Cookbooks are treasure troves of those recipes included in the original printing of the book, and those often added by the cookbook’s owner through the years. Recipes passed down from family and friends, those created through trial and error, even the occasional one snipped from your favorite women’s magazine or holiday food issue. While many of us also use recipe boxes, and they can contain recipes that are just as treasured, more often than not the family cookbook is what is passed down through the ages.
With the upcoming holidays, I have decided that a quality cookbook, with space for adding some family favorites, and room to add her own through the years, will make an ideal gift for my daughter. Though I have a cookbook, I am not the cook my daughter is turning out to be, and if anyone will be passing a good recipe down, it will be from her to me, so a new one with lots of space for her to record her favorites will be perfect.
With new cookbooks flooding the market constantly, my search has not turned out as easy as I thought it would be. There are cookbooks on dishes for crock-pots, grilling, those with just fish recipes, or beef, or pork, or chicken.
There are cookbooks filled with nothing but chili recipes, cakes, pies, desserts of all types, or those that feature an array of recipes, but all from your favorite chef or television personality. In addition, I would be remiss to mention those cookbooks that feature dish after dish created for this diet or that diet. Cookbooks are plenty, maybe to many from which to choose. So instead of one cookbook, I think I will actually create a gift basket, a favorite of mine, created around my original idea.
Materials needed in addition to the final choices of cookbooks will include:
Wicker or woven basket, lined, sized for serving bread or rolls at the dinner table, or for storing often used utensils on the countertop.
Assorted kitchen gadgets, such as those I found at Amazon.com by searching for kitchen gadget, including Kitchen Aid’s six-piece gadget set, which consists of a grater, ice cream scoop, can opener, whisk, spatula, peeler, available in a choice of colors to match just about anyone’s kitchen decor.
Assortments of the Kitchen Aid Silicone bakeware.
One or two small appliances that I still need to quiz her on to see what is on her wish list. Possible ideas include a coffee grinder, a Food Saver vacuum sealing kit, an electric crepe maker, a latte whip (electric, of course), or even a Larien Bagel Biter for perfectly cut bagels every time.
In addition, of course the cookbook, which I have narrowed down to two, including The New Cook Book from Better Homes and Garden Test Kitchens which is ring bound, and the spiral bound My Cooking Journal, which she can fill with all her old and new favorites.
Also, read:
- Adding Gourmet To Your Kitchen Utensils
- The Chemistry of Cooking
- Ingredients That Every Good Cook Should Always Have On Hand
I think I will finish off the basket with cooking software for her computer, such as Master Cook Deluxe from Valu Soft. It includes step-by-step instructional videos, over seven thousand recipes with printing capabilities, and can be searched several ways, including by ingredients, length of cook time, and more.
