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Showing posts with label cookbooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookbooks. Show all posts

Cooking Class with Sara Moulton

A few weeks ago I saw that the Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporium in Brandon, a big cookware store that also offers cooking classes almost daily, was hosting a special cooking class with chef Sara Moulton.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Sara she has had a long and accomplished career. If being Julia Child's sous chef isn't enough to impress you, Sara spent 10 years at The Food Network, recording 1,500 episodes with the majority of them being live shows; was the executive chef at Gourmet magazine for 25 years; hosted a PBS series called Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals and is still the food editor at Good Morning America. She has a new cookbook out called Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners, which she made four recipes from during her class last night. Her other cookbooks include Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, Sara Moulton Cooks at Home and The Good Morning America Cut the Calories Cookbook.


Her new cookbook is all about getting dinner on the table during the work week. Like most women in America, Sara finds herself coming home from work and needing to get dinner on the table quick. Her new book includes 200 recipes, mostly entrees, that will help you get out of the dinner rut. You know the rut, making the same 5-10 recipes over and over.

Sara admitted to being a lover of breakfast for dinner, much like me, so I am very happy to see the new cookbook has a chapter all about breakfast for dinner! Other chapters besides the normal poultry, meat, seafood and side dishes, include appetizers for dinner, sandwich night, spectacular salads, soup suppers, vegetarian cornucopia, five-ingredient mains, and a few more.

At her class last night, Sara demonstrated how to make her scrambled eggs and smoked salmon crepes, garlicky green beans and shitake mushrooms, chicken pot pie soup and butterscotch pudding cake. Not only was it a thrill to watch Sara and learn from her, the best part was getting to try all her dishes. They were all delicious, and me and my sweet tooth loved the dessert.

Sara was wonderful; a complete delight, very nice and down-to-earth. The class was able to ask questions and nothing was off limits. She signed a copy of everyone's cookbooks, which was included in our sign up for the class. I'm very excited to start cooking from it. Stay tuned!

Sara has a great Web site with recipes, a blog, videos and more. You can also follow her on Facebook and twitter.
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Penne with Vodka Sauce

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, so I always try to make something special for him. Last year I made Chicken Carbonara, a dish I usually ridicule him for ordering at restaurants because I am sure it takes a year off of his life, but I figured for his birthday I would make an exception. And boy was it good! This year I am making Penne with Vodka Sauce and serving it with a wedge salad topped with homemade blue cheese dressing. Below is the recipe I am using for the main course. I will post the blue cheese dressing recipe tomorrow after I try it out. I am sort of experimenting, so want to make sure it is delicious before I pass it on.

Ingredients:
(This is Giada De Laurentiis' recipe from her cookbook, Everyday Italian)
1 quart (4 cups) simple tomato sauce, blended until smooth (see my Holy Marinara post and do yourself a favor and double the recipe. Freeze the extra in freezer bags in 2 cup portions)
1 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 pound penne

Simmer the tomato sauce and vodka in a heavy large skillet over low heat until the mixture reduces by 1/4, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Stir the cream into the tomato and vodka sauce. Simmer over low heat until the sauce is heated through. Stir in the Parmesan cheese until melted and well blended.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta and transfer it to the pan with the sauce, and toss to coat.
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New Cookbook: 500 Soup Recipes

While at the mall today I was browsing around Waldenbooks and saw this huge cookbook of 500 soup recipes on the bargain shelf. It was only $3.97, so I thought what the hell. I have already looked through it and picked out some of the soups I want to try. There are several things that are great about this book.

1. The price, obviously.
2. There is a picture of each and every soup. I love visuals.
3. The diversity. There is everything from creamy soups, cold soups, Asian-inspired, vegetarian, bean, pasta, meat, seafood, etc., etc.

Now if only we weren't in the middle of record high temperatures I might want to make some of these. I guess I'll have to start with the cold soups. Gazpacho anyone?
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New Cookbook

One of my hobbies is collecting cookbooks. I bought a new one this weekend, Ellie Krieger's "The Food You Crave." Ellie Krieger hosts a show on Food Network and she is a registered dietician and nutrition. My husband and I have started eating healthier, and this week we found out he has extremely high cholesterol, which is what promted me to buy this cookbook. Now I'll really be watching what we eat. What I love about this cookbook is she takes a lot of classic dishes that we have grown up on, but does them in a more healthful way. If you don't deprive yourself than you won't over indulge. Each recipe has the nutritional information of the dish. She also shares great tips for shopping and snacking and dispels myths about certain foods. There are so many great sounding recipes in this book, I guarantee you'll be seeing them here. Cheers to a healthy life!

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New Cookbooks

My lovely husband bought me two new cookbooks today: Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book and KitchenAid's Great Baking and More. The KitchenAid cookbook has more than just dessert recipes. It also has appetizer and entree recipes. I am very excited to try out my new standing mixer with some of the recipes. I was taking a break from Racheal Ray for a little while, but flipping through the pages at Border's today a lot of the recipes jumped out at me. I'll let you know more about these cookbooks once I try them out. And of course any recipes I love I will post here.
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