On a Cold, Snowy Weekend

I don't live in Boston, so I feel a little guilty complaining about snow. But I'm going to complain anyway. Why? Because I freaking hate shoveling snow. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I hate cleaning it off my car and I hate how it gets the bottom of my pants wet.

What's good about this kind of weekend though? It's the best time to bake and read.

And isn't that just one of the things to really love about winter?

Can't go outside? What better excuse do you have than to sit and read all day? Or perhaps, what other motivator would you need to try a recipe out of that cookbook you have sitting on your shelf?

I've done both this weekend and, besides the second-degree burns on my fingers, it's been delightful.

The book I've been busting out this winter is America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook. My husband got it for me with his Barnes and Noble employee discount (I love him so.) and it's one of the best investments we've ever made. I haven't tried as many recipes as I would have liked, but the ones I have tried are absolutely fantastic.

If you follow the instructions, you'll be set. Seriously. I have yet to have a fail for any of the recipes I've tried from this book. My favorite so far has been the chocolate chip cookies. Holy crap, they are just awesome.

My husband's favorite is the lemon pound cake. And you would think pound cake is easy to make, but it really isn't. It's really easy to have it turn out to be a greasy lump of crumbs. This book tells you how to keep that from happening. I also love the fact it's written in a no-nonsense manner. For instance, the book includes tables where they common problems folks might have making a particular dish. In the table for one of the cakes, it has an entry about how to substitute cake flour. Point blank, the book tells you that if you're going to be baking cakes, you need cake flour. It does have a substitute, but just freaking do what they tell you. Buy the goddamn cake flour. You'll love the cake so much, you'll want to make another one. For real, you'll want to make cakes all day long. (By the way, I highly recommend the King Arthur Cake Flour.)

And that's the thing about this book. It's giving me a lot of confidence in the kitchen. I actually enjoy reading the beginning of each chapter because it has such useful information. I can't say enough good things about it.

I could go on and on about America's Test Kitchen--the show on PBS is just awesome--but I won't. Just look up this book, look up their website, and start cooking.