It was a beautiful weekend – we drove through some leafy country places at one point and the red trees and the golden, mellow autumn light and the farm fields quiet in the fall were all so beautiful that I was speechless with it. But today we woke up and there had been a hard frost and my kids sighed and put on warm hats and mitts and piles of scarves. That’s the way autumn goes – one day it’s so beautiful and red and orange and gold that you could just sob and the very next day it’s FREEZING and the trees are bare and there’s still a month to Halloween.
I’m a bit… oh, melancholy, let’s say. And I hate writing about it, but there it is, this big dark sulking thing between me and my words. I sat down this morning at 6 to write this, started blankly at the screen for a while and then gave up. I kept BURNING things on the weekend – first a whole pot of rice and lentils, for Pete’s sake (who burns RICE AND LENTILS? What a goober.), and then a pot of carrots and then a tray of peanut butter cookies and then my freaking HAND AND ARM. Yeouch.
My husband is REALLY REALLY busy right now, but he took some time off from working this weekend to make his mopey wife delicious cafe lattes with frothed Baileys on top.
He loves our espresso maker. He brought it into work for a week earlier in September and played barrista, but then I missed it, so it had to come home again. And now he uses it to make his sad, sad wife decadent drinks in the evening, placing the warm tall mugs in my hands and ruffling my hair and telling me over and over again that I WILL feel better again soon. He promises.
Being depressed is boring. And READING about someone being depressed is MIND-NUMBING. So instead, I’m going to write about my favorite cookbooks, since writing from them will apparently be safer than actually cooking for the next little while. Here we go!
1) The I Hate To Cook Book by Peg Bracken, with illustrations by Hilary Knight.
I don’t actually hate cooking at all, obviously, and this cookbook is perhaps more cooking than most reluctant cooks would now be willing to attempt, but it’s still HILARIOUS and the recipes are surprisingly relevant for a cookbook that’s nearing its fiftieth anniversary. My favorite recipes from it: Cockeyed Cake, Friday Night Sandwich, Old Faithful – but pretty much everything holds up well.
2) The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham.
Breakfast tends to be a terribly neglected meal, but there’s really no reason for that, as this spiffy cookbook attests. It’s full of egg recipes and muffins and breads and hot cereals and custards and pancakes, all sorts of ideas for starting your day off in an interesting and pleasurable manner. My favorite recipes from it: the whole chapter on pancakes, chocolate custard, orange marmalade cookies and the caramel oatmeal topping, for when the children have been very good.
3) Family Fun Fast Family Dinners
This is a slim cookbook, but every recipe in it is a winner – interesting things to make that your children will actually eat. My favorite recipes from it: Something-For-Everyone Tortellini Salad, butterscotch pudding, Smoky Rice and Beans – but it’s full of good recipes, the sort of things that appeal to the whole family and not just the adults OR the children.
4) Canada’s Best Slow Cooker Recipes by Donna-Marie Pye (this is sold under a different title in the US)
I LOVE my slow cooker, but most slow cooker cookbooks tend to be extremely reliant on canned soups and unsophisticated, hamburger-heavy recipes. This book, however, has an interesting mix of beverages, main dishes, side dishes and desserts, with nary a can of soup in sight. My favorite recipes from it: Tangy Red Cabbage with Apples, Tuscan Chicken Legs, Lentil Curry with Squash and Cashews, Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup.
5) 500 Best Muffin Recipes by Esther Brody
My oldest child grouchily told her grandmother the other day that I never make desserts – "Mom only makes MUFFINS," she said, the poor, poor child. And this is the cookbook I use, a bare-bones, unromantic book with pretty much any muffin that you could ever think of. Muffins for Christmas morning! Muffins with fruit in them for breakfast! Muffins to tuck into lunches, savoury cheese muffins to go with soup for supper, muffins to make when the cupboards are practically bare. Of course, in a cookbook this big there are bound to be some duds – I just skip over the whole chapter on "Microwave Muffins", shuddering – but you’ll never need another collection of muffin recipes again. Also, "muffin" sounds funny. My favorite recipes: Miniature Orange-Dipped Muffins, Applesauce Snackin’ Muffins, Very Ripe Banana Muffins, Apple Wholewheat Muffins, and a lot more.
So. In the comments, let me know a) your favorite cookbook and why (I need ideas for my Christmas list!) OR if you don’t have a favorite cookbook b) Your favorite coffee drink that my husband should make me tonight. I feel better already, just thinking about fancy new coffee and stacks of nice new cookbooks.
I love coffee.But I never use cook books. Some of the ones you describe make me want to hit the library and try some out, though.
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I love the Wonder Foods cookbook from Chatelaine. It’s got a ton of great recipes that are full of “nutritional powerhouses”. My family loves the Swiss Chard-Pork Tenderloin Toss (I use spinach, boneless chops and egg noodles). The cranberry-chocolate cookies are delicious as well. As for the coffee drink, it’s hard to top whipped Baileys! Here’s hoping the blahs get lost soon.
You know I have nothing to offer you. I need to buy all of these books and get to work. My child thinks food comes from the restaurant. Seriously the child has said ‘lets go pick up my favourite pasta’ when asked what she wants for dinner.
Not really on the same scale as ‘my mommy only makes muffins’
Someone asked me one day if I cook and our nanny fell around laughing which cemented my resolve to resume cooking. I was slooooowly developing my small repertoire when Julia came along and cooking fell to the bottom of the priority list. One can only use the excuse that you cannot see properly for so long I suppose.
I’m sorry you had such a rough weekend – and even burned your arm! Hopefully this week is off to a better start!
I’m insanely jealous of your Cuisinart espresso maker. Oh my word, lucky you!
When you said your sweet, understanding husband ruffles your hair, it made me smile. 🙂
You distracted me with *goober* heheheheehehe …
umm favourite cookbook … well, my cousins grew up in rural Saskatchewan and every year, parents submitted their favourite recipes for a cookbook to help raise money. Those recipes NEVER fail and work out just right!
I’m interested now in that slow-cooker cookbook. I have a low tolerance for most slow-cooker meals. I mean, I love SLOW-COOKED MEALS, just not always from a CROCK POT! But those recipes sound delish.
My favorite cookbook?
At the moment I am getting a kick out of “Cooking in the South” with Johnnie Gabriel – who happens to have a bakery about half an hour from my house. I think she’s Paula Deen’s cousin or something. I bought this new, shiny cookbook, stealing money from the grocery budget to do so, because the recipes actually looked like stuff we REALLY do eat down here! All my old favorites in one place, that’s nice. Along with a few extras, to boot, and all with gorgeous pictures.
I also like Gooseberry Patch cookbooks, which do tend to have a good bit of “canned soup” type recipes in them – BUT there are enough truly good, seasonal, family recipes and fun tips in them to make them worth buying. Tried and trues, that’s what they are – nothing fancy. The kids love the drinks and desserts.
And Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook sits on my counter constantly. Can you tell I like southern food?
Favorite nostalgic cookbook: Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book. Oozing nostalgia.
What a good man you have there –
and yum, what a great machine, too! Hope your blues blow away soon, Beck –
Love,
Jen
My old stand-by cookbooks are those published by local church groups. They’re generally hearty, old-fashioned recipes full of classic ingredients (lots of butter!!!) and almost always delicious!
off the top of my head, i love the Moosewood restaurant cookbook – a staple from my university days when i dabbled in vegetarianism – it’s got a great marinara sauce recipe that i still use every week and lots of other yummy veggie stuff. i like the william sonoma Roasting cookbook – easy roasts with accompaniments like yorkshire pudding etc. and i like Madhur Jaffrey’s Tastes of India. per coffee drinks – love a cafe mocha, half coffee, half hot chocolate…
Sorry you’re feeling blue, Beck. We’re nowhere NEAR a frost but having grown up in New England I can definitely relate to the euphoria of the perfect autumn day and the dread of the bareness to come. Amazing how the weather can influence us like that.
Cookbooks: I think my top two are How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and The Silver Palate Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso. Also, I love my Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine subscription. It contains recipes that you would actually MAKE, and 95% of all dishes I’ve cooked from there have been winners, which is saying a lot. 🙂
I like a latte with a bit of vanilla.
But you had me at frothed Bailey’s. Hello.
I’m think something in the atmosphere is bringing the crazy. I’ve been feeling all sorts of pissed for a batch of reasons that usually don’t leave me so down.
Head up young person.
Ooohhh, the coffee sounds lovely but here’s a careful word of advice, even though there is no expiration date on Irish Cream it does go bad. We only buy it in the fall or winter (darnabit, why aren’t liquor stores open at 7 pm?) and I just found a bottle in the fridge last week – from LAST WINTER! Usually I just throw out things like this but then I thought, well, it’s alcohol, full of yummy nutritional long standing ingredients. Wine gets better with age, right? Well, let’s just say after a fricken ounce I was YAKING! No fun at all. But the coffee sounds lovely.
I never use cook books. Some of the ones you describe make me want to hit the library and try some out, though.
Good cookbook suggestions. I use the Southern Living cookbooks (another vote for the Ultimate one), the yearly Taste of Home Quick Cooking, and Saving Dinner the most. Although I get most of my recipes from the Internet now.
My favorite cookbooks are put out by churches and PTA/PTO – I really like seeing some regular persons name on the recipe- and if I really like it I think warm thoughts about her and if it is a real hit- I remember to say a small prayer for her the next time I make it. I know- I’m a little odd- but it is like sharing recipes within a family.
Hey there Beck. Sorry you have the doldrums. I didn’t find reading about it though, quite the contrary in fact, you are amusing either way I guess. I don’t do much cooking from books because usually the instructions are right on the box. Hope you find a smile today.
Miniature Orange-Dipped Muffins!
MUST HAVE RECIPE!
I absolutly LOVE Muffins! They really are just so darn good.
Those drinks Hubby makes sound yummy! One of my favourite drinks around the holidays are egg nog lattes. You can use regular or light egg nog and both work well. I don’t have much of a cookbook collection, but I do reading about yours!
Those drinks Hubby makes sound yummy! One of my favourite drinks around the holidays are egg nog lattes. You can use regular or light egg nog and both work well. I don’t have much of a cookbook collection, but I do reading about yours!
Sorry you’re feeling so crummy. And that it’s so dang cold!
I don’t have a favorite cookbook but my two favorite coffee drinks are Peppermint Mocha’s (which I find especially delicious when it’s cold outside) and chai latte’s. Yum.
I have cupboards and cupboards full of cookbooks, but I always go back to Fanny Farmer when the chips are down. It just has absolutely EVERYTHING and also good advice on what to do with things you’ve never seen or heard of before or oh, by the way, how DO you cook a roast anyway?
As for coffee drinks, it would be hard to top the Baileys drink you were treated to yesterday, but I am very, very fond of mint chocolate mocha with real whipped cream on top. It’s warming and soothing and super, super decadent.
I love Peg bracken and Marion Cunningham, too. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook is my default Big Fat Cookbook.
The only reason I even know about Marion Cunningham’s wonderfulness is that Jeffrey Steingarten writes of her so praisingly and so often. If you have not read his two books, The Man Who Ate Everything and It Must Have Been Something I Ate, you are missing a treat. They aren’t recipe books precisely; they are collections of Steingarten’s food essays. But almost every essay includes at least one recipe. And holy SMOKES, is that man funny– on several occasions I have read him aloud to my husband on car trips and narrowly missed accidents because we were both blinded and howling with laughter. I particularly recommend the essay on perfect pizza from It Must have Been Something I Ate. I’m giggling just thinking about it.
I’m a big fan of the Molly Katzen recipes, and actually bought a VEGETARIAN cookbook because I love her so much – The Enchanted Broccoli Forest.
Other than than, I stick to my new Good Food for Families Cookbook, and my standbys – the Best of Bridge.
Oh! And as far as I’m concerned, there is no drink better than a Moccachino. Cofee AND chocolate. Yeah, man.
You know what is comforting? Reading that sometimes your burn your efforts too. You know what else? Hearing that other people get depressed for no (or little) reason. Very comforting, indeed.
I seem to be waffling in and out of a melancoly funk myself these days. I wish I would just pick a mood and stick with it already. 😉
I have “The Appendix to the I Hate To Cook Book.” I’ve never actually made anything out of it, but I re-read it occasionally just because it’s funny. I even quote out of it.
My favorite cookbooks to cook out of are
The Taste of Home, Best of The First Ten Years (Cheeseburger Soup, Spicy Beef Salad)
and the original Moosewood Cookbook (Italian Spaghetti Sauce, Broccoli-Mushroom-Noodle Casserole)
I can’t give you any ideas about fancy coffee, because, try as I might, I can’t get down more than three sips of any kind of coffee. So MY recommendation would be a really rich, dark, hot chocolate with whipped cream! 🙂
Oh I am freakin’ JEALOUS of your coffee machine and your espresso with whipped Baileys! I don’t think I can top that, honestly.
I’m sorry you’re so down, Beck! I hope things brighten for you soon.
I love the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Southern Living Ultimate is also a favorite that I don’t seem to be able to go wrong with. Hope you’re feeling happier soon.
My good ol’ Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook probably gets the most use…I tend to be one of those who takes recipes from magazines and such and has created my own favorite cookbook.
I agree with Kyla that any coffee with some chocolate in it makes it perfect. I don’t know what exactly espresso makers can make but my favorite gourmet drink is a mocha. Or something with white chocolate in it. Yummy! 🙂
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It’s NOT mind-numbing to read about other people being depressed because it shows that ne isn’t alone. Though I tend to get a bit more cheerful in autumn, I know, I’m weird. I think my favorite cookbook is Leanne Ely’s “Saving Dinner” there are quite a few good things in there. My favorite book about muffins is “Mad About Muffins”. And then there’s a gorgeous book about Italian food, and my husband’s trusty Vegetarian Cookbook but those are both German so you wouldn’t want those.
My favorite cookbook is “Good Cheap Food” by Miriam Ungerer. My mother gave me her copy when I moved into my first apartment, and it taught me to cook. It was also a revelation; I had not known that cookbooks could be well-written. I don’t know if the recipes are really all that cheap anymore – a lot of the cheapness depends on unfashionable cuts of meat that may not be unfashionable anymore, or may not be available. But the prose still soothes like comfort food.
And my favorite fancy coffee drink is the Peppermint Bliss from a local coffeehouse, which has dark cocoa and ground up peppermints in it. Yum.
I also bake muffins all the time. My kids were getting sick of them and then – – ta da – – I bought a muffin top pan! Now they are into muffins again because muffin tops feel like a different animal, don’t you know.
I need to get that breakfast book on my Christmas list. Breakfast is my arch nemesis where the middle child is concerned. And the youngest seems to be following in her big sister’s footsteps.
You know which cookbooks I use all the time? The three that the Podleski sisters wrote. My kids love the sticky bbq chicken thighs in the Looneyspoons book. We eat the whole wheat, thin crust pizza dough regularly too.
My favourite decadent dessert book is Baking by Dorie Greenspan. It has lots of recipes that i can’t make because I don’t have a stand mixer, but you do! It would be right up your alley, you know, if you actually made dessert. 😉
You beat me to it with Peg Bracken, although you really do need to get The Compleat I Hate to Cook Book, which is a compilation of several of her books. That is my absolute favorite, but I also love:
Guerrilla Cooking by Mel Walsh
Wisconsin Country Cookbook by Edward Harris Heth
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, by Marion Cunningham.
I love the Tuscan Chicken legs as well and the Rosemary Stew with dumplings (minus the dumplings for us) is served at least twice a month in the colder seasons. I also love her unstuffed cabbage rolls (served with lots of Frank’s Chili Lime Hot Sauce) tho I do think she uses tomato soup in that one.
That is one kitchen appliance I would use! I have no cookbook suggestions and I am pretty boring in the coffee department. Out of all the fancy combinations there are, I just like a bit of chocolate mixed into mine.