Cookbooks

One of the great things about not working is having the time to cook real meals. Meaning something more complicated then spaghetti and Prego (although I have to admit, the boy really likes his spaghetti and Prego). Also meaning that I don't have to cook Tuesday and Wednesday's meal on Monday night after the kid is in bed.

I'm rediscovering my love of cooking, and love of eating well, which really we haven't been doing that much of lately.

About I month before leaving official work, I convinced my husband to let me try cooking mostly vegetarian meals during the week. Let's get this straight, We are not vegetarians. I like a good medium rare steak as much as the next gal, and a good hamburger too. My reasons for the switch is that it forces us to eat more vegetables. The challenge is in trying to come up with good combinations and different ones.

I will also mention that having a nice repertoire of vegetarian soups or other one pot meals in your cooking regime is nice, because often you have your basic ingredients just lying around. Dry lentils have a nice long shelf life, chicken on the other hand does not. I can cobble together a good red lentil soup any day from things I have lying around my pantry and your basic carrot and onion which I always have anyway. Some vegetarian cooking is very pantry friendly, whereas meat based meal always require shopping and forethought. Also the kid, loves lentil soup with rice!!!!!

Back to the point of this post: I love me a nice hardcover cookbook. (Hint: if ever need a gift for me and can't figure out what to get me consider that last sentence) I bought two new ones yesterday, and I am positively excited about cooking from them. I'm a little bummed that I've already done my cooking for the week!

The new cookbooks made me think of my collection, and sharing with you, my one reader, my favorites. My shelf contains both some great conventional cookbooks and some vegetarian ones, but here goes:

Betty Crocker Cookbook This is just hands down the most friendly, easy to use classic cookbook, with all the roasting tables and stuff you need. My favorite recipe is the White Chili (which is a chicken chili/ soup with white beans and corn. Also very useful baking section

The Gourmet Cookbook My sister gave this to me one year, and it is a great cookbook, not at all intimidating as the name would imply, most of the recipes are pretty straightforward. Favorites include Goulash, Oatmeal cookies, Glazed carrots, Spanish style Fritatta. I often use this one to get ideas, or figure out how to do something if I'm not exactly following their recipes

The New Moosewood Cookbook This one ain't so new anymore, but it's the classic vegetarian cookbook, many great recipes. The soups are some of my favorites. Brazilian Black Bean Soup, Cold Cucumber Yogurt Soup, Gazpacho, and the recipe for Falfel (although not traditional and puffy) and Tahini-Lemon Sauce

125 best Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipes Everybody should own this book! It is excellent. And the marvel of being able to prep everything the night before, put it in the fridge, and plug in in the morning. You couldn't do that with meat, because of the food safety issues, but with vegetables it works. Fav recipes: Red lentil and Carrot Soup w Coconut, Tortilla Soup with Corn and Chilies, Smoky White Chili with Potatoes,any number of the other Chilis, and what I cooked this week, Tamale Pie with Chili Cornmeal Crust . An excellent, excellent cookbook, and many of the dishes are surprisingly hearty for being vegetarian.

So there you have it, my favorite go-to cookbooks. The ones I just bought are Jamie's Food Revolution (the photography is absolutely stunning, and he had a whole chapter on curries, which sold the book for me), and How to cook everything Vegetarian which I wanted after ready an article about Mr. Bittman's food philosophy, which I find very akin to my own. Both books have a philosophical slant, and as I haven't cooked from either I can't really say whether I would recommend them. Perhaps more on this later. In the meantime Bon Apetite!

Containers

Well, as mentioned in the last post, it appears to finely, and safely be spring!! That means it is time for me be compelled to plant some stuff. (Last year I did not feel so compelled, I was too stressed and tired and had my hands full with a 1.5 year old.) This year I have time on my hands, so why not be a little bit more ambitious than usual.

In all the talk about how people should try to grow their own food and all, I've decided to container grow some vegetables. Why container grow? A. The soil in our yard has very little topsoil, with clay underneath, so would need a lot of conditioning to get stuff out of it. B. Deer and Rabbits like our yard, but will mostly stay off our deck (I think). C. Our deck gets excellent sun exposure, far better than the rest of the yard (although this means it is very hot there in the summer and this may be a problem).

So what are we trying???? I bought some everbearing strawberries, three different types of small tomatoes (one called patio which seems to be breed for containers), a peppermint plant, marigolds (okay they not edible, but pretty and will go in the actually garden) and a pepper plant which I might have alreadly killed.

In addition I'm seeding argula, basil, green beans (the big tall thing in the picture), non support needing peas, yellow squash, and zuccinni. I hear zuccinni is fairly easy to grow and very prolific. I might purchase some more herbs and maybe spinach seeds, as it seems the greens might be pretty easy to grow. I also want to try making sprouts with the kiddo.

I've had a good start, but I need to get some big containers and a lot of potting soil. This operation is neither eco-friendly or economical, I fear, but maybe next year or in future years, if I can continue to do it. Maybe one year I will actually conquer composting, but it seems you need some kind of advanced degree to safely do that (oh wait a second, don't I have some kind of advanced degree in something bio related. Oh yeah, its in something entirely useless to the real world, mammalian cell biology and biochemistry!!!!!!!! Good thing I didn't have to pay money for that education! just time :)

Anyway It's kind of nice having the new green babies around, kind of hopeful again. That reminds me, I need to water everybody outside. We where away this weekend, and the tomatoes look thirsty.

Spring!!!

As any D.C. native will tell you, Spring arrives when the Cherry blossoms bloom. In celebration the boy and I went downtown to see the pretty flowers on his day off from nursery school (Good friday). We got to ride the train and visit mommy's work. I managed pretty well with a toddler and a stroller, but we did lose a hat when boarding our last train, as I frantically was doing something with the stroller when the train pulled up. It was crowded, but pretty and worth the trip, although we didn't make it very far along the tidal basin. We also saw three fire trucks with their sirens blaring on the walk back to Farrugut North! Sean was plumb tuckered out from the trip and took a three hour nap when we got home. I really like having easy access to a city, and will miss it if we ever move.