Read Lammas Recipes

>>Those look really yummy!<<

I'm happy to hear that.

>>I really like how you laid out those recipes. They're very easy to read and follow. What I like most is the notes that follow each recipe; for someone unfamiliar with why certain types of spices or foods are used, these prove very useful for learning how to use them in other dishes.<<

*smile* Well, that's what you get when a writer who can cook reads dozens of cookbooks and realizes that a majority of career cooks ... can't write. my_partner_doug and I have had some interesting experiences with cookbooks where not all the ingredients were listed, or ingredients were listed but not covered regarding what to do with them, or things were out of order, or the description of steps made no earthly sense. So I try to lay things out logically, with enough supporting material for people to understand why certain things are the way they are, and which parts are flexible or need to stay put. I have a general knack for breaking things down into little steps and explaining how to go through them. That helps a lot. I'm less formal about it than some cooks, though.

I write something similar to what I like to read, in a recipe. It seems to work. I've done scrapbooked recipe collections as gifts for friends, a couple of times. My mother actually started that, writing down recipes from my childhood for me.

We finally got out to the farmer's market today, so tomorrow is slated for making spaghetti sauce. Yay!

Oh yes. They just aren't done. The one I'm sure of is Around the World in 80 Meatloaves. Then it's a debate over whether to do other topical ones, like an ice cream book, or just a jumble of whatever I have. The recipes do tend to cluster though. I've done very little with sides, and a lot with crock pot main dishes and assorted desserts.

The beginner version of that information is not a book, but a chart. There will be a bunch of spices listed along one axis and a bunch of foods on the other. You look for the food you plan to cook, and the spices that suit it will be dotted.

Some cookbooks also have a guide to seasonings, usually toward the front, at beginner to intermediate level.

Actually learning how seasonings interact is advanced level. Whole books on spices fall into that category. We have, hm, at least one or two. I think I bought one on Indian spices for my_partner_doug not long ago. I have a lot of herbal books, some with good cooking info. I know there are some hardcore guides to seasonings for serious cooks.

But a book that goes from the basics all the way up to the details? I haven't seen one, no. *ponder* I have previously contemplated whether it might be feasible to design a book with the information stacked such that it could be used by readers at multiple skill levels, so that you could start at the top of an entry to get basic information and then read further down for more intricate stuff. That might be doable with this topic.

It would be a LOT of work to assemble a book like that, but it would widely useful, and cookbooks sell really well. Okay, I'll stash this in my file of "books to be written" should the opportunity ever arise.

Yeah, any book I write will probably get mentioned all over my blog and other places.