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manyhats

Tue, Nov 22 2011, 10:11 pm

Simplicity is what excites me now. No long lists of ingredients.

Fresh food, seasoned with salt and pepper ,drizzled with olive oil.

Sauteed in onion and garlic . Pan fried or baked at 350.

Think : potatoes , salads , steak , most vegetables , etc etc.

Could you cope without your cookbook?

Would you want to?

Bracha

smile85

Tue, Nov 22 2011, 10:54 pm

Well - it depends on whether your question is whether you could cope without a cookbook or recipes.

My mom has a friend who has never bought a cookbook, she gets recipes from her friends - word of mouth.

As for me, when I got married earlier this year, I bought myself two cookbooks. Everything else is improvised or found online.

I could cope without a cookbook, but without recipes I think gets tough sometimes.

Especially because Baking is a science and requires precise measurements.

Dolly Welsh

Tue, Nov 22 2011, 11:13 pm

Oh sure. (Hold the salt. Get pungency from lemon, garlic powder, black pepper, cumin, good quality vinegar, onions, peppers, stuff like that.)

For baking, yes, a recipe is handy and needs to be followed fairly exactly. Other stuff, not always needed.

zaq

Tue, Nov 22 2011, 11:47 pm

I hardly ever look at a cookbook except as entertainment, but I am an inveterate recipe collector. I am also (in)famous for periodic "deaccessioning campaigns" in which I pitch into the nearest recycle bin all the recipes I collected from magazines, library books and online, with the purest of motives and highest of hopes, but never tried.

Like many cooks, I have a repertoire of things I can make with my eyes closed, plus things I can improvise, and that forms the bulk of my cooking. So, sure, if all the world's cookbooks went up in flames, we would not be reduced to eating raw fruit and veggies. I could even make challah since I pretty much know the recipe for that by heart. Baked goods, though--we'd be out of luck.

Or not--Fearless Fred, my ds, has no problem inventing recipes, and if at times they're not quite successful, well, no skin off his nose. Sometimes they are successful, and anyway, for some people, even a bad cookie is better than no cookie.

there is a certain security, though, in possessing a recipe collection. You always need backup. You never know, one day your 14-inch cast-iron skillet could fall off the shelf onto your head (CH"V), effectively erasing from your memory banks your entire cooking repertoire. Or your dil, believing you to be the proverbial woman who has everything, could enroll you in the "exotic vegetable of the month" club, and you could, each month, have to figure out what to do with bizarre life forms that resemble nothing you've ever met--or et--before. A cookbook would come in handy.

Dolly Welsh

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 12:01 am

Funny Zaq. Life forms. Yeah, we have some of those.

spring13

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 12:45 am

I like to bake, so I'd need a supply of muffin/bread/cookie recipes, but I improvise most of my chicken/veg/sides/etc., so I'm with you in general. my MIL, on the other hand, measures out even her cholent ingredients very precisely according to a recipe, so she and anyone staying in her home would probably starve, or have to live off of takeout.

I just made muffins from a Moosewood "building block" recipe, and I have one for "whatever-chip/nut/fruit" cookie dough as well. in the absence of a proper book, I could probably get by with a few of those.

Can I keep my Harry Potter and Little House cookbooks, for entertainment value?

ChossidMom

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 2:28 am

Whoever is sick of your cookbooks - please send them all to me Twisted Evil

I love cookbooks!!!!!
Ok, to be fair, I really like using simple recipes. Can't do fancy. But I LOVE COOKBOOKS!!

RachelEve14

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 4:43 am

ChossidMom wrote:

Whoever is sick of your cookbooks - please send them all to me Twisted Evil

I love cookbooks!!!!!
Ok, to be fair, I really like using simple recipes. Can't do fancy. But I LOVE COOKBOOKS!!

Me too! I rarely make anything fancy (okay, I can't remember the last time I did), but I LOVE COOKBOOKS. Love browsing them, reading them, getting ideas from them.

manyhats

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 9:38 am

Spring13 , Dolly Welsh,and smiles85,
I agree; exact recipes are required for baking cakes and the like.

Zaq,
"pitch into recycling bin" YIKES! It might be very valuable.

Chossid Mom and Rachel Eve,
No way! Phases come and go. Also what would I put in the kitchen bookcases .

Thanks for your input.

Bracha

runninglate

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 8:41 pm

hey, manyhats! Welcome back!

Mimisinger

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 8:46 pm

I love cookbooks. I really love imamother and recipes from allrecipes.com or people I know (those are the best)

I love reading cookbooks with pretty pictures. I like trying out new things, but tend to stick with the oldies but goodies and then add a new one with the rest.

zaq

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 9:57 pm

manyhats wrote:

Zaq,
"pitch into recycling bin" YIKES! It might be very valuable.

"I don't think that I can take it,
'Cause it took so long to make it
And I'll never find that recipe again..."?

manyhats

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 10:15 pm

Runninglate, slow down and smell the aroma. Thanks for welcome.

Mimmisinger, You're probably the "Go To" person for recipes

Zaq, Mary Tyler Moore?

Bracha

zaq

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 10:36 pm

manyhats wrote:

Zaq, Mary Tyler Moore?

MacArthur Park. (aka I Left my Cake Out in the Rain)
MTM was "love is all around, no need to fake it,
You can have the town, why don't you take it?
You're gonna make it after all..."

amazing how much useless information the human brain is capable of retaining. meantime I can't recall my cell phone number, father's yahrzeit, or nieces' kids' names. sigh.

manyhats

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 10:38 pm

Zak, One amazing gal! Are you at all like Rhoda?

Della

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 10:42 pm

Gotta love Donna Summer...

chocolate chips

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 10:43 pm

I love my cookbooks and new recipes but I hav plenty that I make without recipes.
tonight I made something I made up last week.
sauteed rings of onions with slices of zuchinni and then I added to chicken cutlets fried till white then poured salt and ducksauce over and left for 15 mins.
served with rce
its delicious!

zaq

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 10:52 pm

manyhats wrote:

Zak, One amazing gal! Are you at all like Rhoda?

Aside from the self-deprecating humor and the weight problem, you mean? (ha. I wish I had a "weight problem" like Valerie Harper!) I'm not from the Bronx and don't have a tall, skinny shiksa best friend or a stereotype guilt-tripping mother, so....probably not. But I confess to having liked Rhoda more than MTM. MTM was so Wonder bread to Rhoda's Jewish wry.

zaq

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 10:54 pm

Now that I think of it, it was "love is around, no need to **waste** it"--though that doesn't actually rhyme with "take it."

manyhats

Wed, Nov 23 2011, 11:20 pm

Monsey Mom,
I'm not knowledgeable @ Donna Summers

Chocolate Chips,
You use what you have to make good meals.

Zaq,
Rhoda, rye bread with seeds?

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