New Challenge for November, 2013?
-
Hi, everybody. I'm SundayCooking, a new member who's curious to find out whether this is still an active group. I just started entering cookbooks, then realized that the most recent article on the site was from May, 2012.
Would anyone be interested in doing a Homesick Texan or dumpling-book-of-your choice challenge for November?
-
Homesick Texas sounds good to me. I don't have this book, but I've given it as a gift and cooked from her site. Santa might have his arm twisted to bring me a new book!
-
That's a neat idea to have a cook-a-dumpling (or some other specific food) challenge!
-
I'm up for either (or suggestions), even if it's just the two of us : )
I rather like the idea of a specific food challenge (now, or at some other point) because, while it's clear that everyone in the community has cookbooks, there may not be a lot of overlap among our collections. This way we don't have to necessarily "cook the book," but still get to explore within what we have. -
SundayCooking,
The person who owns this site is currently MIA and we are trying to decide what to do going forward. None of us have access to change the challenges or update the site.
While it would be fun to have a new challenge, the previous/current challenge never took off (which has never happened before). I'm totally up for a new challenge as of November 1 and I love the Homesick Texan cookbook, I think we need to decide if a challenge would realistically take place. -
Beth, it is funny that the Charmaine Solomon challenge-to-be hasn't taken off. I've picked up the book a couple of times. Was surprised it already had a few stickies on it, mostly, I think, from when I was researching something or other that I wanted to make. Have read bits of it now, but still not organized to cook from it. This book gets lots of favorable comments out in the "real world", but what I'm missing is the headnotes, context-setting. There's nothing that says, Serve this with X or Y. Or even, This is a side dish. Makes it a bit hard to pull together a menu. I would like to cook from it, though, since it seems like a valuable introduction to lots of Asian cuisines.
-
Because of my son's surgery our life has been really crazy with lots and lots of appointments. I just haven't had the energy to really dig through Solomon's book as I find it hard to just choose a recipe from it.
Even if we can't get Andrew on board, it might be nice to choose a smaller, more accessible cookbook and maybe come back to Solomon's book another time.
I'm still sad about Andrew disappearing and hope he will eventually show up - even if it's just to give the keys to someone else. -
Welcome to the group SundayCooking. I don't have the Homesick Texan book but I do love that blog.
-
SundayCooking, welcome to cookbooker! Please do continue uploading your cookbook information. This site has a core of dedicated cookers who really want the site to be successful, and each additional new reviewer will help. I understand that the MIA owner is now pursuing other interests, but as long as he doesn't lose money, the site will continue. I try to make sure, if I'm doing on-line purchases, but link to the site from the ads that appear here occasionally.
We are hoping to add our own articles for the blog portion of the site, and do our own challenges. I am certainly willing to pony up for a cookbook to give away if we need rewards. I was in Shanghai over the summer and was amazed by their diverse dumplings, I love the idea of a dumpling challenge! We have occasional informal challenges, the most recent one being zucchini.
Again, welcome! -
Thanks for the greetings, folks!
Re: Charmaine Solomon: It's really interesting that a Beth and Kaye haven't been able to dig into the book -- that's been my experience, too! I think part of it's because I'm not confident in the techniques and timing. I'm just starting to be able to turn out consistently good pan-Indian/Pakistani/Sri Lankan, etc., and that's taken many years.
Re: Homesick Texan blog: Lisa Fain write a lovely blog that I love even more because her palate is a pretty good match for my own. Only Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats is a better match. And after moving back to the Canadian prairies, I'm desperate for some good Tex-Mex. On the broader Latino front, but has anybody tackled Gran Cocina Latina yet?
And thanks for the recommendation to keep adding cookbook information. Shall do, as i continue to unpack my much-missed collection. It will soon be a festival of Billy bookshelf-building at chez SundayCooking. Shanghai over the summer? How fantastic!
Until November, I'm going to dig into 'Joe Beef' and 'Championship BBQ Secrets for Real Smoked Foods,' both courtesy of a new library card. Time to fire up the new Old Smokey -- whoohoo! -
I'll join a dumpling challenge! One question - do we mean "small lumps of starch" dumplings, as in "chicken and dumplings" or gnocchi, or "dumplings" like "apple dumplings" (or by extension pot stickers, pierogies, et cetera)? I'm in either way... or both!
-
Good point, hipcook. Perhaps it should be all sorts of dumplings, and we can tag the group with "dumpling challenge"? While I really want to try replicating the shanghai dumplings with soup inside of them, I've never been successful at ricotta dumplings....
-
Any kind of dumpling will do, surely!
-
With absolutely perfect timing, Craftsy is offering a new class, "Asian Dumplings from Scratch," taught by the fabulous Andrea Nguyen.
I have no affiliation to Craftsy, but have taken (cough, cough) ...a few... (cough cough) of their classes and love their format. And given where I live, there's little chance that I'd otherwise have been able to take classes with most of their instructors. -
Oh yeah, there's a Craftsy class on gnocchi, too : )
-
I've only done one free Craftsy class on bread. These sound great!
I'm not doing much right now with dumplings, or other things, because I'm on a new exercise plan that also specifies that 50% of my calories come from protein. boring! -
Ricotta gnudi! Cheese, more cheese, eggs, spinach, and just a touch of flour to hold 'em together : )
-
I just discovered I was already signed up on Craftsy, although I don't recall it! The cooking courses are significantly pricier than those I looked at for other crafts.
Have you been happy with the courses?
Do gnocchi count as dumplings? My gnocchi (so far) have been pretty leaden, so I wouldn't mind having a lesson there. :-) -
Gnocchi totally count as dumplings in my book. Stuffed, unstuffed, all is good.
So far I've liked-to-loved most of the courses. Just a couple have not been very good, but there are enough reviews to give you a decent idea.
The food classes are more expensive than many if the crafts classes, but I've enjoyed the ones I've taken so far. I'm sorely tempted to sign up for the Asian dumpling and gnocchi courses. I think watching Andrea Nguyen make dumplings will be like watching Jacques Pepin. Huh! That's how you do that! What a good idea!
Plus, there's frequent sales. Again, no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer.
Search Discussions
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- All Discussions228
- Cookbooks100
- Building Cookbooker44
- Advice28
- Challenges29
- Websites8
- Cooking19