<p>By the way, here’s a food bargain today for all you cooks in the northeast. Whole Foods Market (where I usually just snoop around for discount specials) is selling wild shrimp from Maine at $4 per pound. Was there the other night and they were sold out. Fish manager said come back for another delivery, so that’s where I’m off to now.</p>
<p>I only have Julie Sahni’s* Moghul Microwave*, but it introduced me to some very different styles of Indian cuisine. It also has a great recipe for upma. I’ve found though that some of the recipes are easier or better if you don’t actually use the microwave!</p>
<p>I have the yellow Gourmet cookbook and HATE those yellow headings. I can’t tell you how tempted I am to go through the entire cookbook and write the recipe titles in something I can see. I think the last 5 years of type designers should be taken out and shot. I see the new green Gourmet is easier on the eyes. I bet they got a lot of complaints.</p>
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<p>How do you use them? Any good recipes? I live in New England and almost never get the Maine shrimp even though they’re readily available.</p>
<p>I’m going by Whole Foods this afternoon - I’ll check it out. Do you know if they are the smaller shrimp (18-20 count or so)?</p>
<p>I usually grill shrimp, but with all the snow on the patio, I’m not going to venture out there. My friend made a recipe from Ina Garten’s “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics” (her latest book) for roasted shrimp and it’s delicious. It’s basically a matter of tossing the shrimp with good quality olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper and spreading them on a metal baking sheet - make sure there is only one layer, and roasting in a 400 oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Great warm or room temp. I may add a sprinkling of dried French herbs for more flavor.</p>
<p>The wild Maine shrimp with which I’m familiar with are about 1.5-2" and shrink to about a half-inch when you cook them–you can’t really grill them. They aren’t like Gulf shrimp, which is why I’m never sure what to do with them.</p>
<p>Love shrimp…no matter what the size. Pan sear them with olive oil and garlic and sea salt and put them over some pasta with red sauce or a green salad…yummy. BTW, Wegmans sells pan searing flour (works great for fish or shrimp!)</p>
<p>Well, I have to say that I still rely on the “I Hate to Cook Book” by Peg Bracken from 1960. </p>
<p>It’s not so much that I hate to cook, but I hate to make a ton of effort, only to have the guys eat the food in 30 seconds and then have a mountain of dishes to contend with. Plus, my mother used that book (along with the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook) when the bunch of us were growing up (she worked full-time, too), and the recipes bring back memories. Hootenholler Whiskey Cake, anyone?</p>
<p>I’ll cook nicely for special occasions, though.</p>
<p>Gourmetmom: I made the shrimp for Christmas to bring to someone’s home. (Grilled right before we left and wrapped in foil). They were sensational. </p>
<p>I love Wolfgang Puck’s cooking. His cod Hong Kong style is amazing. Sashimi cones, just wonderful. …I have to leave now. I’ll start thinking about eating.</p>
<p>3 by Jacques Pepin: Fast Food My Way, More FFMY, and The Short Cut Cook. These are all quick, not-too-fussy recipes. Also- How to Cook Everything Vegetarian- Mark Bittman.</p>
<p>And from the Twilight Zone: “To Serve Man”.</p>
<p>I remember Peg Braken. Sure brings back childhood memories. Didn’t she make all sorts of recipes utilizing Campbell’s Soup?</p>
<p>Well, my local Whole Foods did not have any Maine shrimp - nothing for under about $14 per pound. I’m in New England, but not in Maine, and they must not have made their way “down south.” I bought a dozen nice looking gulf shrimp - they’re already roasted and ready for consumption…</p>
<p>The funniest group of recipes from the Peg Bracken era: “The Gallery of Regrettable Food” by James Lileks.
[LILEKS</a> (James) Gallery of Regrettable Food](<a href=“http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/]LILEKS”>LILEKS (James) :: Institute :: The Gallery of Regrettable Food)
The author reprints recipe pamphlets from the 60s and 70s, with commentary. You wouldn’t believe what they were eating back then.</p>
<p>My mom had the Peg Bracken book, still does, and she does hate to cook. Me I love baking the best but I can work my way around a kitchen LOL. My boys love red meat and I never ate red meat (didn’t care for the taste) but I’m getting “better” at picking it and working with it. Red meat has been my biggest challenge. But I have a husband who is quite proficient in the kitchen so I usually buy the meat and give it to him. Yes, I need to “redo” my binders. I have a pile of recipes about 6" tall just sitting on the bookshelf in the kitchen that I need to sort and file into binders before they disintegrate from grease stains. Probably a good idea to clean them all up. My favorite TV chef is Tyler Florence I have to admit. Don’t know why but I just like watching him work and I like most of his recipes.</p>
<p>I had that “I Hate to Cook Book”…hmm…I wonder what happened to it.</p>
<p>My favorite for the basics is a 70’s version (looseleaf) of Betty Crocker. Mine began to “self destruct” in the late 80’s and I went into a panic (favorite pages were stuck together). Luckily, I found a brand spanking new OLD one at a used bookstore. Never had been opened. Woohoo.</p>
<p>I also love my Vegetarian Epicure books. I still make many of the dishes from those books. </p>
<p>We have Joy of Cooking and The Silver Palate…but they just don’t inspire me. Sorry…not enough pictures (not that my food EVER looks like the pictures). </p>
<p>I also have a great collection of those church, school and community cookbooks. I find those are great for good, simple meals. </p>
<p>And as noted by others…I read cookbooks like they are novels. I probably have 10 under my bed that I’ve NEVER cooked from.</p>
<p>Just because I know you were all curious: </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/magazine/30food-t.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/magazine/30food-t.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1</a></p>
<p>Peg was, indeed, ahead of her time. Here’s her obit in the NY Times:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/arts/23bracken.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/arts/23bracken.html</a></p>
<p>I had to laugh, the article referenced by pageturner included a chicken recipe that a good friend has passed off as her own for years. Hilarious.</p>
<p>I got the Maine shrimp and they indeed are a bit small. Surprisingly they are quite pink in their raw state, so much so that I had to ask the seafood manager whether or not they were cooked.</p>
<p>Bromfield, I plan to use a shrimp recipe or two from a couple of new cookbooks (couldn’t help myself, they were attractive lookikng and the prices were heavily discounted). I’ll try the fried prawns with Creole Orange Sauce. That’s from Les Carloss’s ‘Best of Creole Cooking,’ which is a collection of his dishes from his bistro restaurants in New Orleans and Atlanta. The other recipe is for jerk shrimp, from Delilah Winder’s book about Southern Cooking. Delilah is one of the few people who beat Bobby Flay on an episode of ‘Throwdown,’ besting him with her macaroni and cheese, as I recall.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, barbara960 for the link to regrettable foods! It is so funny, can’t wait to
send it to my daughter. She loves those '50’s images-I don’t think she knows how bad the
food could be.</p>
<p>Organization of recipes has always been a challenge for me! Sticky notes abound in all my favorite cookbooks!</p>
<p>Two tips: place a piece of paper just inside the book’s cover and record the favorite recipe and the page number–inside Silver Palate: chicken marbella p. 86. Or, write favorite recipe location on index card and put it in your recipe box: Chicken Marbella, Silver Palate, p. 86. Can you tell I spent a lot of time asking myself, “Where WAS that recipe?”!</p>
<p>And, by all means, write recipes for favorite dishes (perhaps original recipes and/or family faves) in your own hand and pass them along to others in your family–especially your kids, even nieces and cousins. I often include these in wedding cards. One of my most cherished possessions is the recipe card entitled, “How to Roast a Turkey” written in my mother’s handwriting and (most importantly) her ‘tone’. I cry tears of thanksgiving every November when I dig out the card. She helps me prepare TG meals every year, even though she’s been gone longer than I care to realize. As I am the mother of sons who are, as yet, uninspired in the kitchen, I hope to have a daughter-in-law who will one day appreciate it.</p>
<p>^I have an apple pie recipe from my mil that’s almost illegible. Thank heavens I had the sense to photocopy it before it faded away completely. I’m sure it will be in the family a while, my younger son makes it all the time for his friends.</p>