# Cookbook recipe challenge thread



## apicius9 (Nov 5, 2011)

I am one of these people who read cookbooks like novels and then put them on the shelf, but I hardly ever take them out and follow a recipe. I kind of absorb ideas and then improvise. But sometimes I think it would expand my horizon to take a good-looking recipe and follow it as good as it can. After all, I am an amateur, and I may be in for surprises or just learn a few things on the way. Right now I have a shelf filled with a few hundred cook books, most of which I haven't looked at in years.

So, here is the challenge: about once a week I want to pick one of my cookbooks, follow one of the recipes as closely as possible, and then report the original recipe here and my impressions of how well it turned out. I will try taking pictures but may not always be consistent with that. Anybody want to join me? I am sure that many of you have a lot of cookbooks that you never really use... I hope that this will be a fun experience, not only to learn things from doing them myself but also from seeing what others pick and what cookbooks they like or don't like. Maybe we can add a short 'review' on the cookbooks we chose. But I don't want to add too many rules, this should be fun. I am sure, some of the contributors here are experienced enough to write their own cookbooks, but I would love to see a mix of pros and enthusiatic amateurs doing this. Let me know what you think, and let's just start posting whenever we get to it.

Stefan


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## DwarvenChef (Nov 5, 2011)

I'm game  I lost cound after the mid 300's and that was a couple years ago. 





My cookbook shelf when I lived in the bay area, I have 3 of these now  and boxes of older books that people have started giving me lol


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## echerub (Nov 5, 2011)

Hey, I certainly could use a prod to use my cookbooks more. One new recipe a week? I think I can do that, though I might miss a week here and there. Sure, I'll join Cookbook Collectors' Anonymous  ... rrr... I mean the Cookbook Challenge


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## obtuse (Nov 5, 2011)

I'm game  I've got atleast 60 cookbooks and more on the way.


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## Eamon Burke (Nov 5, 2011)

Cool idea


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## mr drinky (Nov 5, 2011)

I'll try it too, but there will be some weeks I just won't be around to cook, so I need several bye weeks. I also don't have enough cookbooks, so I might not have the variety that some of you have.

k.


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## bprescot (Nov 5, 2011)

I'm game! I'll work one up this weekend, even. But no pics mid process. Maybe of the end results.


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## mr drinky (Nov 5, 2011)

Anyhow, I'm game and going to the store in about an hour. My first cookbook is The Geometry of Pasta. I'll probably choose a few recipes form this one before moving on to another.

k.


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## mr drinky (Nov 6, 2011)

Ok, I am starting this off it seems. Today I cooked from the Geometry of Pasta Cookbook, Farfalle Con Ceci e Vongole (Chickpeas and Clams).

I must admit that I have never cooked clams at home and don't really care for clam past that much, but my wife is of the opposite opinion. I didn't have the ditali pasta the recipe called for, so I substituted it with farfalle as suggested. 

I will say that out of all the clam pastas I have had, this was one of my favorites, but I did feel the sauce was a bit light on flavor. In the end I added a splash of really good olive oil and a light dusting of pecorino. I know cheese and seafood don't always go together well, but I think it worked with this light sauce and it added some saltiness. 

For my knives, I used my new Del Ealy blade and my Carter. 

As for adjustments, I used canned chick peas, doubled the amount of clams (littleneck), and used farfalle instead. 

Would I make it again? Yes, but I would consider adjusting the sauce a bit. I might add some white wine, a little mustard, maybe lemon zest, and then when combining everything at the end, I would put in a couple slabs of butter to finish. I think that would give it some zing and richness that the sauce lacked.

Here are some pictures.







k.


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## echerub (Nov 6, 2011)

Sounds much better than the hotel buffet fare I had earlier tonight


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## apicius9 (Nov 7, 2011)

Nice, thanks for moving this. I had been thinking about this for a while but I am not yet prepared, gotta go shopping first. I am also not sure that once a week will be realistic, but I will try.

Stefan


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## DwarvenChef (Nov 7, 2011)

Got my first recipe up and gathered, now to get pics and all...

I like the pic of the recipe, I'm also going to add a link to the books I choose for those interested in looking up the book themselves.

Good job on the first entry


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## sw2geeks (Nov 7, 2011)

Nice clam pasta pics!


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## mr drinky (Nov 8, 2011)

Ok, I said I would be doing more than one from each cook book so here is the second dish -- I don't have 52 cookbooks. Bucatini Al Coniglio All'ischitana.

That is spicy tomato rabbit bucatini to those who don't speak Italian, and it was again from the Geometry of Pasta cookbook. The pasta turned out to be one of the best pastas I have ever made, but the rabbit second course was not that great. Essentially, I used very expensive rabbit for a great pasta sauce -- but it was also worth it even though the rabbit was so-so. The meat dish was tedious to eat and the cooking times left it overdone. I have better rabbit recipes if I want to maximize a rabbit dish. 

I also was working handicapped. A freak glass-breaking injury sent me to the doctor today to remove glass shards from one of my fingers. I knew I was in trouble when I felt the glass hit my bone. 

After the doctor, I wrapped cellophane around the bandage and hit the kitchen.

Once again, I used my Ealy 240/265 gyuto, though I still had nerve blocker coursing through my fingers, so it was way awkward. It is one thing to have a cut that hurts and another not to feel a good portion of your hand. With that said, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Washing protein was the biggest PITA.

So if I were to change this recipe, I would buy half the rabbit in order to half the price and treat it as a sauce seasoning. And at some point I would try to shred the meat from the bone and incorporate it into the sauce. The sauce was amazing. Spicy tomato rabbit pasta just sounds good.

Pictures below.

k.


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## apicius9 (Nov 9, 2011)

That looks excellent, and thanks for sacrificing yourself inspite of your handicap!  I am not a huge rabbit fan, never had it when I grew up and when I finally tried it, it often was dried out or cooked out in a stew. But I do remember a pasta dish with a rabbit ragout/ sauce in a small Italian place that I really enjoyed, this looks very similar. 

Thanks for moving this forward. I wasn't feeling great today, went home early and had McD drive-thu dinner. I admit that I am a bit ashamed...

Stefan


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## mr drinky (Nov 9, 2011)

I want hasenpfeffer....

Bugs Bunny.

k.


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## DwarvenChef (Nov 9, 2011)

Working to much lol, mine will be up tomorow


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## ptolemy (Nov 9, 2011)

mr drinky said:


> Ok, I said I would be doing more than one from each cook book so here is the second dish -- I don't have 52 cookbooks. Bucatini Al Coniglio All'ischitana.
> 
> That is spicy tomato rabbit bucatini to those who don't speak Italian, and it was again from the Geometry of Pasta cookbook. The pasta turned out to be one of the best pastas I have ever made, but the rabbit second course was not that great. Essentially, I used very expensive rabbit for a great pasta sauce -- but it was also worth it even though the rabbit was so-so. The meat dish was tedious to eat and the cooking times left it overdone. I have better rabbit recipes if I want to maximize a rabbit dish.
> 
> ...


 
Wow, this is great. I think I agree with you about shredding the rabbit. Also, maybe worth just buying thighs, which can take longer cooking. I like rabbit meat, i find it like chicken color/texture just more tender and with flavor.


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## Craig (Nov 9, 2011)

I've done a recipe very similar to that except you don't reduce it nearly as much. The Rabbit turned out really nice and tender for me, but the sauce produced probably wouldn't make a great pasta sauce. It goes great on cous-cous though.


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## mano (Nov 9, 2011)

I'll be posting soon and this is a challenge for those of us who incessantly tweak recipes as they're written. 

Not that I've made it a lot, but over the years I learned it's easy to over cook rabbit, venison and other game meats even when slow braised.


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## DwarvenChef (Nov 10, 2011)

The Bacon Cookbook


































A version of Coq au vin that sounded good, coq au vin always sounds good to me  and this did not disapoint. I pretty much followed the recipe except that I didn't have peppered bacon so I made my but rubbing the bacon in some cracked black pepper to start. 

The Bacon Cookbook has allot of great info about and of the society of bacon lovers  Not just a bunch of recipes but good info on the world of bacon from all corners of the globe. If you like bacon or just all out love the stuff, this is a good book to get your hands on. My local library has a copy even  but they can't have mine...


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## mr drinky (Nov 10, 2011)

That looks fabulous. Bacon is good.

k.


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## JohnnyChance (Nov 10, 2011)

Nice pictures DC!


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## DwarvenChef (Nov 10, 2011)

Got ahold of my daughters camera  and these where cropped way down lol... /drool...


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## mano (Nov 12, 2011)

Mr. D and DChef you're making some great dishes. Is there anything about those particular cook books that appeal to you? 

Chicken cacciatore (hunters chicken), braised fennel (I added some leeks), pasta and red gravy, which I made and froze in August and didn't use a recipe. &#8220;Adventures in Italian Cooking&#8221; was given to me about 35 years ago when I was learning to cook and I still use it regularly. 

No plating pictures because I always forget.







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## WildBoar (Nov 12, 2011)

Oh no, I'm catching up on KKF a day too late  Cooked Pork with 'Salsa Genovase' from Lidia B last night. It's a pork shoulder cooked with a bacon and garlic paste, a little bit of carrot, celery and tomato paste, 7 lbs of onions and some stock. Cooks ~3 hours in dutch oven after initial browning; not much work involved after the initial prep. I took a couple pics of the massive pile of onions, but that was about it. Paired it with cheesy polenta.

DC's chicken w/ bacon looks awesome! And I'd be all over mano's cacciatore.


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## DwarvenChef (Nov 12, 2011)

My books have accumulated over many years, some when I moved out of my folks place and many more after I went to culinary school. What I look for also evolved over time, currently I look for books on very focused topics that have as much info (if not more) than just recipes on the topic. Sometimes I fall prey to the catchy title and cover lol but on the most part I want something more from a cookbook than just a recipe guide.

The Bacon Cokbook... I love bacon and this book has some great info about bacon from around the world. So when you read a recipe from another country and it calls for bacon you can find out what they call bacon. Outside the US what we Americans call bacon is called Streaky Bacon and is always smoked to some degree. Other countries have a different spin on bacon and the dish will be different if you use a different bacon. 

My next recipe will be from a book called "Fat" by McLagan, all about fat as an ingredient... should be interesting


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## mr drinky (Nov 19, 2011)

That tasty looking fresh pasta by mano might inspire me this weekend, and I have some pesto that I made before the basil froze that will taste great with it. 

I have done two more recipes this last week form Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes. 

(1) Pasta with Fast Sausage Ragu
(2) Shrimp in Yellow Curry (recipe on two pages)

I'm going to try a couple other recipes from this book, but overall I am a bit underwhelmed by it. They work great as last-minute meals but the flavors (not surprisingly) are either simple or underdeveloped. Frankly, I would rather spend another 15 minutes to develop some more flavor in each dish. I think it would take playing with each recipe a couple of times to adjust them and find the right balance and adjustments. 

Also, for the pasta with ragu I would use a different pasta such as a penne or large/medium shell to hold the sauce better. And on the shrimp recipe I would have upped almost everything (ginger, pepper, curry, onion, and garlic) and added some other spices too.

k.


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## DwarvenChef (Dec 6, 2011)

So busy up till now that I have not had time to get recipes, pictures, and write up done  However I have been keeping up on my end lol. Once I get my kids camera back I'll get the pics I just took of a roast I did last night.


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## mr drinky (Dec 6, 2011)

Same here. I have done a couple more, but I think I am just going to list which ones I have done and just add pictures to any that I find really good. 

On another note, I did register for the free account at eatyourbooks.com, which only lets you shelf 5 of your cookbooks. So I just added 5 and did a search for 'lamb' and 157 recipes came up just in those books. I was pretty slick, and I was able to quickly sort through them and find a good recipe for those lamb stewing chunks I have in the freezer.

k.


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## apicius9 (Dec 6, 2011)

Man, I called for this and still haven't gotten around. Most of the times I am cooking for myself, so that is not that exciting. When I started the thread I knew I had people coming in and would be cooking - but it turns out that my friends ate more at MDs and weren't very interested in trying local food. I hope to get to something soon,

Stefan


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## echerub (Dec 6, 2011)

I have obviously been rather delinquent as well. It doesn't help that I actually bought two more cookbooks - albeit from the local used book joint - but yeah, I need to actually be in the kitchen a bit more 

Soon! Soon!


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## DwarvenChef (Dec 6, 2011)

I have been wanting to try a roasting style mentioned in this book for a while. I have done simaler cooking before but not as mentioned here. The 30 minute sizzle sounded really good so I picked up a roast we had on sale at work, love getting grass fed beef for regular prices  .

As the pic shows I think I would have been happier if the roast time was longer or at higher temp. While the meat did come out a nice even med rare the "crust" never really formed to my liking. But a do over is deffinatly in the future. 

For this I let the roast come to room temp and rubbed it down with olive oil salt and pepper. Roasted at 450 for 30 mins dropping the temp to 325 for 25 mins for a rare/med rare roast. Has been great for sandwiches


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## echerub (Dec 6, 2011)

Mmmm... looks tasty  You're right, more crust would be even better. It's great when each learning step is enjoyable unto itself


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## DwarvenChef (Dec 7, 2011)

My daughter has already polished off half of it, each week I do a roast to slice up for lunches. She's actually taking lunch to school now lol


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## echerub (Dec 16, 2011)

I'm baking cookies at 2am from a recipe card, and it's not fun. There's no cutting involved, it feels like drudge work, and my product looks like crap. Ah well... the joys of doing a "cookie exchange" with others the next day.


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## DwarvenChef (Dec 16, 2011)

I haven't cracked open a book all week... mostly doing recipes I have in my head... Last night was a tomato basil soup I used to make at Nordstrom, love that soup made it everyday for 5 years lol...


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## Andrew H (Dec 16, 2011)

DwarvenChef said:


> I haven't cracked open a book all week... mostly doing recipes I have in my head... Last night was a tomato basil soup I used to make at Nordstrom, love that soup made it everyday for 5 years lol...



Nordstrom cafe is surprisingly good. (Born in Seattle)


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## mr drinky (Dec 16, 2011)

Last night I cooked a recipe from the cookbook, 1080 Recipes, that Spanish cookbook. It was lamb stew with turnips and carrots, and it was tasty but I found the seasoning in the recipe to be a bit light. I hate it when recipes say things like 1 whole clove, 1 garlic glove, 1 thyme sprig, and 5 tbs of white wine for a stew that has a pound of turnips, pound of potatoes, 9 oz of carrots, and 4.5 pounds of lamb. Seriously? What is one clove going to do in that dish?

Anyhow, I added some bay leaf, an extra clove, some more garlic cloves, more wine, three thyme sprigs instead of one, more salt and it turned out nicely. I also mixed some whole grain mustard in Greek yogurt and added a dollop of that, which I liked. 

I'm away from home, but here is a link to the recipe. 

http://www.denverpost.com/recipes/ci_11380691

k.


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## CalleNAK (Dec 17, 2011)

DwarvenChef said:


> I'm game  I lost cound after the mid 300's and that was a couple years ago.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Not sure what's more impressive the book collection or what's going on on top of the Mask DVD case. :thumbsup:


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## DwarvenChef (Dec 18, 2011)

CalleNAK said:


> Not sure what's more impressive the book collection or what's going on on top of the Mask DVD case. :thumbsup:



Yet another ex-obssesion, tactical table top miniature games, 40k, warhammer, clan war, to name a few... got out of games years ago, still selling off the stuff I keep finding squirrled away.


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## echerub (Dec 24, 2011)

Had a great family Christmas dinner last night, and I tried out a lentil soup recipe from Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Cooking. No pics, cuz it's not exactly thrilling stuff, but I had to tweak the recipe a bit. The one she has is for a Lebanese version that seemed a little bland to me. Adding in 3 teaspoons of ground cumin, however, made the soup come alive.

I had found an Egyptian recipe in another book that I'll have to try in the near future to compare a bit.


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## jmforge (Dec 25, 2011)

I am not a cook and I don't play one on television.  I don't know if this counts as following a recipe, but I saw a couple of Thomas Keller's videos on simple roasted chicken, so I "adapted" it for thighs. Dropped the temperature a bit (still higher than what I typically use), salt, pepper, little bit of thyme and rosemary. It was quite good. Crispier, more tasty skin than my regular stuff. Interesting how bumping up the temp by 25 degrees can make such a difference.


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## mr drinky (Dec 25, 2011)

I've done Keller's simple roasted chicken a few times. That's a recipe in my book. 

k.


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## DwarvenChef (Dec 25, 2011)

Whoot just got Stone Brewery's cookbook... see what I can pull out of it


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## ecchef (Dec 26, 2011)

DwarvenChef said:


> I haven't cracked open a book all week... mostly doing recipes I have in my head... Last night was a tomato basil soup I used to make at Nordstrom, love that soup made it everyday for 5 years lol...



I'm a Nordy's alumnus too DC. Used to be a Garden Court chef back in the day.


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## DwarvenChef (Dec 26, 2011)

ecchef said:


> I'm a Nordy's alumnus too DC. Used to be a Garden Court chef back in the day.



I was with the Marketplace as lead/sous lol, lead doing the job of sous  it's what it is lol Enjoyed my time there


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## mr drinky (Dec 31, 2011)

Ok, I have cooked a few recipes out of different books in the last three weeks. 

* Linguine with Butter, Pecorino, Arugula, and Black Pepper by Giada out of Everyday Pasta. It is easy and tasty. One of my wife's go-to recipes.
* Strawberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream by David Lebovitz out of The Perfect Scoop. I used frozen berries that I picked a summer ago.
* Basic Semolina Pasta by Donna German out of The Pasta Machine Cookbook (pictures below). I hand cut a papperdelle and used my own pesto that I made in early fall. My 10-month-old baby loved it. 

k.


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## mr drinky (Jan 1, 2012)

Btw, I have to put in a plug for the website eatyourbooks.com. I finally bumped up my subscription to a year-long one ($25) with unlimited cookbooks for my 'virtual bookshelf'. IMO it seems a bit expensive, and I wish they would do something like a lifetime subscription for $80 or some other subscription option. 

Anyhow, this morning I added all of my cookbooks only 28 and 18 of them had already been indexed, meaning that I can search those cookbook recipes using the website search and filters. I typed in rabbit as I have a rabbit in the freezer, and I got 21 rabbit recipes from my own cookbooks. 

Not only does it save time, I think I will end up using my cookbooks more. The rabbit recipe that I chose, is actually from a book that I have yet to use but have owned for three years. If you have a lot of cookbooks and want to increase their functionality, it seems like a good service. But it is up to you if the search function, saved time, and increased utility is worth the 25 bucks per year. You can also try it out for free with only 5 cookbooks.

I like the service. 

k.


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## DwarvenChef (Jan 2, 2012)

mr drinky said:


> Btw, I have to put in a plug for the website eatyourbooks.com. I finally bumped up my subscription to a year-long one ($25) with unlimited cookbooks for my 'virtual bookshelf'. IMO it seems a bit expensive, and I wish they would do something like a lifetime subscription for $80 or some other subscription option.
> 
> Anyhow, this morning I added all of my cookbooks only 28 and 18 of them had already been indexed, meaning that I can search those cookbook recipes using the website search and filters. I typed in rabbit as I have a rabbit in the freezer, and I got 21 rabbit recipes from my own cookbooks.
> 
> ...



I would love something like that, but would be more interested in a stand alone program. Something you don't need to be connected to use. I would pay for something like that, download all your books info... heck I'd be happy with just having the index of recipes listed for a search. 

I have the old MasterCook program from ver 2 and updated a couple years ago. But it's hard to keep up with it, and hard to get rid of it as I have several gigs of stuff attached to that program...


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## mr drinky (Jan 10, 2012)

I've actually bought a lot of cook books as of late. 

The last two recipes I have done are:

* Thomas Keller's (Ad Hoc) Chicken and Dumpling Soup
* David Tanis' (A Platter of Figs) Harira Soup

I'm not sure what I will do next, but I will probably do something by the end of the week. Both were exceptionally good.

k.


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## Johnny.B.Good (Jan 10, 2012)

mr drinky said:


> I'm not sure what I will do next, but I will probably do something by the end of the week. Both were exceptionally good.



I'm sure your family is pleased that you are a regular participant in this "challenge" K!


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## mr drinky (Jan 10, 2012)

Johnny.B.Good said:


> I'm sure your family is pleased that you are a regular participant in this "challenge" K!



Yeah, you are probably right BUT the wife did ask this week: "Was there a sale on cookbooks or something?"

k.


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## Johnny.B.Good (Jan 10, 2012)

mr drinky said:


> Yeah, you are probably right BUT the wife did ask this week: "Was there a sale on cookbooks or something?"



Sounds like a pretty good deal for her still. At least you use them. Most of us just collect.


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## DwarvenChef (Jan 11, 2012)

Carefull you'll start getting the glares I get now  I really should find a way to get all my books in one area... I have 4 bookshelves in 3 rooms full... Oh boy...


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## DwarvenChef (Jan 12, 2012)

Ok thanks to work having a great sale on roasts I got a 4lb sirloin roast to work out the system outlined in The River Cottage Meat book.

Blasted for a full 30 minutes than dropped to 325 for 40 minutes. Came out beautifuly


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