Feeding My Enthusiasms

Happy New Year!

A fresh slate, new ideas, new things to cook. Such a rush of energy accompanies the first days of January.

In that spirit, I've decided to devote a little more attention to some of my favorite cookbooks. My collection isn't as extensive as some people I know, but it fills a number of shelves in my kitchen island, plus I'm always borrowing cookbooks from the library. I use them often as references, but maybe making a recipe as written in the cookbook will expand my knowledge and skills. Can't hurt. Recipes will come from retro cookbooks, library cookbooks, old favorites in baking, vegetables, regional cooking and more. We might visit with Julia Child or James Beard from days gone by, or Alice Medrich' new book Pure Desserts or the fabulous Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home to Yours from right now.

If I were the kind of person who made actual New Years Resolutions *TahDah!*, I'd promise to visit Cookbook Corner once a month. As it is, the visits will be more or less frequent than that, depending on free time, ingredients, and what sounds good at the time.

If you have a hankering to do some cooking from cookbooks, too, feel free to use the 'logo', but then could you link to this post? Excellent! Let's get cooking.

A cookbook that has been sitting almost unused came in very handy today. We were having barbecue pork sandwiches for an easy dinner and I like mine with coleslaw. I bought some cabbage, but forgot to get any coleslaw dressing. Then I remembered that The Good Home Cookbook is excellent for basic recipes. The link tells how I came to have this cookbook. It had a delicious sounding creamy dressing recipe for coleslaw. I only made minimal changes: I used Dijon prepared mustard instead of dry mustard and substituted 1/4 cup fat free sour cream for 1/4 cup of the mayo...plus used fat free mayo. Sweetie was very appreciative of the coleslaw, especially the dressing, so I can recommend it to you, too. It goes together very easily and used ingredients that are usually on hand.

Creamy Coleslaw Dressing

from The Good Home Cookbook, edited by Richard J. Perry

3/4 cup mayonnaise (or 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 1/4 cup sour cream)

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard (I used 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Pinch celery salt

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well. (If the dressing is too stiff, thin with a little milk if desired.)

Pour over a head of shredded cabbage mixed with some grated carrots and, if desired, minced celery and sweet onion. Stir to coat the vegetables with the dressing. Serve salad chilled.
Serves 6-8