Cookbooks

Beth, my daughter-in-law and Matt, my grandson, have this place looking so good I have time to greet and sort my old friends which come in the form of my cookbook collection.  I thought of doing them in some sort of sensible order but that is so cold. So, instead I am letting them come to me, offering up memories and good reading. While I was working on this post I looked out the window to see the driveway being done and there was this old guy on the ground with a cigarette near a flammable piece of machinery. Workers are bound to blow this house up some day, although these guys are much less likely to accomplish that.  So far, until today, they have had the lightest touch I have ever seen with big equipment.  Mike Brown is a master with a back hoe and careful with the property he is serving.

Now to the cookbooks:

I must admit, when I bought this I did not know who Dorie Greenspan was.  Since this book, which I bought in Paris for 25.00 euros, but it can be bought here as well, she has written many more while dividing her time between Paris and New York. She visited every shop, usually more than once, that appears in this book.  She tells the story and gives the recipe.  I like a cookbook that 'talks' rather than those that give recipe after recipe with no cozy details. She gives the addresses of these shops as well and so you can visit them yourselves when you are in Paris...and you will be sure to hit all the good ones with Dorie as your guide. I made the French macaroons from this book. They turned out well, but now you can buy them in America pretty handily. Back in 2002, not so much, so I bought this book back then.

The Barefood Contessa, Ina Garten, loves Anna Pump and her shop Loaves and Fishes. When I read or heard several years ago that Anna charged over a hundred dollars for a pound of lobster salad, I think $125.00 per pound, I figured I should buy the book and find out the secrets of success like that! You'll have to go to Long Island to pay those prices, although I was just told that short ribs (here) are selling for $11.00 a pound...go figure.
One Review of many:

Fondly referred to as "Loaves and Thieves" and "Loans and Finances," as you basically need a second mortgage to cover the cost of a serving of pasta salad and a chunk of cheese. All the food is scrumptious, but so expensive it borders on insanity. If the government needs help finding Bernie Madoff's missing billions, I'm sure much of it is in their cash register.

Anna Pump (born April 11, 1934) is a chef, cookbook author, baker, and innkeeper famous for her Hamptons bakery Loaves & Fishes.^[1] She is the author of four bestselling cookbooks and the owner of the Bridgehampton Inn. Notably, Pump was a mentor to Ina Garten, of Food Network fame, who writes the forward to Pump's most recent cookbook Summer on a Plate. She can also sometimes be seen as a guest on Garten's Barefoot Contessa.

If you want to read the reviews of this establishment, they are scathing when it comes to prices.  I did not see one that left out the prices and the treatment they got in the Loaves and Fishes. (A jar of jam is $24.00.)

Here is the lobster recipe and you see if you would pay over one hundred dollars a pound for this.
1 1/2 pounds chilled, cooked lobster meat, cut in chunks
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoons of drained capers
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dill
mix together (4 servings)
                                       
                                                  

Every time I saw the easiness of Sara Foster on the Martha Stewart show I marveled at her relaxed state AND because she seemed to be a real friend with  Martha Stewart. Her book, too, is relaxed and the recipes are doable and there is a folksy story to entertain you as well.  I like her and I like her book. I would enjoy a trip to her market. Now they have a food truck as well.

Tasha Tudor was a friend of mine.  I first met her when I asked if she would do the cover of one of my books.  She said she would then my publisher backed out saying it would not seem like a research book on antiques but like a children's book...so, his loss.  Anyway, Tasha was a trip.  She lived her life with her doll as though she were in the 1830s. Her son built her home by hand while reciting from memory one of the classics.  When he finished reciting one, he would begin another.  I first became familiar with Tasha's illustrations in The New England Butt'ry Shelf Cookbook by Mary Mason Campbell.  (I had seen Tasha's work before, but this is the book that caught my interest.) Tasha loved to collect as well and she had the toy dishes and accessories and liked pink lustre china so when she visited here I prepared her room accordingly with a child's red velvet fainting couch for her doll to sleep upon and before bed tea time with my pink lustre tea set.  I forget the doll's name and I don't know how I could forget... Nevertheless,I understand she left her estate in a tangle for her children to fight over and fight they did and one of them was to have said Tasha was enjoying the scene from her grave.   

(Tasha Tudor died on June 18, 2008 in Marlboro, Vermont.^[7] Her estate, valued at over $2 million, was contested by the three children she disinherited. According to the Daily Telegraph:^[8] "Her will, written in 2001, left the bulk of the estate to Seth Tudor, 67, and his son Winslow. It left only $1,000 each to her two daughters, Bethany Tudor, 69, and Efner Tudor Holmes, and a piece of antique furniture to younger son Thomas Tudor, 64, because of their 'estrangement' from her." However, according to Brattleboro Probate Court documents, over Tasha Tudor's lifetime she gave her son Thomas Tudor a half share in her home in Marlboro, Vermont, and over $2 million in art work and other gifts, with a similar lifetime disposition to her two daughters.^[)

                          

Tasha, as you can see, wrote and illustrated her own cookbooks late in life.  She wrote a note and illustrated the thank you to me for her tea party I had here at Many Branches for her adult and children admirers. I am one of those who admired her and the life she selected for herself.

The picture she drew is of a pink lustre tea set.

For Kate and Sam:

What mixes well with what chart:

 

from Cursos y C