About Bite Club, cookbook book club

 A couple of people are interested in knowing more, and, since the club has gone virtual, you can sign up and take part no matter where you are.  I don't think library cards matter in this context! Now's the time before vaccination eventually takes everyone offline and back in person. I've mentioned Bite Club several times, but I think it might not have been clear that it's a book club, run from a local public library.

To see what the cookbook book club, Bite Club, is about, see Bite Club

Note that the next meeting is Monday, January 25th, so the link will give you enough time to locate the book(s) as best you can, ebook or actual, and try out a couple of recipes.  In fact, Dee doesn't mind if you just want to come and talk food, and hear other people's verdicts.  I'd encourage you to follow up, if you're interested, and Dee will give you a terrific welcome without putting you on the spot.  She's very good with groups.

This is she, below, doing one of her YouTube presentations.  It's Dee Whitman, by day a reference librarian at South Brunswick Public Library nj and by night a fully qualified chef and great enthusiast.  Full credit: when she started the club several years ago, I was one of the early members, and I learned such a lot about good food, and buying ingredients and tasting as you go, all sorts of things I didn't know a lot about.

My baking is a separate thing, not so much affected by Bite Club, which is about cooking.  Dee does teach baking separately, but I haven't taken classes from her in that. I hear great things about them, though.

 I found this recipe in the course of looking out information for you, and I definitely think I'll make this ahead of getting my Misfits box tomorrow, with the salad greens I ordered.

Her YouTube occasional videos are very well done indeed.  As you see she knows how to set up the worktop clearly and logically, and doesn't draw attention to herself.  She's a teacher. Definitely a pro on camera.

Anyone who thinks I'm a good cook now can freely attribute it to what I learned from observing and listening to Dee. I was okay before, but I definitely jumped in knowledge as a result of her selections for the club.  I'd never heard of half the people whose ideas and food I borrow from now all the time. And you'll see that it's been a great improvement to my life, anyway.

My baking is a separate thing, not so much affected by Bite Club, which is about cooking.  Dee does teach baking separately, at the library, but I haven't taken baking classes from her. I hear great things about them, though. 

She's a very nice woman, who used to applaud my endless ingredient substitutions in our meetings, and taste before deciding! She's not at all one of those doctrinaire cooks.  Nowadays I rarely get to the meetings, but she has kept me on the mailing list, so I can occasionally keep up with the books. And the follow up email always comes with recommended recipes that the group liked a lot.

Before curbside pickup returned, she had to choose Hoopla offerings, and I had usually used up my monthly Hoopla allotment before I got the announcement, so I was a month behind each time.  But it still worked for me.

So that's Bite Club, and I am so happy I decided to join it years ago.  It was after Handsome Partner died, and I had to force myself to venture out, exhausted after years of being basically in the house with full-on caregiving, to make new friends, who didn't know me only as a caregiver, and to learn interesting new things.

The other participants in Bite Club range over a whole lot of cultures and languages, and they're great to learn from, too.  Some of them never ever use recipes, they just know their own culture's food well enough not to need them.  And they're generous about explaining and giving samples. I used to bring in handfuls of fresh herbs I picked right before I left the house, which were very well received.

We used to bring cooked recipe samples into the in-person meetings.  I quickly learned, that when I was going to sample the offerings of up to 15 people, I'd better not have dinner before I came out.  Currently the physical sharing's not a thing, but the idea sharing goes on unabated.

How it works: Dee chooses a food type or chef, and recommends, and gets into the library, enough copies for everyone to have one.  You might be working from a different book by the same chef, or a different book in the same vein, it works out just fine. Everyone picks something to try out, and makes notes to share, and brings a sample. Or they may not like anything in the book and they'll say that, too. 

Or they may go on and on, as I did, about Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, about the historical and cultural wonders of the book and the authors, before ever getting to the food you've tried.  They've found I usually end up with spice mixes, no matter where I start! I more or less force people to make baharat, or berbere, or some such good mix. You may have noticed this tendency.

What you need, if you're hoping for a local version, is a librarian willing to do all the work Dee puts in, and knowledgeable enough to know what books to work from, also a good enough cook that she'll try them herself, too. If you're blessed with this, try out the idea on your own library and see if there's any response.  

And now I'm off to track down the current books so I can try out, too. I don't get a commission for doing this writing, heh, but I really think Dee should add me to her personal payroll for the great pr I do for her..

Breakfast chez Liz

I just realized I never did a breakfast post. Probably because my eyes aren't fully open at that time.  But today there's a picture

pumpkin/walnut bread, toasted, with paneer, both homemade. I'd already made inroads on the bread before thinking of a picture, in case you think I have mice.  Nice strong cup of Vietnamese coffee, which I do by passing the boiling water once through the grounds, makes great coffee. Skim milk, no sugar, sugar ruins hot drinks for me.

 Paneer is almost too easy to need a recipe: boil your milk, sour it with lemon, save and drain the curds and press with cheesecloth, eat! save the whey for soups and sauces.

The bread was from America's Test Kitchen but the recipe had what I consider a major flaw: it called for a CAN of prepared pumpkin.  And failed to say how much volume that would be, for a girl like I with no kitchen scale and with homegrown and diced pumpkin ready to use.  So I guessed at it, and it worked out okay anyway. I still maintain that a can of something is not an ingredient, but that's me.

I took a dozen pieces of it in to the Bite Club as a sample last evening, and it all vanished pretty fast.  The BC is a wonderful group, and I've learned not to eat dinner before I go.  

Last night we had, all in samples: onion jam on cream cheese on crackers, beer cheddar mix with crackers, white bean and greens soup, chicken and fruit on sticks, poor man's beef stroganoff, sweet potato chips, beet chips, blondies and my pumpkin walnut bread.  

Massive exchange of ideas about the current series of cookbooks,all from America's Test Kitchen,  and what it's good at - ATC Family Book is a compendium of cooking tips which are great, Lost Recipes revived some recipes which are not, Vegetables did great job on vegetables, identifying, explaining, and so on.  

And we found that next month, baking and holiday desserts,  using books by Dorie someone and Martha someone, is the last currently planned meeting.

So we strongly encouraged the PTB to continue, since this has been such a success, hardly enough furniture to accommodate the people, even.  I guess they only scheduled a few meetings to see how well it went, so we're hoping they see it ought to continue. It's rapidly become one of my favorite events, even bringing me out on dark curvy roads in freezing weather like last night.

One of the teen volunteers did a series of pix of cooks with their dishes and candids of us all around the table talking and eating at once, so let's hope that ensures our continuing as a group.  I didn't do any pix, since I don't blog about people unless they agree, and it's a bit delicate when some people would rather not, but don't like to say, and so on.  So this is one of the times I just don't.

The Dollivers are wondering if they will get a trip there.  We'll see.

 

This Month's Bite Club Test Drive

This month's Bite Club, the cookbook book club, is looking at America's Test Kitchen, and I hauled home my loan copy of their Big Cookbook, weighs a ton, and is really an encyclopedia, and decided to try their Corn Fritters as my sample to bring in.

They want heavy cream, which I don't use, so I subbed good homemade plain yogurt,  the corn was very fresh when I froze it, complete with its milk, that sticky stuff that tastes good but sticks your hands together when you're processing the ears, ew, and the minced shallot was freshly minced, good cornflour, good ap flour, large egg (for once, usually I use medium).  Even had cayenne pepper in the house, amazingly.

So I'm trying it out on Handsome Son when he comes to visit this evening, and had to do a test drive of one fritter, seen here drying on a paper towel, to see how it went.  Pretty good, if I say so myself.  We'll see what his verdict is when he tries them. And it will be a test of how well the batter sits in the fridge for a few hours.  If there are any leftovers, I'll try freezing them, a further test.

So this month I hope to have some actual food to bring in and share.  I'm also going to bring in my back copies of the Test Kitchen magazine, and a few Marthas with recipes, to give to anyone who would like them to keep.

Supper before the Bite Club meeting

Since this is a new group, I have no idea what to expect.  They encourage people to bring food they've cooked, but since I didn't actually cook anything from Alice Waters, her book being nice but not new to me, I decided I'd bring a handful of fresh late season herbs to share.

So I can do that, bringing sage, lemon thyme, English thyme, peppermint, spearmint, oregano and hope people are interested.

Meanwhile, I picked up my farmshare this afternoon, and found some lovely late season big tomatoes.  Perfect for a quick and favorite supper:  diced big, with cubes of sharp cheddar, two eggs broken over, kosher salt, black pepper, sprig of lemon thyme laid on top, half an hour at 380 F.  

Yet another dish in search of a name.  Possibly Welsh rarebit.  Or Independence for Scotland, depending on how you feel.  

And perfect with a slice of toast from that big loaf I made with the wholewheat and a.p. and oat flours.  It has a lovely crumb and a great crust. Must remember that combo.

The wine is just for the shoot -- I'll drink it when I get home again, not wishing to drive after even a single glass of wine.

Bite Club! new at the libe

I just found out about this cookbook book club, say that fast, at the libe where I go to my regular bookclub.  That's been a nice experience, so why not combine another monthly bookclub with interesting cooking experiments, I thought.

Next week is the first meeting, so I'm studying my Alice Waters. The idea is that each month there's a selection of authors to pick from, try out a recipe, then compare notes and experience at the book club meeting.  This might help me with the farmshare, too.

However, you'll note that I set up a couple of Poptarts to sustain me while I study Alice.  She probably wouldn't approve, so I won't tell her.