For Christmas this year, I got inspired to do some cooking! My BF’s mother gave me How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (who also does the Minimalist TivoCast, which is great fun) and I’ve been reading it cover-to-cover. So far, I’m through “everything you ever wanted to know about noodles” and getting ready to find out everything about bread. I’ve already been through the veggies, fruits and seafood chapters. It truly is a bible for folks who want a cookbook that gives them more than just static directions on how to make a single food item – there are almost no recipes in the book (so far) that don’t have multiple variations so that you can take the basic recipe (of which there are 2000) and make up to 20 different foods using that one recipe, with just a few variations. My friend Tab also got me the Better Homes & Gardens “pink plaid” edition of the kitchen essential cookbook. My mom has one of these (though I think it’s the original edition – it’s really old and “well-loved”…) and it was the go-to cookbook when I cooked at home with her. Now I have one of my own!! Yeah!
My boyfriend got, also from Doug and Tab, the Alton Brown salt cellar and a set of Alton Brown Plunger measuring cups. Since I got Tab the Gear For Your Kitchen book by Alton Brown, we’re thinking that Alton did pretty well this year…
So far, from the “How to cook everything” cookbook, I’ve made an asparagus and parmesan risotto, a lentils and potatoes with curry dinner and fried zucchinis. Yum! I also noticed a recipe for truffles in the BH&G cookbook last night that I might have to try out…
Also – and you thought I was done – my BF’s mom got me a year’s subscription to the Taste of Home magazine, something that I regularly “borrow” from my Mom. Mom is happy to know that her issues will be staying put from now on!
It wasn’t a *completely* foodie Christmas, though – my family got a Wii (which has inspired me to get a Wii Fit for it – I’m going to have to make up for all the cooking I’ll be doing somehow) as well as a bunch of Wii games. I got some clothes and some cash, which was nice. Alex got mostly cash, so we spent a lovely afternoon at the Columbia Mall last weekend, spending $241 on new clothes for my little clotheshorse… He left the mall with $9 in cash and a beatific grin on his face, so I think he was happy with his Christmas as well.
I hope all of my readers had a wonderful holiday season – while it is fun to play with all the new stuff that the holiday season brings, I hope that everyone also got some rest, some time with their loved ones and a new outlook for the new year!
Categories
