#58 Beginners Step-by-Step to Starting Out

#58 Beginners Step-by-Step to Starting Out

Happy Birthday to my other sister, the one who doesn't cook. She may well know how to cook but I've never had a meal that she's prepared and it might be just as well. Her tastes run to Headcheese and very smelly fish. The other day she updated on Facebook that she had microwaved a banana. I think that might have been a dinner entree but I'm not sure. I also wondered if she had skinned it first. I was around once when she heated a TV dinner on high instead of medium. Before that, I hadn't realized you can "burn" things in a microwave.

Anyway, I decided to post a beginners cookbook for her from one of my favorites series, The Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks. I must have 80 or more of these on my book shelves. We lived in Australia for awhile and I got hooked on collecting them. There's great pictures and lots of step by step instructions. You just have to remember their cup and spoon measurements are metric. Actually the recipes in this book are not all that easy. I not sure she would want to start out with Braised Lamb Shanks with Celery on page 67 or Veal Campagnola on page 54. I didn't think so and she'd have to use a knife and pastry brush for Nashi Galette, so that's out. Maybe I'll just try to track her down an extra copy of my cookbook from post #35 Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. I don't think you can get hurt following those recipes. Happy Birthday, J! The cookbook for today is #58 Beginners Step-by-Step to Starting Out.

#42 Easy Thai-style Cookery

#42 Easy Thai-style Cookery

I often crave a specific food or type of food. Lately it's been Thai, is it lemongrass, the fresh galangal or the kaffir lime, I don't know. I just love the stuff! I've had some luck cooking my own but I'm still not happy with my coconut rice, it's mushy. I take some short cuts too, I don't grind my own red and green curry paste since they sell packages of these. I have found a secret, add raw sugar and it tastes so much more like what you get in the restaurants.

We're so lucky, there's now a great Thai and Lao place for carry out and it's about half the price we used to pay at the fancier places. Their calamari and green curry is wonderful! Check out the photo of our last carry out meal. It lasts us two days so I think it's a bargain. Not as big of bargain as the food from the street vendors in Thailand. My husband traveled there last year and he dined on Pad Thai for about 60 cents, it goes for $11.50 here. I must go back with him next time!

Last time he came home with these boxes of Thai desserts for everyone. Beautiful to the eye but each one tasted like it had been cooked over a campfire, very smoky and rather chalky. It would be great to try these little taste treats fresh. So if you haven't, try Thai. Cookbook #42 is Easy Thai-style Cookery by The Australian Women's Weekly Home Library.