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How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Mark Bittman)
Bittman strives to provide (and frequently succeds) uncomplicated instructions and fairly short cooking times. The food itself might not be memorable, but it's not supposed to be, according to him--this is food for family and weekday nights. Therefore, the word 'great' is a stretch--I'll go for good. Likewise, you won't find everything--like the classic American dessert Boston Cream Pie that I searched in vain for. Trial by Fire Friday nights are frequently spaghetti night around here--it's simple, makes use of various leftover bits of onion I have about, and always makes enough for unexpected company. This week, I decided to embellish a bit (mostly because I had some bacon and cream that needed to be used up), and made Meat Sauce Bolognese-Style. The recipe was straightforward, without requiring anything more complicated than mincing. I think the general richness of the dish could have been minimized a bit by draining the beef and bacon after browing, but that's just me. It was certainly tasty as it was, and perfect for those that sometimes think of spaghetti as 'spicy'. This most certainly isn't, but has a pleasing, substantial taste. For dessert, brownies. (We were too full, but when does that stop anyone?) The recipe seemed intriguingly simple, with a scant 1/2 cup of flour, 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla. Bittman promised fudginess, which is a key criteria for me--if I wanted a cakey brownie, I'd make a chocolate cake. With high expectations, I melted, stirred, and baked. And upon eating, was disappointed. The texture was rather fudgy, it's true, but the chocolete flavor was too mild to be satisfying. Even this chocoholic threw away the remains. Go To Page: 1 2
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