Second Round Elimination - who made the cut to stay on Deborah's shelf and who has to pack their bags and return tearfully home?
The Contestants -
Cooking with My Sisters: One Hundred Years of Family Recipes, from Bari to Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
The Ultimate Guide to Frying: How to Fry Just About Anything by Rick Browne
The Steak Lover's Cookbook by William Rice
Contestant #1 - Cooking With My Sisters by Adriana Trigiani - sorry pack your bags
This book I do have an issue with, it is packed with personal memories and stories. While I may like to read those, the problem is when I get ready to actually cook from the book it takes me quite some time to page through to get to the actual recipes. That being said this cookbook lost the challenge for that reason alone. The recipes alone all looked outstanding. They were definitely the kind of recipe that you could tell came down either word of mouth or on a much loved, stained recipe card from the author's Italian descendants. Each recipe looked amazing and I plan to read this book cover to cover and scan the recipes that I do want before regifting this book. It is just that it takes to long locating recipes in here for me, so the recipes are getting scanned and going into my main files instead.
Contestant #2 - The Ultimate Guide to Frying by Rick Browne - sorry pack your bags
This book almost won a permanent spot on the shelves, almost. It is extremely comprehensive with everything and anything you can think to fry - from naan bread to fried pickles to fried icecream - this book covers it all and then some. The reasons I decided against this though were two fold - 1. I don't own a deepfryer and am not sure if I will want to make this purchase as it may not get used enough. While I love a weekend afternoon with a Corona and frying everything in sight including non edible objects - those fun times are pretty few and far between those days as calorie and time restraints (sigh being a grown up so not fun) make them not practical. 2. A lot of the recipes I would have used such as the mushrooms, onion rings, shrimp etc were recipes I already had in my file and thus not really as useful for me since I prefer either a basic beer batter or tempura if I am going to eat fried things. All in all a definitely useful tome to have on hand, just not for me.
Contestant #3 - The Steak Lover's Cookbook by William Rice - winner!
While you would think a cookbook based on just one food item would not be a really practical choice for someone who is trying to greatly reduce their cookbook collection, this surprisingly turned out to be today"s winner. Mr. Rice - you have earned a permanent place in my collection. The book is laid out very practically where while large amounts of pictures, etc are scarce, it is a practical, well laid out book with excellent recipes and lots of additional information regarding cuts of steaks etc. All in all it turned out that there was just too much information to scan and use. I really need to hang unto this book and not too mention I am a woman who loves a good steak. :)
This book I do have an issue with, it is packed with personal memories and stories. While I may like to read those, the problem is when I get ready to actually cook from the book it takes me quite some time to page through to get to the actual recipes. That being said this cookbook lost the challenge for that reason alone. The recipes alone all looked outstanding. They were definitely the kind of recipe that you could tell came down either word of mouth or on a much loved, stained recipe card from the author's Italian descendants. Each recipe looked amazing and I plan to read this book cover to cover and scan the recipes that I do want before regifting this book. It is just that it takes to long locating recipes in here for me, so the recipes are getting scanned and going into my main files instead.
Contestant #2 - The Ultimate Guide to Frying by Rick Browne - sorry pack your bags
This book almost won a permanent spot on the shelves, almost. It is extremely comprehensive with everything and anything you can think to fry - from naan bread to fried pickles to fried icecream - this book covers it all and then some. The reasons I decided against this though were two fold - 1. I don't own a deepfryer and am not sure if I will want to make this purchase as it may not get used enough. While I love a weekend afternoon with a Corona and frying everything in sight including non edible objects - those fun times are pretty few and far between those days as calorie and time restraints (sigh being a grown up so not fun) make them not practical. 2. A lot of the recipes I would have used such as the mushrooms, onion rings, shrimp etc were recipes I already had in my file and thus not really as useful for me since I prefer either a basic beer batter or tempura if I am going to eat fried things. All in all a definitely useful tome to have on hand, just not for me.
While you would think a cookbook based on just one food item would not be a really practical choice for someone who is trying to greatly reduce their cookbook collection, this surprisingly turned out to be today"s winner. Mr. Rice - you have earned a permanent place in my collection. The book is laid out very practically where while large amounts of pictures, etc are scarce, it is a practical, well laid out book with excellent recipes and lots of additional information regarding cuts of steaks etc. All in all it turned out that there was just too much information to scan and use. I really need to hang unto this book and not too mention I am a woman who loves a good steak. :)
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