The long-awaited 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes. I finally solved my ingredient issues and it was crêpe-time. The only thing is…I’ve never done this before.
Confession time: In all of my time cooking (which is most of my life), I have NEVER made crêpes. I have made many pancakes (as you could imagine), but never a crêpe. This was a first for me and as you will see, I learned many lessons from this attempt.
This was supposed to be 5-24: Meat-Filled Crêpes, but ingredient shortages persist. A trip to the market tomorrow should resolve it, but for now, we’ll have to make do with an old classic, 5-7: Quiche Lorraine.
This one I have made in the past, several times. Two past memorable occasions:
– When my boyfriend (now husband) and I officially moved into our first apartment together a few years ago, we threw a 1970s-themed housewarming party. This along with another quiche, some rumaki, fondue, and other 1970s goodness made up the menu.
– When I was in 7th grade, I had to do some sort of project on France/French culture in my English class (I have no idea why). My project partner and I made this recipe at her house and also bought a Celine Dion CD (where she sings in French) to play while the class ate our quiche. I think her mom returned the CD to Target the next day. That was our lazy, late-90s attempt at French culture. ??
Soup is technically easy to make, but can still quickly go wrong. Our CSA box came with 2 lbs. of white sweet potatoes this week, and it was time for something else besides sweet potato fries. The trusty interwebs told me that white sweet potatoes were pretty similar to regular ones, so I thought I’d give 3-1: Sweet Potato Vichyssoise a whirl.
Vichyssoise is originally a French-American creation. This version is definitely more of an autumn/Thanksgiving-type of flavor, but it was still easy to make and pretty good. Obviously the recipe card depicts the use of an orange sweet potato, but white sweet potatoes work pretty well also.
Soup’s on!
We start our journey in Book 1, Group 1: Appetizers & Starters with 2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad. Got that? It’s further broken down into subgroups, depending on different classifications. I see now where I get my classification aptitude.
We start here due to yesterday’s CSA box delivery brimming with already-ripe avocados (a rarity). As avocados are a fickle beast, it was imperative to consume them in the near future.
5-1: Mushroom and Cheese Pie…didn’t go as well as I had hoped. Following directions is important, friends. Let’s dive in–we’re still in Book 1, Group 1 (Appetizers & Starters).
We got a lot of mushrooms in our CSA box this round, and I used the Maitake mushrooms for another recipe from this book, but forgot to photograph it. And as the internet says, “pics or it didn’t happen”. So, I decided to use the White Beech mushrooms for this recipe.
First mistake. Of several.
Here’s where I explain what this whole site is about. Settle in–there’s a bit of a story involved.
When I was a small child in the late 80s-early 90s just learning to cook, my mother gifted me with a set of subscription-based cookbooks called Simply Delicious. The set I currently have consisted of three “volumes” (although I’ve been told there are more cards/volumes out there–I don’t doubt it), and I believe I have a good amount of the cards that were produced. She (my mom) claims she gave up near the end. Thanks, mom.
Many of the cards have her notations on them, as well as mine. I come from a long line of cooks and restaurateurs, and we take our cookbooks seriously when we find good ones. They’re still my go-to books for basic techniques, dinner parties, and just about any instance where you need easy, clear, traditional recipes.
I’ve had these books for 30+ years now, and they’ve been carted back and forth across state lines several times, existed in every kitchen I’ve ever had, and have generally just gotten really beaten up. While living in a really terrible apartment in the San Fernando Valley after moving back home to Los Angeles post-college graduation, they were temporarily inhabited by roaches.
I successfully evicted the roaches long ago, but the books still aren’t exactly in the best shape. However, I continue to love them and haven’t been able to part with them, despite the lingering roach residue that still coats the edges and corners.
Given their present condition, I feel it’s time to scan them in an attempt to preserve what’s left of the physical books themselves. Taking into account the current navel-gazing inclinations of our culture, I have decided to blog-while-doing, writing and cooking my way through the books as I scan them. I’ve cooked many of these recipes in the past, but I’ve never done the whole thing.
Since there are SO many to cover, I’ve let my husband try his hand at a few–you’ll see his entries here as well.
I call this giant time-suck: The Cookbook Project. It’s not original in any way. But considering there’s very little that I can find about these books out on the internet, I figure, what the hell.
Dive in, and enter the fanciful world of 1980s recipes-by-mail. I promise, most of the recipes are actually pretty good. You might even say they’re…..simply delicious.
*puts on sunglasses* YYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH
Umm…I also promise to try to keep the bad memes to a minimum.
Looking to contact me? Email me at simplydeliciouscookbook@gmail.com.