reviving cookbook challenge thread?

[greysangel]

any interest for a new year's resolution? I really liked these threads as it got me digging into my cookbooks plus gave me a bunch of new recipes to try :D

Any takers?

J

[Kayaksoup]

Count me in:D I love a challenge....

[swquilts]

Me too!

What's the challenge? :)

[tbb113]

Count me in too! Anything to challenge my brain, tastebuds and stomach

[ebobbitt]

I think I'm interested. Remind me of the rules.

[kristalsnow7]

I'll happily partake in the challenge, although I don't exactly know what it is.

[greysangel]

Oh yes, there have been a couple. I wasn't meaning one whole book kinda challenge. There was a time we had a weekly thread going just to challenge us to open up sad lonely cookbooks and make something and review/post the recipe. No other rule than that!

JeAnne

[kristalsnow7]

That sounds easy enough, JeAnne. As long as it starts after New Year's, I'm totally game. I have way too many sad and lonely cookbooks!

[Terri-Lynn]

I would love to recommit to the challenge again, I was the one who initially started the idea a year or so ago and then interest petered out I think it is great to start it again and use some of those books that so deserve to be out of the cupboard.

Here is the original thread, it was basically a meeting place to post your new recipe that you tried and do a short review.

http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?threadid=22660&highlight=cookbook+challenge

I made a popcorn crunch recipe today from Canadian living for gifts and it was easy to make and lots of fun I am including it with a movie rental coupon for movie nights. It is a tad hard on the teeth but a great munchie with the banana chips included in it.

POPCORN CRUNCH

4 cups Popped Corn *****See Notes*****
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup banana chips
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1/4 cup butter

Grease two wooden spoons, set aside. On lightly greased rimmed nonstick baking sheet, combine popcorn and nuts. Break up banana chips slightly and add to popcorn mixture. Place in 200 degree oven to keep warm.

Meanwhile, in pot bring sugar corn syrup and water to a boil, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Uncover and boil for 4 minutes or until candy thermometer reaches hard ball stage of 250-265 degrees abd wgeb 1/2 tsp syrup dropped into very cold water forms hard ball that holds its shape yet is pliable.

Add butter, cook stirring for one minute. Pour over popcorn mixture toss quickly with prepared spoons to coat spead to let dry. Break into pieces. (Crunch can be stored in airtight container up to 1 week) Makes about 6 cups.

Can be given as gift in cookie tins or in celephane gift bags.

************To Pop Popcorn place 1/4 cup kernels into a brown lunch bag add salt to taste and 2 tsp of olive oil, fold bag over tightly with two folds and shake bag. Place in microwave seam down and cook for two minutes. Makes great microwave popcorn that is better and cheaper then what you buy, you could add butter at this point if you were going to eat the popcorn.

[Cooky]

Sounds like fun. Count me in. I am constantly adding new books to my Cooking Library and need to make use of them.

[Pony]

I'm in after the new year!

Michelle

[Laura B]

I'm in after the new year, too! :D

[Jeanz]

I am in! I love the idea, becuase I use all my mags and my poor books just sit there!

[imloulou]

Me too! It sounds like fun!!!

[Kay Henderson]

Sounds good to me!

Kay

[CompassRose]

Well, me and my er... nearly four hundred and I'm afraid to count and find out how nearly cookbooks should certainly join in on this -- EVERYBODY SING ALONG ---

iiiin... the new yeeeEEEEEeear!

yeah. there are quite the number gettin' dusty with neglect.

[pschambers]

sounds great! I'm in for January.

Patti

[123Alice]

I am really excited for this!! (In January, of course.)

[Vicanddi]

Great idea! I get a little overwhelmed sometimes, because there are so many new recipes I want to try. Maybe this will help me get organized!

[Canice]

Back in October I posted about getting an unexpected windfall of $200 and spending it all on cookbooks...I haven't made a recipe from ONE of them yet :o
Ah, do you think I could at least manage a little something from Rae-Ray's "30 Minute Meals2"? :rolleyes:
Count me in.

[Varaile]

I would like to join in too! Though I don't have nearly so many cookbooks as many of you (especially CompassRose!! :eek: :cool: ) I certainly would like to use what I have more often!

What great inspiration! Thanks for bringing this thread back!

[claire797]

I'm in! I'll be getting some new cookbooks for Christmas, so this will motivate me to use them.

[SueK]

I'm in. I really need to utilize my existing cookbooks more instead of buying new ones. :)

[gabbyh]

Hopefully I'll be able to play in February!

The cabinets are coming Jan 13th, Bryan is getting ready to do the floor next week...and I have new appliances setting around the house in various places in boxes!

Can hardly believe I've done without a kitchen since last August...but the end is in site ;-}

I've been living vicariously through all of you guys these past months
:D :D :D

~Gail

[NewMrsG]

This is a great idea! Count me in too!

[MiMo]

Originally posted by SueK
I'm in. I really need to utilize my existing cookbooks more instead of buying new ones. :)

I 100% agree with you, Sue.

Count me in for the cookbook challenge, JeAnne.

[Kismet]

Me too, me too! I loved the old challenge threads, so I'm looking forward to this!

[ErinM]

Me too! My resolution is to cook more in the New Year...it's so easy to fall back on old standbys when you're cooking for one.

[susan_foster]

Count me in! I have so many cookbooks that have gone unused recently - I am moving at the end of the month - so I have been avoiding cooking, because there's no point in filling the freezer when I won't be able to eat it all before I leave. So - cooking withdrawl! This is the perfect idea to help me to christen my new kitchen.

Susan

[gdnr77]

I would love to be included in this. Hopefully, I'll be getting some new cookbooks for Christmas. :-)

[nixmom]

Me too me too! Since I got three cookbooks for Christmas I had better use them!

[cinnamon_queen]

Count me in. I probably won't be able to participate every week, but I'd love to participate when I can!

Was there ever a thread where someone volunteered their cookbook for that week/2 weeks and then they listed the recipe index and people picked what recipe they wanted to make from it and then reported back how things were?

Maybe I'm getting confused as to what the thread was about, but I was thinking it was with a Moosewood Cookbook. I thought it was a really neat idea because then it helped the person that owned the cookbook "try out" more recipes than they might have on their own. I don't know if it did this (heck, I don't even know if this was a real thread!), but I thought that it would also allow people to preview cookbooks and decide whether a cookbook was good or not based on how many good recipes vs. bad recipes were reported back.

Okay...I'm finished there. Maybe this was one of those dreams where you wake up and realize that you spend way too much time thinking about food and cooking. Probably another one of those late nights staying up and reading a cookbook before going to bed that cuased it. :rolleyes:

[Shirley Panek]

I'm in too. What are the "rules"? Do we cook from just one (of the many) cookbooks we own, or is it a challenge for any (and all) of the cookbooks we have? Can't wait to play! :)

[Beth]

I gather the challenge is to try new recipes, whether the books are old or new?

I'm not going to commit to anything, especially if some of you start attaching numbers. ;) I am chairing a fundraising auction in February and am starting to get worried about the amount of work remaining. After that, I am hoping to have work done on my kitchen. So, for now, I'll be lurking on the challenge and will chime in if I have something special to add -- maybe I can find something amazing for the crock pot or grill. :D Is a vocal lurker okay????

[CompassRose]

I think cinnamon queen's idea is so exceedingly cool, JeAnne (and all you other potential challengers of course)! It'd be like cookbook test shopping! I'm trying to rein in my cookbook shopping these days, make sure it's something I really need to have, and how do you know if you don't try it out?

Does anyone else think that would be a really cool idea for a 2004 challenge, huh? huh? :D

Katharine

[golden1225]

I'm IN!!
:)

[tbb113]

You are right. There was a cooking challenge from the Moosewood cookbook and later from Joy of Cooking. Problem was if you didn't have the book you couldn't participate OR someone that had the book was busy typing up recipes :rolleyes:

The advantage of using whatever cookbook you want is that we will all get exposed to a LOT more cook books and it might inspire us to buy them.

Personally I have some very old cookbooks that I haven't looked at in years (decades maybe). This way I can cook from them and remember why I bought the book to start with!

[cinnamon_queen]

Good to know that I wasn't just dreaming of that whole idea! LOL!

I wonder if there is a way to get around having the person type up all the recipes? Maybe we could find a website of the cookbook that had the index listing or some of the recipes listed from different cookbooks? With all the recipe sites and personal homepages with recipes, there has got to be some way! LOL!

I really liked the idea, but I understand how much work it could (and was!).

[Randi R]

Originally posted by kristalsnow7
I'll happily partake in the challenge, although I don't exactly know what it is.

ditto for me:D

[Cooky]

Originally when I read this post I thought it was just any cookbook in general just to get us opening books that might be sitting on our shelves. However, if the goal is to stick to "a" book, then maybe we can break off into sort of "teams" based on books we have. Maybe chose say 3-5(?) books that a number of us already have, start a thread with those books and just continuously post our reviews to it?? No one is limited to cooking from just one book, should you happen to have more than one that we are using or decide to purchase it later based on our reviews.

This way we don't have to invest in a book. Just a thought. If I am off track, ignor this post.
:p