Favorite Cookbooks of 2009

Looking for a Christmas present for the cook in your life?  If they are like me, they will always appreciate a new cookbook.

Here are my top cookbooks from the last year:

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking
Michael Ruhlman wrote the perfect book for someone like me, who believes that basic techniques are the most important thing in cooking. Commit his ratios to memory, and you can make almost anything without recipes.


Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste, and Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking
Adam Perry Lang's elaborate grilling recipes are daunting, but the layers of flavors he builds are impressive.  His idea of basting with a brush made of a bundle of herbs won the Taste of Akron Steak Cook-off for me. That herb brush was the little bit of "wow, what a great idea" that pushed me over the top.



Good Eats: The Early Years
I'm a long-time Good Eats fan, so this book was like a walk down memory lane for me. It is full of Recipes, details, and behind the scenes information from the first six years of Good Eats. I'm eagerly waiting for the next two installments.


Honorable Mention:
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl
I seem to be the last person in the world to find The Pioneer Woman. Her recipes are loaded with step by step pictures, and they translated that style to the cookbook extremely well.  I also love her stories about life with her rancher husband and their five cute kids. It gives me hope that I might bring my kids up half as well.
*Even if we live in the suburbs, not on a ranch.

Michael Symon's Live to Cook: Recipes and Techniques to Rock Your Kitchen
Cleveland's local chef-hero. I haven't dug into the recipes in this one yet, except for his pickled chile peppers, which I loved.  There are a number of them I can't wait to try out.

Jane Snow Cooks
Another local hero of mine. I was thrilled meet her in person at one of her book signings.

Ad Hoc at Home
The only book on this list I don't already own. It's on back-order at Amazon, but people I trust have been writing good things about it.  Thomas Keller, the best chef in America, explaining his perfectionist techniques for the home cook?  I'm waiting (impatiently) for it to arrive.

What do you think? What cookbooks did I miss? Any you feel I should add to my list for next year? Leave them in the comments, below.

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Texas Red Chili

The first cookbook I bought after Diane and I got married wasn't really a cookbook.  It was a recipe booklet from Betty Crocker, the ones they sell in the checkout aisle at the grocery store.  Soups, Stews and Chilis was full of very bland recipes, except...  In the middle was an insert.  In that insert was the recipes that won the International Chili Society cook off between 1989 and 1993.  Those recipes were another of the steps on my way to becoming DadCooksDinner.
*In Ohio, in 1994, it was a revolutionary concept to make chili Texas style, with big chunks of beef and without beans.  And the flavor!  A half cup of chili powder!  This was a culinary revelation.  

Texas Red Chili became my signature recipe.
*Yes, I know I'm not from Texas.  I'm so far from being a Texan that I'm approaching it from the other side.

Over the years, I've brought it to potluck lunches at work, tailgating at Ohio State, family gatherings, and countless Super Bowl parties.*
*All of my younger brother's friends know this recipe.  My parents hold a Super Bowl party every year, and my brothers would invite their friends from college over.  All the starving college students would descend on the pot like locusts.  Nowadays, they're all successful professionals.  But they still come to the super bowl party, and they still clean out the pot.

This recipe started my Chili Fest tradition at work.  Someone suggested a chili cook-off among us computer programmers, and I brought in a crock pot full of my Texas Red All-Beef Chili.
*I still had to explain the "all beef" thing back then.

It was so popular, people started asking when I could bring it in again.  I couldn't make enough chili to feed everyone, so I sent out an email asking for other people to bring in some chili, and we'd make a lunch of it.  We've been doing our Chili Fest every fall for the last eight years, and last time I had volunteers bringing in twelve different types of chili, other main courses, side dishes, and desserts.  Chili just brings people together.  Today is this year's Chili Fest, and I'm publishing the recipe in its honor.
*This will also give me something to point people to when they ask for the recipe.

Recipe: Texas Red Chili

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Michael Symon Cooking Classes

If you're a Michael Symon fan, and live in Northeastern Ohio, then I have an opportunity for you!

His 2010 Cooking with Michael Series just started taking reservations.  The classes are $160 apiece (ouch), but include a signed copy of his book, Michael Symon's Live to Cook. I've taken a cooking class with Michael in the past; I learned a lot, and they're a lot of fun.
*His personality on TV isn't an act - that's how he is in real life as well.

If you're interested, sign up quickly, because the classes are filling up fast.* Also, don't be surprised if you have to wait on hold for a while. They're a little busy this time of year...
*Last night I signed up for his Greek class (on March 16th), and was told there was only one opening for his Comfort Food classes left.


[h/t gardengrocerygadgetgirl.blogspot.com for the heads up on the classes]