Listography – Top 5 Cookbooks

I’ve avoided memes and the like on the blog so far because I find them so terribly boring, especially the ones where you post a photo and nothing else. Whilst I don’t dislike photos per se, they mean nothing to me unless there’s a good story to go alongside them or they are particularly striking.

Then I discovered Kate Takes 5‘s Listography series. I love a good list and I love the topics she comes up with so I hope that you will not find it too boring if I occasionally indulge in a little photo list. It will likely ladle you with an insane amount of useless information about me, none of it particularly insightful or deep but hopefully it will be entertaining. And so I start.

I love cookery books. I have a lot of them, especially since my birthday a couple of weeks ago when I was given no less than four new books. Whilst I dip into all the books from time to time I continuously return to the same ones over and over again.

1. 2000 Recettes de la Cuisine Française.

I use this one a lot. I doubt I will ever cook all 2000 French recipes contained within but I do like to try a new one from time to time. When I came to England and discovered I quite liked cooking, I realised that I knew previous few French recipes and decided that I should really learn how to make the classics. What I love about this book is that it gives you a list of alternative ingredients so if you don’t happen to have a particular herb and like me you don’t have a clue what herb/spice goes with what, you can just slightly alter the recipe by using something else from the list.

2. The Every Day Chicken Cookbook.

We love chicken and now that I can’t just dish out a tin of sauce from the cupboard because of the salt content for Little Girl, I have realised that it’s just as easy to do a stew with a bit of stock, an onion and a few mushrooms (and wine, don’t forget the wine). Thank you Chicken Cookbook.

3. Delia’s How to Cook.

I love Delia. This is the first cookery book I bought when I arrived in England, and I can proudly say that she taught me how to boil an egg. Now that I’m a bit more ‘advanced’ I can make her goat’s cheese tart and her basic bread recipe is a winner.

4. Michel Roux Pastry.

Michel Roux is a genius. He is the only one who has made me want to try to make puff pastry from scratch, and it even worked. I regularly make his Pithiviers recipe (with extra cherries) and his apple tart.

5. Muffins.

Another French book, it is part of a series of small books called Petits Plats Marabouts. These all run on a theme, with lots of recipes both savoury and sweet. Others I own in the collection are Risotto, Tarts, Trifle, Flans & Clafoutis and Small Dishes (for individual pots).

 

For more Cookbooks fun, visit Kate Takes 5‘s post.

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A month of weaning

It’s been a little over a month since we started Little Girl on solids and it has been a lot of fun.

The best thing from my point of view is that she is finally swallowing food. For a long time it looked like nothing stayed in her mouth ever. She started by just tasting the food and pushing it back out. But in the last couple of weeks she really has turned a corner. One day I gave her chicken and mash and was astounded when I couldn’t find any bits left over anywhere. Nothing on the floor or in the bib or ears, and nothing stuck to her legs or elbows! I was not fooled by the lack of mess however and just as well, it is still a bit hit and miss and there are things that will end up on the floor come what may.

She has started to practice the fabled pincer grip. Rice and peas are still going to be a challenge for a little while but she is desperately trying. In the meantime the little things are getting smashed and loaded onto spoons. I cannot emphasize enough how much the loaded spoon approach has helped us. I really was not looking forward to just putting a pile of mash on her tray, and it solves the problem nicely. She mostly picks up the spoon the right way and hits her mouth.

Food Glorious Food

Favourite foods this month have been:

–          Butternut squash soup on fresh bread

–          Tuna mayo sandwich

–          Banana (no surprise here, don’t most babies love banana?)

–          Chicken

–          Cheesy mash

–          Cucumber

–          Nutella pancake

–          She LOVED the bavette we had on my birthday (bavette is a French cut of beef taken from the skirt area, basically a steak)

Foods she is not so keen on:

–          Yoghurt unfortunately, it’s a bit too tart for her and I haven’t got round to stewing apples to sweeten it.

 

Unfortunate habit

Thank you Badgerman for teaching her to drum with her spoon over the weekend. I’ll be leaving the cleaning up to you from now on.

I’m in Chocolate Heaven

I think Lindt might just have made Christmas complete this year.

After 13 years, they have re-introduced the BEST white chocolate in the whole wide earth, ‘white with a touch of vanilla’. It is so more-ish, I used to eat the whole bar walking home from the shops, we are talking a 10 minute walk. I could hardly contain my excitement when I spotted it in the shop. Oh, how am I going to stop myself from eating it now? I. Must. Eat. Now.

Yay!