Last Purchases in February 2015 - Celebrating with Julienne and Good Housekeeping First Cook Book

Celebrating with Julienne, published in 2009.  Recipes from the French-California eatery located in San Marino, California. The restaurant opened in 1985 and once included a catering operation. Too busy to keep up with the catering demand, there is now an on-site gourmet market filled with many restaurant favorites. The book is filled with gorgeous photos of both the food and the people who make the food! Within each chapter are do ahead hints, plus anecdotal stories from the owner.

The first chapter - Brassiere = contains the most beloved recipes served at the restaurant for breakfast and lunch and includes muffins, pancakes, quiche, omelets, French toast, creme brulee and a scrumptious Espresso coffee cake. On the lunch side there are salads, a grilled swordfish dish and sandwiches including Croque Monsieur ~ basically a glorified ham and cheese, with really GOOD cheese.

In Gourmet Market, we explore dishes that can be prepared in advance.  There are soups & chowders,  sides and salads (three cheese strata) , a rice dish or two, plus entrees made with pasta, fish, pork and chicken ~ a recipe for lemon herb roasted chicken caught my eye. The desserts are are amazing  with recipes for bread pudding, cake and cheesecake, croustades (free form tarts) and cookies. I may have to try the Apple Pie CAKE with whiskey caramel sauce!

In Celebrations, there are complete menus for six occasions, starting with a Chocolate Festival! The festival menu offers seven desserts ~ my favorites being the chocolate truffle brownies and the creme de menthe  bars. For the Easter celebration, the entree is roasted leg of lamb with a leek and asparagus strudel, plus a few veggie sides and dessert.

Picnics offers a healthy wheat berry salad with pecans and currants, salmon and homemade Limoncello. Evening in Morocco has couscous, cumin carrots, lamb tagine and for dessert orange slices with orange water syrup. In Harvest Feast, we celebrate the bounty of Fall with mustard roasted pork tenderloin, red cabbage and a vegetable gratin. The last chapter is all about Winter Celebrations with a scallop dish, Muscovy duck breasts with pomegranate and a chocolate cranberry torte.

Good Housekeeping Every Day Cook Book, published in 1903. This is a commemorative edition published for the 100th anniversary in 2003. When originally printed in 1903, it was the first cookbook to bear the Good Housekeeping moniker. For a century old book, there are still many timeless recipes contained within that blend with today's palate. The first few pages offers information on the classification food, care of the pantry and detailed steps on washing both dishes and utensils. As was the norm for the times, all the recipes are written in a narrative style.

We start with Baking Powder Breads ~ popovers, cakes-including funnel, waffles, scones, biscuits, hoecakes, spoon bread and Boston brown bread. In the Beverages chapter, there are recipes for making homemade ginger pop and cream soda alongside recipes for punch, lemonade, shrubs and iced coffee. Yeast Breads takes up where the previous bread chapter left off - with instructions for whole wheat, rye and Sally Lunn breads, plus rolls, buns, and strangely, German Coffee cake.

Cakes, Cookies & Doughnuts covers basic cake recipes with a myriad of variations and flavors, pound cakes, gingerbread, crumpets, sponge cake, angel cake, cookies of all sorts and eclairs. Cereals and Macaroni is a very short chapter with just a few recipes, mostly centering around mush - both fried and hot. Cheese deals with cheese balls, cottage cheese (homemade!!), mac and cheese and Welsh rarebit. Cold Desserts delves into pudding, tapioca, heavenly hash, stewed fruit, compotes and trifles. Omelets, souffles, timbales and  Scotch Eggs are discussed in the Egg section, while Fish gives us salmon croquettes and various methods to prepare fish along with instruction on fileting your catch.

Frozen Desserts offers bombes, puddings, ice cream & sherbets, souffles, parfaits, mousse and frappes. Hot Desserts heads in the opposite direction with more pudding recipes (including a simple bread pudding), breads, meringues, scalloped apples, a few more souffles and something named a Cherry Roly Poly. There is a chapter on invalid cookery (common in most cookbooks of the era) filled with light and bland dishes ~ gruel, rice water, pudding & custards, soft egg recipes and many variation of "flavored" water (milk, egg and apple).

Meats and Poultry is filled with recipes using veal, (cutlets) chicken (fried, creamed, etc) beef (roasted and loaf), hot dogs (frankfurters), duck, ham, turkey (roasted & croquettes), ham, pork loin, mutton, sausages, rabbit, sweetbreads, goose (roasted) and lamb (lamb's HEAD with a side of liver and tongue). Meat and Fish Sauces include bechamel, tartare, brown mushroom and hollandaise. In Pastry and Pies we cover pies of all varieties including cream , lemon, apple, pumpkin, a mincemeat without intoxicants and a few ideas on making pie crusts. Sandwich and Canapes gives us an onion sandwich as well as chicken with celery, plus caviar canapes.

Salads is filled with many options ~ fruit, salmon, Bavarian, white grape, Waldorf,  egg & lobster (need to try!), spinach, cauliflower, sweetbread, potato and a few dressing recipes. Shellfish offers suggestions on preparing lobster, clams, oysters, shrimp, crab and scallops, while Soups gives takes on consomme, broths, chowders, purees and bisque. The last chapter focuses on Vegetables with the usual array of dishes and ingredients, plus serving suggestions for turnips and parsnips.