Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Christmas 2007 included some great visits with family, lots of time to relax, and some new cookbooks!

[cover images borrowed from amazon.com]

1. The Everything Meals for a Month Cookbook by Linda Larsen

This was a Christmas gift from Jason! As a working woman, the concept of 'freezer cooking' appeals to me. Basically this means you prepare meals in advance and freeze them, whether putting together a complete meal that can go straight into the oven (like a casserole) or just doing some of the steps in advance, like preparing a sauce, to save time later. For awhile I had been doing that through Dream Dinners, but Jason and I found that the portions were too large and some of the meals unappealing to us, which meant that it wasn't cost-effective. I was interested in this cookbook in hopes that I could create the "dream dinners" solution at home. So far I have tried two recipes, but cooked both right away (I figured I'd better see if I like it "fresh" before I try it out of the freezer later!). The beef and bean enchiladas were a bust, but the garlic roast beef sandwiches were fantastic, though I don't think that's a recipe I would choose to freeze. I plan on trying a third recipe for dinner tonight. So far, my complaint with the book is that it seems that most recipes involve cooking the meal completely, and THEN freezing portions. To me, that is more like saving leftovers than using the freezer to help you save time later. With Dream Dinners, you didn't cook anything... you just prepared it and then froze it. So I think this may end up being used as more of a 'regular' cookbook than a freezer cookbook.

2. The Big Book of Easy Suppers by Maryana Vollstedt

This book was a gift from Jason's Grandma and Grandpa Harley! This was another book I requested for Christmas. :-) I had gotten this cookbook from our local library a few times, and after about the third time I checked it out I figured I might as well own a copy. My pet peeve with this book is that there are NO PHOTOS of any of the food. I do like to see what a meal is 'supposed to' look like. But the absence of photos means more pages for recipes, and there are a LOT of recipes in this book. They seem easy and delicious. I hope to post some more entries in the future about individual recipes from this book.

3. Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur

This book was a gift from my mom! I had never seen this book before but I love it! The recipes let you recreate popular dishes from restaurants at home. For instance, there is a recipe for the Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad from TGI Friday's. I've eaten the dish at Friday's and loved it, so I'm excited to try to make it soon!

4. Glorious One-Pot Meals by Elizabeth Yarnell

This cookbook was a gift to myself, to accompany the Le Creuset Dutch Oven I got as a gift from my dad. To explain what a 'glorious one-pot meal' is, I'll use this description from the technique's website:

The Glorious One-Pot Meal method cooks an entire meal of meat, grains, and vegetables from start to finish, all in the same pot. An enamel-coated Dutch oven provides optimum infusion cooking for all kinds of ingredients. This technique enables a busy cook to throw together a healthy meal in fewer than twenty minutes with only one pot to clean. Unlike other "one-dish meal" methods -- such as crockpot stewing or casserole baking -- which merge elements and meld flavors, ingredients prepared using the Glorious One-Pot Meal method retain their shape and integrity. In a Glorious One-Pot Meal, fish flakes like fish, pasta remains pasta-shaped, and even delicate tomato slices emerge intact for serving. Foods become infused with flavors and emerge moist, tender, and perfectly cooked.

I am really excited to try this method of cooking. I'll keep you posted on how it works! Jason's excited about it just so he can keep talking about cooking in the "dutch oven." If you don't get why that's funny, all I'll tell you is it's a fart joke. But it actually is a legitimate cooking vessel, and this is what it looks like:

I also recently received a few vintage cookbooks from my Grandma Cotterman. She knows I love to collect cookbooks and is always picking them up for me at rummage sales.

Thanks to everyone for the fantastic cookbooks!!