Cooking for Good Times
My personal collection of cookbooks includes over 400 titles and the vast majority of them haven’t been cracked open in years. I’m running out of shelf space so I decided to put a moratorium on buying any new cookbooks unless I'm actually going to use them. My problem with most cookbooks is they’re good for drooling and day-dreaming but they’re not meant for the average home cook. The worst of the bunch send you on a wild goose chase for expensive ingredients and then the recipes don’t even work. I calculated the cost to make meatballs from one recently lauded cookbook and it would have been cheaper and less time consuming for me to fly to their restaurant in LA. Ugh, no thank you! Cooking should be about pleasure but also about convenience and aimed towards a successful outcome. This is why we love Ina Garten, she makes it so you can win and feel good about cooking. I can pretty much glance at cookbook and know within a few pages if it’s a fluffy publicity piece or if the author actually respects the home cook and wants them to win. I recently spent a few days with Chefs Paul Kahan and Perry Hendrix's new Cooking for Good Times cookbook and this is a book that wants you to have a great time in the kitchen, they want you to win. I tested several of the recipes and what I love most about this book is that it’s a manual on technique. CFGT shows you the basics of making a vinaigrette, a grain salad or a panzanella and then you can adapt it to whatever is in season or you feel like eating. Learn how to fish so you can roast it whole and eat for a lifetime. Most of the ingredients can be found at a regular grocery store and they’re not too extravagant. The book’s format is setup like a dinner party and includes tips on preparing dishes in advance, when and how to serve different items and there’s even suggestions for beverage pairings. There’s a good amount of vegetarian recipes featuring root vegetables, grains and day-old bread. There’s a section on making various dips, pizza and raclette, how to roast a chicken or whole fish, how to braise a pork shoulder or cook a steak and suggestions on how to dress up sausage, cheese and charcuterie. It’s all very casual and easy so you can enjoy the process of cooking with your friends and family which is exactly how it should be. I will definitely be adding CFGT to my cookbook arsenal and I truly believe it’s worthy of a space on your shelf as well. Grab a copy and let the good times roll!
Here are a few of the recipes that I tried and I will leave you with one tip from the book. After roasting a chicken, throw whatever is leftover (bones, skin, aromatics, all of it) into a large pot with water to make the most delicious chicken stock ever. You get double-duty out of one chicken.
*My copy of CFGT for this post was sourced from the Chicago Public Library.
