Dinner
A few weeks ago I started cooking. No idea why. Just decided to start cooking. For Christmas, my wife and I received a fantastic cookbook called the New Best Recipe Cookbook. It is produced by Cooks Illustrated.
I started thumbing through this tome (it weighs in at nearly 1000 pages) and found the writing so compelling that I had to start testing some of the recipes.
Now, I realize that I probably sound like a full-on geek when I describe the writing in a cookbook as compelling. But the truth is that it is. The reason is because you are not just presented with recipes. You are also presented with the background behind how the editors developed the recipes as they did. a typical entry usually starts off with a couple of words about the origin of a particular recipe, then it delves into the nuts of bolts of what the editors tried, what succeeded and failed, and why. It’s presented in such a readable way that it makes you think, “Gee, maybe I can cook.”
Which is exactly what I’m doing.
So, for the last few weekends, I have made (in no particular order), a brined roast chicken, a pasta in a slow-simmered tomato and meat sauce (using pork ribs–oh my, how yummy was that!), from-scratch brownies, lemon bars, bleu cheese dressing, and last night I got bold, rolled out some made made pasta, cut it into fettuccine strips, and made an alfredo sauce. Then I broiled some chicken and threw it on top.
The chicken ended up way too dry to be tasteful, but the rest of it was not too shabby.
Go. Buy this book. Cook. Eat. Enjoy.
