Cookbook Wednesday: Summer Desserts!

Happy Cookbook Wednesday, everyone!  We had some beautiful weather here last weekend, and more is scheduled for this weekend.  Plus, Ryan's coming home from college in the next couple of days!  So, I'll ignore the fact that it's 53 and raining here today.

Two summers ago, Dan and Ryan spotted this at the supermarket, and bought it for me.  They told me that these were some dandy ideas, and ever so much less boring than my usual repertoire of cakes and stuff.  Some of their recipes are just the usual, some were rather interesting, use of Cool Whip (which has never crossed my threshold) notwithstanding.

 They have many categories, including Healthy Living.  With Cool Whip? Maybe.

 This looks good.  I've been meaning to try it.  Sugar-free jello would be my choice.

 I think everyone has seen some variation of this when kids are around.  It could even be a cute idea for a garden themed bridal shower (do they have themed bridal showers any more?).

 I made this, but with pineapple instead of mango.  It was pretty good.  Probably should get into the schedule soon.

 Who doesn't love the name "whoopie pie"?  It just sounds like fun to eat, if not to make.

 Aha! The healthy section!  Sugar free jello and fruits.  Of course!

 And I think my dearly beloved needs these.  He loves strawberries, and has gained a little weight since his surgery last year, which is causing no end of wailing about fat.  Hey, welcome to my world, darling, where we fight the fat year after year.

So that's it!  Fun summer desserts!  Because we can't let dessert get boring (or so I'm told).

This is Cookbook Wednesday, which I'm hosting while Louise is visiting with her daughter.

Other Participants:

Nellie's American Grub - a nifty kid's cookbook!

Poppy's Delicious Bread Recipes - from 1919!  Wowsers!

Debbie's Pie Cookbook - looks good!

Let me know if I can add you!  Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Garden Tuesday: Flowers, At Last!

Busy week last week; 2 active projects for the business, 2 more in the planning, plus trying to finish 2 long sleeved dresses I cut out and never sewed?  I must be nuts.

Oh, well, I'm enjoying the beginning of our spring flowers.

The forsythia are blooming everywhere.

 The rhododendron outside my kitchen window started showing its flowers this morning.  Today, when I look out the window, I see flowers!

 Lots of daffodils, although I don't mean to inspire daffy-envy in Karin.

 And there are violets in the lawn on my terrace.  Yes, and lots of clover, too.  Don't judge me by the poor quality of my lawn.  At least it's green now.

 The magnolia tree is blooming, too!  I am always amazed that a southern tree does well here.  In the lower right corner you can see my grape vines.  I cut the tarnation out of them a couple of weeks back. We'll see if they grow grapes instead of leaves this year.

It's supposed to rain this afternoon and tomorrow, and then be warm again, so by next week our yard will be awash in pinks and whites! Hooray!

Probably almost everyone else has been enjoying spring for weeks, so I hope you enjoyed this peek at the beginning of the season here in my little corner of the world.  Happy Tuesday!

Cookbook Wednesday: Country Cooking

This is a pretty cookbook.  Really, it feels more to me like a book I'd enjoy perusing, rather than a place to find recipes.  Of course, it's published by Bon Appetit, which you don't go to for casual cooking.

It was purchased at a library used book sale.  This was obviously a library edition, given the plastic cover.  But the pocket glued inside it is the real tipoff.  I'm always sad when a book is stamped "Discard," as this one is.

 It was published in 1978.  The table of contents shows that the recipes and whatnot are collected from a variety of European countries and North America.

Look at the pretty pictures!  There are a few pages at the beginning of each section about something or other; in this case, they're writing about dinner.

 You can see how extensive the recipes are.  Not quick Wednesday night fare.

 But every page is so pretty!

This is Cookbook Wednesday, which I'm hosting while Denise is off visiting with her daughter.  Leave me a note if you'd like me to link you up.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Edited to add:

Poppy's Bean Cookbook.  Really!

Nellie's Boxcar Children Cookbook.  My kids loved the Boxcar Children. 

Debbie's Hockey Booster Club Cookbook.  Community cookbooks are always such fun.

Thanks for participating, all of you.  I'll be more prompt with my links next week.

Too Early for Straw Hats?

My local paper runs a history column, with excerpts from its earlier editions.

100 Years Ago Today:

"A high temperature of 87 degrees was recorded the previous day in Scranton.  Due to the heat, straw hats were spotted on the heads of men downtown.  Official straw hat season was due to start on May 15."

No word on whether the police were ticketing violators of Official Straw Hat Season, nor whether ladies were seen wearing White Shoes Before Season.  At least the gents had the fashion police surveying them, too.

Also no word as to whether this gent was wearing an appropriately seasonal hat while visiting with his mother in Massachusetts, approximately 100 years ago.

Happy (Nowhere near 87 degree) Sunday, everyone!

Thorsday Book Review: Around the World in 50 Years

This is another book I saw reviewed in The Wall Street Journal.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 YEARS
by Albert Podell

The author is an attorney, but when he started this journey, fresh out of college, with his friend Steve, it was simply to be a road trip to circumnavigate the world, paid for by sponsorships and magazine articles.  It's a great book, written in the tone of a friend relating interesting, and sometimes horrifying or scary, anecdotes.  Albert Podell was the son of lower middle class Eastern European Jewish immigrants who earned his way through college and always wanted to travel.  The book never talks about his experiences in countries where plenty of people have gone, save in the beginning, where he writes about getting car repairs in Spain at the beginning of his journey.  Instead, he recounts the first journey, in the early 1960s, with plenty of attention and humor paid to the trip across northern Africa (for instance, the nomad who wanted to buy the "chunky" nurse he and Steve had with them for $2000, and deciding that he couldn't do so because Albert insisted that he must take the 2 skinny nurses as part of a package deal).  There are tales of trips through countries in civil uproar, difficulties of traveling in the Middle East as a Jew (he learned enough Christian prayers, etc, to be convincing as a non-Jew), difficult to nonexistent roads, and the strangers they met along the way (hunting from the back of the open Jeep-like vehicle late at night, anyone?).

Mr. Podell continued to travel as he aged, and, at some point, decided it was his goal to visit every country in the world.  Some places he visited twice, such as visiting East Pakistan, and opting to return when it became Bangladesh.  He's brutally honest about each place he visits, not writing about the great culture and history, but instead about the people (friendly in some places, not so much in others), the infrastructure or lack thereof, accommodations, government, things an observant visitor would notice.  He paid a lot of attention to Southeast Asian and African countries.  As I was reading that section, I thought it would be interesting to Diane from France, whose family traversed Africa in 1953 (and who published her mother's book about the journey), as a comparison to her experiences.  But even for someone who has no desire to leave her own continent, this was a spellbinding work.  5/5

Cookbook Wednesday: Pampered Chef Cookbook-let!

A couple of years back, my friend Chan gave me this cookbook, along with a terrific refrigerator magnet that contains cooking conversions of all sorts.  I have enjoyed this little cookbook because it's short and sweet.

There are just a few recipes from several different categories, including appetizers, main dishes and desserts.  And, really, what else is there in life?  Drinks?  Check.  They're in there.  Pocket sized and complete.

I've been meaning to make this artichoke dip for a holiday gathering, ever since Greg's then girlfriend brought it for Thanksgiving a while back.  Usually, I'm lucky if I can remember my own name during Thanksgiving week, and I certainly never leave the house for fear of forgetting where I live while I"m remembering all the cooking I need to do.  But one of these days, I'll make this dip.

 Doesn't Twice Baked Potato Soup sound divine?

And I have to make this cake this summer, after Ryan gets home from college.  Mark's a weasel; he never finishes any desserts I make.

Of course, since this is a Pampered Chef cookbook, all of the recipes include instruction to use their products for stirring, mixing, baking and whatnot.  But that's OK

So, sometimes short and sweet is the perfect cookbook, so much so that I bought 7 copies and gave one to each of my older 7 children after I got this one!

This is Cookbook Wednesday, a tradition which I'm carrying on for Louise while she's on hiatus; she'll return after her annual visit with her daughter.

Let me know if you have an entry you'd like linked!  Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Links to Cookbook Wednesday Participants:

Nellie's Little House Cookbook! 

Grannie Pantries: First Cookbook, or The Origins of Poppy!

Debbie's America's Most Wanted Recipes! 

Garden Tuesday: Spring, At Last

We had sunshine this past weekend, and signs of spring have finally arrived!

My yard, around sunset (it was cloudy)

 Daffodils!

 Little Purple Flowers!

 More daffodils!  We transplanted these bulbs from our woods about a decade ago, and they haven't bloomed until now.  Maybe they needed a lot of time to recover from the stress.

 Close up little purple flowers.  I have no idea what they are.

 Overlooking this lovely representation of spring.  The ivy hasn't turned green yet, but I'll take whatever spring I can find!

Are you seeing signs of spring?

Happy Garden Tuesday, everyone!

Carrot Bread for a Bake Sale

The high school Mark attends requires community service.  He and two of his pals were a little short, so I came up with a great idea: I'd lead 3 teenaged boys in baking goods for the library's used book and bake sale.  I must be nuts.  Actually, they are nice boys (even Mark), and I happily fed them teenage-boy-friendly dinners as a reward.

They made 2 kinds of cookies, 4 loaves of carrot bread, 3 pans of granola bars (and I made yeast raised rolls). 

The carrot bread didn't make the picture; it was in the bottom of the box:

They did a lot of baking!

So, since the carrot bread didn't make the pictures, here's the recipe I created:

CARROT BREAD

3 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs (or 3 egg whites)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts

Stir together the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl.  Add the eggs and oil, and beat until combined.  Stir in the carrots and walnuts.  Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.  Bake at 350F for 45 to 55 minutes, depending upon your pan size.  2 loaves.

The bake sale ladies were impressed with the giant box of goodies Mark hauled in on Saturday morning, and evidently these offerings sold pretty well.  I think Mark was pleased despite his grumbles to the contrary.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Cookbook Wednesday: Cookie Love

For all the years my kids were growing up, I rarely made cookies.  They are a lot of work, and don't last long with 6 (or even 4) sons clamoring for cookies.  I did teach the girls to bake, however, and to read a recipe, and they took up making cookies on Sunday mornings before I got up, starting when they were in middle school.  Their go-to repertoire was chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies: admirable choices.

So, recently I got the opportunity to review this cookbook, which seems very appropriate for Cookbook Wednesday:

COOKIE LOVE
by Mindy Segal

This is a beautiful hardcovered book.  The author explains that she is dyslexic, and has trouble reading recipes correctly, and so developed a love of baking cookies, often creating her own recipes.  She explains the basics - various ingredients, their use, and even where to get hard to find items.

 She includes recipes for 8 categories of cookies, including drop cookies, shortbread, sandwich cookies, egg white cookies, spritz and thumbprints, twice baked cookies, Rugelach and bar cookies.

 And every page has pretty pictures for inspiration.

 Sandwich cookies include Ice Cream Sandwich cookies, of course.  She also includes recipes for any special sauces or fillers you need to make for your cookies.

 We've all had thumbprint cookies, but how about Pecan Praline Thumbprints?  I want them.  Now.

 Rugelach look very complex in the bakery, but she makes it look almost easy.  Again, she includes recipes for the fillings.

 Her instructions are very long and detailed.  It does make it seem a little daunting to make most of these cookies.  Still, I think that (if you're me) you should be able to scan the ingredients and procedure, then do your own thing, so you're not scared off by the 2 pages of instruction for each cookie.

 The one thing I didn't like about this cookbook is that the typeface is on the small side.  That makes it hard for not-so-young eyes to read the recipes very well.

Overall, however, this is a very well organized book.  I enjoyed reading it, and look forward to making small batches of cookies for my dearly beloved and my youngest son.  4/5

Note: I received this book from Blogging for Books.  All opinions are my own.

This is my entry for Cookbook Wednesday, usually hosted by the lovely Louise, who is on hiatus.  Leave me a note to be linked up!

Edited to add:

Nellie's Junior Cookbook! Classic Red Plaid Cookbook for kids!

Poppy's Brain Oysters and Frozen Whale!  Trust me, you have to read her words.

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!