Good Ol' Home Cooking

Any James McNair cookbook, titles include: Corn, Rice, Pie, Southeast Asian, Pizza, Pasta, Chicken, Squash, Beef, and Cake. James McNair's recipes are both good and easy to follow. This is a nice beginners cookbook. The gorgeous pictures which accompany each recipe will get your mouth watering. Check out these recipes for a sampling of his style: Thai Iced Tea, Thai Mushroom and Coconut Soup, Indonesian Style Fried Bananas , Crispy Rice Flour Crepes, Lemon Slice Pie, and Buttermilk Pie .If you want to see some more information on his books, with pictures of the covers and more sample recipes, look here: McNair..McNair..McNair

Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. This book is based on the PBS series hosted by Julia Child. The recipes span the range of sweet and savory. Everything I've made from this book has been mouth watering, like the Finnish Cardamon Pulla , but many of recipes are for advanced bakers and are very labor intensive and complicated. They are well worth the effort, just be ready.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. This is like the vegetarian Joy of Cooking: it is huge, heavy, and full of it all. Lots of information about nutrition and tidbits on different food. Her recipes are easy to follow and don't call for any hard-to-find ingredients. This is not a picture cookbook, but there are a few included to get your salivary glands going. One of my favorite dishes of hers is the Butternut Squash with Sage Galette. This book is an investment, but is should be on every vegetarian's bookshelf.

The Book of Vegetarian Cooking by HP Books press. Soups, salads, appetizers, entrees, and desserts... it's all in here. The HP Books' cookbooks are cheap and portable. I haven't yet been disappointed with anything I've tried from this book, so go on and do them yourself...if you want to. Tomato Olive and Bread Soup , Broiled Grape Leaves with Goat Cheese,Baked Egg Cups with Mozzarella , Panzanella , and Sweet Potato Wedges.

A Gourmet's Guide to Chocolate by HP Books press. I don't know if I'd really call this the gourment's guide to chocolate, but it is full of easy and flavorfull recipes. If you want to get an introduction to chocolate, starting with the history and how it's made, look at this book. It has neat tricks, like how to make your own chocolate Santa or leaves. If you want to get a sampling of the "gourmet" recipes, try these out: Rich Chocolate Ice Cream and Not-Too-Sweet Chocolate Chip Muffins with Orange Butter.

Cook's Illustrated magazine is my all-time favorite magazine. It has NO advertisements...ever!!! Here's the way the magazine works: they decide on something they want to make, like chocolate chip cookies, then they go to the test kitchen and make it until it is perfect. Sometimes this process takes about thirty tries, but they don't mind, they do it until it's dreamy. Next they write an article about what worked and what didn't, giving all the scientific reasons as to why. It is a very nerdy magazine, with all of its in-depth answers to food and recipe questions. Other monthly features are What Is It?, where a bizarre cooking instrument is identified. Quick Tips features fast ways to do things in the kitchen, submitted by other readers. Also they have a great Taste Test for food and a test for kitchen products like blenders. They pit different brands against each other and break it down into "Recommended, Recommended with reservations, and Not recommended." Of course an evaluation of each brand is given, in addition to the price. If you only like cooking magazines for their fancy color photos, this ain't your thing. There is a nice back page with a color picture of each dish, but all the inside pages are simple black and white, with lots of illustrations and few photos. But I'm telling you, the recipes are phenomenal. I suggest you try out The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, Wilted Spinach Salad with Bacon , and Maple Glazed Pork Loin before passing judgment on this magazine. Warning: you'll probably want a subscription. Of course you can check out the website cooksillustrated.com