A well-seasoned appetite : recipes for eating with the seasons, the senses, and the soul

The two recipes I decided to make from "A well-seasoned appetite : recipes for eating with the seasons, the senses, and the soul" were the Curried Root Vegetable Stew with Mace-Current Dumplings and Indian Spiced Zucchini Coconut Soup.


The Curried Root Vegetable Stew Mace-Current Dumplings was tasty.  The only modification I made was to substitute the celery root with celery since I could not find celery root at the grocery store.  I also opted to make biscuits instead of the dumplings.  The  zucchini soup was also a success.  I liked the combination of the coconut and zucchini. It was a nice end of the summer meal.
Overall I was pleased with the results from this cookbook.  I look forward to trying new recipes in the future.  

Joy of Cooking

The Joy of Cooking is the quintessential American cookbook.  The cookbook is arranged by food type (e.g. Meats, vegetables) and the many recipes include helpful time-saving tips.  Sadly I found the cookbook about as inspiring as a phonebook.  The recipes were like lists and after a while, blended together.  The recipes also seemed, well dated.    I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to make Spanish Rice (ultimately I decided I didn’t) and went with Scalloped Potatoes.   Admittedly scalloped potatoes wasn’t a particularly creative or challenging meal but it reminded me of my grandmother who always makes this dish for my Dad.  And of course, you can’t really beat a recipe that is basically just butter, cream, potatoes and salt.  The potatoes turned out excellent - hot, creamy and starchy, just how I like my food.  I ate this goo of goodness with some steamed broccoli and a non-roast roast (i.e. Vegetarian roast) .  In addition to the scalloped potatoes I also made two other recipes from the JoC:  glazed carrots and a marinade for chicken.  Obviously I didn’t eat the chicken but Mat declared it “okay” and that’s about as good of a complement I ever get from him so I guess that recipe can be considered a success.


Overall I think the Joy Of Cooking is a good reference cookbook but it lacks inspiration for me at least.  

Here is the photo of the final meal.  Scalloped potatoes, veggie roast, corn and broccoli.  

Another Blog about Cooking.

I love books.  I especially love cookbooks.  I  have a lot of cookbooks.  At last count, I owned over sixty.  Most were purchased from yard and book sales.  Others found their way on my bookshelf after an impulse buy made on Amazon.   Sadly, many of these cookbooks have never been opened.  That includes both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking which I compulsively tracked down after watching Julie and Julia but have not looked at since.   

I like to cook but often find myself eating pasta with butter because I'm too tired or unprepared to make anything more ambitious for dinner.  I need to break this cycle; I need some motivation.  Hence this blog.  The purpose is to cook two recipes from each cookbook I own and document the successes and failures.  The goal is to discover new recipes, improve my culinary skills and become more adventurous in the kitchen.      

  

This is not a Julia and Julie project.  There is no deadline and I'm not planning to force myself to make anything I wouldn't normally eat. 

So stay tuned as I test out my first cookbook the Joy of Cooking.