Eating With Your Eyes

Since it is super convenient I often just check online at one of my fave websites for a recipe these days. I can do it right in the grocery store if I am shopping for ingredients and that is a huge help as I am always trying to do 9 things and never just focus on one, with the result being not quite on the ball. However, in the not to distant past aside from foodie mags the only thing I had to rely on was cookbooks.

I actually have quite a number of cookbooks-at least 25 or 30. The funny part is I have pared this down a bit-passing along the ones that I never really meshed with. I thought since I had burgers and pasta salad for dinner tonight and you probably all know how to make that it would be fun to share some of my personal fave cookbooks.

I can read cookbooks like a novel. I love to look at the photos (especially in baking books), and check out menu suggestions. I even read the sections about what kind of cookware to buy or the explanation of couscous-none of which I really need. But I so enjoy picking up a tidbit here and there and folding down a page that I MUST go back to so I can make the dish.

All time hands down, The Moosewood Restaurant and The Enchanted Brocoli Forest (both by Mollie Katzen) are the top of the list for me. Even though I don't eat vegetarian anymore and only did so for a bit these cookbooks are all about the process of home-made delicious foods. These means rising dough, chopping veggies, making your own crusts. The indulgent slow and often meditative process that sadly we don't have time for all that often any more. (At least I don't...) In these books you will find the basic quiche formula to take you through to enternity-no matter what flavors you want if you follow the basic principles within you will be able to make the perfect quiche. Also the most delicious honey wheat bread-complete with hand drawn instructions to walk you through bread baking.

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer is my go to for everyday cooking principles and practices. I know we all have a fave for this-it could be Better Homes and Gardens or Julia Childs or any other number of books but this one is the book for me. Whether I need to know how to set out the silver for a lovely upscale Thanksgiving or how to make a french toast that has the perfect balance of cinnamon and vanilla I know I will find it there.

The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Nuovo Vesuvio. I know you might think this is a joke, but the recipes are actually fairly spot on for traditional Italian. I have tweaked the Sunday Gravy recipe slightly to make it my own, but it is a fairly similar recipe as my mother-in-laws. It is a great Italian cookery reference-has all the basics and a few speciality items but doesn't go to deep.

The Mesa Grill Cookbook by Bobby Flay is excellent. After eating at Mesa Grill I had to have it and I am glad I do. I can recreate his amazing steaksauce or double baked horseradish potatoes at home-saving a trip to Manhattan and about $130 in the process. The book is an upscale take on southwestern food.

Lastly, the orange Betty Crocker cookbook published most likely in the 60's. I have my grandmothers copy and some day if she wants it my daughter will have it. I used to sit at my grandmother's house reading it and looking at the pictures like it was a fairy tale. Pictures of foods I would never eat at this point in my life like bread with pimento spread cut into triangles, jello molds filled with ham and fruit and other strange concotions. The pics are super kitchsy but there are some great basic recipes in this book for breads and the best cinnamon bun recipe I have ever had along with kitchen classics like chicken kiev. I almost never open this book anymore but it is really my first cookbook and holds a special place in my heart.

Would love to hear what your faves are...Sometimes eating with your eyes is almost as much fun!