This week, I’m hosting the neighborhood book club meeting. Instead of reviewing a novel, however, we are having “cookbook night.” Everyone brings a dish from their favorite cookbook and shares. Such a great idea. But it got me thinking…I rarely look at cookbooks anymore. When I want a new recipe, I look for one on the Internet. ( usually at  FoodNetwork.com) You can find pretty much any kind of recipe on there so why buy a 30 dollar book, right?

Well, this makes me kind of sad, because while I love the Internet, I love books more. Real books. The ones with paper and pictures and ink and that great book smell. No, I’m not anti-ebook, just making an observation. In fact, I just downloaded both the Kindle App and the Barnes and Noble eReader App onto my iPhone. Who knows? Maybe I’ll buy the ebook version of Giada’s latest and cook something from that. I’ll bring my iPhone to book club and we’ll start a great conversation about what going on the world of publishing.

Or, perhaps I’ll dust off the books on my kitchen shelves and make some asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and Parmesan cheese (recipe from Food for Thought) and some Cheese “Croutes” (from Culinary Art)?

Here’s the recipe for Cheese Croutons from Culinary Art and Traditions of Switzerland:

farmhouse bread cut into cubes
80 g butter (1/2 stick)
200g Appenzell full fat cheese, grated*
200g Appenzell salted cheese, grated*
nutmeg
pepper
100 ml cream
50 g chopped chives

*I used Gruyere and Jarlsburg cheeses.

Fry bread in butter until brown. Mix two cheeses and sprinkle on top. Add cream. Keep pan very hot and turn continually. Saute until covered in cheese then season and serve.

Bon Appetit, tout le monde!

Tags: book club, cookbooks, ebooks

Published on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 and filed under Other Stuff, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.