Cookbook assembled at Ace of Spades, 361 pages, $15.00 on Amazon. Perhaps the Kindle version is better. $6.00. That way if you think of a key word you can more easily look up something recalled. No pictures.
It's chock full of deplore.
Most the recipes are for people who don't like to cook. A lot of recipes for children. No organic free-range buy local in this book. There is a heavy reliance on prepared ingredients, tinned beans and vegetables and sauces, packages of mixes, prepared dressings, a lot of Velveeta cheese. All regular grocery store cheese. Heavy reliance on mayonnaise, sour cream, Philadelphia cream cheese. A large number of recipes for mac and cheese, but surprisingly, not one for mac and cheese with bacon and jalapeño. The longest recipe description is for a mac and cheese layered casserole. The description runs a full page. Most are terse. They tell where the recipe came from, which contests it won, which holidays it's served, who invented it. And to think they're actually written down on cards is itself rather funny. You got four ingredients. Is that really a recipe you found when your mother passed?
I had to put the book down for a full blown laughing session until it worked out of my system. That took a very long time. Page 333, I think, Lin-duh's Unknown Black Bean Soup. She says, "I pulled this out of my ass one night." And I died laughing. It's a cookbook! You don't pull something out of your ass then suggest people eat it. OMG! That is funny.
All of the recipes have that same cavalier je ne sais quois that you see in Ace comments.
Some of the recipes are unusable. The dip section is quite poor. It amounts to: stand in front of your pantry and with eyes closed grab something. Spin around. Grab something else. Grab a tin of tomatoes and put it all in a blender.
The potato recipes are extensive. Quite a few variations on potato salad. Quite a few chilis and stews.
The book is organized:
Drinks. I skipped that whole part. But I'll probably go back and read it.
Deserts, lots of those.
Bread, there's a good one that calls for 1/4 teaspoon yeast, and knew by that it will be overnight proofing. Sure enough, it matches the NYT no-knead method, except this is even more careless. Other breads take 2 packages of yeast and that doesn't even make sense. You can start with one package and leave it an hour and have 2 packages worth reproduce by itself.
Snacks and appetizers, 35 pages of those.
Sides. This is where all the potatoes are and the mac and cheese, 20 pages of starches, 19 pages of fruit and veggies, 8 pages of salads.
From the Grill
Main Courses
Some of those recipes sounded very good. Quiche without crust and baked pineapple. There are few recipes that call for pineapple and in each recipe they specify a tin of pineapple and my heart sinks. The difference between tinned and fresh pineapple is vast. And the cost of fresh is actually lower than it is in Hawaii. By half, at least. There are lot of things like this. Bean salad.
Aunt Wally's Bean Casserole: 15 oz can green beans, 15 oz can yellow beans, 15 oz can kidney beans, 15 oz can pork and beans 15 oz can lima beans, 1 can tomato soup, 1 small can tomato paste, sugar, mustard, bacon, sausage, then the only things fresh, celery and onion. Aunt Wally's concept of cooking is opening cans. And having said that it actually sounds pretty good.
Interspersed are actual thoughtful and careful recipes. They're sporadic. Persian rice salad, Rotmos (Mashed Root Vegetables) A mashed potato substitution. Bacon and Bourbon dressing, Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Goat Cheese Puree, Spinach Salad with Apples, Avocado, and Bacon, to name only a few. The book is jocular throughout but it is no joke. This really is how Americans prepare food. And it's loaded with great ideas, and quite a few not so great. See, if this were the Kindle version I could go straight to the place that I skipped when I saw the word Spam. Oh! Right. Pg. 162, Mom's Despair (Spam & Rice). I didn't read it. Maybe it's actually good.
Nobody said anything about using a pressure pot. Although some did mention slow cooker.
I'll look through it again. To see what I might have missed. And maybe to review all the potato recipes again.
Amazon delivered the book this morning. I went out to walk around a few blocks and to pick up a few deli groceries. When I came back Amazon had delivered again. I placed an order for 4 things to deliver all at once, and they're making 4 deliveries. It occurred to me, they're treating the whole world like one gigantic office mail delivery system.
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