I received Simple Suppers, one of the newer cookbooks from Moosewood Collective from my mother-in-law for Christmas. Or to be more precise, I told her to buy this and she did. In any case, I have it and it's mine and I am newly in love with it. Head over heels.
And I'm something of a food snob. Have I come clean on that yet? No? Comes from having an Italian-American mother I think. Everything from scratch spoils you.
I have several other Moosewood cookbooks and have several "regulars" I make out of them, and they are perennially a source of inspiration and desperation "what can I make with a few eggs, some condiments and the remnants in the veggie drawer" dinners. I was intrigued by the "simple" as the others, though I love them dearly, can be heavy on ingredients and not terribly easy to put together with 3 kids hanging off of me or even more likely falling apart totally at 5pm. Not able to concentrate on much else in my snuffly state, I pulled this off the shelf for some good browsing over the weekend and rapidly (OK, really pretty sluggishly) ran for the sticky notes (or just tore bits off of odd magazine inserts laying next to the bed) and easily marked up a weeks worth of meals to try out. Excited, but a bit leery of the very minimal ingredient lists, I slogged to the store and came home with the fixings for 5 new meals.
Normally I would reserve judgment until we had worked our way through them all, but man have we been eating well the last few nights with a very minimum of effort on my part. Pasta with lemon cream sauce and peas (who would think red pepper flakes would work, but they do!). West Indian red beans and rice (I have tried many recipes for this over the years and have always been disappointed, but with like 5 ingredients I had a taste sensation in the time it took the rice to steam). I gobbled them, my husband MOANED, and best yet THE KIDS ATE THEM TOO! And had seconds. I almost fell out of my chair.
And both recipes were almost "dump and stir".
Still in the wings, "Rarebit Risotto" (made with cheddar and beer!), a cheesy veg chowder and some yummy sounding rice noodle dish. Definitely will keep you posted.
(knitting aside: I dug this out of the depths of my WIP pile. Mmmmmm, love the Lisa Souza!)
And I'm something of a food snob. Have I come clean on that yet? No? Comes from having an Italian-American mother I think. Everything from scratch spoils you.
I have several other Moosewood cookbooks and have several "regulars" I make out of them, and they are perennially a source of inspiration and desperation "what can I make with a few eggs, some condiments and the remnants in the veggie drawer" dinners. I was intrigued by the "simple" as the others, though I love them dearly, can be heavy on ingredients and not terribly easy to put together with 3 kids hanging off of me or even more likely falling apart totally at 5pm. Not able to concentrate on much else in my snuffly state, I pulled this off the shelf for some good browsing over the weekend and rapidly (OK, really pretty sluggishly) ran for the sticky notes (or just tore bits off of odd magazine inserts laying next to the bed) and easily marked up a weeks worth of meals to try out. Excited, but a bit leery of the very minimal ingredient lists, I slogged to the store and came home with the fixings for 5 new meals.
Normally I would reserve judgment until we had worked our way through them all, but man have we been eating well the last few nights with a very minimum of effort on my part. Pasta with lemon cream sauce and peas (who would think red pepper flakes would work, but they do!). West Indian red beans and rice (I have tried many recipes for this over the years and have always been disappointed, but with like 5 ingredients I had a taste sensation in the time it took the rice to steam). I gobbled them, my husband MOANED, and best yet THE KIDS ATE THEM TOO! And had seconds. I almost fell out of my chair.
And both recipes were almost "dump and stir".
Still in the wings, "Rarebit Risotto" (made with cheddar and beer!), a cheesy veg chowder and some yummy sounding rice noodle dish. Definitely will keep you posted.
(knitting aside: I dug this out of the depths of my WIP pile. Mmmmmm, love the Lisa Souza!)
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