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Misc Blogging Stuff
Apr
13
The Sweet Melissa Baking Book
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How often do you find a cookbook that is so chock full of good recipes that you want to make every single one of them? That day? That’s how I felt when The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy arrived in my mailbox. I grabbed the package and took it along in the car when I went to pick up the boys for school, knowing I would have a few minutes to browse while waiting for them. A few minutes was not enough because I found myself pouring over the pages. Many of my cookbooks have sticky flags on the pages with recipes that I like or want to try, but for Murphy’s book I didn’t even bother because I will eventually make everything in it, and the things that I have made so far have been fantastic.
Murphy is the chef and owner of Sweet Melissa Patisserie in New York City, a popular bakery considered one of the best in the city. I spent some time on the bakery’s website, wishing I had a spot in my neighborhood with food that good so I could take the laptop and hang out there on my mommy days. The menu is so tempting and her wedding and specialty cakes are breathtaking. Murphy has some baking podcasts available on PodCastGo.com, which are now on my iPod. I plan to take a trip to New York City sometime, and one of my first stops will be Sweet Melissa, especially if it has WiFi.
Because my favorite meal is breakfast, I started in the “Dessert for Breakfast” chapter with her Sweet Muffins recipe. For both her sweet and savory muffins, Murphy encourages variation by not specifying particular fruits or cheeses and vegetables within the text of the recipes, but saves the suggestions for tasty combinations for the end. I made the sweet muffins while Michael’s parents were visiting a few weekends ago, and added apples, cinnamon, and dried cranberries. The muffins were a hit, and it’s a good thing I made a double batch that morning, otherwise there would have been none left for me to photograph. They were perfect right out of the pan, no butter or jam required, with a slightly crispy crust and moist crumb, and the vanilla sugar on top added a sweet, aromatic crunch. Read more
Mar
6
101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes
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In January I received an email asking if I was interested in reviewing a cookbook called 101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes. Easy cookies? What busy mom would not be interested in easy cookie recipes? I gladly accepted and eagerly waited to receive the book.
The book, written by mother and daughter team Lucinda Wallace and Heather Wallace, is basic and all about recipes with no photos or lengthy introductions to various cookies. The recipes are divided into sections for bar cookies, drop cookies, rolled cookies, shaped cookies, and no-bake cookies. The instructions are simple and many of the cookies can be mixed in one bowl. I skimmed the book as soon as it arrived, looking for what I call pantry recipes, or cookies that I can make on short notice because all of the ingredients are pantry staples. I was pleased to find many pantry cookie recipes, and I marked those for future reference. When I need cookies fast for a school function or some other occasion, it will be easy to find them.
So far I have made three different cookies from the book and we enjoyed them all. The first cookie was the Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies, which this time happened to be a pantry cookie because I still had some milk chocolate and white chips left over from Christmas baking. They were very easy to make and the neighbors loved them! They are big, gourmet size cookies with a slightly chewy texture, great for gift-giving in a cookie basket or sending in a care package Read more
Oct
12
The focus is on fresh, local food, and Shelburne Farms does it beautifully. The working farm, which started out as a model agricultural estate built by Dr. William Seward Webb and Eliza Vanderbilt Webb in 1886, is a National Historic Landmark and environmental education center. They raise a herd of Brown Swiss dairy cows for making award-winning cheeses, a flock of English sheep for sheering and eating, and they have a sugarhouse for making their own maple syrup for use at the Inn. In keeping with their educational goals, they offer programs for children and adults designed to teach about the workings of the natural world and sustainable agriculture.
Recently Shelburne Farms released a new cookbook, Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont, and in an interesting twist, co-authors Melissa Pasanen and Rick Gencarelli structured the cookbook in a way that highlights the local agriculture of Vermont rather than focusing on meal courses. Chapters focus on Savory Milk and Cheese, Savory Maple, Early Spring and Summer Greens, Lamb, Wild Mushrooms, Game and Fish, Pork, Root-Cellar Vegetables, Apples, Sweet Milk, and Sweet Maple, and all of these ingredients are available either on the farm or locally. Each chapter has a story or two about local food production that gives the reader a sense of Vermont agriculture. For example, in “Listening to the Land,” the reader learns about wildcrafters Les Hook and Nova Kim, who seek out wild mushrooms and edible and medicinal plants and have done so for 27 years.
The very first recipe is for churned butter Read more
Oct
10
Great Source for Cookbooks: Jessica’s Biscuit, www.ecookbooks.com
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I began my cookbook collection when I was in high school with the purchase of Farm Journal’s Homemade Breads, the 1985 version. I wasn’t an avid cook or even an occasional cook, but I loved bread (still do) and thought that someday I would learn how to make my own. Well, I did learn how to make my own bread, and from that simple beginning my cookbook collection has slowly grown over the years to well over 100, although I’m not exactly sure of the current number. The last count two years ago come in somewhere around 130, and my collection has definitely grown since then!
I’m always on the lookout for great deals on cookbooks, and I’ve picked up used books from eBay, yard sales, or Freecycle, and years ago I belonged to a cookbook-of-the-month type club. Recently I came across a great source for cookbooks that has been alive and well for quite some time but is a new find for me. Jessica’s Biscuit® has been selling cookbooks for 27 years, first out of the family living room and now in a large warehouse in Massachusetts. This boutique bookseller focuses on cookbooks and caters to cookbook collectors. Their selection of over 14,000 titles runs the gamut, including new releases, bestsellers, out-of-print or hard-to-find, and the skills levels range from basic to gourmet. They do offer a few other genres of books as well as their own label of single origin coffee beans, but selling cookbooks is their specialty.
They offer everyday discounts at 20-75% off retail, and they have some nice perks for buyers Read more
Sep
17
The Spatulatta Cookbook
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When I was invited to review the recently released Spatulatta Cookbook, my answer was an enthusiastic “Yes!” and I couldn’t wait to see what the girls from Spatulatta had cooked up.
Spatulatta.com is a James Beard award-winning website with video cooking lessons for kids. The hosts are Isabella and Olivia Gerasole, sisters ages 11 and 9, and they do all the video demonstrations. If you have not seen the website, you must go and visit it because the videos are lively and fun. The girls, who are naturals in front of a camera, prepare foods while their mom and other guests help out with things like cutting, assembling the food processor, and working with the stove or oven. Spatulatta has webcasts demonstrating recipes and basic skills, such as separating eggs and chopping an onion.
The full-color cookbook, which was released this month, begins with a basic skills overview for such tasks as chopping, shredding and grating cheese, measuring, and food safety, and also includes information on essential cooking tools and measurements. Read more