No, work wasn’t that bad, though it was a long week and I am glad to be to my Tuesday/Wednesday "weekend". I am continuing to upload and sort through Joel’s old image files and found the above amongst many, many, many other things. Thought it was cute enough to pass along.
Today’s book theme is cookbooks. It’s funny, I love to read cookbooks and am always bringing home any that seem interesting or unusual, though I almost never copy or try any of the recipes, although sometimes I do get ideas that I then improvise from. So the appeal for me is mostly visceral, a kind of food porn. And Dishing is certainly an appropriate cookbook for gawking. (You would not want to actually cook from it.) Kathy Casey, who styles herself "Seattle’s Culinary Diva", and whom I have not previously heard of begins with an introduction that advises simplifying dinner parties and making less work for yourself. She then goes on to present exceptionally complex and labor intensive recipes for a couple of dozen very "chi-chi-frou-frou" dinner parties, calling always for the most expensive ingredients conceivable. The butterflied shrimp on the front cover look scrumptious but seemed much less appealing when I learn they are slathered in Thai Lime Butter. (Thai is the one cuisine I really do not care for at all.) Some of the recipes did sound good, though all were more work than I would ever actually do. Recommended only for amusement value.
After reading the history of Williams Sonoma in United States of Arugula, the pic of the pre-teen ecstatically dishing up lasagna beneath the W/S name caught my eye in Junior Non-Fiction. Intended for children ages 8 and up, Fun Food provides clear, well-illustrated, child-friendly instructions for a couple of dozen simple recipes, such as grilled cheese sandwiches, meatballs and spaghetti and roast chicken. The book is well-organized and the layout very user-friendly. While simple enough for kids, this would also be a place for an adult who doesn’t cook at all but needs to, to learn a few basics and develop a simple repertoire. Recommended.
Ron and I used to watch Ina Garten‘s Barefoot Contessa show on the Food Network. Like Kathy Casey, Ina talks a lot about simplifying your menus and easing your workload, though she manages to do it at least some of the time. While she does sometimes go over the top with especially complex menus or labor intensive dishes, she mostly showed how to be elegant without breaking your neck. (And her dinner parties always seemed like such fun.) Family Style emphasizes classic comfort foods like clam chowder, fried chicken and French toast. Yum, yum. Recommended.
