Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

I checked this book out from the library last year and after three days I had made a small mountain of carmel-crusted, fluffy crumbed toothsome baked goods. Two olive-oil soaked flatbreads, three loaves of crackly wholesome wheat and oat bread, and a pizza dinner later... I was convinced. I promptly returned the library book before all the pages got gummed together and Amazoned myself my own copy, now floured and gummed without fear of library fines.
I love that the authors streamlined the bread-baking event-- which I LOVE in any form-- but this just gives me an excuse to do it even more. Nearly every recipe I've tried has been show stopping, even with my piddly dink no-flash camera.
And the "five minutes" thing-- it's a teeny bit exaggerated. What it really means that the recipes are all no-knead and can be made in big batches, stored in the fridge, and baked up easily one loaf at a time. A beautiful ideal-- suggesting a life of daily fresh baked breads and pastries. The cookbook also includes other recipes that make the breads into complete meals-- soups and salads and savory grilled meats. I recommend you keep a hankie on hand as you read this book to mop up all the drool.

How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I went to the used book store the other day with some cast-off hard-backs to trade in. I shoved several lounging cats aside, and found all 944 pages of this tome. The shiny "Julia Child Cookbook Award" and "James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award Winner" stickers intrigued me. So did the Washington Post quote, "Think of it as a more hip Joy of Cooking"

Them's fightin' words. I'm a Joy devotee. But flipping through, I was intrigued. I like the illustrations, the larger print, the informative lists and inset boxes.... So I traded in my castoffs (sorry Yiddish Policeman's Union) and brought it home.

So far, I feel a little weird about it. Like I've brought home somebody else's grandma to pretend to be my grandma. It's nice and all, maybe there's some stuff that's even better about this grandma than about my own, like maybe her recipe for Crisp-Cooked Sunchokes or Garam Masala, but... Joy is my home.

I've only tried about 3 recipes from this book so far. And I have to admit, I checked the Joy equivalent for each one. And where they differed... I sided with Joy. It's a trust thing! Joy has never let me down!

I'll keep trying this one out, but I suspect that Joy will always get the final word.


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Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This pert little cookbook will have you pureeing your way to a balanced diet!!!!!!! And Loving every perky bite!!!!!!

Okay, so it's maybe a little too cutesy for me.

But the glossy upclose food-porny pictures are tantalizing, and the recipes are tasty, if a teeny bit fussy. It reminds me of a diet or self-help book: you have to be committed to the whole philosophy of the thing to get any real benefit out of it. You can't just browse and pick and pluck the appealing recipes-- you have to dedicate yourself to the cult of pureed veg.

Which is fine, in itself. I'm just not willing to commit. Yet!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Recipes of Japanese Cooking, or "Eigo de Tuskuru Washoku"

I love this book. This is my go-to Japanese cookbook. It has beautiful color photographs, and includes the basics of Japanese cuisine: sukiyaki, sushi, miso soup, mochi, karaage, tenpura, nikujaga, lotus root, burdock, soba etc. etc. etc.
And plus, the Janglish is really charming. "'Silken' tofu coated with sauce is tasty and pleasant on the tongue" ! How can I resist?
I bought this in Japan, and the only complaint is that some of the ingredients are mistranslated or hard to find, like nagaimo (or "stinking snotfruit" as I have heard it called in some circles.)

The Joy of Cooking

It's just shocking hubris of me to think I can review "The Joy of Cooking."
So I won't, too much. I'll just turn to random pages and report:
ah, green tea ice cream...spicy seafood stew, rich butter pastry crust, broiled rabbit, eggnog, longan berries, deep frying, hot chocolate, purslane soup...
This book-- I'm getting choked up-- has changed my life.
I kept checking it out from the library but finally bought my own copy when the grease stains and flour lumps started to irritate the librarians. Now my copy is thoroughly greasy, lumpy, floury, and not even hardly broken in. It's absolutely my first reference (totally launching "Better Homes" right out of the water) for cooking anything. The recipes are practically infallible.
I heart "The Joy of Cooking."
Amen.

Cat Cora's "Cooking From the Hip"

I picked this up in the damp outdoor Borders discount rack for $3.99.
Why so disrespected, Cat? Why are you out in the drizzle when others less worthy are "Bam"-ing and "Y'all"-ing with abandon inside?
This book is beautifully photographed, full of fairly easy but really tasty recipes. My only complaint is that the organization is slightly weird and not very intuitive. For example, desserts are scattered throughout the book, under sort of arbitrary categories such as "Fun" or "Good to Know" or "Phenomenal."
But this is a mouth-watering book to flip through and a welcome addition to my bursting family of cookbooks.

Roy Yamaguchi's "Roy's Feasts From Hawaii"

This book is full of beautiful color pictures of food, of course-- mouth watering dribbles of sauces and splashes of pestos-- caramelized meats and gleaming fruits. But even more enticing than the food are the full page spreads of Hawaiian landscapes: cattle grazing in the Kamuela highlands, waterfalls, oceanscapes. And smiling Hawaiians selling lettuce, plucking basil and netting fish look wholesome, tanned and welcoming. The recipes tend toward the fussy (cut out 35 1/2" rounds of zucchini, squash, and pepper skins to make scales, julienne everything) but are deliciously sophisticated Asian Fusion Pacific Cuisine.
Aloha! E Kaukau kakou!