Cookbook of the Week Archives | The Taste Tourist

The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

June 15, 2020 by Kimberly 3 Comments

From Scratch

There’s something special about baking from scratch.

And if you’re looking for a cookbook filled with recipes for homespun treats, The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook is about as good as it gets.

When I first spotted this cookbook, I was struck by the evocative writing and beautiful images. Full of delectable recipes and personal stories, it inspires a wave of nostalgia for those childhood days spent baking at my grandmother and mother’s side.

In today’s busy world, it can be tough finding the time to bake from scratch, but when I do, I always end up reflecting on what a gift it is.

The gift of slowing down. The gift of creating something with your own hands. The gift of sharing with those you love.

And authors Cheryl and Griffith Day have gifted us with this cookbook. As they write, “…we are inviting those who can’t make it to our bakery to slow down and taste the sweet life in their own kitchens.”

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Cookbook of the Week – Joy the Baker Cookbook

February 27, 2017 by Kimberly 4 Comments

Northwest Winters

Our winters here in the Seattle area can be a bit bleak….prone to a steady drizzle of rain and gray skies. But despite their fairly dreary reputation, I have to admit that I love our Northwest winters.

For me, it’s a season of rest, rejuvenation, and reflection.

It’s the opportunity to hibernate – to throw on a pair of sweats, snuggle in, slow down, and rest. It’s the opportunity to enjoy the comforts of home – to turn on the fireplace on a stormy day, light a candle, and settle into the couch with a good book. It’s the opportunity to spend time in the kitchen – stirring a simmering pot of stew, kneading dough for cinnamon rolls, roasting a pan of winter vegetables.

But I have to admit, there’s one thing that I love the most about winter – the one feature that really makes or breaks it – snow.

We woke up to a surprise today, on this first week of March – to a fresh blanket of snow coating the Northwest. It was a magical drive to work, with thick flakes falling onto my windshield, rapidly transforming the streets from the mundane to the magical. I spent the day at school, along with my students, trying so hard to focus, yet looking out the window every few minutes …watching the flakes fall throughout the day, hoping they wouldn’t disappear. And the day didn’t disappoint.

This winter has been a gift, and we’ve had more than our share of snow. And when the snow comes out, there’s one thing that I always want to do – bake.

This week’s Cookbook of the Week is Joy the Baker Cookbook. …

Cookbook of the Week – Weeknight Wonders

February 20, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Cookbook of the Week February 20

Challenges

I love a new challenge…and cooking provides plenty of them. Learning to carefully pipe buttercream frosting onto a layer cake, roasting a chicken until it’s perfectly tender and moist, neatly slicing a pile of basil into a fine julienne. There’s always something new to learn, and that’s one of the many reasons I’m drawn to this culinary adventure.

But I have to admit, one of my biggest challenges in the kitchen, is also one of the more basic ones – cooking dinner on weeknights.

I absolutely love cooking – and I spend a good part of my weekends and vacation time immersed in a sea of recipes. But weeknights are a different story. After a long day working, writing fiction in the early hours of the morning and then teaching for a full day, there are many nights when I just want to grab a quick bite – a bowl of bran cereal, a piece of peanut butter toast, a pre-packaged salad – and relax.

While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, lately I’ve found myself dissatisfied with this weeknight routine, and wanting to get back to what I grew up with – home-cooked dinners.

I have a busy weekend coming up, with absolutely no time to cook, so this week seemed like the perfect opportunity to take on this new challenge. I dove into my cookbook collection looking for a book that would fit the occasion. One with delicious and healthy dinner recipes that could be made on a busy weeknight.

And I found the perfect one.

This week’s Cookbook of the Week is Weeknight Wonders by Ellie Krieger. …

Cookbook of the Week – Theo Chocolate

February 13, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Cookbook of the Week February 13

Love

I have to admit it, I fell a little bit in love this week.

With a taste, a place, a vision – Theo Chocolate.

Early in the week, I made a trip to Fremont, one of my favorite Seattle neighborhoods, to check out a destination that has long been on my “must see” list. Artsy, unique, and full of eclectic shops, restaurants, breweries, and artisan food businesses, Fremont is a highlight of any trip to Seattle, and I love spending time there exploring all it has to offer.

But on this most recent visit, my destination was more specific – the Theo Chocolate Factory.

Theo offers tours throughout the week, and I was excited to embark on my first ever chocolate factory tour – not to mention looking forward to the multiple samples that were alluringly promised. The tour didn’t disappoint…it was interesting, fun, and informative – and the quality of their artisan chocolate absolutely blew me away.

What I hadn’t expected, however, was to come away from the hour-long tour so profoundly moved…not just by the chocolate, but by the business itself – the vision, the passion, the desire to make a difference in the world.

In honor of Valentine’s Day – and the love of all things chocolate – this week’s Cookbook of the Week is Theo Chocolate. …

Cookbook of the Week – My Kitchen Year

February 6, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Cookbook of the Week February 6

Snow Day

Western Washington woke up Monday morning to a blanket of snow…and I woke up to the call that school was cancelled.

A snow day – it doesn’t get much better than that.

We haven’t had a lot of snow for the last few years, so this was an unexpected treat – a rare day off to hunker down and stay put. I had stocked up on cinnamon bread and supplies to make hot chocolate, a “snow day” tradition in my family, in the hopes that the meteorologist’s forecast might be right.

It started to snow on Sunday just after the Super Bowl ended, and on the drive home it was coming down hard…big fat flakes pelting the windshield and quickly covering the ground. I was in and out of bed all night, peeking out the window – just like a kid again, hoping that it would stick. And then that call came…no school today. As much as I love teaching, the thrill of a snow day never gets old.

I turned on the fireplace, snuggled into the couch, and enjoyed a piece of warm cinnamon bread accompanied by a thick mug of hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream, of course. I spent the morning paging through a cookbook that I had bought over a year ago…a beautiful book, part memoir and part cookbook, with a chapter entitled “Winter” – full of recipes just perfect for a snowy day.

This week’s Cookbook of the Week is Ruth Reichl’s My Kitchen Year. …

Cookbook of the Week – The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays

January 30, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Cookbook of the Week January 30

Football with Dad

I grew up with a dad who is passionate about football. With two daughters, and no sons, my dad – a former college quarterback – shared his love of the sport with my sister and me.

Sundays were always one of my favorite days, as that meant relaxing in our basement rec room, an NFL game blaring in the background, my mom keeping us stocked up with snacks…and most of all, spending time with my dad. He would patiently explain the sport to me, taking time to point out the different positions, the intricacies of the plays, and the history of the game.

It wasn’t just Sundays and the NFL games…Friday nights in the fall meant trips to watch our local high school football team, the social event of the week in my small town. While I loved rooting on our hometown Spartans, I have to admit that I loved the halftime trip to the concession stand for a hot dog and hot chocolate just as much. Then there were the visits to Seattle to watch the University of Washington Huskies play; later, when I was a student there, my dad would make the long drive to campus to watch me play quarterback on a co-ed flag football team.

As much as I grew to love the sport – and to this day my fall and early winter weekends are filled with the familiar sounds and sights of football – it was always about so much more than that.

It was about bonding with my dad, of developing a shared passion for the sport, of celebrating that father-daughter connection.

Although our Seahawks didn’t make it to the Super Bowl this year, I’ll still be watching the big game on Sunday…and preparing a spread of “football food” to celebrate the day.

This week’s Cookbook of the Week is Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays. …

Cookbook of the Week – Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes

January 23, 2017 by Kimberly 2 Comments

Traditions

I love traditions – personal traditions, family traditions, cultural traditions…there’s a comforting security in carrying the past forward. But as much as I love traditions, I’m also drawn to the new – to change, to variety, to learning and growth.

The Chinese New Year, occurring this week, celebrates both of these – valuing the past and looking forward to the future.

Also known as The Lunar New Year, as it occurs during the second new moon of the winter solstice, it’s celebrated not just in China, but in many communities and countries around the world. I’ve always been intrigued by its unique customs and traditions…the ritual cleaning prior to the New Year, firecrackers, red envelopes filled with money for the children, lion dances, spring couplets decorating doors, drumming competitions, joss sticks burning in the temples, the lucky colors of red and gold, and the Lantern Festival marking its conclusion.

One of the most revered traditions is the New Year’s Eve reunion dinner…rich with symbolism and food. It’s a time when family members typically travel great distances in order to come together, pay homage to their ancestors, and celebrate with an abundance of food. Many of the dishes served have special symbolic meaning, their names and ingredients conveying shapes or sounds similar to the Chinese wishes for the new year. Good fortune fruit – tangerines, oranges, and pomeloes, noodles – a symbol of longevity, fish – served whole with some left over to ensure abundance, and dumplings at midnight symbolizing good wishes for the year ahead.

Beautiful food. Beautiful traditions.

In honor of the Chinese New Year, this week’s Cookbook of the Week is Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes. …

Taste Five – Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook

January 22, 2017 by Kimberly 4 Comments

The Process

I have a tendency to focus on results, to work hard toward meeting a goal, to want to get to the finish line. But this week reminded me of an essential truth…that sometimes the most significant moments are to be found, not just in the end result, but in the process as well.

As I started thumbing through the pages of this week’s cookbook, I was intrigued to read that the Macrina Bakery and Café was named, not for its founder Leslie Mackie, but rather for Saint Macrina – a fourth century nun who was known for “working to improve the life of her community.” That resonated with me, as I’m fortunate to work with an incredibly talented and passionate group of educators, who are absolutely committed to making a difference in the lives of our students.

I liked the idea of baking for my colleagues this week, of giving back a bit…especially as this is also National Baking Month. With that in mind, I spent last weekend immersed in a sea of butter, sugar, flour, and a myriad of ingredients that transform the simple into the sublime…dried cherries, almonds, golden raisins, dark chocolate, fresh ginger, orange zest, and molasses.

As I packed up all my creations on Sunday night, exhausted and yet excited to share them, I reflected on what a gift this weekend of baking had been…

It was the physicality, the pleasure of touch…the seesaw of the knife as I chopped roasted almonds, the gentle give of a cookie cutter sinking into shortbread, the rhythmic kneading of scone dough – oddly meditative in its own way.

It was the sights…dried dark cherries plumping up in a bowl of warm water, pale yellow ribbons of butter and sugar swirling together in the mixer, shimmering sugar crystals topping golden-toned scones.

It was the smells emanating from the kitchen… bright notes of orange zest, bittersweet chocolate melting into butter, hints of spicy ginger and molasses.

It was the process of baking – the creativity, the serenity, the sensory engagement – that was every bit as special as the end result.

Here is this week’s Taste Five. …

Cookbook of the Week – Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook

January 16, 2017 by Kimberly 2 Comments

Cookbook of the Week January 16

Serendipity

Serendipity – one of my favorite words. I remember when I first looked up its meaning; I was in Venice on a boat transporting me back to the mainland, when I spotted it spray-painted on a lagoon seawall. I had heard the word before, loved the way it looked and sounded, but honestly, I wasn’t sure what it meant. Back at my hotel, I went online…serendipity: the act of finding interesting or valuable things by chance.

I had this week’s Cookbook of the Week selection and posts all planned out; today I was supposed to be taking a British baking class in Seattle – and I had chosen a cookbook that connected to that experience. But last night I received an email letting me know that the class was cancelled. I went to bed wondering what new cookbook to select…unsure, debating my options, not able to decide on one that felt “just right.”

This morning I woke up later than usual, off work for the MLK holiday, indecision still looming. Lazing in bed, stalling, I started thumbing through Instagram. The first post I saw was by Macrina Bakery and Café…a picture of a white plate filled with cookies labeled Olivia’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and tagged simply “comfort food.”

I know that recipe, and I know how good it is, because I’ve made it before…and I have that cookbook. I love those serendipitous moments…decision made.

This week’s Cookbook of the Week is Leslie Mackie’s Macrina Bakery and Café Cookbook. …

Cookbook of the Week – The Can’t Cook Book

January 9, 2017 by Kimberly Leave a Comment

Week Two - Cookbook of the Week

Foundations

For a good part of my life, I’ve been what you might call an “armchair cook” – and in fact, there’s nothing wrong with that; I still love getting lost in the pages of a cookbook or watching chefs battle it out on television. However, a few years ago I started yearning to actually create some of the dishes that I’d been observing from the sidelines.

As a teacher, I know that you learn by “doing” – so, in the winter of 2013 I made the move off the “couch” and into the kitchen.

I’d been collecting cookbooks for years and had amassed a pretty large collection (enough to require moving one car out of the garage and into the driveway – priorities!), but I still found myself at the bookstore looking for just the right cookbook to begin with.

It was the title that drew me to that first selection – echoing my interest in, but lack of comfort, when it came to the kitchen. Thumbing through it, I knew it was the right one to kick off my cooking journey, and I spent the month of January immersed in it – building skills, building confidence, and ultimately building a love of cooking.

This week I look forward to revisiting that foundational cookbook – The Can’t Cook Book by Jessica Seinfeld.
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