Tuesday, April 7, 2009

My New Favorite Cookbook


I borrowed a lot of cookbooks from the library a few weeks back. One of the best ones I tried and ended up buying is Make A Mix. I had never heard of it and stumbled upon it while browsing the freezer cooking manuals. Basically the first half contains recipes for mixes. The section includes dry baking mixes and other mixes that need to be frozen or used right away. Then you turn to the back half and find recipes for all the different meals you can make with each mix. My favorite so far is the Hot Roll Mix. I mix a large batch of the dry mix and then use it make some delicious things like Big Soft Pretzels, dinner rolls, and even Pizza Crust! I did find some good freezer cooking recipes in other books (more about that later) but Make A Mix is a great way to supplement those meals. Like I said, I found it through my library first. I liked it so much that I bought a used copy through Amazon.com pretty inexpensively.

By the way, those soft pretzels were a life saver when we decided to go to the church pot luck at the last minute. I rolled them out, Brian applied a little egg and salt, and they baked within 15 minutes. I don't want to cheat and share the recipe but it is very good! Enjoy!

What's your favorite cookbook?

6 comments:

Captain's Wife - Jennifer said...

That book sounds really neat! I am going to have to see if our library has it. Sounds like it could come in handy. I look forward to hearing about the freezer cooking...I have heard a lot about it but have never really tried it. Except for I often buy like 25 lbs of hamburger and cook it all up in my big roaster and then freeze it to use in spaghetti, tacos, etc.

Misty said...

This sounds GREAT! Thanks for posting it. I've been trying to make our own "starches", am thrilled with making my own english muffins and bread loafs and want to try some more things, and start buying stuff in bulk, making and storing mixes sounds like a fantastic time saver in that respect! I never would have thought of that! Going to see if anyone's offering it on paperbackswap!

Farmer's Daughter said...

What a neat idea.

My all-time favorite cookbook is the Joy of Cooking, since I can find pretty much anything in there. I also really like the Fannie Farmer cookbook, since there are canning instructions and recipes in there, too.

Anonymous said...

My fav. =)

Jena said...

Jennifer - I had to have the library get it from another county but there are copies around. I'll share my first freezer cooking experience soon. I love the idea of cooking hamburger ahead of time, I don't know why I don't do that all the time! Maybe your family should by part of a cow, it may save you some money.

Misty - Mmm, homemade english muffins sound great. I've done bagels but never those. What's paperbackswap? I've never heard of it.

FD - My Grandma gave me two old cookbooks that are very useful: American Home All-Purpose Cookbook and Farm Journal's Country Cookbook. Those are the kind I like, the old-fashioned ones that actually tell you how to cut up a chicken and all of that. Betty Crocker is my stand by though.

Jena said...

Julie - Awesome, I'll check it out!