Cookbooks
Mostly I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants cook. I learned to cook by hanging out in the kitchen when my mother and grandmother and great-aunt were cooking when I was little, and later by doing as they told me to do. As I got older, I started dipping into cookbooks around the house and making things, practicing until I was good enough at what I was doing to start improvising. There are a number of things I make very well, and I have a way with certain ingredients.
I read a few food blogs and I have accumulated a number of very good cookbooks, many of which I haven't used, preferring instead to stick to a few favorites. One food blog I really love is Mark Bittman's "Bitten", which appears in the New York Times. Mr. Bittman also has a few cookbooks, one of which is How to Cook Everything.
I bought How to Cook Everything because it has a recipe for cooking steaks on top of the stove in a frying pan, a skill which appeals to me because I a) do not have a grill, and b) don't particularly won't to cook outside.
This book is fantastic. It's better and clearer than The Joy of Cooking.
I'll give you a for instance. I have never known how to boil eggs. I mean, I know how to boil eggs. You put the water in the pot with the eggs and you boil the water for a length of time and the eggs are boiled. When I have done it, though, I've just let them boil until I figured they were done and then run cold water over them before peeling. Last night I determined that I would look it up and follow the directions.
Today I had one for a snack. For the first time ever, my egg white wasn't rubbery and the yolk was crumbly and sunny yellow, not hard and with a greenish tinge. And when they were boiling, not one of them cracked. It was delicious.
I forget why I felt the need to post this. Anyway.
It's a great cookbook. Everything is so clear. And I can't believe I really didn't know how to boil an egg.
I read a few food blogs and I have accumulated a number of very good cookbooks, many of which I haven't used, preferring instead to stick to a few favorites. One food blog I really love is Mark Bittman's "Bitten", which appears in the New York Times. Mr. Bittman also has a few cookbooks, one of which is How to Cook Everything.
I bought How to Cook Everything because it has a recipe for cooking steaks on top of the stove in a frying pan, a skill which appeals to me because I a) do not have a grill, and b) don't particularly won't to cook outside.
This book is fantastic. It's better and clearer than The Joy of Cooking.
I'll give you a for instance. I have never known how to boil eggs. I mean, I know how to boil eggs. You put the water in the pot with the eggs and you boil the water for a length of time and the eggs are boiled. When I have done it, though, I've just let them boil until I figured they were done and then run cold water over them before peeling. Last night I determined that I would look it up and follow the directions.
Today I had one for a snack. For the first time ever, my egg white wasn't rubbery and the yolk was crumbly and sunny yellow, not hard and with a greenish tinge. And when they were boiling, not one of them cracked. It was delicious.
I forget why I felt the need to post this. Anyway.
It's a great cookbook. Everything is so clear. And I can't believe I really didn't know how to boil an egg.