Cookbooks

MCPL Chopped Challenge

MCPL Chopped Challenge winning dish: kidney bean and spelt toast with paprika whipped feta and rosemary pickled beets.

‘Tis the season for cooking and creativity! In November, we held the first MCPL Chopped Challenge! Participants received a take-home kit with three mystery ingredients and three cookbooks to borrow. They were tasked with preparing a dish using all three ingredients, plus their choice of additional ingredients.

   
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Cooking Zines

Cooking Zines

Looking to change up your cooking routine? Add some new recipes to the ol’ repertoire? Some new culinary delights would be nice! You could turn to a conventional cookbook, but you’re likely to only find conventional foods there. No, what you need is something a little more cutting edge, a shake up in your giddy-up, some unconventional food for these unconventional times; what better place to look for this than in that most unconventional format: zines!

   
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May 17th is World Baking Day!

Celebrate World Baking Day by exploring one of humanity’s oldest sources of nutrition—bread! Although modern grocery store bread has little in common ancient Egypt’s first flatbreads, this dietary staple has remained popular through millennia and across the world.

   
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Unpublished

Unpublished

Unpublished

Unpublished

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

When enthusiastic home cook, Jennifer Reese lost her job she wondered if making homemade staples would be more cost effective.  Is homemade mayonnaise cheaper than the tub you buy in the store?  And just as important, does it taste better?  Her book, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter has over 120 recipes for the from-scratch cook - looking for both cost savings and taste improvements. 

Reese's journey to make and taste homemade versions of cupboard regulars like peanut butter and bread and the more exotic like camembert and prosciutto includes helpful input from her family. She makes it sound like making your own ginger ale isn't crazy -- but actually fairly easy, cheaper than store bought, and delicious.  Her voice throughout the book is casual and often really funny.  The best part of the book is her interest in the highly practical and includes a 'hassle factor' for each item.  Every recipe has a realistic cost comparison with store bought and an indication of how difficult each item is to make.  Right there is bold print is a verdict on each item: Make it or Buy it.  A few items get a warning.  Make or buy cream cheese?  Reese says to make it once and then decide.  Make or buy English muffins?  Depends on whether you are eating them plain or as a base for eggs benedict.

   

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We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner and hot days are near. For many people this means firing up the grill.  Interested in shaking up your grill routine?  The library has loads of cookbooks with many new ideas -- for both meat eaters and vegetarians.

The Ultimate Ice Cream Book by Bruce Weinstein delivers over 500 recipes covering many different types of ice creams, sorbets and granitas.  He also gives ideas for recipe variations and toppings.  Pictures aren't included, but this serves as a fairly straight forward reference and would be great for beginners. 

   
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