I’ve been somewhat unsure on how to review cookbooks. But I think I’ve figured out how I plan to do this, officially starting with this entry. I’ve modified the entry on the one other cookbook on the site to sort of fit the new scheme. We’ll see how it goes. The basic idea will be I will post a review after I’ve tried three recipes from the cookbook, with commentary. Later on, as I try more recipes, I’ll add additional commentary to the entry. This means that folks won’t see the new stuff in their feed readers. This category is also the only category where I will edit the entries substantively after they’ve been posted. I don’t intend to change the previous commentary, just add new notes. I think most interest in the cookbooks will be through search engines anyway, so I’m not gonna fret the updates not appearing on feeds.
Oh, and one final editorial note that’s not really related to this. Even though recipes are not really copyrightable, I don’t intend to put full recipes on the site. It’s not a cooking site. It’s a book site. In other words, I’m not aiming to help anyone cook. I’m aiming to help make the books useful. Buy the book if you want the recipe.
Best of the Best from Washington Cookbook is the kind of cookbook that I can really get in to. Not so much because I care about cooking Washington cuisine. But more because the cuisine in this cookbook tends to be less on the super-fancy and complicated side. It’s not quite comfort food, and it’s heads and shoulders above throwing together Velveeta and pasta and calling it Macaroni and Cheese. The recipes aren’t complicated for the most part, but they are from scratch. And they make good use of various spices. This is not bland food.
The set up is that the editors Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley are not cooking recipes they learned growing up or living in Washington. Instead, they pulled together a number of recipes from cookbooks published by Washingtonians (mostly). Some of these cookbooks are the kind put out as fund-raisers by the local P.T.A. Some are from the best restaurants in the state. Overall I think it’s an excellent collection. I want to try most of them.
Recipes Tried:
- Sautéed Apples and Pork, taken from Washington Cook Book
- This recipe is basically pork chops with a fruity apple-based sauce. It was delicious. I didn’t add the salt called for in the recipe, and I used dried thyme rather than fresh thyme. I normally prefer less salt, but this time I should have added the salt as called for in the recipe.
- Spinach Salad with Bacon and Apples, taken from Extraordinary Cuisine for Sea & Shore
- The bacon bits for this salad are made from bacon. Then you take the drippings and toast almonds. All that and the apples are tossed on the salad with the homemade dressing in the recipe. This was also pretty tasty. My only problem is that I’ve never quite got the hang of toasting nuts. They always end up over-toasted, in my opinion.
- Mediterranean Wrap-Ups, taken from Extraordinary Cuisine for Sea & Shore
- This is a simple appetizer. Stuff pitted dates with nuts. Wrap dates with bacon. Broil. Nutty, bacony, sweet goodness!
- Blue Cheese Crisps, taken from The Shoalwater’s Finest Dinners
- These remind me of cookies my mom and grandmother used to make. You know the kind where you roll the dough into a cylinder and slice it up? Except these cookies are made from a dough of blue cheese, butter, and flour. No sugar. I don’t do a lot of baking (except for pies), and I think my inexperience hurt these a bit. I think they were overcooked just a tad. But then, it’s hard for me to tell cause I’m not actually a huge fan of blue cheese. It’s a pungent taste, and it masked any other flavor, including the slight burnt flavor, if there actually was one. I picked this recipe mostly because it looked easy and the other folks at the dinner would like something without bacon (see previous recipe). Not awful, but all in all I think I’ll skip it next time.
- Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, taken from The Chicken Cookbook
- This is a halfway decent chicken recipe. It’s a standard marinate in soy sauce concoction recipe. I cooked the chicken in the marinade rather than grill or broil though. I’ve generally found the flavors tend to absorb into the meat better that way. Also, don’t use homemade peanut butter for the peanut sauce. It was too dry to mix properly, though it didn’t taste too bad. Next time I’ll use a peanut butter from an organic producer instead of homemade.
- Mexican Corn & Bean Sopa, taken from The Colophon Cafe Best Soups
- This was really pretty good. Onion, garlic, tomatoes, kidney beans, corn, and vegetable juice with a few other ingredients and spices. Makes a fair amount too.
Title: Best of the best from Washington: selected recipes from Washington’s favorite cookbooks
Editors: Gwen McKee, Barbara Moseley
Illustrator: Tupper England
Series: Best of the best state cookbooks
Imprint / publisher: Quail Ridge Press
Format: Spiral bound
Length: 286 p.
Publication date:
ISBN-10: 1-893062-35-X
Subject: Cookery, American
Subject: Cookery — Washington
LC classification: TX715.B485654 2002
