My New Year's resolution is often to cook with a new vegetable. How else does a girl from Wisconsin experiment with okra or ugly fruit? This year, however, I've decided to encourage myself to use cookbooks more, both the ones I already have and the ones I salivate over at Blue Hill Books.At the inn, the office shares the same big room with the kitchen. When we started serving dinners at the inn last May, our shelf of cookbooks had to make room for the top shelf liquors in one spot and the fancy tools of the trade for baking bread in another. The cookbooks being far away and the computer being quite handy lead to me looking up recipes online. I love cookthink.com and allrecipes.com. Lots of sites allow you to browse by ingredient, consider variations, peruse photographs, and look at other cooks' comments. The speed with which I can consider three or four options for the crabmeat I want to use tonight or for how best to pair blueberries and sage is nothing short of miraculous.
So why the resolution to use more cookbooks of the food spattered paper variety?
Because recipes are often about anticipation, about possibilities, about looking to the future. Cookbooks have a romance allrecipes.com never will. So join me, paging slowly through an old friend or a new favorite, sipping perhaps on a kir royale or a favorite robust red...
A wonderful place to start is Kate Schaffer's Desserted. You know I love Black Dinah Chocolates... Imagine how gorgeous their first cookbook is?! This is highly recommended.
Swordfish boat captain Linda Greenlaw collaborated with her mother on two cookbooks, Recipes from a Very Small Island and the Maine Summers Cookbook. Seeing as both Kate and Linda are on Isle au Haut, you ought to visit!
A local map artist, Jane Crosen, published the Maine Mapmaker's Kitchen. It's part memoir, part sketchbook, but all creative.
Do you know Cynthia Finnemore Simonds? Me neither but check out her blog! She has written a trio of cookbooks--one on salads, one on soups, and one on desserts.
Brooke Dojny is a dear you might find just about anywhere. Still, she finds time to blog about squash, publish recipes and cookbooks, and write about the local scene. (For more on Brooke, read this Island Ad-Vantages article.) Rumor has it Brooke has a new book coming out this spring: Lobsters!
Jonathan Chase has been in the area a long, long time and diners are delighted to rediscover him, most recently at Buck's in Brooksville. He cowrote Saltwater Seasonings with his sister, Sarah.
Diane Bianco's book, Let's Party in Maine, really focuses on food that is easy to make and easily pleases a crowd.
Have you ever wondered what to cook on a windjammer cruise? Here's the cookbook for you!
The "Picasso & Pie" Buffet Cookbook: Blue Hill Buffet's Famous Recipe Collection has a wonderful back story which we'll explore another day.
I recommend browsing and buying at Blue Hill Books, New Cargoes, the Barnacle, North Light Books, Red Gap Books, and the library's monthly book sale. Afraid of commitment? It's easy to get a library card and staff can locate books at tons of other libraries and bring the books here for you.
Do you have a cookbook to recommend? Post it on our facebook page!
Need more suggestions? Just let me know. Here's to 2012 being a happy, healthy, delicious year!
