Contrary to all that 'healthy eating' stuff...
This is the time of year when I buy a lot of cooking magazines from the racks at the supermarket. I've been a fan of the Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications since the late 90s, and some of my favorite holiday recipes come from these books. Usually each year I find at least one thing that becomes a perennial favorite, a bunch of semi-interesting things that I never get around to making, and a bunch of things that don't interest me.
Seems like every time I've gone to the grocery store recently, there's a new magazine. (If I run out of yarn money, this will be why.) So far, I have:
BH&G Appetizers
BH&G Ultimate Cookies
BH&G Shortcut Holiday Cooking
BH&G Christmas Cookies
fineCooking Parties 2009
fineCooking Sweet Cakes
Amazingly, there hasn't been a single dud. The appetizer book has savory biscotti! Why did I never think of putting pepperoni and black pepper in a biscotti dough and slicing it just 1/4" thick? It also has three recipes Hubert Keller let them print from his Burger Bar book, and sections featuring cocktail meatballs, charcuterie, and everything-you-can-do-with-bacon. You know, all that fat-saturated, unhealthy stuff that doesn't count because it's 'holiday calories'. =P
The Ultimate Cookies book I haven't really looked through yet, but I bought it because when I was flipping through (to make sure it wasn't one of those reprints in disguise) I landed on Coconut-Raspberry Delights, which are an unholy combination of macaroon, thumbprint cookie, and black-n-whites. My love of crossovers extends to food as well as icons and fandoms. =P
Shortcut Holiday Cooking I thought might not turn out well, but it would be something I could pass along to my mother-in-law, who doesn't like to cook. It's actually got good food in it though - not "open a can of Campbells" stuff, but also not stuff that needs a ton of ingredients or fussy preparation. And there are lots of good-sounding salads and vegetables, like the parsnip and carrot shoestrings with cranberries, ginger, pears, and pecans.
I have so many cookie magazines by now, plus old family favorites, that I buy them more out of habit than because I expect to find anything that will make it into the rotation. But this year's Christmas Cookies has a feature on bar cookies that are candy bar-inspired. The Twix-like one and the Peppermint Pattie-like one have me drooling, because those are candies I can no longer eat (too sweet; too cheap chocolate). The idea of making my own with bittersweet chocolate and less sugar sounds fantastic. There's also an Apples and Oats Biscotti that looks really good... this must be the year for biscotti, again. I think the first time they were trendy was 10 years ago when I first started buying these magazines.
fineCooking's Parties has a reprint of their Green Beans with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette, which is my very favorite sauce/salad dressing for just about any vegetable ever. I love Meyer lemons, and I'm so happy they're coming back in season. I have this recipe somewhere, but last time I wanted to make it I couldn't figure out where, in the teetering stacks of magazines, that particular recipe could be found. So now I have it again, yay. Again, now that I'm paying attention to vegetables I can see there's lots of interesting recipes, including shredded pan-fried brussels sprouts with crisp shallots. I'm definitely planning to make the turkey and sweet potato hash with Thanksgiving leftovers, too.
I'm not a huge cake baker, unless it's a flat cake done in a half sheet pan. Because I'm lazy. I've taken the Wilton decorating classes, and I'm not bad at it, I just usually can't be fussed. This is doubly true at the holidays, which is the time for pie (the only time for pie, other than 3/14) and cookies. So I'm not sure why I came home with fineCooking's Sweet Cakes, but there's actually good looking stuff in here. I might try the grapefruit upside down cake with rosemary, almonds, and browned butter. I like pineapple upside down cake, and I like lemon rosemary cake. More crossover food, yay! There's also a luscious chocolate mousse layer cake which might be a new launching point for trying to duplicate Chez Zee's Chocolate Decadence, and some sour cream coffee cake that I know my Mom would like for Christmas morning.
We had a leak in our bay window patched yesterday, in advance of today's rain. The ceiling is certainly going to have to come down, the rug may have to come up (please, FSM, don't make me move the books and the bookcases), and the whole roof will likely be replaced. So I don't know that I'm going to have time to try new recipes any time soon. OTOH I fixed the problems with my current socks after I discovered the leak, once the sock was not the biggest problem I had. So testing recipes might become a welcome distraction, I dunno. I'm going to bookmark everything with that hope in mind. =)
Seems like every time I've gone to the grocery store recently, there's a new magazine. (If I run out of yarn money, this will be why.) So far, I have:
BH&G Appetizers
BH&G Ultimate Cookies
BH&G Shortcut Holiday Cooking
BH&G Christmas Cookies
fineCooking Parties 2009
fineCooking Sweet Cakes
Amazingly, there hasn't been a single dud. The appetizer book has savory biscotti! Why did I never think of putting pepperoni and black pepper in a biscotti dough and slicing it just 1/4" thick? It also has three recipes Hubert Keller let them print from his Burger Bar book, and sections featuring cocktail meatballs, charcuterie, and everything-you-can-do-with-bacon. You know, all that fat-saturated, unhealthy stuff that doesn't count because it's 'holiday calories'. =P
The Ultimate Cookies book I haven't really looked through yet, but I bought it because when I was flipping through (to make sure it wasn't one of those reprints in disguise) I landed on Coconut-Raspberry Delights, which are an unholy combination of macaroon, thumbprint cookie, and black-n-whites. My love of crossovers extends to food as well as icons and fandoms. =P
Shortcut Holiday Cooking I thought might not turn out well, but it would be something I could pass along to my mother-in-law, who doesn't like to cook. It's actually got good food in it though - not "open a can of Campbells" stuff, but also not stuff that needs a ton of ingredients or fussy preparation. And there are lots of good-sounding salads and vegetables, like the parsnip and carrot shoestrings with cranberries, ginger, pears, and pecans.
I have so many cookie magazines by now, plus old family favorites, that I buy them more out of habit than because I expect to find anything that will make it into the rotation. But this year's Christmas Cookies has a feature on bar cookies that are candy bar-inspired. The Twix-like one and the Peppermint Pattie-like one have me drooling, because those are candies I can no longer eat (too sweet; too cheap chocolate). The idea of making my own with bittersweet chocolate and less sugar sounds fantastic. There's also an Apples and Oats Biscotti that looks really good... this must be the year for biscotti, again. I think the first time they were trendy was 10 years ago when I first started buying these magazines.
fineCooking's Parties has a reprint of their Green Beans with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette, which is my very favorite sauce/salad dressing for just about any vegetable ever. I love Meyer lemons, and I'm so happy they're coming back in season. I have this recipe somewhere, but last time I wanted to make it I couldn't figure out where, in the teetering stacks of magazines, that particular recipe could be found. So now I have it again, yay. Again, now that I'm paying attention to vegetables I can see there's lots of interesting recipes, including shredded pan-fried brussels sprouts with crisp shallots. I'm definitely planning to make the turkey and sweet potato hash with Thanksgiving leftovers, too.
I'm not a huge cake baker, unless it's a flat cake done in a half sheet pan. Because I'm lazy. I've taken the Wilton decorating classes, and I'm not bad at it, I just usually can't be fussed. This is doubly true at the holidays, which is the time for pie (the only time for pie, other than 3/14) and cookies. So I'm not sure why I came home with fineCooking's Sweet Cakes, but there's actually good looking stuff in here. I might try the grapefruit upside down cake with rosemary, almonds, and browned butter. I like pineapple upside down cake, and I like lemon rosemary cake. More crossover food, yay! There's also a luscious chocolate mousse layer cake which might be a new launching point for trying to duplicate Chez Zee's Chocolate Decadence, and some sour cream coffee cake that I know my Mom would like for Christmas morning.
We had a leak in our bay window patched yesterday, in advance of today's rain. The ceiling is certainly going to have to come down, the rug may have to come up (please, FSM, don't make me move the books and the bookcases), and the whole roof will likely be replaced. So I don't know that I'm going to have time to try new recipes any time soon. OTOH I fixed the problems with my current socks after I discovered the leak, once the sock was not the biggest problem I had. So testing recipes might become a welcome distraction, I dunno. I'm going to bookmark everything with that hope in mind. =)