Quarantine cooking is a strange beast. I feel like I’ve made somewhere just short of one million meals, and I may not be too far off in my guesstimate. All of the sudden all of my family is around. All of the time. And hungry. All of the time. I’m trying to figure out new and flavorful dishes to serve that won’t take up all of my time or call for ingredients that I can’t find. Yet, it’s actually a great time for learning new techniques and trying new recipes. I’ve done a deep dive into my collection of cookbooks. These five cookbooks are the five cookbooks that I am spending lots and lots of time with these days.
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Milk Street Tuesday Nights
This is a book that I recently bought, and all I can ask myself is WHAT WAS I WAITING FOR? I started marking recipes I wanted to make and I ran out of post it notes before I hit the second half. I would have been better off marking the recipes I didn’t want to make! The recipes are all flavorful, relatively easy, and a little different. And since I’m tired of spaghetti and tacos, I am really, really appreciating this book!
Half Baked Harvest Super Simple
This was one a bit of surprise for me. I love following Tieghan’s blog and think she is super talented both as a cook as well as a photographer. But I didn’t expect to like this cookbook so much. I first bought it because one of my Facebook groups (hi ladies from Physician Mommies Cook!) was doing a cookbook challenge where we cooked different recipes and compared notes to find the winners. I ended up making quite a few things, all of which were simple, fairly quick, and pretty darn good. Sure there were a few missteps (sometimes I needed to add just a titch of something to rescue a dish) but overall, a cookbook to own.
Where Cooking Begins
OK, confession. I haven’t made a ton of things from this cookbook, yet. But it gets mentioned here for its pure beauty. I can spend all day pouring over the pages of this one. Carla Lalli Music does a great job of trying to teach technique making this one not only beautiful, but great for an amateur cook.
Dinner: Changing the Game
I’ve owned this cookbook for several years. It’s another cookbook that I’ve marked almost every other page as a recipe we need to try. The photos are gorgeous and the recipes are approachable twists on dinners you’ve probably made in the past. From Sesame Chicken to Fusilli and Roasted Cauliflower with Capers, this book has it all.
Artisan Sourdough Made Simple
This is the book I’ve used the most over this quarantine period. No it’s not dinner recipes, but I’m finding that bread makes almost any dinner better. Plus I can bribe my kids to try new things by offering fresh bread as the reward. I’ve been astonished with all of the amazing things I’ve been able to create with my sourdough starter. I’ve had to find some new places to order flour (YES to Sunrise Flour Mill and BakersField Flour!), and thanks to them, I’ve been able to create everything from sourdough loaves, to crackers, to cinnamon rolls, to focaccia to bagels. (After you have the Sunday Morning Bagels from this book, you’ll never be able to go back to store bought bagels!) Emilie Raffa presents sourdough baking in such an easy to understand way that I’ve bought this book for multiple of my friends!
Hope your quarantine cooking journey has been going well! Let us know what has been working for you and what hasn’t been working. Are there cookbooks that are getting your through? We want to know!
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