richard stopped me from buying a cookbook and wonders if this is mean. i say yes! friends out there, back me up on this!
it's true, i do have a teensy-weensy collection of cookbooks and six years of cooking light magazine back issues. but i cook out of them. really. i do. and for what it's worth, i made something from the dinner lady just last night.
nine more meals to go and jo pratt's new collection will be mine. what's one more cookbook when you already have a few shelves of them?
[written 26 February 2007]
Ok, I just want to point out that I AM being nice in regards to last night’s item prepared from the Dinner Lady. There was some question about whether it counts as one of the 10 meals Shannon has to cook since it was a "crisp" pie, also known as a crumble in the UK. Shannon already makes a lot of these. The key distinguishing factor with this new crisp was a slight change to the concoction of the crispy top, the inclusion of banana, and cooking of the apples beforehand. Not really huge changes and we both agreed that it didn't work as well as her "original" recipe. But I let it slide. That's really big of me, I think...
Posted by: Richard | February 27, 2007 at 10:53 AM
If we were to discount one recipe that Shannon used because of lack of novelty, where would it end? I mean, after a while, chicken is chicken is chicken etc.
My strategy in this regard is to go ethnic in my cookbook purchases. Your cookbook library sounds pretty extensive though, so you might already have all those bases covered.
After we visited with you last year, I bought an Indian cookbook with the sole intention of being able to make a Saag Aloo like the one we had at your local Indian take away place. It had fresh, green, still recognizable spinach instead of the brown slurry most of the places here serve. I've gotten a lot of use out of that one.
Posted by: Michelle | February 27, 2007 at 07:02 PM
Sorry Shannon, but I am with Rich on this one. I even mentioned to Heidi what a great idea I thought it was. ;)
Posted by: John | February 27, 2007 at 07:15 PM
It's becoming clear that opinion on this follows party lines pretty strictly (men v women).
Posted by: Michelle | February 27, 2007 at 10:06 PM
in case it wasn't clear, I vote that Richard is mean.
Posted by: Michelle | February 27, 2007 at 10:08 PM
Debra and I have established our own sort of Mutually Assured Destruction when it comes to purchases. I don't bug her about the cookbooks and $120 face cream and she doesn't give me grief over the gadgets and the clothes. It works beautifully if you ignore the damage to our credit card. I say go for the Jo Pratt and let Richard indulge his own fetish for...whatever it is he has a fetish for. Freedom!
Posted by: Account Deleted | February 28, 2007 at 03:19 AM
rah-rah! i think the vote is in my favour, particularly if you count the number of comments (thanks michelle :) )
Posted by: ShannonB | February 28, 2007 at 08:58 AM
Thanks a lot, Richard! I thought I was screwed on Feb 27 when John came running home to tell me all about this brilliant idea. Well, since then: 1. I immediately realized an easy workaround. Let's just buy each other books! Those would be gifts, and it would be rude to refuse them, if you ask me. I've got my list in-hand, when you're ready! 2. I have a new book or two or so, and realized I am burning through them anyway. For example, if you make a soup in the Moosewood Low-Fat cookbook, just make sure you also use their stock recipe. That's two right there.
Posted by: heidi | March 10, 2007 at 02:01 AM