A Month of Gourmet- 2/6/09
When I was in college, the woman I babysat for had a stack of cooking magazines in her kitchen and after the children went to sleep, I would look at them until she and her husband got home. I found myself entranced with the lovely pictures and the enticing recipes. It reminded me of when my friend Heather and I would make thematic meals for our parents as kids. We used a child's cookbook of food from other countries (I still have that wonderful little cookbook.) and the Better Homes and Garden's International Cookbook printed in the 1960's. Some were a great success, though interestingly, those are not the meals I remember. Perhaps most memorable was a Polish meal we made, complete with a polka record in the backround and babushkas on our heads, that was unbelievably salty. Our parents kindly ate it and perhaps felt some strange sense of payback for the sour aspic and grainy humus they made us eat.
With these memories of my own enjoyment cooking as a kid and the knowledge that just looking at cooking magazines was a pleasure, I soon subscribed to several myself. In fact, since the mid 90's, I've gotten at least 3 different cooking magazines each month. I save past issues in magazine racks in the closet and at the start of each month, I get out the past issues of that month and look at them all in evenings or when I need an idea for dinner. I've made numerous recipes from these magazines and even write a little rating system in the back of each magazine to review the recipes I've made.
Some people may wonder why cooking magazine instead of cookbooks or online recipes. I love the pictures that go with almost every recipe and the fact that magazines are at the same time, seasonal, thematic, and have a great variety of recipes without being overwhelming in size.
Here's where my purpose for this blog becomes apparent. I wanted a documented format to reflect on my adventures with cooking magazine recipes. My goal for the month of February is to make as many recipes from this month's issue of Gourmet magazine and write about how successful I am with the recipes as a novice home cook with a 15 month old daughter tagging at my heals.
Why Gourmet? It is one of the magazines I've subscribed to or purchased for at least 10 years. Gourmet can at times be the most complex of the magazines I get, the recipes sometimes calling for obscure ingredients and multiple time-consuming steps. There are also a number of articles that challenge the readers thinking not only about cooking but about the way we think of food and how it gets to the table. I admire Ruth Reichl, the editor in chief of Gourmet, and have read some of her memoirs. Her editorials at the front of each issue sound less like an advertisement for her magazine than the honest reflections of a true cook. This February 2009 issue of Gourmet is pretty straightforward with recipes for very authentic braises and soups, as well as an article about wonderful yeast rolls. So here's to the rest of February, my month of Gourmet!
With these memories of my own enjoyment cooking as a kid and the knowledge that just looking at cooking magazines was a pleasure, I soon subscribed to several myself. In fact, since the mid 90's, I've gotten at least 3 different cooking magazines each month. I save past issues in magazine racks in the closet and at the start of each month, I get out the past issues of that month and look at them all in evenings or when I need an idea for dinner. I've made numerous recipes from these magazines and even write a little rating system in the back of each magazine to review the recipes I've made.
Some people may wonder why cooking magazine instead of cookbooks or online recipes. I love the pictures that go with almost every recipe and the fact that magazines are at the same time, seasonal, thematic, and have a great variety of recipes without being overwhelming in size.
Here's where my purpose for this blog becomes apparent. I wanted a documented format to reflect on my adventures with cooking magazine recipes. My goal for the month of February is to make as many recipes from this month's issue of Gourmet magazine and write about how successful I am with the recipes as a novice home cook with a 15 month old daughter tagging at my heals.
Why Gourmet? It is one of the magazines I've subscribed to or purchased for at least 10 years. Gourmet can at times be the most complex of the magazines I get, the recipes sometimes calling for obscure ingredients and multiple time-consuming steps. There are also a number of articles that challenge the readers thinking not only about cooking but about the way we think of food and how it gets to the table. I admire Ruth Reichl, the editor in chief of Gourmet, and have read some of her memoirs. Her editorials at the front of each issue sound less like an advertisement for her magazine than the honest reflections of a true cook. This February 2009 issue of Gourmet is pretty straightforward with recipes for very authentic braises and soups, as well as an article about wonderful yeast rolls. So here's to the rest of February, my month of Gourmet!
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