On Improvisationalattitudiness

Posted on 12 December 2006 under Cookbooks, Recipes

One of my favorite cookbooks right now is The Improvisational Cook. Mary had gotten this beautiful book for my birthday, tucked it away … and forgotten all about it! She discovered it a couple weeks ago while straightening up the place she’d tucked it away in.

In this cookbook, author Sally Schneider tries to get home cooks to escape from their current way of thinking and, hopefully, experiment with the recipes they have. One of the main points about this is not to be afraid of the results, of what your diners might think. Instead, use this as a “jumping off” point to make things better.

This is something I learned only a few years ago. Freshly divorced, living alone, and watching something called ‘Food Network’, I started playing around with flavors, even going so far as to buying (gulp) Kosher salt! When my kids started telling me how much they liked what I was cooking, I dove in feet-first.

Then, after marrying Mary in late 2004, when she didn’t seem to mind my experimentations, I dove in head-first and kept going. My German-Polish roasted potato salad came out of all of this, and it’s a favorite now for quite a few folks, including some who don’t like ‘traditional’ potato salad.

Ms. Schneider also discusses kitchen accidents and how useful those might be. I found this out last year after I’d boiled some brats in Leinenkugel’s Apple Spice beer and served them with macaroni & cheese. The next day for lunch I’d nuked these things together, ate the brat, then started on the mac-n-cheese … which suddenly tasted like spiced apples. That weekend, I served the first batch of Baked Apple Macaroni & Cheese to Mary and the kids, and a 9 x 13 dish of it disappeared in no time at all.

Even though I was experimenting and improvising before Mary bought, lost, forgot about, and then found this book, I love it. If you’re into having fun with cooking in such a way that you enjoy exploring variety in your dishes, The Improvisational Cook will be a welcome addition to your collection. Oh, and Thanks, Mary! :-)

Read Comments

  1. 13 December 2006 @ 6:23 am Posted by Sandy Squires

    Dave,
    It looks like Mary has introduced you the the fine are of the lost gift. All the sweeter when found.

    Funny you should write about a cookbook this time. I was thinking with Christmas coming maybe you could give us some direction on cookbooks as gifts. While I know what I like in a cookbook, it sounds like your collection has a much wider variety then most.

    What is a good all around, general cook book for people who get tired of cooking dinner?

  2. 13 December 2006 @ 5:12 pm Posted by Dave

    Literally (literaturally?), there are a ton of general-interest cookbooks out there. The old standbys are still viable … Joy Of Cooking, Fannie Farmer, Betty Crocker, Better Homes & Gardens, etc., etc., ad nauseum. For anyone interested in learning the basic dishes (say, a youngest teenaged daughter who actually ate those pork medallions), if they don’t have one of these, any will do. But what if someone does know how to cook, as you suggest? These books will broaden horizons a little, but you still may want a little more. For example, on Labor Day weekend we went to Arkansas for a Latina wedding. However, the bride, who I know knows how to cook, had been asking me questions about *authentic* Mexican cooking. Our wedding gift to the two of them? A technique & recipe cookbook by Chef Rick Bayliss, recognized as an expert in this area. You know what?? I’m going to continue this tomorrow as a full blog entry … ;-)

  3. 14 December 2006 @ 3:48 pm Posted by Sandy Squires

    “Improvisationalattitudiness” I have to admit I’ve just noticed what the whole title says. Is attitudiness a word we should use in a sentence? I’m leaning towards it would make a good title for a cookbook.

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