How to understand this blog

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

a new resolution

Another year, another mad idea. I noticed today that I have quite a large collection of cookbooks. See below. Each tempting, but nevertheless overwhelmingly large.


I hardly use any of them, and I want this to change! So, I am forming yet another New Year's resolution. I will use a different cookbook every time I cook a meal this year. Eeek! These are the choices, in rough order of preference:

Home Food (Murdoch Books) - this is new to me, and it has the most lovely, achievable-and-cheap-yet-interesting-looking recipes.

Destitute Gourmet, 10th anniversary edition
, by Sophie Gray - this is one of my favourite cookbooks ever! Full of great recipes.

Dish It Up, by Simon Holst - this is a fantastic cookbook of one-dish meals, by the son of a famous-in-NZ Kiwi cook, Alison Holst. I especially like his recipe for pad thai.

Donna Hay: Pasta, Rice and Noodles - I haven't used this yet *guilty face* but it looks lovely!

Complete Comfort Food - this is a beautiful-looking book, but slightly difficult to find one's way around, so I don't use it very often, sadly. It is edited by someone called Bridget Jones!

Clearfile of my mother's recipes for Indian food - a fantastic collection Mum built up after she returned from her years living in Southern India.

Clearfile of my own collection of favourite recipes - this is my favourite go-to. Mum helped me create it when I was about sixteen, and I've been adding to it ever since.

Nine Foodtown magazines - Foodtown is one of the Kiwi supermarket chains. It produces some really good magazines with heaps of fantastic, seasonal recipes.

Vegie Food (Murdoch Books) - another fantastic-looking book which I haven't used much. I did make a couple of soups this year; I'm looking forward to trying more as we have a vegetarian flatmate joining us soon!

The Really Useful Ultimate Student Cookbook, Silvana Franco - this is actually a fantastic cookbook for flatting! Meals that actually taste good without being difficult or expensive.

Cook with Jamie
, Jamie Oliver - a 21st birthday present from my sister. Really nice hardcover recipe book with some great pasta recipes. My only quibble is the ridiculousness of some of them. Where, pray, am I to get hold of rabbit or duck or other game meats to cook?

Perfect Thai - I've tried a couple of these. I NEED to try more. They look good! Only problem is the accessibility of some ingredients.

Middle Eastern Cookbook, Maria Khalifé - to my shame, I still have not attempted any of these.

Simply Italian, by Sophie Braimbridge - this was a gift from an aunt, and unfortunately it's not "simple" at all. She does, however, include a fantastic recipe for foccaccia bread. And it will be good for me to have to attempt at least one of these recipes.

4 Ingredients (2), Kim McCosker and Rachel Bermingham - the concept being that every meal needs only four ingredients. This is okay. It cheats though, by leaving out things like rice or potatoes to serve meals with.

Easy as 123, Robyn Martin - this is okay, and it was free! It is the source of my fabulous Russian fudge recipe so, as long as my flatmates don't mind eating fudge for dinner, we're sweet!

Slow Cooker Recipes - still haven't tried this out. It looks okay.

Meena Pathak's Flavours of India - haven't tried this either.

Others:

The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book - I grew up on this like every other child in NZ or Australia! It's wonderful! Join the facebook group I linked to!

Sugar and Spice, with Jo Seagar - this is the result of a nation-wide baking competition, where famous baker Jo Seagar tried out hundreds of family recipes sent to her. It has one of the most wickedly yummy chocolate cakes I've ever tried.

Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes
, illustrated by Quentin Blake - this is pretty much an awesome book.

Kitchen Wizard, by Deborah Jarvis - these are the baking recipes I used to love when I was a kid. I still use some of them!

**********************************

I will keep you posted on the success of my mission!

3 comments:

Stacy said...

Wow, that is quite the collection, and I am very amused that someone named Bridget Jones can, not only cook, but has put out a cookbook.

Stacy said...

Oh, and I meant to say congrats on the new flatmate!

Allie said...

Thanks :) unfortunately we are still looking for one but we are definitely counting our blessings that we have filled at least one of two places so far!