This little gem of a volume contains three of my favorite things- fairy tales, Neil Gaiman's writing, and the art of Charles Vess. I was lucky enough to score a deeply discounted copy from Amazon, but it's well worth purchasing at full price! The illustrations are gorgeous, making you feel like you're there with every step....er, turn of the page. The simple instructions for a successful journey through the Otherworld make you feel like you're on the adventure.
This was a neat little book, but most of the projects require more patience and creativity than I possess. I may have to try a few ideas it inspired though! Craft store, here I come....
I love cookbooks. I especially love cookbooks that promise me good food that I can afford and/or have the time to make. This one, while nicely laid out, did not live up to the expectations I had. The chapters were typical for an all-purpose cookbook, but the copy I had contained pages that I think may have been inserted out of order. if not, then someone fell down on the job doing layout because it was a bit disconcerting to flip through the poultry chapter and find 3 vegetarian recipes in the middle. Or to read the beef section and find a shrimp dish.
Most of the recipes in this volume were somewhat basic and I have other (sometimes better) verisons in my collection already. I did find 3 that were worth adding to my list: Salmon Rosti,Almond Crusted Pork, and a Cream of Turkey & Wild Rice Soup.
Oh, and the misplaced shrimp dish? I can't make it myself, due to food allergies, but I may pass it on to my mother. I think my Dad would enjoy it.
This may be my favorite of the Elephant & Piggie books so far! When they realize that they are in a book and readers are following what they do, Elephant and Piggie begin to have some fun with their followers. Their outright glee is contagious, and reading this makes me wish I could be in a book too!
Sweet little book about an Italian girl who wants to help her family get ready for a big dinner. But her attempts to help end in disaster and the various family members telling her that she's too little to help. She finally goes outside to huddle under a fig tree with a bowl of gelato and her beloved kitty, where she gets the inspiration for a dish that everyone in her family ultimately agrees is just right!
I love to watch Gordon Ramsay on TV and I could listen to him talk for hours, but I've just never been that fond of his recipes. I appreciate his apparent passion for food, and quality food at that, and his desire to see people use more fresh ingredients in their cooking. (something I have been trying to do better with, myself) However, I just can't see the average American family making some of these meals. There is just no way most children are going to eat Baby Squid in Tomato Sauce with Chard, for example. That's an appetizer.
For that matter, most families that I'm familiar with don't have time or inclination to sit down to meals that include appetizers, main course/sides, and dessert. Those are special occasion type meals and are usually eaten in restaurants...like Hell's Kitchen. (yes, I crack myself up- it's my review, I'm allowed to)
To be fair, both American & British measurements are included for the ingredients. But that's where reality ends with a lot of these recipes. The timelines for prep work are a nice inclusion, but show his lack of knowledge to what resources many of us have...for example, the time line for meal 7, A Classic Sunday Lunch, starts with this :
A FEW DAYS AHEAD...
Order the pigeon (you need 8-12 breasts from large wood pigeons ?!? oh sorry, you can substitute squab for the pigeon if it isn't available where you shop...riiiiight....) from your butcher or poulterer and get him to carve out the breasts. Reserve the rib of beef too.
The timelines for most of the fish dishes contain this advice:
Order the fish from the fish supplier. (get him to fillet it for you) Arrange to collect it on the day if possible, or the day before.
Um, Gordon? We're cooking AT HOME. Most of us don't have a butcher/poulterer/fish supplier. We're lucky if we have anything resembling a fresh meat counter at the grocery since most stores have switched to vacuum sealed pre-packaged meats from THEIR suppliers.
Anyway, I can tell you that while most of the meals didn't appeal to me, the instructions ARE clearly written out and the food pornographers did a wonderful job of photographing some of the dishes. Instead of assuming that everyone knows how to make various stocks or keeps them onhand, Ramsay includes simple directions for how to make & store them. The timelines are concise and helpful, if you overlook the kind of thing I mentioned above. There are also a few bonus tips & tricks listed here and there throughout the book.
Oh, and among the handful of recipes that I intend to try? Gordon's Apple Pudding, Prosciutto Sage & Parmesan Puffs, Gordon's Beef Wellington, and a variation on Salmon En Croute. Most of these looked delicious, have ingredients that I can easily get, and won't keep me in the kitchen for an eternity!
Another post from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20101118-the-worlds-greatest-bookshops
As I mention in my library post earlier, I love bookstores as much as I love libraries. I have literally planned vacations around book shopping. My first trip to Toronto was a giant book buying binge. I found Bakka Science Fiction Books and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Then there was the cookbook store, whose name I've forgotten. And so many more....
London? Mom had to drag me away from Charing Cross Road. It's not the bookstore Mecca it once was, but I still had a lot of fun plundering the stores we found. I bought a ton of books that I began to resent as I had to lug them around for the rest of the day, having planned badly.
I even love online bookstores as my denuded bank account, Amazon, and Better World Books will all tell you. And nothing is more fun for me than spending an hour (or 3) digging through the stacks in a good used bookstore.
So, among my other life goals now, is the challenge of getting to as many of the bookstores on the BBC list as possible.
Tell me, what are some of YOUR favorite bookstores?
