bookcooker

Apple Pancakes and Big Little Lies

Sunday, February 28, 2016

I read Lianne Moriarty's fun Big Little Lies a few months ago, but with a busy weekend and not enough time to tackle some of the more ambitious projects I had planned (Neapolitan pizza or cream puffs coming soon!), some easy apple pancakes were the perfect choice this weekend. I have read a few Moriarty books and she creates a really engaging "Real Housewives of Sydney" type of world, but with more depth and less trashiness (and plastic surgery). In Big Little Lies, Moriarty creates both characters and a story that are funny and slapstick one moment, and dark and sad the next. This juxtaposition makes the book a little more than the typical light read. As the title suggests, the book has some secrets that are eventually revealed, so I will be careful and keep the review short and sweet. The pancakes are inspired by the hunky neighborhood coffee shop guy, who always seems to be trotting out some delectable special pancakes when one of the books main characters, Jane, is sulkily hanging around. These were an improvisation, so hopefully the recipe will work for you.

Sunday, January 31, 2016

It pains me to say it, but a big part of why I did not blog for so long is the result of my inability to get through Jonathan Franzen's purity. I am a big Franzen fan and was really excited when his new book came out this summer, since he takes his sweet ol time writing each masterpiece. But Purity, in my opinion, despite the great reviews, was just painful for me to get through. Usually, when I am having trouble getting through a book I just put it aside and give up. So many books in the world, why waste time on one that just isn't doing it for me? But with a Franzen book I felt like I had to stick it out, I had to see if it turned around. While it got a little better, enough that I could finish it, it took me several months to finish the book - this is NOT normal for me, I am through a book typically in a couple of weeks for a long one. This one drained the joy of reading out me, that sounds deciceddramatic, but it just honestly turned me off reading for a bit. That said, it did inspire this bright, pretty little cheesecake pictured above, so it wasn't all bad, right?

Sunday, January 24, 2016

I have been gone a long, long time. Sorry for that. Is it a particularly inspiring book that has brought me back? Not really. A fantastic recipe I have been dying to make for a while? Nope. I am not sure what it is, but the spark of inspiration to come back to bookcooker started earlier this week with the possibility of a massive snow storm. What would I do stuck inside? I would surely have work to do, but that's no fun. My closets are starting to resemble a hoarders, I could tackle those - no thank you! Curling up with my laptop and a slightly complicated recipe sounded like just the thing. So the idea was hatched, I just finished Sarah Waters "The Paying Guests" which is a novel that, while I liked OK, managed to be both overly dramatic and a little boring. The books takes place in the outskirts of London after World War I and follows a protagonist, Frances, that used to be well off and upper class and is now poor and upper class, which forces her to maintain her family's big fancy house herself. As part of her daily tasks she must make the sturdy British meals that are also featured on Downtown Abbey - pigeons, pies and stews. There is one pie in particular (or rather an unfinished one) that takes place at a particularly momentous moment in the book, and this inspired me to google british pies. The first recipe to pop up was this Pork and Apple Pie from, in my humble opinion, a treasure of British reality TV - Paul Hollywood. For those of you that don't know him, he is one of the judges on the best cooking competition show ever in human existence - The Great British Baking Show. This show is great because there is no soap opera drama, the contestants are real every day Britons, but they are also in possession of incredibly impressive baking skills. It is also fun because they make strange British desserts. Anyway, highly recommend you check it out. When I saw the Paul Hollywood recipe I was sold and determined to make a bookcooker comeback. Of course in Boston the snow storm did not come (sorry DC and NY, good luck!), but my inspiration held out.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

I have obviously been away from bookcooker for a while. I was working, on vacation, distracted, uninspired, dieting, and more working. What brought me back is not the food, but the books. I had been off reading for a while and when I got my reading mojo back, I starting thinking about the blog again. So I am back, and hopefully I can keep this up at some regular pace, because I missed it! First up are these adorable strawberry rhubarb tarts, inspired by the Orphan Train, a great soap opera of a book that is perfect for summer reading.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Hello friends, I have been absent for some time again. Rather than drumming up some excuses, let's just jump right into it, k? In the midst of a neverending, gray and snowy winter, sometimes we need a little reminder of sunnier climes and warmer times. That's what these two recipes from The Lee Brothers Simple Fresh Southern are. Ironically, I actually made them before snowmaggedon hit Boston, but have not posted them until now (FYI, it is snowing right now outside my window!) The Lee Brothers are my idols. They went to my alma mater and have put out a great series of Southern cookbooks, showcasing the food of the South and of their fabulous hometown, and one of my favorites, Charleston. As is my practice, I have all of their cookbooks, today I will tell you a bit about their second book, and more casual than their first book, an opus of Southern Cooking - Simple Fresh Southern. The book has lots of modern, accessible recipes inspired by the South. I would describe the book as "sunny" - it makes you feel upbeat and provides delicious but not overwrought dishes. Special enough for company but easy enough to make most nights.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

With January comes diets, cleanses, resolutions to be better to our bodies by eating less and working out more. The gyms are crazed, spin and yoga studies fully booked and sales of quinoa and Kale on the rise. I fall prey to the January resolution every year without fail. This year I have recommitted to my fitbit, on nights I have not hit my step goal you will find me feverishly dancing around the house to rack up the steps. I also bought a juicer, which now may crowd out my coffee pot on the counter, at least until the end of the month. And here are these eggplant "meatballs" and avocado chocolate "mousse" from Mark Bittman's VB^ ("Vegan Before Six") cookbook. Bittman, the long time NY Times food writer is an evangelist for healthy and environmentally responsible eating. He always makes me feel guilty about what I am doing to my body and the planet. I bought this book back in July, but these are the first two recipes I have made out of them. As with most Bittman recipes, they worked well - just as he described, and were easy. They did not wow me, but is it possible to be wowed by eggplant meatballs? The avocado mousse grew on me. At first bite I tasted too much avocado and not enough chocolate, but two bites in I liked that balance. A real treat, not that healthy since it does have sugar and fat, but something you can feel a good bit better about when you need your chocolate fix.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Well hello there! Long time no see! Happy New Year! I am happy to be back with you and back to bookcooker. I apologize for my long absence - no good excuse really - lack of inspiration, lack of time, too much work, life etc...The important thing is I am back, ready to start 2015 with a bang and a blog post! I resolve to blog more this year, this will be helped by an awesome new camera I was lucky to get as an Xmas gift that has inspired me to get back at it! Starting the year with a visit with Ina Garten. Now as I posted previously, I clearly have a cookbook problem with 200+ cookbooks in my home. A good little chunk of this problem is with Ina Garten books. I have every single on her books, which I think is 9 now? There is just something about Ina - her personality, her style, her food and her adorable husband Jeffrey that I find irresistible. I have cooked out of all 9 of these cookbooks, and you know what? Not one recipe has failed. Not one recipe has been too complicated. And not one recipe has been "meh." I will admit her recipes, after 9 books, can seem a bit formulaic - but it clearly a formula that works, so who am I to question? For this post I am starting with Ina's newest book - Make it Ahead. One thing I have noticed in that some of Ina's later cookbooks there is a bit of repetition and some of the recipes seem a tad uninspired. But even in these books there is loads of great recipes to make, all a combination of accessible and special. The theme of this Make it Ahead book is obviously recipes you can make ahead of time. I am not sure how well this theme really drives the book - but like I said, there are loads of great recipes in there. I made all of them before I ate them ; ), but not anymore than 1 day before I ate them - so not that "make ahead." The three recipes I made are a good example of the end of December to beginning of January trajectory many of us are on: a festive mocha cake (end of December) to a quinoa tabbouleh (beginning of January) with a homemade ricotta somewhere in the middle of a celebration excess and cleanse diet mentality. All were easy, all were delicious, with perhaps the homemade ricotta as a standout - such minimal effort, such incredible reward!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

These muffins, from the "Baked: New Frontiers in Baking" book are a great example of a minimal effort, maximum reward recipe. You can throw them together in 20 minutes and they take another 20 minutes or so to bake, and yet they are definitely something a little special. What clearly makes them unique and more sophisticated than the average muffin is the addition of the instant espresso powder. Pairing chocolate with coffee is obvious, but coffee and banana made me question this recipe briefly - but the coffee adds a nice depth to muffin, making it not too sweet. This recipe is from the original Baked book from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, owner of the Brooklyn bakery of the same name. When it came out a few years ago it seemed like the perfect Brooklyn hipster cookbook - baked goods styled with little plastic dears and such. It is the real deal though, the recipes are both recipes you really want to make and recipes that work really well. The most famous recipe from the book is the "baked brownie", which I have made many times and it is my go to brownie recipe. The brownies turn out glossy, rich, with the right balance between fudge-like consistency and depth of chocolate flavor. There are other gems in here that you should give a try in addition to these amazing, easy muffins (maple walnut scones, chocolate pie, brewers blondies, classic sugar coookies) and many more I want to make (green tea cupcakes, malted milk cake, sweet and salty cake, icebox towers., pumpkin whoopie pies..)

Sunday, October 19, 2014

I couldn't resist making a second recipe from The Beekman Heirloom cookbook and this one pairs particularly well with the Pumpkin Cheese Bread. Here is a simple, hearty beef chili with the fall addition of fresh pumpkin. Any squash will do. I usually wing it when I make chili, rarely following a recipe and I usually use ground meat. This version uses stew beef and cooks slowly in the oven. It came out really tender and with a nice balance of spices. This has virtually no heat, however, so if you are looking for some heat, I would suggest adding some cayenne or a jalapeno. Rather than Texas Chili, I would call this the perfect New England chili and a great recipe as the days finally get a little cooler. With such great experience with these two recipes, I definitely consider The Beekman cookbook a "keeper" and will try to come back to it on a regular basis.

Monday, October 13, 2014

As you may have noticed, my blogging has gotten pathetically sporadic for the last year or so. I am not sure what has caused the malaise, but there is no doubt I have been uninspired. I have been reading plenty, but just have not been as inspired to make recipes from the books - sometimes it feels forced, and often the things I make for a book are not inspired by the seasons, which is how I usually like to cook. So I have been thinking a lot lately about how to jump start my creative juices so that I am excited and inspired by the blog again. I don't want to give up on the original bookcooker idea of reviewing books and making recipes inspired by those books, but I am going to focus on something else for a little while - the cookbook problem. Well, more specifically, my cookbook problem. As people who know me can attest to, I am a bit of a shopaholic, mostly clothing and shoes (and OK, bags too) but also books and really the worst of it is the cookbooks. I see a new cookbook and just get so excited that this one will have the perfect recipe, the one that will change my life! I don't spend too much time flipping through at the bookstore (or the Amazon page nowadays), I just flip flip a couple of pages and zip zip my credit card. Now that most cookbooks have Kindle additions, the cookbook addiction has become serious, and my love of cookbooks have become a problem. I have SO MANY. And even worse, I NEVER COOK OUT OF THEM. That isn't true for all of them (I always cook out of Barefoot Contessa books and my Martha Stewart Baking Handbook has many batter splattered pages), but for the most part, I buy em, flip through, then up on the shelf (or onto the kindle) they go... and stay. So, reflecting on the overwhelming number of cookbooks I seem to have and never use, I decided to start by counting them. So I have 176 cookbooks. Is this a lot? It sure feels like a lot for someone who is not in the business of cooking for a living. Add to that that I don't really use these cookbooks that much (I get so many recipes from the web), I realized I had a problem. A consumption problem - the thrill of the purchase without any of the follow through needed to really enjoy and learn from all these beautiful cookbooks. So, for the next little while on this blog I am going to attempt to work my way through all of the cookbooks, making at least one recipe from each.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

I know I am very late for a September recipe, but this was a complicated one that took me a while to find time to make. I made it for a family holiday dinner, so it also became somewhat hard to photograph well. This is the best shot I had, pretty bad compared to my usuals, but this shot certainly captures the drama of the dessert. It covers the September cover of Southern Living and one part of the cake that did not make it into this photo was the apple cider glaze. I poured this on at the end an it unfortunately was the straw that made the cake start to collapse a little, like the leaning tower of Pisa. While this cake is not simple, it did come together easier than I thought it would and was a really tasty and special way to celebrate fall apples. If you are need of a pit of a project and a bit of a dessert stunner, this one's for you.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Dave Eggers' The Circle was probably my favorite book of the summer. The novel is set some time in the future - but not too far in the future, maybe a couple of years - where an internet company called the Circle is getting up to some pretty scary shenanigans. We learn about what the Circle is up to through Mae Holland, a somewhat directionless 20-something who gets an entry level job at the company through her much more successful friend Annie, who is a rising star at the Circle which is based in Northern California. The company as Eggers portrays it is like a lot of the companies that are part of our every day lives - Google, Facebook, Apple. It has a beautiful and playful campus in Northern California, lots of employee perks (unlimited food! visits by Bono!), a mythical creation story, an eccentric founder who wears hoodies and a ever increasing lack of respect for its customers personal privacy. We go along for the ride as Mae starts out awkwardly at the company, with a critical eye to some of its more cult like practices, and then rises in the ranks and becomes a true believer, enabling the company in fact to take more and more steps in the wrong direction. I found the novel addictive and a totally realistic prediction of how things could turn out for us if we keep going the way we are going. This veggie burrito was inspired by one of the healthy offerings in one of the many Circle cafeterias. I apologize for the lack of folding, but a picture of a rolled burrito is not very interesting is? More about the book and these simple burritos below.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

While I enjoyed it, Sisterland is my least favorite of Curtis Sittenfeld's books. Her first book "Prep" was an engrossing memoir-like novel about the adolescent experience and "American Wife" was the witty, bold novelization of Laura Bush's story. With Sisterland, Sittenfeld brings us Daisy and Violent Tucker - adolescent twins of distant parents in a St. Louis suburb. Daisy (who later changes her name to Kate) is the steady boring twin while Vi is irreverent, overweight, and slightly out of control. The novel is told from Kate's perspective as a young adult, married with two young children, with plenty of time revisiting the girls youth and adolescence which fundamentally shaped their adult identities. The problem I had with the novel is that Sittenfeld chose to focus on the more sedate, less interesting sister. This resulted in book with some real lulls, especially in the middle. That said, Sittenfeld certainly brought the drama at the end, bringing some life and oomph to the book in the final pages. This simple veggie a lo mein, while seemingly boring like Kate, is a great weeknight staple with a lot of flavor, and it is a dish Kate eats on the night she decides to let herself lose a little control.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

I am little bit late for the July Cover Recipe post, but better late then never! I clearly have a thing for berries an ice cream, because this month I again turned to these fabulous summer ingredients to make chocolate raspberry ice cream sandwiches from the July issue of Food Network Magazine. Not my favorite food magazine - I'll admit it, I am a snob about the Food Network. In spite of this, the ice cream sandwiches are perfect for July and I fancied them a little bit by making my own ganache. The magazine recipe doesn't specifiy ingredients for these and the only homemade piece is the cookies. But that is what is great about these - make these cookies and a million different variations are at your finger tips. Want to make your own ice cream, go for it! Want to make homemade toppings, go for it! Want to combine weird flavors like mint chocolate chip and strawberries - the world is your oyster, do what makes you happy! I went with the cover recipe of the chocolate cookie, fudge sauce, berry ice cream and fresh raspberries. An elegant seasonal choice for July. These cookies are really keepers - they came together easily, taste delicious and froze beautifully. Summer is still here, have fun!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Kate Atkinson's Life After Life was made for this blog. Never before have I been so spoiled for choices for what to make for bookcooker. The novel is set in England, from about 1910 to after WWII and includes countless references to very British sounding dishes - roly poly, rose madder, windsor brown, lump cookies, milk fadge, cabinet pudding, picallili, bakewell tart, iced fancy. The list could go on. In addition, there is a brief detour in Germany - Pfannkuchen, Schokolade, Palatschniken, Schawrtzwalder kirschtorte. How could I possibly decide what to make? I landed on Egyptian pudding, which I think was the first reference in the book to a fabulous English dessert. It was Mrs. Glover, the housekeeper to the Todd family makes after the birth of the book's protagonist - Ursula Todd. The shear volume of interesting British dishes is a result of the novel's unique narrative device - throughout the book Ursula Todd is born, dies and then born again - each time making it a little farther into her life. Atkinson starts over and over again, starting the story from the same place - Ursula's birth, and each time some disaester befalls her. I thought this might bore me (the same stuff over and over again), but it really is a fascinating story every time - a little different every time. The effect of this unique narrative device was truly dazzling, and the Egyptian Pudding rocked too.

Friday, June 27, 2014

I am hoping to start a new feature here on bookcooker, partly as an attempt to get out of my blogging rut! Every month I will make a cover recipe from some food magazine - first up the cover of Martha Stewart Livings June issue - a very simple berry float. It feels a bit like cheating to make this, it is nothing much more than berries, vanilla ice cream and soda thrown together - but it has been impact, both visually and in taste. It is a great easy treat to throw together when you are in the mood for something special and the color scheme obviously works perfect for July 4th or for chearing on Team USA in the World Cup! Yum!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an amazing book that is many different things in one package - a coming of age story, an immigrant story, a commentary on race and at its vibrant, beating heart - a love story. As you may be able to tell from my description, I absolutely loved it. It was both thought provoking and emotionally satisfying on multiple levels. The book tells the story of Ifemelu, a Nigerian woman who moves to the United States and then decides to return home to Nigeria. The story starts in Princeton, where Ifemelu is doing a fellowship. When we first meet her she has already decided that she is going to move back to Lagos, leaving her American boyfriend behind. Before she leaves she needs to get her hair braided, and the only place for her to do that is an African hair salon in Newark - as she sits in the salon chair (with an uneasy relationship with the woman braiding her hair) for the long braiding process, Ifemelu thinks back on everything that has led up to this moment. Adichie moves back and forth in time for most of the novel, moving back in time and returning every so often to this salon chair. The hair braiding process and Ifemelu's choice of what to do with her hair (chemically straighten in, chop it all off, braid it) serves throughout as a touch point for her identify both in Nigeria and as an African woman in America. Ifemelu (and Adichie) is a sharp, keen eyed observer of the world around her, particularly as an "outsider" in America. Her experiences and commentary are both funny and painfully on point. I could have read 300 more pages of her story.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Any book that gives you an excuse to make frozen custard, must be good, right? Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures is mostly set in glamorous (and not so glamorous) Hollywood, but at its heart and start it is a story about a girl from Door County, Wisconsin - where frozen custard is a summertime staple. The novel tells the story of the improbable rise to stardom of Elsa Emerson, a young girl from Wisconsin. Elsa has the theater in her blood - her parents run a summer theater in rural Wisconsin. But it is a family tragedy that propels her determination to escape Wisconsin and make it in Hollywood - her drive to succeed is not just for herself, but for her family. Elsa spends her first years in Hollywood as a young wife and mother, never really making it in the Hollywood studio system. She finally makes it when she meets a man who convinces her to shed "Elsa" and transform into Laura, the glamorous Hollywood starlet. The book spans 40+ years of Elsa/Laura's life and career, and the ups and down that come with it.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Until this one, I have never had a mint julep I enjoyed. That doesn't make sense, since I really love bourbon, but I have not had a tasty mint julep. As often happens with cocktails, a bad experience once can sometimes put you off a certain drink or type of liquor forever (or at least for a while). I recall a very bad mint julep my senior year in college, made by a friend from Kentucky (no offense, P!) - a medicine tasting drink that made me shiver a bit after I took a sip. To some extent, that was all it took for me to pretty much swear off juleps for a while. I have partaken a bit in recent years, since bourbon has been so in vogue, juleps turn up on a lot of menus. What I have found is that the crushed ice that is part of the drink is overdone a bit, and so I feel like I am drinking a bourbon snow cone. A purist will not like this blackberry mint julep, but it is far and away the best julep I have ever had. I really like the technique too - pureeing the fruit and mint together then straining to a syrup. This is something I will play with with other fruit and herb combinations - as summer approaches the possibilities are endless. While I am a late for an derby day party you may have thrown, this drink is a keeper for the spring no matter what the occasion.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

I recently read Anna Quindlen's "Still Life with Breadcrumbs" as part of a new book club organized by one of my old camp friends. This is not a book that was on my list or that I was even aware of, but I really liked it a lot. It is rare these days that a book (or a movie or tv show...) is about a woman over 50, Still Life with Breadcrumbs is a nice break from the norm. The book is about Rebecca Winter a famous photographer who has fallen on hard times, is struggling to make ends meet, and hasn't taken many photographs lately. In an effort to save some money (and perhaps find some inspiration) she escapes her Manhattan apartment to a modest cottage in upstate New York. It is in this small town (after a few days alone in the cottage with a raccoon, questioning her sanity and her decisions) that she walks into Tea for Two cafe and orders the first of many scones from the proprietor, the chatty Sarah. While she spends a year in the small town, she consumes many of these scones, finds her artistic voice again and finds love. Along the way it is an insightful, funny and moving read.

Welcome!

Grab a Button

Follow by Email

Search This Blog

Share

Recipe Index

Archive

Followers