Food Musings (with links!)
The other night I came home to find a mysterious package in the mail. It turned out to be two books I'd requested from John Thorne's annual book sale. John Thorne, in case you don't know, is the author of a quarterly food newsletter and
website called "Simple Cooking." I highly recommend that you check out the website, and if you like subscribing to newsletters this one is excellent.
In addition to Thorne's website I can recommend these, too:
Walker New York: Eats,
Chocolate & Zucchini,
the lunch blog and
the blog of what this guy had for dinner last night. I love to read about what people cook for dinner - but it has to be home cooking, I don't want to hear about fancy. I just like to read about what people throw together for dinner.
In case you were wondering, the two books were Peter Mayle's
French Lessons and
Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book. Nancy Silverton is a chef, owner of the restaurant Campanile and well known in Los Angeles; Peter Mayle is, of course, the guy who writes about Provence. Mayle's book contains no recipes but is full of amusing essays about local French specialties. Silverton's book is mouthwatering and great fun to read, but her idea of a sandwich is not exactly PB & J. For many of the recipes you have to start by preparing various spreads, roast meats, roasted vegetables, homemade mayonnaise, etc. and
then make the sandwich. Still, I think the book is worthwhile for two reasons: first, if you were going to have a somewhat casual dinner party, many of the ingredients can be made ahead of time and just set out for people to make their own sandwiches. Second, many of the ingredients would be worth it to make just on their own for a side dish (e.g., slow-cooked broccoli, roasted radicchio, roasted onions).
Well, I guess it's time to go home and have cold cereal for dinner. Heh. (I read 'em, but I rarely cook from them.)
posted by Dr. Alice at #
