Amuse Bouche

A brief gardening respite

I know we are supposed to be all about the food here.  But part of the reason there has been a decrease in food discussions is an increase in gardening preparations.
For Mrs. McMuffin (no longer a blog to link to, but they are fabulous twitter whores) I'd like to show the recent before and after snaps.
We had covered our chain link fence (7ft in height from previous owners Irish Wolfhounds) with a split bamboo and subsequent thatch fencing to hide my neighbors (two neighbors) detritus that they tuck out of their view behind their garages and directly into mine.
This year I ordered some bamboo from a lovely company called calibamboo.  The fence is really well made, solid, with each bamboo piece cut just above a nodule so no water can get inside and freeze and split.  I am quite pleased with the quality and would recommend them to anyone.  Someday I will show you the early pics when I moved in and all this 'garden' was is grass and holes and an old rotting dog house with a skunk living underneath.

Before

After 1

3 weeks later

An introduction to the dry Japanese River bed

Puppies give their approval

And...the new garden guest.  As long as he sticks to the weeds he won't end up as a braise.

And this ends our brief garden respite, at least until the veg and herb bed looks presentable.

Seeking Cookbook Recommendations

 
There has been a great backlash lately in the food world.  Many have been talking about the home cook's ball and chain attachment to recipes and cookbooks.  I am the first to agree that a recipe is a template, a jumping off point, an idea, a thought, a place in time, except of course when it comes to baking.  Baking, the science vs savory the dash of this and a bit of that, requires a few more rules, a need to remain within certain parameters that savory cooking does not. 

Michael Ruhlman has recently written a book that should free many, both savory and baking to experiment, Ratio follows the credos I learned in culinary school.  Here is the basis, the framework, the structure, now feel free to riff on it.  Be a jazz cook if you want, just know where the chord began.  6116 (eggs:flour:sugar:butter)=genoise, 1:1:1 (flour: to fat: To liquid)=roux for soup , 2:2:1=roux for sauce, 3:3:1=roux for a soufflé, these were the frames, the chords that I had to memorize to be able to make anything I dreamed up. This book which, by the way, should be in every library and on every shelf. It should have loads of notes and scribbles in the margins of every recipe its owner has tried.  It should be passed down like Larousse and Julia were to me.

But I love cookbooks, adore them, read them cover to cover. cookbooks are my jumping off point for new ideas, they help me plan classes, they make me want to try new things. In a month or so we are going to be adding a cookbook section to the front of our cooking school and here is where you come in.

I am trying to compile a list of 100 - 125 cookbook titles that should be in everyone's library.  Cookbooks that inspire, that teach, that led you by the hand into the kitchen and made you fall in love with cooking. Cookbooks that made you want to go out and hit the farmer's market, and find the perfect fruit, or vegetable or meat. The books that inspired you to call your friends and invite them over just so you could cook for them, the book that made you not fear your mother-in-laws arrival on the doorstep. The book that allowed you to throw that first dinner party or dive into a foreign cuisine.

Email me, speak below in the comments, tell me your favorites.