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Eliz87
| Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 12:58 pm
I received a gift certificate to Amazon.com as a Christmas present. I love cookbooks and baking, but there are soooo many different ones to choose from I just don't know where to begin! I am kind of a run-of-the-mill, everyday cook...no black beans or tofu for me thank you! :-) Any good cooking/baking book recommendations?
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Reader234
| Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 1:28 pm
Eliz if you dont have the Joy of Cooking, you really need it, I cant believe how often I use it, and I love to cook, it has everything!! I used to use Betty Crocker, then moved to Better Homes and Garden as standard cookbooks, then we went thru the Jeff Smith's Frugal Gormet books (and we cook something from those at least once a month!!) But whenever I have a question on the basics, I'm so in the Joy of Cooking cookbook (from making a pie crust from *gasp scratch, to simple baking a roast!!)(and I do reccomend the Hardcover, I started with the paperback, and so used it, that I received the hardback for Christmas a few years back!!) Amazon Joy of Cooking You can click on the pic of the book, then click and click and click and click on forward and read all that it has to offer!! 
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Not1worry
| Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 7:39 pm
Eliz, if you ever use a crockpot, you need the Fix it and Forget it Cookbook. There's a new one out called Saving Dinner that is from the lady who does the Menu Mailers. (She mails out a week of menus, complete with shopping lists and side dish ideas). I've been getting the MMs for a few months and there are some wonderful recipes. I would guess the new cookbook is just as good!
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Hummingbird
| Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 3:39 pm
Someone gave me the Soprano Family Cookbook for Christmas. I can't imagine why since everyone who knows me knows that I hate to cook! I have no idea if the recipes are any good but I enjoyed thumbing through at all the pictures and thinking about the show.
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Bookworm
| Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 9:58 pm
I asked for and received Fix it and Forget it Cookbook. I plan to use it. Lots of good crockpot recipes--main dishes, vegetables, appetizers, beverages, and desserts. One thing that I find annoying is there are several VERY similar recipes. The recipes are sent in from around the country and sometimes you will find 10 or so recipes for the same thing that vary by only one or two ingredients. I prefer locally published cookbooks, myself. I like that the recipes are tried and true and are for local cuisine using local ingredients. (If that makes sense...)
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Not1worry
| Sunday, January 04, 2004 - 4:19 pm
Bookworm, I know what you mean about the Fix it cook book and the similar recipes. But the good thing is you can look at them all and combine to make your own. Sometimes I have a roast, but not all the ingredients for one of the recipes. I look at a bunch of them and use what I've got.
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Bookworm
| Sunday, January 04, 2004 - 6:53 pm
That's kind of what I did today. I had turkey breasts thawed out. Well after much study, I ended up using them in a chicken recipe from that book. It went over really well. Eliz did you ever make a decision about a cookbook?
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Eliz87
| Sunday, January 04, 2004 - 9:39 pm
Yes. I was considering "The Joy of Cooking" but I already have a similar Betty Crocker cookbook so I decided to pass on that. I ended up ordering "The Perfect Recipe". It doesn't have as many recipes as some other cookbooks, but apparently the writer researched and researched until she found the "perfect" ways to cook prime rib, meatloaf, fried chicken, cole slaw, etc. AND it is supposed to have THE BEST homemade brownie recipe. I'll let you all know how it is when I receive it this week. Thanks!! :-) Here's the link if anyone is interested in taking a peek. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618132694/qid=1073276130//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/103-1619469-7931053?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
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Readonly
| Monday, January 05, 2004 - 9:35 am
A few years ago Women's Day put out a cookbook. Every page includes a picture of what the dish should look like, and every recipe I've tried has been delicious. The recipes are usually made up of ingredients you probably have on hand and are often quick-fix dishes (which I appreciate because I don't get home from work until about 7:00 each night). I would strongly recommend this cookbook.
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Kimmo
| Monday, January 05, 2004 - 1:34 pm
One of my favorite cookbooks is the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.... The Complete Meat Cookbook by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly is full of great recipes and also the basics of how to cook every type of meat (by type, such as poultry, etc, and by cut of meat, and of course the many ways you can cook each type of meat). Their meatball recipe is one of my favorites. I wonder if "America's Test Kitchens" has a cookbook. I love that show, where they're always showing you how to make the "perfect" this or that (last week it was fried chicken and coleslaw). I'll have to look it up sometime
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Lauram
| Monday, January 05, 2004 - 4:35 pm
America's Test Kitchen has lots of cookbooks. I love them. They have companion books that have all the recipes from the show. ( though you can get those from their website. I love the show and have it on my TIVO!! I also love to cook and would agree that The Joy of Cooking should be on everybody's shelf. It is good basic cooking and the book I most often turn to, (and I have hundreds of cookbooks!!)
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Tishala
| Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 5:02 pm
My favorite cookbook right now is How to Cook Everything. It's like Joy of Cooking, but it's more contemporary, I think. It's written by the guy who writes The Minimalist cooking column in the N.Y. Times on Wednesdays [he has also written The Minimalist Cooks at Home and The Minimalist Cooks Dinner]. I have another cookbook I really like, A New Way of Cooking, that is sorta lowfat, high flavor. It's not terribly restrictive, so it works well for me. I cannot cut everything out of my diet and remain happy.
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Kimmo
| Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 6:29 pm
Laura, I added the 3-book companion set for America's Test Kitchen to my Amazon wish list! For basics, there is a James Beard primer that I like. I wish DH would read it! He thinks he can "make stuff up" and the results are often... Well, not inedible, but not good. He swears it is not a secret strategy to make me the sole cook in the house, but I still wonder...
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Sher
| Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 7:34 pm
Can you get the Jean Pare Companys Coming Cookbooks in the US. Those are my favorites
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Landi
| Wednesday, January 14, 2004 - 11:13 pm
my absolute favorite cookbook is one of the america's test kitchen's ones called "The Best Recipe", i use it to cook anything new, and it makes the BEST turkey for thanksgiving!
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Tashakinz
Member
12-02-2002
| Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 11:58 am
The traditionalist kitchen needs three cookbooks lol: The Joy of Cooking Fannie Farmer Cookbook Betty Crocker Cookbook when you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything kind of methodology to these choices. = )
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Kimmo
Member
05-12-2003
| Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 3:04 pm
The only thing I really use my Betty Crocker book for is the jambalaya recipe...Fannie Farmer, though I have it, I haven't found a lot I want to cook in it. For real basics, I always go to my Good Housekeeping Illustrated, or Better Homes & Gardens. Even then, I don't think the "basics" cover foods as entirely as I'd think "basic" would be-- That's why I like the Meat cookbook I mentioned earlier....Plus the chicken-, cookie-, and quick-bread- specific cookbooks by Greg Gillespie. I should get a specific vegetable/vegetarian cookbook, but I do have a food book (called something like "The Complete Food Book") that goes through how you can cook each type of vegetable and what's best about each, etc. The Good Housekeeping cookbook has a nice vegetable section, too. 
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