I'm that person who lives off of Mac&Cheese and Starbucks pastries. I can't make rice to save myself, I dry out chicken every time I cook it, and I once made a cake with 1/4 cup of salt instead of 1/4 tablespoon salt. Basically, I have a poor diet to begin with and my cooking skills don't help.
This is partly on purpose. If you don't know how to cook, you don't have to cook for anybody. It's like when you're 16 and you're the only one with the driver's license. But in the past few months I've lived with some cooks and it's inspired me to drop my Kraft box and get out a cutting board.
The first time I saw What to Cook and How to Cook It I was having a hipster afternoon and spent a few hours in Urban Outfitters. I picked up the book and read the whole thing cover to chocolate chip cookies on page 402.
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| The inside of What to Cook and How to Cook It |
What makes a good cookbook? First of all, PICTURES. For the life of me I cannot understand why cookbooks get published without accompanying photos. How the fuck am I supposed to know what the recipe should look like in its finished state? Second of all, it should be sectioned off properly. Maybe basing chapters on ingredients or weather seasons works for some people, but I like things categorizes by time of day and how intensive it is. Lastly, the cookbook should be big enough and or heavy enough to stay open while you're cooking so you can follow the instructions.
What to Cook and How to Cook It is a beautiful book. Period. Not only does it include pictures of the finished product, but it has pictures of all of the ingredients and the cooking process as well. It's sectioned by Breakfast & Brunch, Light Lunches, Simple Suppers, Food for Sharing, Weekend Cooking, Side Dishes, and Desserts & Baking. It's meant for beginners so it starts easy (pancakes with blueberries), moves on to things like Nachos with Guacamole, and Spaghetti with home-made Pesto, and finishes with things like Roast Chicken with Lemon and Leek Stuffing, and Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings. It's 402 pages long, hardback, and about about 8''by11'', so it actually stays open next to the stove.
I'm rather in love with it.
I've tagged 22 recipes I want to tackle first and I've done 6 of them so far. I know this entry is way long as it is, but here's my review thus far from favorite to least favorite.
1.) Chicken Caesar Salad. Extremely Successful. Homemade croutons? Oh my god. So good. And all it takes it buttermilk break cut into squares with salt and pepper. And who knew that Caesar dressing only took 3 ingredients (it should have been 4, but I forgot the garlic)? I was so impressed by how well this turned out, and I was shocked that wanted seconds with a salad.
2.) BLT. Ok yes, this is just a normal BLT, but it was yummy! I tried to follow the directions with the honey+mustard+mayo spread, but I'm just not a mustard fan. Other than that, it was such a nostalgic treat on a warm spring day that I made it three times last week. P.s. Use buttermilk bread.
3.) Cheeseburgers. I've never chopped onions and put them in the burger (never used an egg either), so I was pretty happy with the result. Then again, when you char burgers it kinda tastes the same to me. Still, my boyfriend ate 3 of them in a row so it was a success.=) P.s. add bacon left over from the BLTs.
4.) Simple Herb Omelet. Truthfully, the only time I eat omelets is when I'm burnt out on other breakfast food. My opinion hasn't changed after this recipe. I added the left over bacon and used a regular sweet onion instead of chives (why buy a literal bunch of them when I just needed one of them?) and let me tell you, my kitchen smelled ridiculously delicious that morning.
5.) Berry Smoothie. Skip the frozen mixed berries and just buy fresh fruit and add the ice. By following the recipe, the smoothie tasted good (loved the honey), but it was way too frothy and not enough fruit.
6.) Cinnamon Rolls. I'm honestly not sure if it was the recipe's fault or my freezing-ass January house, but this dish was a disaster. The dough never rose. I put them in the fridge overnight and nothing. I put them in our kitchen and nothing. Granted it was in the low 50s in the house, so it might have fucked things up. They turned out dryer than toast and way too many of them for four people. However, crasins/raisins were an interesting and yummy choice.
Six down, sixteen to go. Should be delicious!
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