Thursday Cookbook Series -- America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

This is the first post of what I hope will be a new series.

I've mentioned before that I love to read, and that I love to cook. Who would have guessed that I own a lot of cookbooks? Smartypants.

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite cookbooks, ones in my own collection at home.

This week: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

The book is a spiral notebook bound edition with a little of everything. If you're a fan of Cooks Illustrated Magazine (as I am, and will probably mention that again), or the America's Test Kitchen PBS show, then you may recognize many of the recipes.

Their recipes are explicit and detailed, and easy to follow. The ingredient lists are in order of use (a huge pet peeve of mine), and their instructions are clear and detailed. The biggest complaint might be that they're too long! Almost every recipe is a full page long, with helpful photos where necessary. Best of all, everything I've ever made from the cookbook has turned out perfectly the first time.

We regularly browse their lists of pan sauces for chicken, steak, or pork; last weekend we had their rosemary and sea salt focacia with our dinner; the cinnamon rolls are to die for. They cover all major categories, from appetizers to grilling to cakes and steaks. Most of the food isn't frou-frou, just good family favorites.

Honestly, if I could only own one cookbook, this would be the one.

Time warp

Anyone know what happened to 101.1 Movin (WMVN) in St. Louis? All of a sudden they're plaing Christmas music. I know that KEZK does that every year, but only between Thanksgiving and Christmas....

It hasn't been that long since 101.1 switched from The River to their Movin format. Are they switching again?

Maybe if I listened longer I might hear a radio announcer say something and give me a clue as to whether the switch is permanent or a symptom of a bigger issue. But really, there's only so much Bing Crosby I can take in early October.

And does anyone else actually miss The Mall (it was on 104.1). So I'm strange, but I actually liked the 3pm Bon Jovi fix every day...My husband preferred its previous incarnation as The Rock (OK, so that was like 10 years ago).

Weekend

After Trystan's clinginess on Thursday morning, I was not surprised to get a call from our daycare. Annoyed. Disappointed. Frustrated. But not surprised.

I told too many people that I had about 2 hours of "flex" time on Thursday afternoon to myself, and was taking Friday as my day off for the week. Trystan must have heard too. I had a lot of things planned to get finished. Instead, I snuggled with my son for two days.

He ran a 101 degree fever for nearly 24 hours straight, untouched by either ibuprofin or tylenol. He also puked all over me Thursday. Twice. Early Friday morning the fever broke, but he remained grumpy all day.

Friday was supposed to be a day for getting odd jobs done around the house, and making a dent in a large pile of mulch scheduled for delivery. The pile, a 3-cubic yard pile, didn't arrive till nearly 4pm, so I guess I wouldn't have done much mulch moving anyway.

By Saturday, Trystan was much better. All 4 of us went outside to work in the garden. I trimmed back all of our irises while my husband took the first shift of hauling. We got to meet our new next door neighbors, who moved in about a week ago. They have a 3-year old son, who came over and played with Charlotte and Trystan for a while, under my husband's supervision, while I did shift #2 of the mulching. After lunch, I got a shower, put Trystan down for a nap, and then worked on indoor chores (laundry, dishes, floors) while my husband finished up the pile.

Our garden beds all look much nicer now, especially the long one on the side of the house that has never been fully covered before. This is the first year we've had the stuff delivered, instead of buying it in bags. But that side bed alone took 2-3 trunkloads of bags, and we have beds across the front of the house, and several trees that need it. The mulch looks like good, dark composty stuff too.

Overall, the weekend turned out pretty well. The weather was beautiful. I got several things checked off the to-do list. We even had time to go out to dinner with friends, to spend a couple of hours at the park, go to church, and I went shoe shopping. I wish more weekends worked that well.

Of course, I'm exhausted today.