One Big Table

I just bought this cookbook and I am so excited! I swear it was written just for me. Molly O'Neill, former food writer for the New York Times started ten years gathering material for what would become this cookbook: One Big Table -600 recipes from the nation's best home cooks, farmers, fishermen, pit-masters, and chefs. It truely is a loving portrait of American cooking today. There are photos on almost every page -photos from the past, and photos of foods and cooks of the present. The following recipe, very similar to the blue cheese dressing posted on Arctic Garden Studio by Nicole (click here) is the first thing I plan to make from this cookbook, but it definitely won't be the last.

Rogue Creamery's Best Blue Cheese Dressing Ever
Whisk together in medium bowl until combined:
1 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. sour cream
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c. fresh parsley, minced
2 oz. (about 1/2 c.) Oregon blue cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste
Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes before serving.

Meatballs, Blue Cheese Pecan Logs, and Iguanas

Those who know me, know about my little obsession. Those who love me, tolerate and even enable me in it. What is IT? IT is that I am obsessed with cookbooks. I love cookbooks. I love reading them, owning them, sharing and giving them as gifts (and getting them as gifts), and talking about them. I have always been a reader, but I soon discovered during the early stages of parenting young children that one's 'free time' occurs in increments of about 2 minutes, TOPS. Immersing myself in the plot of a novel became a thing of the B.C. (before children) past, but I discovered that being interrupted from reading a cookbook didn't break the thread. I could open a cookbook to any page and read the recipe, close it, open it again to another (or the same) page and continue reading, and pick up the thread of their style of cooking, the feel of their food and kitchen, and through their food (the same as with some blogs) -the taste of another life.

These three cookbooks were recent gifts -all quite different from each other and all with their own unique merits. The Meatball Cookbook Bible by Ellen Brown kicked off my proclaiming 2011 to be The Year of the Meatball and if you have been following here, you've probably seen some of my weekly meatball recipe posts -and more will follow.

My son gave me The Complete Southern Cookbook by Tammy Algood and I have the Four-Layer Coconut Cake recipe in it flagged. The same son has requested a chocolate layer cake for this weekend -and I'll happily be indulging him with this request- so it will have to wait. Valentine's Day, maybe? For the skg's holiday party, I made her Blue Cheese Pecan Log recipe (she adds parsley, I leave it out), and this appetizer would be great for a Valentine Day party or dinner (I'll halve the recipe for a small dinner).

Blue Cheese Pecan Logs

Mix in food processor:

8 oz. cream cheese

4 oz. Rogue River Smokey Blue Cheese

3/4 c. shredded Tillamook Cheddar Cheese

1/4 c. minced onion

1 T. Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 c. finely chopped pecans

Refrigerate one hour. Shape into two logs. Divide 1/2 c. pecans in half and roll and coat each log separately. Wrap in plastic and/or store in an airtight container in the fridge. Serve with crackers -and some Red Pepper Jam or Jelly!

Oaxaca al Gusto by Diane Kennedy was a gift from my husband and is just the sort of book I love, even if I never cook from it. Diane Kennedy is the Grand Dame of Mexican cooking, AND she is always such a good read, giving the reader the FEEL of actually being there and seeing the people, the places and the foods. She describes the entire food experience and culture on a level that at times practically makes me jump up and shout, "Yeah!" football-fan-style, and at other times simply sigh contently. I won't be scoring an iguana and preparing it for dinner tonight, or tracking down those special peppers that only grow in a particular part of Mexico, but I really, really like reading about her doing those very things. And though I'm more likely to make a Mexican meal like this (click here), after reading Oaxaca al Gusto, I feel as if I actually have been in Mexico, catching and cooking that iguana, and I know how to do it, now.