#cookbookchallenge

They Draw & Cook

107 Recipes Illustrated by Artists from Around the World

by Nate Padavick & Salli Swindell

Made on January 1, 2019

I completed my 2018 Cookbook Challenge!

At the beginning of 2018, I made seven New Year Resolutions including “Invite the neighbors over for a party” (check!), “Maintain my weight loss” (check!), “Sew a quilt” (fail!), and our favorite: “Make 21 recipes from 21 cookbooks” (CHECK!).

When I originally mentioned my resolutions on Facebook, my brother Ron had a wonderful suggestion-- “Hey Anne, you should document each of your recipes in a blog! That would be really interesting.”

At that moment, I should have considered:

I have never written a blog.

I am not great at writing.

Writing a blog post literally takes longer than making a recipe - including doing the dishes.

My brother is a Public Relations executive- of course he thinks that is a good idea.

Because I failed to consider any one of those four points, I jumped in. I also neglected to see into my future...that my free weekends would become consumed with spending hundreds of hours designing three pro bono design projects (one of which continues until July 31, 2019). I also did a lot of travel- two trips to NYC, one to DisneyWorld, one to Tucson, and one to Sweden. Can’t complain about any of that...unless you are still wishing I had sewn that quilt.

So, despite filling my weekends with design work, I remained committed to my self-imposed Cookbook challenge. Gosh darn it, I was going to see it through...how could I let my readers down? All 8 of them? You know who you are because you are reading this right now.

I wish I had something profound to say at this momentous accomplishment...like “I am now a much better cook!”, or “I have decided to make 30 new recipes in 2019!” Or even “My use of proper punctuation has improved!”. But, alas, none of those statements are true. What is true is this: “I am proud of myself”. I am proud that I did not quit. I am proud that I went ahead and showed my less-than-impressive results. I am proud that I learned some new things...including how to make Späetzle and a kick-ass Egg Foo Yung. I am also happy that my mother found my endeavors entertaining and my friends were supportive.

Without further ado, this is my last recipe...Pan-fried Fish with Lemon Caper Sauce. I loved this unique cookbook full of artist-created recipe pages. Each spread is completely unique. I rarely make fish so I thought it would be good practice. Plus, it gave me an excuse to buy capers.

I have taken a few photos of some of the other spreads/recipes from the cookbook:

The recipe called for the juice of a whole lemon...which was too much. Next time, I would only use a tablespoon or two. I chose tilapia for my fish.

For 2019, I have written some new resolutions. I will continue to maintain my weight. I will invite the neighbors over for another party. I will continue to cook new things. I will learn how to use my new air fryer and Instant Pot. However, I will not blog (at least until after July 31). I will not sew a quilt.

I will also say “Thank you” to you for reading my posts. Mom, Ron, Zoé, Craig, Andrea, Abygai, Kathy, Janice, Tina, Kelly, Carly, Yumi, Lynne...I appreciate your support and encouragement. Those tiny little “thumbs up” symbols went a long way to motivate me to make another recipe.

Biscuit Head Cookbook by Jason & Carolyn Roy

Made on my birthday, December 23, 2018

When I first moved to Kansas City in 1989, a friend took me to The Corner Restaurant for a true Kansas City breakfast. The Corner was known for their biscuits and gravy...a food I was totally unfamiliar with. Having grown up in Southern California, I was more accustomed to lighter breakfasts such as veggie omelettes with fresh salsa and avocado. The idea (and look) of biscuits and gravy was pretty unappealing to me (I am sure I stated the word “gross” at the time).

My friend refused to let me leave the restaurant without giving them a try. In fact, I think she told me “You have no idea what you are missing!”. She was right. One bite and my life was changed. I am sure biscuits and gravy were partly to blame for the loss of my size 8 figure in that decade. That, and peanut butter ice cream.

Cole and his girlfriend Abbie came home for Christmas and I thought it would be a great opportunity to see if I could make this dish for breakfast.

The recipe for “The Classic Cathead Biscuit” called for 2 1/2 cups of flour sifted with 2 1/2 cups of cake flour. My sifter was kind of broken so I mostly tapped on the side to get the flours to merge into the bowl.

Did you notice that the total was 5 cups of flour? The recipe also called for one stick of butter and two cups of buttermilk. The butter needed to be chilled and cubed...here is a page from the cook book:

They recommended using an ice cream scoop to form the biscuits. Everything looks good...

While waiting for the biscuits to bake, I started making the gravy. I used 1 lb of Jimmy Dean sage breakfast sausage. I have never made gravy before...the gravy recipe was very easy and worked out well.

Here is my final result...I like to break up my biscuits by hand before I pour the gravy on top.

Now...for the taste. The gravy was awesome. Definitely worth the work to make it from scratch. I think it was on par with The Corner Restaurant...really! I will make this gravy again. The biscuits, however, were horrible. They were baked correctly, but were like “Flour Bombs”. They were dry and tasteless. My mother told me the one stick of butter must have been wrong for the five cups of flour. Not wanting to waste the gravy, the next morning I went ahead and made some Pillsbury biscuits to go with the remaining gravy.

This morning I went to the Amazon book reviews and read that some other folks came to the same conclusion...the biscuits were dreadful.

I never got a good photo of Cole and Abbie pretending to enjoy these biscuits...but did get this adorable photo of them before they left at the airport. How can I not post it?

Happy holidays!

Bicentennial Cook Book 1776-1976

Baked on November 23, 2018

Where were you in 1976? I was in 4th grade attending John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Newark, California. That was the year that I embroidered a 2.5’ American flag (it took forever!) and a friend of my father gave me 50 7Up cans that when stacked on top of each other produced an image of Uncle Sam. Those cans were really cool.

Everyone had Bicentenniel Fever. My mom even sewed a Bicentenniel patch on the sleeve of my jean jacket right by my yellow and green patch that said “Asparugus”. And, a bunch of congressmen’s wives published a cookbook.

Bicentenniel Fever was partly due to that amazing logo designed by Bruce Blackburn, who worked at Chermyeff and Geismer. Bruce Blackburn also designed the curvy NASA logo still used today. The proposal for the Bicentenniel logo was originally just the soft star. President Richard Nixon asked that it have words placed around the star so it felt more like an official seal. Good call, Nixon. Here is a page from the graphic standards manual...can you imagine recreating the logo from these directions?

Anyway...let’s make some Mexican Corn Bread.

The recipes in this Bicentenniel Cook Book were “furnished by current (1976) United States Senator’s and Congressmen’s wives. These favorite recipes were, in some instances, passed from generation to generation.”

This recipe for Mexican Corn Bread was provided by the wife of a Congressman from Texas.

It turned out okay but I have had better. I was not a big fan of the cheese layer that ran through the center. It looked yummy, but for some reason was not as tasty as I figured it would be. I was also thrown by the 3/4 cup of Mazola oil in the recipe. Here is the recipe:

Here is the middle cheese layer:

Ellie has a good feeling about this recipe. Ready to go into the oven!

Looks good! Decided to make a pot of turkey chili to go with the corn bread.