Let the #CookBookTrials Begin ...

New year, new blog post series. Last year was #ArtistTherapy, which I thoroughly enjoyed scribing. But, this year, I realized upon looking at my overflowing bookcases that I have a lot of books (yes) but also many cookbooks. Cookbooks I've been gifted as a food blogger, purchased, and/or sent for review. I have previously done posts/giveaways for Herbivoracious and Easy Chinese Food Recipes. Now though, I want to actually take the time to make the recipes from the cookbooks lining my shelves to discover new go-to recipes that I will hopefully fall in love with.

So, starting in February I will pick one cookbook I have that I have rarely, if ever, used and try several recipes. I will report back to you on them and more than likely post successes/failures on Instagram as well. At the end of each month (or very beginning of the next) I will note how progress went and the ease of use (good for people on the go or many lengthy recipes). And in terms of some cookbooks they may have a theme like Ellie Krieger's Comfort Food Fix (a healthy spin on comfort food) or the Mom's 100 Meals.

So that's the challenge I've made for myself this year. And I look forward to letting you know how that goes.

Winner of "Herbivoracious" and my Twitter Giveaway!

Saturday was the last day you could put in for the Herbivoracious cookbook giveaway. I got the winner the old-fashioned way: I wrote the names down on small slits of paper, put them in a bag, shook it up, and closed my eyes as I grabbed a slip. And the winner is:

Carol Sue!

Major congrats! I'll be emailing you for your address and will send via USPS this week. Hope you enjoy it. And even if you didn't win, Michael has many recipes from Herbivoracious on his website where you can test drive some. If you like what you see/try than I highly suggest getting a copy from Harvard Common Press. It's a great book to have on-hand, especially for those, like myself, seeking to make more veggie heavy dishes with flair.

One giveaway ends and another begins. Yes, I'm feeling particularly giving now. Call it post-Book Expo warm fuzzies.

Since I'm getting close to the 500 follower mark (or have hit it by the time this posts) on Twitter I have decided to hold a giveaway for my followers.

Here are the rules:

1) You're automatically entered if you follow me on Twitter. No need to tweet or comment or anything.

2) Once I get to the 501 mark (as followers tend to waver 1 or 2 per day) I'll randomly choose a winner using Random Number Generator. I will only enter numbers 1-whatever # followers I have that day.

3) I will pick two numbers randomly. From there I will count the followers (yes, count) in ascending order (bottom to top) and determine which follower corresponds with that number. Hard work, but someone's got to do it.

4) If the number corresponds with a spammer or corporation or family member (sorry, but I gotta stay somewhat neutral) they will not be counted and I will randomly pick another number and find the follower that corresponds as long as they are an individual and not related to me.

5) I will announce the winners via Twitter and DM them. If they do not respond within 48 hours I'll repeat steps 3 & 4 to find another winner.

6) Once I get in touch with winner we'll discuss which prize you'd like and I'll get it ASAP. Meaning within the week if possible/available.

So I'm sure you're wondering what the prizes are? Since my website/blog is based around my love of the written word and baking it only seems fitting that the prizes reflect such. So, two lucky, random winners will get a choice between:

• A book (whatever genre) at a $25 (USD) value or less OR
• Dessert from one of the bakeries I have interviewed (check my baking page for direct links to interviews) at a value of $25 (USD) or less. Sorry to say that this doesn't count Cupcakes in Rome as she is located in Italy, however if YOU are in Italy you may be in luck! Please note that some bakeries only deliver to the NYC/tri-state area so we can try and work out another dessert if you have a hankering and are out of location.

Update as of July 14th: A couple days after this post originally pubbed I reached 504 followers and chose two winners randomly from Twitter. They were Jacob G. Adams and Ajit Dhillon! They both chose books. Well Jacob chose a book and Ajit got a $25 Amazon giftcard. So congrats guys and glad you enjoyed your gifts! Thanks again for following!

I'll have another cookbook giveaway in August thanks to Tuttle Publishing for Bee Yinn Low's (aka RasaMalaysia) new book. So stay tuned!

Thanks for following and reading!

Herbivoracious (Delicious Vegetarian/Vegan) Recipes and Cookbook Giveaway!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by publisher Harvard Common Press in celebration of the release of Michael Natkin's new cookbook  Herbivoracious. 

Those following the Herbivoracious blog have seen the progress Michael's made in creating the recipes compiled in his new cookbook. You can also see a few recipes from the cookbook and get started there. Some highlights of Herbivoracious are:

• the amount of 4-color photos available for a majority of the recipes giving you insight into what your dish may look like (not all cookbooks are this plentiful with imagery),
• notes for ingredients & cooking equipment - where to find them items like broth and what butter to use and how important knives are in the kitchen,
• inserts of what Michael's blog readers thought of some recipes and how this helped him further develop the recipe and inserts about how to find alternatives to items in recipes,
• and while all recipes are vegetarian there are also icons for noting if they are vegan-friendly and/or gluten-free.

I am always on the hunt for recipes where vegetables are the star. My rearing was as a meat and potatoes gal and then turned to meat, starch, and a veggie (often canned). I have tried to translate more proteins (of the good kind) and less carbs into my regular eating but too often I've found that vegetable dishes aren't as exciting as you would like them to be or as hearty to make at home. So I was very eager when Jackie Gordon informed some of us food bloggers about Michael's book and Harvard Common Press' celebration.

I was able to make five recipes in the past two weeks. Admittedly I chose the easiest ones because of work and other commitments. And I think many of my friends who have families and day jobs it'd be essential to them to know that a cookbook not only has recipes that may require some time but also contains a balance of dishes that are easy peasy and can be prepped and/or cooked in less than an hour.

The Recipes

First up were the chickpea fritters. I needed an item that was savory for my friends' upcoming baby shower. And since I love hummus I figured these were something that would be tasty to tackle.

Get canned garbanzo (chickpeas) beans and a bunch of other items handy and mix those badboys together in your heavy duty food processor. I used the KitchenAid I won at Pie Party Live last year. Such a great thing!

Pat the mush into patties and then deep fry for several minutes on each side. I have to admit I went a bit heavy on the lemon juice & zest on these as I am a lemon enthusiast so they were lemon-tastic. I also did not make any of the suggested/accompanying sauces (there's a whole section in Herbivoracious dedicated to sauces and such!) so I'm getting only the fritter in taste. The fritter was a nice, crunchy, citrusy treat. Right out of the frying pan still warm these are wonderful! Even at the baby shower the next day when they were more mushy than crunchy attendees ransacked the twenty or so I brought with me. Many enjoyed it as is, but I highly recommend these hot off the grill and perhaps with an accompany tangy sauce that will mix well with the citrus flavor.

After seeing the recipe for brown butter cornbread I knew I had to make it. No ifs, ands, or buts. The most time goes to making sure to brown the butter until you get the nutty smell to it. Unfortunately I couldn't find milk powder which is a trick Michael adds during the browning of the butter phase, so I look forward to trying this again with said powder. The overall cornbread is not too sweet but super moist out of the oven and a great addition to savory items like chili or with sweet butter as Michael suggests in the book. Co-workers enjoyed this thoroughly as lighter fare after having so many sweets from all my baking with Truvia.

Next were the caramelized apple and blue cheese crostini. I substituted goat cheese for the blue cheese because I am not a fan of blue. I enjoyed the balance of flavors, but found I am also not a huge fan of tarragon. Tarragon has a specific flavor and it's kind of minty with a more earthy flavor to it. Not bad, just not for me. What's good about this recipe is that if you're not as into the tarragon flavor it is subtle due to the additional saltiness from the soft cheese and the sweetness of the caramelized apple. So I was not deterred from eating a whole baguette's worth of crostini's. :-) It's a great easy recipe that was done in less than 30 minutes.

Since I had many apple slices left I made the Dutch Baby with sauteed apples. I had had something similar to the Dutch baby when at the Jentel Arts Residency last spring and Rachel made hootnie for us as a nice Mother's Day brunch. Since I don't have a cast iron anymore I used Pyrex, which I remember Rachel using, and everything came out fine! (Though I should note if you use a 7x10" pyrex for this cut down a few tablespoons of butter for the recipe.) The Dutch baby puffed up perfectly and the lightly sweetened apples are a great addition since the Dutch baby is just batter (no sugar) in butter. Add some maple syrup on this and you will love it! I gave this to some of my co-workers and they really enjoyed it. It's going to be a few people's new go-to brunch item when hanging out with friends on weekends. I am glad we helped bring more brunches to NYC.

Last up was the chocolate chunk bread pudding. I was toggling between this and expresso brownies since I had many of the ingredients for both recipes but in the end the bread pudding won out because I just love it so and had a lot of milk.

Challah bread is great for bread pudding. It's thick, it's buttery, and has a slight sweetness to it. Breaking up 70% dark chocolate chunks and adding into the mix was so simple I was done within 20 minutes or so. I decided to bake this over the humid Memorial Day weekend as well which was probably not a smart move. And I have no regrets. I gave this to one of my co-workers as a belated birthday present and she and her husband and her department were thankful to me for days. It was a huge batch and the chocolate oozed into every crevice even though there are too many chunks involved. It's enough to dip pieces into the pools of chocolate and just enjoy it warm in a well ventilated space with milk. (Trust me, you should have milk on-hand for this dessert.)

All in all I enjoyed every recipe I tried and I can't wait to tackle more, particularly the bahn mi bites and more desserts!

The Giveaway

So, here's the deal. Harvard Common Press is being super generous in helping me host a giveaway of Herbivoracious. And it's super simple how you can enter and possibly win. Simply leave a comment on this post saying how much you like the recipes or if you have any questions and such or have tried recipes from the Herbivoracious website and a winner will be picked at random.

I'll be closing off comments at 11:59pm on Saturday, June 23rd. So that's two weeks to get your comments in! I'll post the winner on Monday, June 25th.

You can comment as much as you like for more entries, tweet about the giveaway, share it on Facebook, and even direct others to Michael Natkin's Twitter feed and note my giveaway for more entries.

Feel free to check out the Herbivoracious website and let me know what you think. I guarantee you'll find something you like.

Thanks again to Adam Salomone at Harvard Common Press and Michael Natkin for helping me with this giveaway!