Weddingbee Blog

Ah, Cooking. It’s something that affects us everyday. Whether you are married, single, living with your partner, living apart… we all need to eat! My post today is dedicated to this tasty subject.

image source

Cooking can be fun and engaging. It can also be stressful and overwhelming! ( mmm, and don’t forget- tasty!) Mostly Mr. Taffy and I find cooking to be enjoyable, but we do constantly stress out on what to make. Just coming up with ideas and meal plans can be such a chore!

Our lack of meal ideas has led us to search for reliable recipe sources. As far as books go, this has got to be our number one favorite:

image source

I know, I’ve blogged about it before, but How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is seriously the best cookbook ever!!! (We have the vegetarian version.) The recipes are clear, easy, and well explained, but the best thing about these books is the constant lists of variations. It’s like this: “Here’s an awesome recipe, and here is a handy list that explains 15 other tasty ways that you can make it! Oh and by the way, we’ve listed the page numbers next to each variation, so you can find the recipes as quickly as possible!” Not only does this make the books incredibly user friendly, but you can get endless ideas for meals in no time! Mrs. Snowpea just brought his awesome blog, Bitten, to my attention. Thanks, Mrs. Snowpea!

Our second runner up for cooking “print”:

image source

We love Everyday Food!!! I had never used this magazine until Mr. Taffy and I started dating. Mr. T’s mom gave subscriptions to her three sons every year, so Mr. T has piles of these. We have found tons of great recipes (even though we have to pick around for the vegetarian ones), and still use the old issues! I have started giving the magazine as a gift to friends and family that love to cook. They also have a book, pictured above, and a great blog: Dinner Tonight. And of course, there is the Everyday Food TV show. Mr. T and I don’t really watch TV (although we have become addicted to Mad Men and 30 Rock), so we havent seen the show.

Now, onto websites! What’s our favorite online spot to find delicious recipes, hands down?

Why do we love Epicurious? The recipes are delicious and easy to follow. They have great guides for holidays and entertaining. But the best thing about this site is their easy to use, ridiculously detailed advanced search! Here’s a peek at the search box:

See all of those little boxes? They let you make your recipe search as casual or intense as you like. You can simply search by keyword, or you can choose the type of meal or course you are looking for, and even how easy or difficult the dish is to make. You can omit things like dairy, nuts, shellfish and wheat from the search, making it easier to find recipes if you have food allergies. You can search only vegetarian options, or only kid friendly recipes. You can even search requesting a wine pairing for the recipes that are listed with your results! Do you feel like something with turkey and carrots? You can quickly check those boxes under main ingredients, and find something that incorporates them both! If this sounds overwhelming, take a minute and try it out. It’s really simple and fast. They even have an online recipe box that you can chuck all of your favorites into, for future reference.

Our second runner up:

AllRecipes.com

All recipes is also a great place to find recipes, although I will admit, we like Epicurious much more. All Recipes seems to have more reader recipes, while Epicurious is mostly recipes published in cooking magazines such as Gourmet and Bon Appetit. I also don’t feel like the search engine is as detailed. We still have found some great recipes here!

So far we’ve covered recent books, magazines, blogs and websites. Let’s not forget another great source for recipes that’s economical and green! That’s right, used bookstores. (Libraries are great sources too!) Mr, Taffy and I, along with some friends, went to one of our favorite used bookstores last weekend. I couldn’t help but find some cooking titles to recommend to the hive!

“Food for People”. Well, that’s a start!

Do you really, really hate to cook? Try this title:

The “I Hate to Cook Almanac”. Sounds interesting…

I did find some bee specific things to recommend. Here are some books for Mr. Mango! (These are in no way a personal comment on gender and cooking!)

“That Man in the Kitchen”

Or how about the Esquire Cookbook?

I don’t know about the recipes, but the illustrations were lovely!

Miss Cheese, Miss Fondue and Miss Deviled Egg’s reccomendations were all on the same shelf!

“Fondue Magic: Fun, Flame and Saucery” (ooh, sounds saucy!) “The World of Cheese”, “The Cheese Book”, and “Eggs & Cheese I Love”. What do you think, Ladies?

For Miss Ballet Flat, who is great with icing:

“65 Buttercream Flowers”

I could have gone on and on… Mr. Taffy dragged me out of there before I could go hunting for cooking books about Champagne, Cookies, Dumplings, and other sweets, drinks and appetizers. I did also score a great vintage sewing book called “How to Sew a Beautiful Wedding” while we were there. I can’t wait to flip through that one!

What are your favorite reliable sources for recipes? I know there must be a ton of food blogs, books and websites that I don’t know about!