When I was in going through my recent ill-guided fusion cooking phase, I was at the grocery looking for shallots. "Wait," I thought, "Can't I just use green onions? That was in Mom's I Hate to Cook Book. Shallots are just a fancy name for green onions."
Well, no, scallions are just a fancy name for green onions, and that helps explain why I had so little success with the fusion cooking, but it reminded me of how much I retained from Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook Book.
I'm bringing it up in particular tonight because Meryl Streep just commented on Colbert that her Mom did not have Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but she did have The I Hate to Cook Book. My Mom had both cookbooks. I was always involved in Mom's French Cooking experiments because the books were too heavy for her to take out of the bookcase.
In fact, last weekend I used Volume 1 to investigate why my Beef Wellington sucked so much. (Beef Wellington is made with brioche, not frozen puff pastry. I'd made the Julia Child version once and it was indeed fabulous., I'd also used the same book to make French puff pastry from scratch the same weekend - I think I merged the two memories.)
After a little research I found these illustrations. This took me back.
I might have Mom's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I don't know where her I Hate to Cook Book went. (She purged a lot. "Less for the dumpster you'll park out front WHEN I DIE.") Thanks to Amazon one-click, I know have some one else's Mom's I Hate to Cook Book.
My mother had that cook book! And I read it because it was funny, and because it was funny, I absorbed that that was the cool way to view cooking. Which is why I have ten recipes on endless rotate.
Posted by: Big Dot | August 07, 2009 at 12:32 AM
i do believe that i have someone's mother's copy of that book. i also have both volumes of mastering the art of french cooking, and eleventy hundred other cookbooks. it's kind of a sickness.
Posted by: magpie | August 07, 2009 at 02:21 PM
That must be the perfect cookbook. Perhaps we need a Hate Cooking GNO to try out a few recipes.
Posted by: Caroline | August 07, 2009 at 06:43 PM
I think I want to see the Julie and Julia movie. :)
Dude, I'm the QUEEN of "Hate Cooking" but that means I really don't cook.
Posted by: #0.75 | August 08, 2009 at 08:44 AM
Worth the price of the book just for these instructions alone: "Start cooking those noodles, first dropping a bouillon cube into the noodle water. Brown the garlic, onion and crumbled beef in the oil. Add the flour, salt, paprika and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink."
Posted by: gaoo | August 09, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Big Dot - I've whittled my ten recipes down to one: Chopped Salad.
Magpie - I have the same sickness, only it's reserved to tea party recipes.
Caroline - I think that was the book that taught me real cooks make this thing called white sauce, we use Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup which is essentially the same thing.
.75 - Erin G just saw it - she was in 2 seconds of it. I'll find out today which 2 seconds.
Gaoo - I know! It was all like that. I cant wait till Amazon fills my request.
Posted by: TheQueen | August 09, 2009 at 01:24 PM
Ooh! I want to know what two seconds, I saw the movie yesterday. I went immediately to the supermarket afterward, of course, and bought baby red potatoes and gorgonzola cheese.
I do not have a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", but I do have a potato ricer and a fine sense of what will be damn tasty in mashed potatoes.
Posted by: Tami | August 10, 2009 at 01:48 PM
I love to cook, and I love the _I Hate To Cook Book_. There's a recipe in there for blender-made pot de creme au chocolat that kicks ass.
Posted by: Elsa | August 10, 2009 at 05:58 PM
Tami - Okay, there's scene with a wedding (I think Julia Childs sister gets married) and on the front row sitting next to the father is a redhead in a bubblegum pink dress, and that's ErinG. I haven't seen it yet, but i got a good description.
Elsa - Oh! I ordered it, so I will look up the pots de creme.
Posted by: TheQueen | August 10, 2009 at 11:00 PM
OK! I did not notice her, but I feel somehow better knowing which scene I didn't notice her *in*.
:o)
Posted by: Tami | August 11, 2009 at 09:53 AM
I loved that book and because of it was able to cook after a fashion before I learned to cook, so to speak.
Posted by: Hattie | August 12, 2009 at 01:08 AM
Tami - I'm sure it's a sign of a good actress that she generously did not steal the scene from Meryl Streep.
Hattie - Did you have the "I Hate to Housekeep" book too?I think we had that too, or else I checked it out from the library.
Posted by: TheQueen | August 13, 2009 at 12:06 AM
I discovered this book at my Great Aunt's house a few years ago... and was so charmed, I set out to dig up every single Peg Bracken book I could find, used. The woman is hysterical, and the Hilary Knight illustrations complement Peg's humor beautifully; thanks for posting them. I was so happy when Meryl Streep brought up her name on Colbert... maybe some more star power will get TIHTCB back in print. (Incidentally, my favorite chapter title is "Potluck Suppers - or How to Bring the Water for the Lemonade")
Posted by: Emily Hunter | October 23, 2009 at 03:38 AM
Emily Hunter (Hi!) - I think one thing they might need to is improve the recipes ... But the book itself IS great.
Posted by: TheQueen | October 24, 2009 at 03:07 PM