texas@bucsb.UUCP (Scott J. Smith) (12/13/85)
I have been reading net.cooks for quite a while now, and I have copied a
number of excellent recipes. My problem is that I am a student who is in
need of "interesting" recipes but not ones that will take hours to prepare.
To further complicate the issue, I have budget and dietary constraints:
1) I can't afford gourmet preparations, and 2) I cannot mix milk and meat
(my girlfriend keeps Kosher).
If anyone has any good recipes or recipe books, send them to me via mail.
I will post a summary of good responses in a couple of weeks.
Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays.
Scott Smith (texas@bucsb.UUCP)
Boston University
A Texan invading the north!!reid@glacier.ARPA (Brian Reid) (12/15/85)
I know it sounds trite, but the Betty Crocker cookbook is a goldmine of "basic" recipes. It doesn't say much about kosher, but it's loaded with information about affordable, easy, and nutritious meals. Although I own more than 100 cookbooks, I think that the three I use the most are Craig Claiborne (for recipes), Joy of Cooking (for information about ingredients), and Betty Crocker (for everyday stuff). If you don't mind being spoken to like a 10-year-old, Good Housekeeping publishes a magnificent children's cookbook, aimed at sub-teenagers, that has about 30 easy, cheap, and simple recipes in it. Just because a 10-year-old can cook it doesn't mean that you need to be ashamed to try. I've probably tried 30% of the recipes in the children's cookbook. They're fun! -- Brian Reid decwrl!glacier!reid Stanford reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA
jfinger@diablo.ARPA (12/17/85)
Besides "Joy of Cooking" I have enjoyed the following general cookbooks: "Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook" (approx $20) Has a section in the front of nothing but color photos of each recipe in the book. Helpful both in cooking and in deciding "What vegetable dish do I want to include in this menu?" and the like. Sunset "Easy Basics for Good Cooking" Lane Publishing Co, Menlo Park, Ca. (approx $10) Good explanations, simple, tried and true recipes. Good photos. Their smaller books on all sorts of kinds of cooking are good, too. Cookbooks for Kosher Cooking ============================ "The Jewish Holiday Kitchen" by Joan Nathan, Schocken Books ($10) A WINNER!!! Super recipes from all over. Lots of great Sefardic stuff. Good instructions. Most of the recipes are pretty easy, too. "The Spice and Spirit of Kosher-Jewish Cooking" The Lubavitch Women's Organization, approx $15. Simple, tasty, inexpensive recipes for standard Eastern European Jewish fare. "The Chosen Appetizers & Desserts" edited by Marylin Stone, Triad Publishing Co., Gainesville, Florida Despite the cutesy title, it has lots of good recipes for high calorie, high cholesterol dishes. Difficulty of recipes varies greatly. -- Jeff Finger --
figmo@lll-crg.ARpA (Lynn Gold) (12/17/85)
As somebody who's been there (in college, I dated a few guys who kept kosher and shared cooking with a few vegetarians), melchadik (sp?) is the way to go if you don't want to put a strain on your budget. Food such as Fettucine Alfredo, Cheese Enchiladas with (vegetarian) Refried Beans (can be done easily with a toaster oven and a hot plate), pizza, cheese lasagne, and other forms of pasta work well. If you use dried legumes, lentils and black-eyed peas (in that order) cook up the most quickly and don't require pre-soaking. Add a salad or some kind of vegetable and you've got a balanced meal. Kosher meats can get to be prohibitively expensive; besides, the selection of desserts goes down if you're eating meat :-) ... --Lynn Gold ...lll-crg!figmo
barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan) (12/18/85)
The Better Homes and Garden's "New" Cookbook is also good for beginning cooks. I don't use it much any more -- it was supplanted by the Fanny Farmer Cookbook and a fistful of specialty cookbooks (the best of which is the Petrini's meat cookbook, available for $2 or $2.50 from the Petrini's Grocery Store -- S.F. Bay Area -- worth it at twice the price!) -- but when I was starting, B.H.&G. was a Bible. Barb