This cookbook might be old news to much of the internet. I bought it years ago, inspired by all the great reviews and recognizing the talent of the authors. I’ve been listening to The Splendid Table Podcast for years, and any time I do I feel positively chased into the kitchen.
But like many of us, I imagine, I collect recipes and cookbooks, they sit in binders or on my kitchen counter, and I go from week to week making mainly the same stuff I’ve been making for ages. Feeling uninspired and in a total dinner rut.
I finally recognized that I already had the solution to my dinner boredom, so I grabbed one of the (many) cookbooks I’d been ignoring and decided to cook my way through the whole book, making notes on what worked for us and what didn’t, how I’d change it to make it fit how we eat, and especially what was worth going back to.
That’s where I get back to this specific cookbook. It is probably the best money I’ve ever spent on a cookbook. The ratio of dishes we loved to dishes we didn’t is astounding. I’ve probably tried 30 recipes, and so far there’s only two that I didn’t immediately drool all over, and those two just needed a couple of tweaks to suit my tastes. There hasn’t been a single thing that I don’t see us eating again.
I’ve been wanting to incorporate more meatless dishes in our dinner routine, but that’s hard with the two men in my life who don’t like vegetables and insist that they can’t get full without a hunk of meat. The meatless recipes I’ve served from this book even pass their high standards. This green bean tagine in particular is absolutely incredible. I’ve been craving it ever since I made it.
My absolute favorite part of this book is how few of these recipes I’ve already seen versions of before. So many cookbooks just have the author’s attempt at a classic dish – everybody has a version of lasagna, or roast chicken, or pot roast, and if you already have a version that you like, that’s a waste of cookbook space. This book is stuffed with things I’ve never seen elsewhere, influenced by Asian and Scandinavian cooking and all the spices the world used to run on.
I think that this cookbook alone will nearly double my cooking repertoire. That was good money spent.
Great review, and great example of the struggle to keep fresh in the task of providing everyday dinners.A few months ago I bought one of those planning calendars–a planning calendar has no year markings, but lists each day of the year with space to write about a paragraph.I've been documenting (sporadically) the meals we prepare and eat. When I'm stuck I can look back on what I've made that time of year in previous years.One way I find it helps me–when I think of what to make for dinner, I still tend to be a tad ambitious, tend to turn it into a bigger deal that it is. Looking at what we actually ate is comforting, because it's mostly so doable. And when it was ambitious, well I guess I'm proud of myself when I see what I did.I used to blog what we actually ate (again, sporadically because routine and habits are hard for me), and I used that info from my blog to seed the planning journal and get it going.
What a coincidence, Lynne's weekly radio show is on our NPR station right this minute… I always enjoy her show and understand what you mean about feeling inspired to cook just by listening to her speak about food.