and if this one is typical, I think I may have to go buy my own copy!  (Thanks Elizabeth for the loan!) 3/4 pound sugar snap peas 1 bunch radishes, [...]

Chicken Korma from Jamie’s Food Revolution

January 16, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

This very mild curry has a creamy mild taste and will likely be quite acceptable to young children.  The book says you could also make this with shrimp! My daughter isn’t a huge fan of onions but she said they tasted good in this. I took my 15 year old to the bookstore today as [...]

Review: Washoku: Recipes from a Japanese Home Kitchen

January 10, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

Filled with easy to follow recipes and an explanation of Japanese home cooking principles, this book is quite worthwhile. Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen has been a great introduction to Japanese home cooking for me.  The recipes I’ve tried have been excellent. It did require some exploring in a local Asian grocery store [...]

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