I love to leaf through cookbooks. Some of my old favorites are very SB-friendly. Some I've had for years and go back to often. What are your favorite cookbooks or other recipe sources?
Mine are:
Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet The Moosewood Cookbook
The Vegetarian Epicure
I just found Molly Katzen's Vegetable Heaven and the South Beach Quick and Easy Cookbook at the used book store, and hope to find some winners in them. My Dad just bought the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook, and I plan to borrow that one while he's on vacation . And I've found great recipes here of course, and I'm always running to The Food Network to look things up.
I cook most often from the South Beach Cookbook, The Quick & Easy one and the Taste of Summer. I also have a Better Homes & Gardens New Dieters one I use certain recipes from regularly (jambalaya, eggplant parmesan, Ham Zucchini mastaccioli).
Louisiana Light has some wonderful recipes - Red Snapper Courtbuoullion is a favorite. And then I have several crockpot ones I like. Fix It and Forget it is where my Cajun Sausage and Rice recipe is from.
My favorite cookbook is the cookbook that my family put together. It has all my favorite recipes in it, and it's my most used cookbook. Unfortunately, it's not that SB friendly, but I can modify a lot of the recipes. It was the only thing ruined by Hurricane Ivan, but I managed to snag another copy. We're doing an update this year and I'm noticing a lot more healthy recipes, as weight is an issue with several of us in the the younger generation. It's going on 5 generations of recipes now.
nasty, nasty old hurricanes!! I read that cookbook sales are booming here since K. since so many people lost their cookbooks. The N.O. newspaper put out an online version of favorite N.O. recipes that they had published through the years. Every Thursday recipes are in the paper. Since so many people had clipped them for years and lost them in the flood, they published the most requested ones online. I thought that was really nice of them.
The energy company (formerly NOPSI) used to put out recipes on cards that people could get on buses and in their bills..the did this for years and of course those were also lost in people's collections, so they made a pdf file of them. It has some wonderful, if sinful recipes that are staples around here.
I have a red leather binder that I keep all my favorites in..both old family recipes and ones I've found or thought up. I print them out and have all the pages in plastic sleeves. It's my food bible!
Last edited by femmecreole; 09-05-2007 at 07:05 PM.
Hey Femme, I am DROOLING over the recipes in that pdf file! And after two great days back on Phase 1 (actually like Phase 1.25), what temptation!
I've always loved cookbooks too and have many favorites. An old Betty Crocker was a real staple of my kitchen for years until I started branching out into foreign cooking.
But the most famous, or infamous, recipe I ever made was from the Richardson, Texas "Baptist Women's Cookbook." It was called Artillery Punch and I made it one Thanksgiving. It was some combo of wine, vodka, brandy and juice. The last thing I remember was sitting on the sofa singing with my stepfather along with a Hank Williams Jr. record. The next thing I knew it was 4am, the house was dark, everyone was gone and I had one heck of a hangover started. I'll never forget that punch. Up until that point, I had thought Baptists were kind of stuffy. Never again!
There's nothing as precious as our old family recipes that are passed down through the generations, Cat. Several years ago I spent several weeks copying our treasured family favorites into a cookbook to give to my DD and DIL.
I have a large collection of cookbooks that I refer to occasionally, but the recipes I use most often these days
are from the South Beach cookbooks, Cooking Light, Everyday Food, and Taste of Home. I also use a lot of recipes from the Pampered Chef cookbooks, but I have to tweak them to make them SB friendly.
Last edited by cottagebythesea; 09-06-2007 at 06:27 AM.
I love how you've all found creative ways to keep family recipes! On my mom's side, we have this treasure of an old cookbook--my grandmother was a prize-winning cook (several hundred times over) and she put together a cookbook of her best recipes and included several old family favorites, too. Everyone in the extended family has a copy, and I have several, including a treasured one that she inscribed for me when I was just a wee thing. Sadly, on my father's side, my grandmother forgot her recipe box when she moved from her apartment into the home and her recipes were totally lost. It's a loss I'll never forget.
I have tons of cookbooks and don't use them all as much as I should! I regularly use:
Better Homes and Gardens (my favorite coleslaw recipe is in here, and my 3 bean salad recipe...) SBD cookbooks Lose Weight the Low Carb Easy Way (has fantastic recipes!!!) Cooking Light
I frequently go to the Moosewood cookbooks for inspiration and ideas...my favorite is Moosewood's New Classics. Actually, Moosewood is a restaurant near my hometown...it's fantastic! The cookbooks come from there and getting the food 'live' (and not having to cook it yourself! ) is divine. Actually, Cottage and I went there with her family when she visited last summer! We had such fun!
Cat, I love that all those recipes were posted online! What a wonderful way to maintain those special traditions. I just watched an Alton Brown Good Eats episode on making gumbo. It was fascinating...especially the part about file. I didn't realize it was an American Indian gift!
Location: Marion, NY - about 30 miles East of Rochester.
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I love my "Applehood and Motherpie" cookbook - not too beachy, but I modify things as needed. My other favorite cookbook is my mother's. About 10 years ago, she got all the family recipes together, including her great grandmother's and typed up all the recipes. She put it all in a binder, and gave one to each of my sisters, her sisters and sisters-in-law, cousins.... even some family friends. It's great! All the good food I grew up with - that I can't really eat now, but there are also some "depression" recipes in there that work just fine for me now.
Favorite Cookbooks
. And I've found great recipes here of course, and I'm always running to The Food Network to look things up.
It's a loss I'll never forget. 
) is divine. Actually, Cottage and I went there with her family when she visited last summer! We had such fun! 
