#29 Cornucopia

#29 Cornucopia the Lore of Fruits & Vegetables

This is a beautiful book and it has just enough recipes that I can call it a cookbook. Since the word Corn jumps out at me on the cover, I went to that section. Plus if you've read a few of my posts you know that I'm originally from Kansas and we love our corn! As Garrison Keillor says "Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn." I know in many parts of Europe, they turn up their nose at corn but they only get the chewy, hard corn that is used to feed livestock and to make ethanol and bourbon, blah. We're talking about sweet corn on the cob, it's heaven and there's only one way to prepare it.

First you set the table, you'll need plates, butter, knives, tooth picks and "corn holders". Corn holders are what you stick in the ends of your corn on the cob to keep from burning your fingers. See the picture, I have a nice collection, check out the antique metal ones, they're for company. Now with the table set, put a large pot of water on to boil with a dash of salt added. Then you gather your family and friends. Have one of your younger kids hold open the screen door while you all walk out to the garden. Be sure you're all wearing running shoes, stepping on a bee barefoot, will throw off the whole timing of the recipe. Everyone now looks for a nice firm ear with golden silks and you snap it off the stalk and start running for the house, shucking as you go. The door will be open so run right in and drop the ear into the water, time 10 minutes. Drain, plunge the holders in the ends, butter and eat! It will be sweet and tender but so fresh, each kernel pops as you bite into it. If you must get your corn from the market, the test for freshness is to stab a thumb nail into a kernel if it's squirts you in the eye it's good.

My mouth is watering and it's still a long time till corn season, rats. But if you can't eat corn, you can always sing about it. How many songs can you name with corn in the lyrics? Come on, you know the tunes, "Jimmy Crack Corn", Woody Guthrie's "Indian Corn", those Broadway ones. Coolio's X-rated "Can-O-Corn" and my new favorite "The CornHole Song". And no it's not naughty, it's about a game they play at tailgate parties. So list a few favorites in the comments and we'll see who knows their corn. The cookbook for today is #29 Cornucopia the Lore of Fruits & Vegetables by Annie Lise Roberts.

#28 Nestle Classic Recipes

#28 Nestle Classic Recipes

Two important things happened on this date, Hershey's Chocolate was founded and my buddy Katherine was born. There may be a link between these two events because Katherine sure loves chocolate. I don't think anyone other than maybe a professional baker has made more chocolate chip cookies than Katherine. She has also eaten more raw cookie dough than most people would in 50 years but look at her, she's soooooooo tiny. It's just not fair and it's not fair she lives a 1000 miles away either!

Anyway, this is driving me nuts, I know I have a Hershey's Chocolate cookbook but darn, I can't find it. I've even been to Hershey PA and I've taken the factory tour. It's a great little city, you can smell the chocolate in the air as you drive through. I'm sure you take in calories just inhaling. The street lights are shaped like giant Hershey Kisses, see photo. They spell out the name in beautifully trimmed chocolate colored bushes. Real bushes and they look just like chocolate amazing. What a place that would be to live.

There was one disappointment, it's been a long time so they may have changed things, but they only took us through a mockup of the working production line. We were no where near the real chocolate as we rode through on little tram cars. Also the most shocking thing, at the end of the tour, you got ONE Hershey's Kiss to sample. ONE!!!! How cheap is that? They did have a big gift shop and you could buy all sorts of neat stuff but ONE KISS!

The reason this seemed even more shocking to me is, I've also been through the Cadbury Chocolate factory in Tasmania. What a difference! Down there on the other side of the world they had us put on paper shower caps and booties so we looked like nerds but then they handed us each a big paper bag and turned us loose right in the factory itself! It was just like Willie Wonka's world where we could scoop up handfuls of goodies from barrels stationed around the rooms. These may have been seconds or stuff that had dropped on the floor, we didn't care. It was so much fun, better than free candy at Halloween. We even learned the secret method by which they get the liquid caramel into the segmented chocolate bars. Don't ask, I'm not telling. So this should be a Hershey cookbook but Nestle will have to do, they do make the best chocolate chips after all. Cookbook #28 Nestle Classic Recipes.

Two minutes at the Cadbury Factory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alqq3EyfPls

#27 Everybody's Wokking

#27 Everybody's Wokking

Everybody's Wokking? I don't think so. I remember all the trouble I went to just to get my wok "seasoned". Then after using it with the ring on my electric stove, what a mess. So my wok went to Goodwill a long time ago. Is anyone still using one? I think I dumped my wok about the time we discovered Chinese take out. I do still make my own egg rolls from time to time, but stir frying has lost it's appeal.

Maybe I should be wokking, this cookbook is by Martin Yan who did the "Yan Can Cook" PBS TV show. I checked out his web page and he still looks good, so it must be a healthy style of eating. He's also just as fast as he used to be, he can cut up a chicken in 19 just seconds, see 35 second video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnM3yhyN8Rs Impressive but dangerous. Cookbook #27 is Everybody's Wokking by Martin Yan.

#26 Complete Pasta Cookbook

#26 Complete Pasta Cookbook, The Best of the Pasta Collection

Today is National Fetuccine Alfredo Day and this Williams-Sonoma cookbook has a great classic recipe for it on page 29. With 3 cups of heavy cream and lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese, you can't go wrong. They even tell you how to make the eggy pasta on page 12.

Looking at the instructions for making the noodles reminded me, I have a spaghetti/noodle maker. I had to dig way back in the cabinet above the refrigerator but there it was. I remember back when I got my KitchenAid mixer, the one attachment that I thought I couldn't live without was the pasta maker. I just knew I'd be making fresh homemade pasta all the time. I even bought a wooden pasta drying rack. I had visions of pasta draped over this thing and drying in a sunny kitchen, how Italian. I just had to have this attachment. I think I finally got it as a gift from my mother-in-law after I hinted I'd be cooking wonderful new dishes for her son. It was going to be great!

Unfortunately it wasn't, it was sticky and messy. The thing jammed and the finished product wasn't any better than the dry I could buy in the store. I still see traces of dough on the plates and I'm sure it was last used in around 1983. I remember mixing up a big batch of dough and then trying every different type of the plates. Thin and thick spaghetti, flat noodles, macaroni and lasagna all squeezed out and broke apart or curled back on themselves. It just wasn't fun, and I was so sure it would be fun. Then it slowly dawned on me, as a child, I had always wanted a Play-Doh press. I had repressed my desire to play with that wonderful sweet smelling colorful goo, I didn't really want to make noodles. I wanted to play with Play-Doh! Now that, still sounds like fun. Does anyone need a used once, pasta maker set, I have one I'll sell cheap. So the cookbook today is #26 Complete Pasta Cookbook.

#25 The Bean Cookbook

#25 The Bean Cookbook, A Celebration of the Delicious Legume

Lauren suggested this post, her Mom Linda, is famous for her Frito Bean Salad. It is a work of art and we look forward to it every time we visit Kansas. It has a wonderful balance of flavors, cheese, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, red French dressing, beans and of course, Fritos. They're a salty corn chip that we can't get here in Canada so naturally what you can't have, you really, really crave. We always bring a supply home when anyone takes a trip down south.

We try so hard to duplicate Linda's beautiful salad but it always pales in comparison. She just has that special touch when it comes to crushing the chips, see photo. Some people over crush because it is fun, you get to smash them right in the bag. Linda holds back a bit and leaves a few almost whole, brilliant! Of course it wouldn't be Frito BEAN salad without the beans and traditionally Ranch Style beans are used. We can't get those up here either or Rotel canned tomatoes or Twinkies or lots of other stuff, but don't get me started. That will be another post someday. The cookbook today is #25 The Bean Cookbook, A Celebration of the Delicious Legume from Hoppin' John to Simple Cassoulet, by Judith Choate.

#24 Oodles of Noodles

#24 Oodles of Noodles

You don't have to speak Portuguese to enjoy these fellows preparing Yakisoba the Bee Gee way. Just be sure to have your sound on. Yakisoba is a favorite dish in Brazil where it's sold from carts on street corners. I know they give all the ingredients but I don't have a clue what they're saying except for Broccoliiiiiiiiis. Plus noodles, there's oodles of noodles and now I can't get this song out of my head. So the cookbook for today is #24 Oodles of Noodles.

#23 Mmm...mushrooms

#23 Mmm...mushrooms

I found a calendar online that tells you what important events are celebrated on every day of the year. Would you believe today is "Stuffed Mushroom Day", well it is. This works out great because I had just made stuffed mushrooms to use up some left over prosciutto (Italian ham) and I took a few pictures, yum.

There seems to be two type of people in this world, those who like mushrooms and those who don't. Within the group of people that like mushrooms there are two more groups. Those who wash their mushrooms and those who dust them off or blow on them gently to remove the dirt that clings to them. I have gotten into some rather heated discussions with the people who say, "oh no we must not get them wet, heaven forbid". They reason that mushrooms are like little sponges and if you wash them, they soak up to 100 times their weight in liquid, much like a ShamWow. Well I'm here to prove them wrong. This time, I weighed my mushrooms before cleaning. Then I held them under running water, right side up of course and I washed them. I got off all the black and brown bits and then weighed them again. Guess what, the needle on my kitchen scale moved such a tiny bit that it didn't even register. So there, you dusters and blowers, you know who you are!

Of course when you cook any mushrooms whether washed or not lots of juice comes out of them. I don't know where this comes from, they don't seem juicy but they are. So to my nonwashing friends, go ahead blow on your mushrooms and eat the "sterilized" horse and cow manure which they are grown in. Manure is manure in my book and MY mushrooms are nice and clean. So the cookbook for today is #23 Mmm...mushrooms by Victoria Lloyd-Davies. Victoria is a very smart lady, under preparation, she instructs us to rinse them under cold running water and dry them on absorbent towel, yes!

#22 The German Cookbook

#22 The German Cookbook

We had German guests over the summer and I fed them a typical Kansas City meal of ribs and corn on the cob. For a thank you, they had their son find me a German cookbook. He did a great job, it's got all the classics in 525 pages. I needed a good cookbook since our favorite German restaurant, The Mill Gasthaus recently closed. Now I'll have to cook my own schnitzel. The Mill was such a great place, so warm and cosy, they even had autographed photos of Heino from when he had visited our city. It's so sad and how we all miss the wonderful food! See the photo of the Combination Plate, that included Rouladen, Wiener Schnitzel, Bratwurst with Spatzle and red cabbage. You never left there hungry!

This cookbook has recipes for all of these and also one for Pig Hocks. They are part of the pig's leg between the knee and the ankle, that's assuming pigs have knees. In an earlier post I mentioned how my husband's family were Germans from Russia. Grandpa Greb did very well with English but he did have an accent. One day he went to the butcher and asked the young woman behind the counter for Pig Hocks. She asked him to repeat it and she still looked puzzled. He said it again, "I want Pig Hocks, Pig Hocks!". Finally she yelled "We don't sell Peacocks!". That's a shame, they would have probably gone very nicely with a cold Warsteiner or Dortmunder or one of the other great German beers. So the cookbook for today is #22 The German Cookbook by Mimi Sheration.

#21 The Minced Meat Cookbook

#21 The Minced Meat Cookbook

Minced meat, ground hog, get it? It's Groundhog's Day or Candlemas Day as my sister pointed out on her Facebook page this morning. I had to look that up. It's the fancy name for the German tradition of checking out the weather half way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox to see if the cold weather would be continuing. They just didn't use a cute furry animal in the 1700s. If it was sunny they would get ready for six more weeks of Winter, if it was cloudy Spring was on the way. I don't even have to look outside today, where we live we're guaranteed at least six more weeks of cold and snow. Also on this day the clergy would pass out blessed candles. I could use one of those too, it's still dark for over 15 hours a day up here and we're all sick of it.

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

But anyway, it's a good day to get out your favorite meatloaf recipe, the one that calls for ground hog. There's one in this book with a fruity filling, bleh. I'll probably just use my mother-in-law's recipe, it's known for it's "heartburn gravy". It's so good, you know the pain is coming but you eat it anyway.

I'll probably watch the movie "Groundhog Day" again for the 5th or 6th time too. I never usually rewatch movies, except "The Wizard of Oz" of course. There's just something about this movie as Bill Murray lives the same day over and over until he gets it perfect, that appeals to me. Wouldn't it be great to know just what check out line to get into at the supermarket, the one that wouldn't need the price check! I promise I wouldn't use the time warp for evil gain, no not much.

Hope you don't see your shadow! The cookbook today is #21 The Minced Meat Cookbook.

#20 White Loaf Flour Recipes

#20 White Loaf Flour Recipes

Today would be my Grandma Nellie's 120th birthday so I'm posting her cookbook. The pages were collected from the White Loaf Flour recipe service over the years from 1938 to when it ended in the 1940s. I love this battered old cookbook, it's yellowed and falling apart but it's full of family history. There's the recipe for a walnut cake that was served for Thanksgiving in 1914 and Aunt Fanny's lemon jelly filling. There's the recipe for Ella Graham's Divinity written on the back of a Bank of McLouth check. All of these and recipes from the newspaper were taped, pinned or stuck into it's pages.

Grandma Nellie was one tough lady, she raised chickens, planted a huge garden and took in roomers to make a living. She walked to the post office twice a day to get the mail and could touch her toes into her 80s. She made a great pie from dried apricots, and a chocolate cake that was so rich it was black. She'd stand over a gas stove in a hot Kansas kitchen beating the 7 minute frosting to ice it with. Her homemade noodles were delicious served with tender chicken gizzards. I even can't remember the last time I ate a chicken gizzard, where do they all go now a days?

There were a few things we didn't care for, Grandma thought it was fine to use the left over bacon grease for pie dough so they sometimes had a slight savory taste. She thought there was only one favor of Kool-aid and that was lime. It also had to be made with 2 cups of sugar, you could stand a spoon up in it. This was strange because she usually wanted to save money, I don't know how many times I was reminded 3 sheets of toilet paper were plenty if you folded it right. I have to smile now when I see the commercials on TV with the bears. Mom bear grabs back all the toilet paper from the little bear and hands him three sheets. I guess Grandma was just ahead of her time.

She had a hard life, she lost one young son when he died suddenly at age 8, that's her holding him in the photo with her mother and grandmother. Her youngest son Dan died in the skies over Germany in WWII, she was a widow for many, many years. She did complain about never seeing us enough and being lonely but the only time I ever saw her cry was when the song "Danny Boy" was played. At church last Sunday they played a hymn based on the same Londonderry Air tune and I clouded up too. So here's to you Grandma Nellie, cookbook #20 is White Loaf Flour Recipes.

#19 The Buffets of Carnival

#19 The Buffets of Carnival, Entertaining Secrets from Carnival Chefs

Several years ago we decided to plan a trip to Disney World. To make it even more fun we decided to book a 3 day Disney cruise with the package. Wouldn't you think Disney would have beautiful ships and be first class all the way, well it wasn't then. We got assigned a ship that was soon to be replaced and it was a rusty tub. Not deluxe and not clean either. Still I held out hope for the food, after all cruise food is legendary.

Since we were a couple traveling with a teenager they decided it would be nice to assign us a table with other teens. There was a Mom traveling with her 2 teen daughters, who could both think of many things they'd rather be doing. So every meal time we had three surly girls acting like they were being punished by their mean parents for forcing them on a Bahamas cruise. We also had a waiter assigned to us who didn't really want to be there either. All he did each meal time was to tell us if we didn't tip enough at the end of the cruise, he would never see his family again and we better had give him a glowing report, or else.

There was tons of food offered around the clock but none of it was very good. It was all styled and carved within a inch of it's life, see photo. No one ate any of this stuff so I assume it was all thrown over board when it started to wilt and turn brown. What a waste, we should be ashamed! When a culture starts decorating with food instead of eating it, I think you're well on the way to ruin. I'm not even a little tempted to turn a yellow squash into a flock of birds as shown on page 13, okay maybe a little but I'm not going to! After all didn't everyone's Mom say, "Don't play with your food!"?

I wish I could say the trip improved when we hit land but the islanders were pushy and they wouldn't leave you alone until you had your hair braided. Not even Bo Derek looks good in that style, and I looked like pasty white Canadian. It was a relief to get back to Florida and we did have a wonderful first day at Disney World. We couldn't believe how empty it was, there were no lines or crowds, it was great. Since we had another full day scheduled, we decided to pace ourselves and save some of the best rides for our last day. My weren't we clever for planning our trip when no one else was there!

So we arrived at the park bright and early the next day and I noticed something right away. There were a lot of very, very good looking men getting out of their cars in the parking lot. Also a lot of them had on red shirts, and then it became a sea of red shirts! When we got closer we started to read them. Many said, "I can't even think straight" or "I'm not gay but my boyfriend is". It turns out it was Gay Day at Disney World! It did give the place a fun, party atmosphere but we couldn't even get near a ride so there went the rest of the trip. Now when someone mentions going on a cruise, I smile and wish them well but inside I'm thinking better you than me. Maybe we'll try again when we're old and gray or maybe next time I'll just leave the family at home and pack a red shirt. The cookbook today is #19 The Buffets of Carnival, Entertaining Secrets from Carnival Chefs.

#18 Company's Coming 150 Delicious Squares

#18 Company's Coming 150 Delicious Squares

The Company's Coming cookbook series started by Jean Pare is a real Canadian success story. A woman named Jean Pare from a small Alberta community started publishing her recipes in 1981 in this cookbook. By the time they printed my copy in 1993 it was on it's 28th edition. Mine says "Over 1 million in print" but on some of the newer ones it mentions over 10 million! I just looked online at their web site and found a list of over 166 cookbook titles in their collection so Jean at age 80+ has been busy.

Jean Pare (pronounced "PAIR-ee") had been a caterer for 18 years preparing meals for up to 1000 people. She was always being asked for her recipes so the idea of creating a cookbook was born. She also had the brilliant idea of posing in a blouse of the same color as the cookbook cover, for the back page. So for book after book, there's Jean on the back in a matching outfit. I can just image how boring and tedious this must have gotten after the first 40 or 50 books. They would have soon run out of the more popular PMS printing colors, they were already down to a washed out gray for Company's Coming Barbecues. Her closet would have been over flowing with the stuff in not very flattering colors. Plus she had to have her hair and makeup done for every shot and a professional photographer on call. I can't help thinking she must have come to regret this little idea that probably seemed so cute in the beginning. That is until someone had a brilliant idea! I just noticed that on some of the newer ones they learned how to use just one picture and photo shop in the different colors of blouses, thank goodness!

Anyway, I always wondered if that was why she never seemed very happy in her pictures. It turns out she did have a rather unhappy life up until about 1968 when she married her second husband. The first one ran off leaving her with 4 kids and lots of bills. She even lived in a tent for awhile. Still life has been pretty good since her cookbook business took off. She has had retail sales of up to $18 million a year, they have a beautiful corporate office building in the city, and she was awarded the Order of Canada in 2004. So I think she should put the past behind her and SMILE :-). Jean also had a short lived TV show, now that was sad, she was no Rachael Ray. Still she does own most of Domino's Pizza here in Canada so these things balance out.

Jean included one other cute touch in all the early books, which I'm not sure if she still does. It's called a "Pare Pointer" and they're scattered through out the recipes. A few examples, "Always buy a thermometer in the winter. It is a lot lower then" or "A sure way to get bronc-itis is to ride wild horses". Gee maybe I should add a "Mindy Memo" to each of my posts, no, if I had to think up one of those every day, I wouldn't be smiling either. I will borrow one last one from Jean just for today, "In some countries elephants call each other on the elephone". I bet you cracked a big smile with that one, Jean. So cookbook #18 is Company's Coming 150 Delicious Squares by Jean Pare.

#17 Heartland Baking

#17 Heartland Baking from the Midwest's Best Cooks

I'm a former Kansas girl, born and raised there! Like Dorothy, you can take the girl out of Kansas but not Kansas out of the girl. So in honor of Kansas becoming the 34th State on this day in 1861, I'm featuring my cookbook, Heartland Baking. It has a recipe for Kansas Honey-Wheat Sunflower Bread, the official bread of Kansas. It was giving this title by the state's legislature so it has to be good! We're the Sunflower State and the Nation's bread basket so this was a very easy choice. A couple more useful facts, Topeka is the capitol and the western Meadowlark is our state bird. Go Jayhawks!! So cookbook #17 is Heartland Baking from the Midwest's Best Cooks.

#16 The Best Seafood Recipes

#16 The Best Seafood Recipes

Ginger just had to get into the picture when she found out I was going to post a cookbook about seafood. With the exception of calamari, all my favorite seafoods come in shells. Shrimp, crab, lobster or Balmain bugs, I love them all! Oysters, mussels, and clams are great too, stuff with scales, leaves me cold. I think it's because I got touched on the leg by a fish while swimming in a lake as a child. Or maybe it's because I have a fish tank with a huge ugly fellow named Mr. Chips living in it. Click on the photo and you'll get an idea of his size, almost 14 inches. Who would want to eat that?

In the past, I have often found myself looking for the perfect recipe for a food or dish, maybe this is why I have so many cookbooks. It becomes a quest and I'll try different recipes over and over until I think I've found the very best. Obsession is too strong of word but I have worked very hard to find the perfect coconut macaroon, the perfect potato pancake, the perfect red velvet cake, the perfect...okay so maybe it is obsessive. Anyway one of my more recent quests is the hunt for the perfect crab cake recipe.

I'm not there yet but I have discovered that for my taste, the recipe will include Hellmann's Mayo, Coleman's Dry Mustard, lemon pepper and most important Old Bay seasoning. Also celery not green peppers and very finely minced onion. It must be ever so gently mixed so as not to crush the crab and lovingly placed in melted butter to fry. It must also not have bread crumbs or anything else as a coating! Then when it is on the plate on top of a bed of lettuce, it will be drizzled with Renee's Creole Dijon Sauce and a squeeze of lemon. That Renee lady knows what she's doing!

I tried another recipe again last night and my husband said, "oh boy, crab cakes" but not with as much enthusiasm as the last 15 times I experimented. Today, I have several left over but I won't offer them to my daughter, she now turns green if I even mention crab cakes. I'm sure that wasn't the only reason she moved out, anyway I guess I'll have a couple for lunch and then maybe, I'll move on to something else. These still aren't perfect but until I move closer to the sea where I can catch my own crabs, I think they'll have to do. Gee, I just noticed this book has a recipe for Crab and Corn Cakes with Spicy Yoghurt sauce on page 96, I may have to try just one more. So cookbook #16 is The Best Seafood Recipes.

#15 Cheese & Crackers

#15 Cheese & Crackers

Just when you think you've done it all, someone introduces you to a wonderful new food experience. Over the weekend we were introduced to the world of Raclette by our friends from Brazil and it was GREAT! Raclette is a dish indigenous to parts of Switzerland and France, where they lived for many years. Our German friend who was also invited knew all about it, so I'm not sure how we had missed it. The term raclette derives from the French racler, meaning "to scrape". Of course everyone knows fondue, well raclette is a bit like fondue but it's not. It does involve communal eating and some very specialized cooking equipment.

When we arrived at our friends home, the table was all set and there was a strange electric grill machine sitting in the center. From underneath the grill 8 little pans with handles poked out and there were plastic scrapers on each plate. As the time came to eat, the table and all nearby surrounding surfaces were covered with a wonderful variety of STUFF, lots and lots of stuff. There were boiled potatoes, sliced red and green peppers, radishes, pickles, pearl onions, tomatoes, dried meats, sausage, bacon, eggs, carrots, broccoli, the list goes on and on, I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Then there was the star ingredient, Cheese! One plate was covered with small squares of mild gouda cheese and if you peaked under the grill, each little pan was lined with the same.

My family did not have a clue what we were to do so we waited for instructions. Turns out you select your ingredients and place them on your plate. Each person is assigned a pan, when the cheese is melted you remove it and using the scraper you pour it over the goodies! What fun, it turns into a free for all with lots of laughing as everyone reaches for the same thing. Each of us developed a personal style, I copied the German, he was lining his little pan with peppers, meat and then a slice of cheese before sliding it back under the grill. He would wait till the cheese was bubbling and the vegetables were getting softer before pouring it over the potato on his plate. We would eat a bit and then repeat and repeat again. It was amazing how many little pans of cheese you could go through decorating one potato and all the dishes kept being refilled. It was great way to celebrate!

Now I've decided someone in the family must get a raclette pan, it's the perfect activity on a cold winter evening. This cookbook doesn't have a recipe for the dish but it is about cheese, so #15 is The Country Kitchen Cheese & Crackers by Jean Hatfield.

#14 Chinese Cooking For Everyone

#14 Chinese Cooking For Everyone

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year 4706! The year of the Ox is sure to be better than the year of the Rat.

We're very lucky to have a large China Town here in our city and it's branching out to other neighborhoods, soon we'll have a huge Chinese grocery store just minutes from our house. I can't wait, I love to pick up a half duck, cooked Peking or BBQ style, then I buy the little pancakes and add a few vegetables and roll it up, delicious! The seafood section and bakery in the new store will be amazing too!

Another nice thing about having a China town, we have lots of Dim Sum restaurants. One that we go to on Sundays after church sits 500 people and it's always full. If you haven't tried Dim Sum it's amazing, it's great for families since the more the merrier. You sit down at your table, you're given hot tea and a little piece of paper is placed on the table. Then the fun begins, women push heated steaming carts around the crowded tables. They are stacked high with bamboo baskets or little dishes of food. All you do is point and nod at what looks good. Don't bother asking what it is, they seldom answer in English. They place your selection on the table sometimes adding a sauce or cutting it into bite size pieces and move on to the next table after adding a little ink stamp to your paper. It's very fast paced since you can have carts coming at you from all directions and everyone can point. We've ended up with chicken feet and tripe when we're in the middle of the feeding frenzy. The feet we handed back but we chewed on the tripe for awhile.

Most tables seem to take one dish, share it and then move on to the next. We usually end up with the table covered with the little baskets and plates since we're always afraid the same cart might not return. I keep a look out for the Sticky Rice, it's a glutinous rice shaped around a tiny bit of chicken, egg, sausage and a few other things. Then it is wrapped up in a lotus leaf and steamed, see photo, it's on the top. The texture and the taste are wonderful! After all the eating, you just present the little stamped paper as you leave and they total up your bill. We're always amazed at how cheap it is even after we've tried lots and lots of stuff and we do try lots!

The bigger the restaurant the more variety there will be and since the one we go to is huge, hundreds of beautiful dim sum are paraded around. I can't imagine going to the small place with just one cart or where you order off a menu, there's little thrill in that. Also at our favorite restaurnant, we feel like we're living on the edge a bit. Everyone goes up and down a tiny staircase to reach the second floor, this is the same staircase where rival gangs had a shoot out and killed several people a few years ago. And talk about dangerous, I also wonder what would happen if someone yelled "FIRE" and everyone had to flee down this bottle neck. Of course they wouldn't yell fire, they'd yell something in Chinese and we'd be left all alone sitting at our table happily chewing cow stomach as the smoke surrounded us. I think I'll learn the Chinese for fire, just to be on the safe side. So Happy New Year, the cookbook today is #14 Chinese Cooking for Everyone by Jackie Bennett.

#13 A Little Scottish Cookbook

#13 A Little Scottish Cookbook

Can anyone guess why I'm doing a Scottish cookbook today? Give up, it's Robbie Burns' 250th birthday! He was a poet-farmer who died at the age of 37 and many consider him the greatest Scot ever. Can anyone named the next two down on the list? Maybe Mel Gibson no, he just played some fellow named William Wallace in Braveheart. We'll list him as number two and you'll have to think of a number three on your own.

Tradition dictates that people all over the world will come together in his honor tonight and as a bag piper plays, the primeval haggis will be stabbed while they read his poem "Address to A Haggis". It goes on and on but my favorite verse is this one, be sure to roll your Rs as you read it with feeling.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,

An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

Like ony ditch;

And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reekin', rich!

Don't worry, the haggis is already dead, it's actually a big fat sausage made with the lungs, liver and heart of a sheep. That is mixed with oatmeal and spices and boiled inside of a sheep's stomach. I know people who do this every year and they can tell you several places in town to buy your haggis so you won't need the recipe on page 44. I also know a family that makes a chocolate haggis, it's the same size and shape but my it tastes so much better. To tell the truth, I've never tasted a real haggis, I would give it a try since I have tasted English Black or Blood pudding. How much worse could it be and they do wash it down with a dram or two of Scotch.

There is one great song that Robbie wrote that I'm sure all of you know, Auld Lang Syne which we sing at midnight on New Years Eve. I guess most of us probably just hum along because who knows all the words, I sure don't. Anyway Happy Robbie Burns Day to my Scottish friend! I'm sure he'll have on his kilt today. Cookbook #13 is A Little Scottish Cookbook by Paul Harris.