1001 Recipes You’ve Always Wanted to Cook
Collins & Brown; Edited by Heather Brown
When I have the time, I love to cook and although I already have hundreds of cookbooks on my shelf at home (no, seriously!) I continue to be attracted to new cookbooks and new recipes to try. Most recently, I had the delicious pleasure of borrowing 1001 Recipes You’ve Always Wanted to Cook, edited by Heather Brown. This book actually contained 1001 recipes I’ve always wanted to cook!
A feature I like when I am using a new recipe is having a photo of the finished product. I like to know what the dish is supposed to look like, mainly so I can tell as I go along, whether things are going well or not! This book has great colour photos of many of the dishes, which add to their mouth-watering goodness. Another attractive feature of the recipes is their multi-unit measurements. Each recipe offers you measurements in imperial (pounds, ounces, cups, pints), and metric (grams, millilitres).
This cookbook is a UK publication, but has been “Americanized” in that although the recipes in it are some good old home cooking favourites I grew up with in the UK, there’s not a lot of the UK language in the ingredients, and when it is used, a definition is offered. For example, “minced beef” is clarified as “ground beef” and “courgettes” as “zucchini.”
I jumped right into this easy to use book and had such success with the recipes (broccoli and goat cheese soup, green beans and almonds, chicken enchiladas….) that I bought the book!
This book is enhanced by its versatility and thriftiness. You won’t need to spend a fortune to try these creations. The ingredients are not too out of the ordinary and chances are you have most of them in your pantry, ready to be turned into a great new dish to impress your family and friends!
For other popular reading suggestions check out Richmond Public Library’s Web site at www.yourlibrary.ca/goodbooks/.