A shout out to my US friends...
Does anyone have this book? I received a gift card to a bookstore as a belated birthday present this week and was considering buying it. The book, not the bookstore, LOL. Although a bookstore would be a sweet birthday present.
I've gone through the 'search inside' function on Amazon and it looks fairly good, but I have a couple of questions. Firstly, can someone email me with a list of the actual 'mixes' recipes they use as the basis for all the other recipes? The index is printed in full there on Amazon but I can't figure out which are the core mixes and which are the follow-on recipes. I've made the mistake before of ordering a cookbook and then finding out only a small portion of the recipes fit in with our family's style of cooking. I'm hoping a 'mixes' cookbook will be more versatile :)
The other stickler about ordering cookbooks printed overseas is that they're all in the 'wrong' measurements, LOL. Nothing Onlineconversion.com can't fix (they have a whole raft of conversion calculators there, including currency) though.
I have two options if I decide to buy the book. I can order through Amazon and when you include shipping and currency conversion I'm looking at around $25 AUD. Or I've just discovered a national chain bookstore carries it (or rather, orders it in - but at least its on their website) which also happens to be the same chain whose giftcard I received. It's listed at around $30 on that site. Normally they'd attract shipping costs of their own if you had it posted to you but as I have two of these stores an easy distance away, that isn't necessary (Aussies - That's Angus & Robertson, and they have free postage within Australia before Jan 31st). Though I might just order online because of the free shipping and for the sheer excitement of receiving a parcel, LOL.
You can never have too many parcels.
Also, I'm lazy.
The good thing is, I could get it for 'free' because of the giftcard. Sometimes if I have a giftcard (doesn't happen often! Are you reading this Hubs? Hint hint nudge wink?) but can't find anything in the local stores I'll browse Amazon. If I find something there, I'll go ahead and order up to the value of the giftcard and then reserve the giftcard to purchase a birthday or thankyou gift for someone else (ie, something I'd otherwise use cash to purchase anyway). Creative accounting, but it works. But I think this time I'm just going to go ahead and order through A&R just for the convenience. As the book will come from the US anyway, it might take slightly longer, and be slightly more expensive, but will save the rigmarole of 'squaring it all up' later.
So, a good buy? Or not? Are there any Aussies reading who have this book? I have several US-printed cookbooks - the Frozen Assets (original and 'lite') books and 30 Day Gourmet's Freezer Cooking Manual but the idea of making my own mixes for things is sounding awfully good.
Oh, one last thing. I've noticed a lot of the US 'make ahead' type mixes, especially the ones for baking, contain shortening. Does anyone know of an Aussie equivalent? Butter/margarine? Would that greatly shorten the shelf life? These are important questions folks, LOL.
Cheers,
Lizzie
Does anyone have this book? I received a gift card to a bookstore as a belated birthday present this week and was considering buying it. The book, not the bookstore, LOL. Although a bookstore would be a sweet birthday present.
I've gone through the 'search inside' function on Amazon and it looks fairly good, but I have a couple of questions. Firstly, can someone email me with a list of the actual 'mixes' recipes they use as the basis for all the other recipes? The index is printed in full there on Amazon but I can't figure out which are the core mixes and which are the follow-on recipes. I've made the mistake before of ordering a cookbook and then finding out only a small portion of the recipes fit in with our family's style of cooking. I'm hoping a 'mixes' cookbook will be more versatile :)
The other stickler about ordering cookbooks printed overseas is that they're all in the 'wrong' measurements, LOL. Nothing Onlineconversion.com can't fix (they have a whole raft of conversion calculators there, including currency) though.
I have two options if I decide to buy the book. I can order through Amazon and when you include shipping and currency conversion I'm looking at around $25 AUD. Or I've just discovered a national chain bookstore carries it (or rather, orders it in - but at least its on their website) which also happens to be the same chain whose giftcard I received. It's listed at around $30 on that site. Normally they'd attract shipping costs of their own if you had it posted to you but as I have two of these stores an easy distance away, that isn't necessary (Aussies - That's Angus & Robertson, and they have free postage within Australia before Jan 31st). Though I might just order online because of the free shipping and for the sheer excitement of receiving a parcel, LOL.
You can never have too many parcels.
Also, I'm lazy.
The good thing is, I could get it for 'free' because of the giftcard. Sometimes if I have a giftcard (doesn't happen often! Are you reading this Hubs? Hint hint nudge wink?) but can't find anything in the local stores I'll browse Amazon. If I find something there, I'll go ahead and order up to the value of the giftcard and then reserve the giftcard to purchase a birthday or thankyou gift for someone else (ie, something I'd otherwise use cash to purchase anyway). Creative accounting, but it works. But I think this time I'm just going to go ahead and order through A&R just for the convenience. As the book will come from the US anyway, it might take slightly longer, and be slightly more expensive, but will save the rigmarole of 'squaring it all up' later.
So, a good buy? Or not? Are there any Aussies reading who have this book? I have several US-printed cookbooks - the Frozen Assets (original and 'lite') books and 30 Day Gourmet's Freezer Cooking Manual but the idea of making my own mixes for things is sounding awfully good.
Oh, one last thing. I've noticed a lot of the US 'make ahead' type mixes, especially the ones for baking, contain shortening. Does anyone know of an Aussie equivalent? Butter/margarine? Would that greatly shorten the shelf life? These are important questions folks, LOL.
Cheers,
Lizzie
4 comments:
I've got no idea about the book or shortening, but just had a giggle at your comment about liking to receive parcels!
I had 3 parcels arrive yesterday and one today and its like having my own little mini early christmas! lol
Oh, I know what you mean. I just posted a parcel to Jenny V in Pennsylvania as part of The Homespun Heart's Shoebox Swap. So I'm looking foward to a parcel in a few days myself :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
Looking at my Destitute Gourmet book from NZ (love, love, love them).
It asks for kremelta or vegetable shortening in its baking mix which is copha in Australia.
(Though personally I would just use butter-no trans fat and tastes much better- and keep it in the fridge up to a month.)
Love the different words for things. I'm Canadian living in the USA so always doing minor "translations".
BTW re: the book-I think it's a classic book and you can't go wrong with it. Just use US cup sizes (slightly different).
Have a great day!
Liz, thanks for that!
Copha...well what do you know, LOL. You're right, I probably wouldn't use that (do Americans really use it/shortening often?). Would margarine work, do you think? I'm thinking economy here, not taste, LOL.
Yes, I had the same thought re the classic thing. I keep hearing reference upon reference to this book throughout the net. Anything that is older than I am also gets an extra tick :)
What's Destitute Gourmet like? Good, I take it?
Cheers,
Lizzie
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