In the Kitchen...Stovetop Pressure Cooker Cookbooks

The Official Presto Pressure Cooker Cookbook is a 208 page hard-cover book that contains chapters on the basics of pressure cooking and 10 chapters with recipes ranging from appetizers, soups and stocks, meat, poultry and seafood, vegetables and side dishes and a chapter each on steamed breads and  desserts.  The last chapter has whole meal menus that take you through the steps of preparing at least 3 menu items in your pressure cooker.

All the traditional recipes your mom or grandma and their friends prepared in their pressure cookers are in this book…along with lots of new ideas.  I haven’t tried steamed bread in my cooker yet, but it’s on my list to try, along with rice pudding…the recipe my sister-in-law Bonnie says was the only rice pudding recipe her mother used.

There are full-page photos of groups of the dishes that make you want to get started right away. 

I use a pressure cooker to speed up long cooking recipes like bean soup and pot roast and give less tender cuts of meat fall-apart goodness.  This book has plenty of recipes that work.  It is probably the only pressure cooker cookbook I would need, beyond the small one that comes with your cooker.  I think many of these recipes could be readily converted to use in an electric pressure cooker like Myrna's instant pot.

Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes published in 2008 is just that…big.  It’s a large paperback that has 470 pages packed with information and recipes from the popular pressure-cooker web site, MissVickie.com.  Please note that this is a book for stove-top models, not electric pressure cookers or instant-pots.

It has a whole chapter of time charts for cooking almost anything in your pressure cooker,  and the first 108 pages cover everything you ever wanted to know about pressure cookers, including safety, techniques, common mistakes, troubleshooting, tips and tricks, accessory items …these chapters are the best part of the book, in my opinion.  There’s something to learn for even experienced cooks.

If I have any complaint about this book, it is a lack of photographs, and I am concerned about the cook times for some recipes being too long.  Younger cooks who are looking for gourmet recipes will be disappointed with pressure cooker recipes…the best results I think, are with the traditional recipes.   I have a number of recipes marked to try, but many of them are too fussy and complicated for my needs.  For instance, if I am going to make chicken with Alfredo sauce, it’s so quick to prepare I would never use my pressure cooker! 

If I hadn’t purchased this used, I would probably be disappointed, and I find I use my Official Presto Pressure Cooking Cookbook much more.  That’s the book I would start with for stove-top pressure cookers.

Complete Guide to Country Cooking

When Myrna found this cookbook on sale, she showed it to me, and I had to buy one right away!  My husband enjoyed looking at the photos and choosing what he thought I should make and I enjoyed the wide variety of recipes and abundant “how-to” tips and photos throughout the book.

It starts out with choosing kitchen cook and bake ware, cutlery, and goes on to knife skills, measuring, pan substitutions and gadgets in a kitchen basics chapter, then covers everything from bread to game, beans to desserts, and everything in between.  The photos are great – just mouth-watering.

I would have to add Taste of Home’s The Complete Guide to Country Cooking to any list of good, basic cookbooks for gals who want to get more out of their kitchens and learn to cook from scratch.  The recipes use very few convenience foods and make good use of garden produce and herbs.

Here are some recipes we shared...

Easy Pickled Beets

Tuna Mushroom Casserole

English Muffin Bread

Dilly Ham Balls

Jambalaya

Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Baking Cookbook

This weeks recipes are from Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Baking 2009. The cover notes that this was previously published as Holiday Baking 2008. 

  I am the one who can't resist buying baking books and magazines, but Sue found several recipes she thought were good also. 

  I changed my mind several times before I could decide which of these great looking recipes to bake and post for you to try. I ended up with 2 quick breads as they are so good to have on hand over the Holidays. They freeze well, try slicing them and freezing the slices.

  These are about as close as I come to baking bread these days. Sue found a recipe for bread that she made. Won’t see me making braided loaves. Thankfully she lives close and takes pity on us and gifts us with bread. Each to their own baking skill.

  Do try a new recipe though, you might find you can do it quite well. This book (magazine) has some lovely looking cakes and cheesecakes.

Parmesan Challah

Cherry Golden Raisin Bread

Peppermint Sandies with White Chocolate Glaze

Apricot, Pecan White Chocolate Bread

  

Gifts From The Kitchen

Betty Crocker and Pillsbury are now owned by the same company and the small size cookbooks you can buy in the grocery store aisles are now put out with both names on them. This book Betty Crocker  Gifts from the Kitchen was printed and displayed till the end of Dec. 2011. These type (food gifts to make) are among some of my favorites. 

I like making food gifts, though often they don’t make it out of the house.

  Sue and I both found things to make. The Caramel Sauce Sue made and shared with us was excellent and we were really pleased that the Triple Cheese Log was so good. We gave one away and ate the rest. Cheese logs are one of my weaknesses. 

  I made the Billionaires for Bettie’s daughter and she hid them as she did not want to share. If you find a copy of this book, I would surely recommend you buy it. Great recipes and good ideas for food gifts.

Smoked Almond Triple Cheese Logs

Chocolate Billionaires

Divine Caramel Sauce

Citrus Curd

Cookies For Christmas

Click on the photo for a larger view

Who can’t get excited about another Christmas cookie book?  Not us – we love ‘em.  This book from Better Homes and Gardens, Cookies for Christmas, published in 1985, has a lot of old favorites, and some recipes with a new twist.  The recipes are excellent, and there are nice photos showing any special techniques needed to get the decorative appearance.

I tried to persuade Myrna to do the “meringue turtledoves” on the tray on the right, but it was a non-starter, even for someone like her who likes a challenge.  There were still cookies we haven’t tried before, and lots of recipes you’ll recognize from Grandma’s or Mom’s kitchen.  If you don't have their recipe, chances are you'll find it in this book.

It was enough to get us busy baking.

Chocolate Mint Creams

Scandinavian Almond Bars

Mocha Cinnamon Fingers

Holiday Baking

This weeks cookbook is from Better Homes and Gardens. Holiday Baking from 2006. Here is a mixture of baking recipes. Everything from cakes, breakfast specials, crackers, pies and of course cookies. 

  There is a simple gingerbread house to make and directions for dressing up boughten cookie dough mix for when you need those cookies in a hurry.

  Better Homes and Gardens are numbered among my favorite cookbooks and cooking magazines and this one is no exception. 

 Here are a few recipes to get you started and in the mood for the Holidays.

Good Baking!

Chocolate Peanut Brownies

Maple Hazelnut Bars

Buttery Herb Crackers

Mini Amaretto Cakes

Taste of Home Holiday Recipe Card Collection of 2003

  "As one of the major beneficiaries of this blog I want to recommend the choice for the week.  It is the Taste of Home Holiday Recipe Card Collection of 2003.

  One of my favorite choices is the scalloped corn. If you like scalloped corn at all you will love this. I enjoy fish of every  kind.  I though Sue’s rendition of baked cod was particularly good equaled only by her chicken in potato baskets.  Creamy chicken in crispy hash brown crusts with a variety of veggies make this a hit."

  Bettie wanted to recommend this book as she enjoyed the scalloped corn. I rarely make this so it was made mainly for her. So nice when a recipe works out as well as this one did. We hope that you will enjoy the recipes as much as we did making them.

Crab Stuffed Sole  (Sue's favorite)

Pineapple Coconut Snowballs

Chicken in Potato Baskets

Scalloped Corn

Baked Cod

No Knead Knot Rolls

Holiday Braid

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

Holiday Recipe Card Collection

  This cookbook is Taste of Home’s Holiday Recipe Card Collection for the year 2002.  The problem I have had was it is difficult to a make a bad choice. 
  Try the ones we made and if you can find one, buy a copy of the book and try the rest.  Your problem will be finding a 2002 copy.

  As usual, we tried different things. Sue and I seldom pick the same recipe, so it works out well for us. I rarely bake breads or make salads anymore and she doesn’t do much of the dessert type recipes. Gives us a good balance and not to much trouble picking out recipes to make.

Recipes to try:

Sour Cream Lemon Bread

Bite Sized Fruit Cakes

Herbed Tomato Bread

Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Recipes

I bought this Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Recipes special interest magazine in 2011 because of the excellent full-color pictures and how to’s.  It’s a great reference and has a lot of variations on classic recipes, for example, 4 new glazes and 8 choices for rubs and 4 different brining ideas for your holiday turkey.  Especially for cooking holiday entrees, it has current cooking times and methods. 

For everything from cocktails to candy, birds to pork roasts (Frenched, of course), 6 variations on mashed potatoes, 7 choices of gravy, along with buy-it hints, and plenty of sides, salads, breads, salads and sweet potatoes, this book has everything for the big day.

We cooked some recipes for your holiday menus from this book and we’re just scratching the surface.

Mini Italian Quiche

Creamy Brie Topped Potatoes

Cornmeal Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

Smokey Green Bean Casserole

Campanelle and Vegetables with Asiago Fontina Cheese Sauce  - my family's favorite

Slow Cooker Pommes Anna-style Casserole

Skillet Scalloped Corn

Peas, Carrots and Mushrooms - special

Fine Cooking Pies, Crisps and Cobblers

I found this book for Myrna - Fine Cooking  Pies, Crisps and Cobblers, with 59 excellent recipes along with lots of good hints for pie success and was really happy that she liked it so much.  I liked this pie book also…and I think you would too.  It’s enough to make me make a pie  – and I will for the holidays coming up.  

However, I really don’t need to make pie – we are on Myrna’s “Pie Route” – and get deliveries of pieces of pie often.   Myrna’s pie fans actually remind her when they haven’t had their favorite pie in awhile!!

So that’s why she’s making the pie and crisps from this great book.  Hope you'll find something you'll want to try too!

Apple Crisp with Pecans and Orange

Pear and Brown Sugar Crisp

Buttermilk Pie

Apple Cider Pie - Sue's favorite

Fan Fare

Myrna brought this book to coffee time, and I thought it had some new ideas to try.  It’s called Fan Fare, and was fund raiser for the Des Moines Symphony Guild in 1990.  The original owner received it as a gift from her “bridge buddies.”  A good many of the recipes are geared to entertaining, and they also included recipes from upscale, well-known restaurants and clubs in town at the time.  The last chapter, named Fantasia, included everything that didn’t fit into the other chapters, from barbequed pig outdoors, to Organ Grinder Pate and New York Philharmonic Salad!

We found several good recipes to try.

Spanish Rice with Meatballs

Sherried Rice

Cottage Cheese Ring for Fruit Salad

Orange Apricot Quick Bread

Linguine with Mushroom Shrimp Sauce

Sherried Meatballs

Shoestring Chicken Salad

Jamaican Chicken

Taste of Home Recipe Card Collection

  Next weeks recipes are from Taste of Homes Recipe Card Collection 2002.

As with all of their publications, the recipes are submitted from across the country.

It gives you a nice regional view of the cooking for different areas. 

  This particular edition does not list the submitters by name as many of theirs do. I always manage to find several recipes to try. This is no exception. 

  The older magazines are sometimes hard to find, but well worth the hunt. 

We will give you the recipes for the ones we liked the best and hope you can find a copy of the magazine. 

  I had several favorites in this book. Look for the Banana muffins. We felt they were so good. Also the chicken, etc. Sure hope you like one or two of them.

Treasured Recipes

  The cookbook we are using next was a gift from Bettie’s boss, who is one of my food tasters. He thoughtfully ordered one for me when he bought one for himself. A hint do you think? That's OK as I depend on him to help us eat up the miscues as well as the really excellent results.

  The recipe book, Treasured Recipes is put together by The First Christian Church, which started meeting as a church group in homes as early as 1846. The book lists a woman as the first pastor, 1897 Mrs Cory. Quite a departure for those times. The church is still going strong here and has a woman as an Associate pastor. Very liberal and enlightened congregation.

  While I am not a fan of this type of cookbook, as the recipes tend to not have good directions, it is always fun to see recipes from people you know and of course these recipes reflect the area and time we are living in.

  Sue and I found several to try, and have tried to update the directions so they will be easier to follow. The Sour Cream Peach Pie was a favorite of mine from the recipes I posted. What’s not to like, peaches and cream filling, Yum. 

Thanks Eric for the book and being one of my tasters.

Cheap. Fast. Good!

Cheap. Fast. Good!  Is an encyclopedia of good ideas for eating well but in a thrifty way.  It’s up-to-date for younger cooks, but we found plenty to recommend it as well.  This is a book I would consider for a wedding or shower gift depending on the couple.  The recipes give you lots of suggestions and hints to make them easier and add variety to your meals.  We think cooks who only know how to cook from the package directions will benefit the most from a book like this.

The authors wrote the Desperation Dinners cookbooks, and they know their stuff.  I like a lot of their tips for getting the preparation done FAST…tips that even experienced cooks don’t always know or forget to practice. 

They cover lots of ways to cook more cheaply…they explain how to cut up your own chickens, and how to slow-cook meats to portion out and freeze, ready to use for quicker suppers.  They talk about cutting down on waste in the kitchen, how to shop smarter, and how to get off the fast-food treadmill.

They cover couponing – from two different perspectives – and how to cook for a family on less than $100 a week.  And the recipes aren’t boring canned soup casseroles – I think that’s the best thing about this book.  Here are a variety of recipes from this great book!

Perfect Poached Chicken - Absolutely the best way to make cooked chicken

Chicken Caesar Salad -  Use that perfectly cooked chicken

Chicken and Green Bean Casserole

Simply Southern Coleslaw

Swedish Pickled Cucumbers

Terrific Tartar Sauce

Chicken Broccoli Lo Mein

Taste of Home’s Budget Suppers

  Taste of Home’s Budget Suppers is a cookbook magazine published in 2004. It is really usable now when groceries are so high and going higher. Who among us can’t use a recipe for an inexpensive meal to feed our families and friends.

  This has the recipes arranged in a meal type of setting. Your main entree, sides and dessert. You can of course pick and choose but it is helpful to get some ideas for a whole meal and what goes together.

  One of the favorites I made from this was a small size chocolate cake. Excellent cake, not rich and not frosted. Just the thing to fill a chocolate craving without busting the calorie diet.

  Both of us found a variety of recipes to try and hope you will too. Many times these older magazines will turn up at a book sale, yard sale or as our library does, they are put out to be sold for a dime. Be sure to look at them the next time you see cookbook magazines on sale.

Farmer’s Market Cook Book

It’s time for a Farmer’s Market Cook Book from Taste of Home.  This supermarket-type booklet from 2011 has 78 recipe cards, each one with a photo.  There are recipes for appetizers, main dishes, grilling, salads, desserts and preserving, all using your garden and orchard produce or finds from your farmer’s market. 

Our farmer’s market is so popular, that even in a smaller town like ours it’s on twice a week.  There are also 2 market stands open most days.  This little booklet gives you some fresh ideas for all that bounty.

Here are a few recipes for you to try...

Tomato Baguette Pizza

Yogurt Fruit Salad

Raspberry Plum Jam

Bake Sale Favorites

 Here's another book I picked up at a book sale, Bake Sale Favorites.  If you’re looking for a recipe from a box or label, or that really good recipe someone brought to share, they are often in books like this, where the recipes came from companies like Dole, Libby’s, Nestle and Toll House, Crisco, Nabisco, Hershey’s, Duncan Hines and more.

There are pies, cookies and bars, quick breads and muffins, cakes and some quick tricks with mixes, when you child comes home and tells you that he needs something for the soccer team bake sale in the morning!  

Here are recipes we tried from this book:

Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Amaretto Coconut Cream Pie

No Fuss Bar Cookies

Cookbooks to own

Four of the best

  A young acquaintance of mine recently asked me what I would recommend for a cookbook for a new cook. She wanted to get started on cooking, but thought there are so many cookbooks and food shows and blogs and could not decide what to buy.

  That required some thought on my part. I have several favorite cookbooks among the many I own, and so does Sue. However, this needed to be something useful, and modern for today’s cook. 

  The cookbooks I favor tend to be the ones I have used for years and while I have cooked long enough to be able to update the recipes, that is not good for new cooks and bakers. Also, I think they need to cover the basics and then branch out. Something to answer the questions every cook has and offer ideas for changing a basic recipe easily.

  After much thought, I decided I would recommend first and if you can only get one, that it would be the Better Homes and Gardens Red Plaid. This I think, is the best basic cookbook out today. It covers all the essentials, gives the recipes in easily understood format, and has through the years kept updated with the times and ingredients available now. A Must Have in every kitchen.

  The other book I consider essential is the Joy of Cooking. I own the older edition, but there is a new Joy of Cooking out on the market now. This is really the go to cookbook when you can’t fine a recipe anywhere else. I recently read where it is Chef Bobby Flay’s favorite cookbook. A good recommendation.

  The two cookbooks I would say one should own if you can afford them or someone wants to give you a gift would be Cheap, Fast and Good. The recipes are just that. Geared to today’s lifestyle and great for young people on a budget, and as Sue says, it's filled with good advice and shortcuts.

  The Polly Clingerman The Kitchen Companion is not a cookbook alone, but a cooking book. For beginners and experienced cooks alike. It is a book as the author says that will help you alter any recipe, make sense of recipe books you might have and answer just about any kitchen and entertaining question you might come up with. I find it indispensable in my kitchen.

  Keeping in mind that I am not getting paid to recommend these, I hope this might help some of you pick a cookbook for your self or that friend who is just starting out on a great cooking adventure.

Casseroles and One Dish Meals

The Taste of Home Casseroles and One Dish Meals Cook Book was published in 2012 – it is a magazine special issue. To be honest, the book wasn’t full of oven casserole dishes that have plenty of cheese and cream soup – there are a variety of fresh new casseroles, pasta dishes, wraps and top-of-the-stove skillet meals.

As always, there are lots of great photos to get you in a cooking mood.  There are 18 freezer meal recipes, potluck choices, and I counted only 5 recipes in the prepared mix section of the index but 36 recipes under the vegetable category!  I didn’t see any repeats of old recipes either – the ideas looked new and fresh.  We found plenty of choices for sampling and sharing.

Spanish Noodles and Ground Beef

Potluck Chicken Casserole

Breakfast Custard

Sausage Potato Bake

Beef Fried Rice

Cobre Valley Casserole

Chicken Tater Bake

Smothered Chicken

Mexicali Casserole

Broccoli Ham Hot Dish

Sausage Stew

Busy Family Favorites

The Taste of Home Busy Family Favorites is a cookbook with 363 recipes that take 30 minutes to prepare.  The recipes use kitchen staples readily available in grocery stores, with no hard-to-find specialty items.  There are lots of choices, and most of the recipes are quick but also from “scratch”.  The book contains 277 entrees, 86 sides and desserts and 231 photos. The book was printed in 2011, so the preparation instructions are right up-to-date.  Many of the pages include tips to make the recipe faster or easier. 

I liked the variety and liberal use of vegetables and fruits.  We found plenty of new ideas to try.  Some of the recipes in this book are bound to become repeats on our menus.

Herbed Shrimp Skillet

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Veggie Chowder (gluten free)

Oven Fried Catfish

Peanut Beef Stir Fry

Tilapia with Red Pepper and Parmesan

Tortellini with Salmon Sauce

Microwave Acorn Squash

Broiled Cod with Herb Sauce

Southwestern Beef Strips

Southern Pecan Catfish

Creamed Corn with Bacon