I like sandwiches and salads, especially in the summer when it’s too hot to cook and I’m too tired to spend time in the kitchen. The deli at the supermarket always has roasted chicken and cooked beef so, if you don’t want to cook, getting a meat at the deli is a fast and easy way to begin. Sandwiches and salads are other ways to lighten up in the kitchen.
We have a large selection of cookbooks that can give you ideas on fast and easy meals. Here are just two that you might like.
Picture it. You’re at your local Mid Continent Public Library branch leisurely browsing the latest and greatest on the Most Requested Author display. The phone rings and you hear the otherwise, very nice library clerk answer in her usual cheery tone. Out of the corner of your eye, you see her pause, squirm in her chair, dab her brow, and say under her breath, “Shoot the Da** Dog.
Recently, I went home to Alabama for a visit. While I was there, I was reacquainted with southern cookin' I grew up with. Some of the things I enjoyed were a dish with fried okra, fried squash with potatoes, onions and cheese, some grits, and sweet tea. Southern sweet tea has sugar as the 2nd ingredient! (Water is first!) When I came back to Missouri, I was missing the Southern cooking. I was pleased to see that our Mid-Continent Library system has many Southern recipe books. So if you would like to try some wonderful southern cookin', check out these books.
Here’s a fun piece of trivia: besides being famous singers and performers, what do Julie Andrews and Anne Murray have in common? Answer: they both had their tonsils removed as adults, they both suffer from scoliosis, and they both married much older men.
How do I know this? Two words: memoir season.
Curiously enough, I read memoirs in the spring and summer. I don’t know why, but when the foliage begins to turn green and that first robin hops across the lawn, I find myself stocking up on memoirs and biographies.
Most people think cookbooks are the only ones with recipes. But here’s a tasty surprise! Check out these authors who write fiction with recipes included; Joanne Fluke, Tamar Myers, Laura Childs, and Diane Mott Davidson are just a few.
The corn is now easily higher than an elephant's eye. The corn in this picture is used for animal food or ethanol, but sweet corn is plentiful at your local store or at roadside markets. Now would be a great time to put a bit away and plan an outside camping and cooking outing, or a bonfire with friends. Our Dearborn Branch had a program about Dutch oven cooking outdoors earlier this year, and the participants thoroughly enjoyed it.
As we all know, college students are low on funds when it comes to food. Many students live on Ramen noodles, peanut butter, microwaveable foods, and the most popular...... POPCORN! I noticed that we have cookbooks for popcorn in the library catalog. Can you believe it? Popcorn! So, if you love popcorn, or if you are eating a lot of it out of necessity, perhaps you would like to try some new ideas.
OK, that's a bit of an overstatement. You can never have too many cookbooks. I like to cook, mainly because I love to eat well. My kitchen contains a sprawling array of cookbooks. However, most of my cookbooks are quite dusty now.
When the temperatures start to cool down, I venture outside to enjoy camping and campfires. There’s nothing like sharing ooey, gooey s’mores with friends while sitting in front of a warm fire on a cool autumn’s evening! Before passing around the marshmallows and graham crackers though, we usually eat another of my favorite camping foods: Dutch oven stew made with chicken, potatoes, and carrots. While waiting for bed with a full belly and campfire stories still fading from the air, I cannot help but wonder if we are not unlike the pioneers of the Old West.
