Category: Weekly Geeks

The Ten Most Useful Cookbooks – Ever!!!

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 12, 2009
35 Comments on The Ten Most Useful Cookbooks – Ever!!!

I love cooking, and have several hundred cookbooks. Some of them are really interesting, and are great to read and inspire me, others are perfect for when I want to create something special for a dinner party, but I thought I’d focus on the most useful ones – the ones that come out again and again – the ones that end up splattered in food!

So here is my list of the most useful cookbooks ever!

Meat

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Meat book is the only thing you need to turn to when preparing and cooking meat. This comprehensive reference book contains everything you need to know about meat; from animal husbandry, through to butchery, and cooking . The recipes in here are varied, original, and every single one I’ve attempted has turned out perfectly. Everyone should own a copy of this book.

Rick Stein’s Seafood

Rick Stein’s Seafood is the best guide to preparing and cooking fish that I have found. Some of the filleting techniques are difficult to master, but the recipes are great. This book contains everything from simply frying fish, to creating elaborate dishes. It has a helpful guide for identifying different types of fish too. Highly recommended.

50 Curries of India

This is the best Indian cookery book I have found. It explains the basics of spice blends and flavourings, and then goes on to provide 50 great tasting recipes. Most of them are quite complex to put together, but I think this is just the nature of Indian food. They are all worth the effort, and by the time you have prepared a few of them you will have such an understanding of the techniques, that you won’t need to follow a cookbook any more!

How to Eat

I love all Nigella Lawson cook books, but this is my favourite. It has a very informative chapter on cooking food for children, with some surprising suggestions of foods which children love (anything with pesto or soy sauce!) As with all Nigella recipes they are easy to prepare, and taste great!

Delia Smith: Book Two

Delia Smith’s Book One covers the basics of cookery, but Book Two is where all the best recipes are! I have cooked many of the ones in here time and time again – it’s perfect for finding traditional, hearty meals for a special occasion.

Passion for Puddings

This book isn’t for everyone, but it is my favourite pudding book by a long way. I must warn you that this book is sponsored by Carnation condensed milk, so every recipe contains it! Despite this fact, all the recipes are unique and I love every single one I’ve tried – they are simple to prepare, look stunning, and taste amazing – recommended for anyone who has a sweet tooth!

The Dairy Book of Home Cooking

This is an essential reference book in my kitchen It doesn’t have many photos, but contains recipes for all the basics; from sauces, to bread and cakes. I think every teenager should be given a copy when they leave home!

The Food of China

This is the best book on Chinese cooking that I have found. The techniques of Chinese cookery are explained simply, and it is through this book that I feel I can finally out-perform the takeaway. Some of the ingredients can’t be found in normal supermarkets, but this only adds to the authenticity of the flavours (and is a great excuse to place an order for Chinese ingredients online!)

Murdoch also produce a whole series of books about the food of other countries of the world. I own the one for India, Morocco and Thailand. The whole series is great, but the Chinese one is the best.

Mrs Field’s Cookie Book

The cookies in this book are so soft and delicious! There are some really different recipes in here – my favourite is marshmallow clouds; making them involves freezing marshmallows, and then baking them inside a cookie ball. I can’t imagine a nicer treat!

BBC Food Website
Finally, this is cheating a bit, as it isn’t a book, but one of the places I frequently go to find great recipes is the BBC Recipe Search. If I can’t find what I’m looking for in one of my books, then this is my first destination on the web. You can search via ingredients, country or chef, and the number of recipes there is growing every day – I recommend you go and have a look!

What are your favourite cookbooks?

Remember the Comment of the Week Competition! I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

Tags Cookery

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The best books for three-year-old boys

Post author By Jackie
Post date April 5, 2009
39 Comments on The best books for three-year-old boys

This week the weekly geek site informed me that April 2nd was International Childrens Book Day. In celebration I thought I’d share Adam’s favourite books.

When I was compiling the top ten I realised that the books I enjoyed reading to him were very different to the books he liked best, so I thought I’d compare the two!

The books I enjoy reading to my three-year-old son

Gruffalo

The Gruffalo is my favourite picture book. It’s rhyming verse is easy to read, the gruffalo is very endearing, and it has the cleverest plot I’ve seen in a book for young children. Adam enjoys listening to it, and loves the disgusting sounding food the mouse suggests – owl ice cream anyone?

The only problem is that it is a little bit too long for him. I sometimes miss out a few pages so that he will sit through to the end. I think this will be perfect for him once he’s four or five.

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

Mr McGee and the Blackberry Jam

Mr McGee is a lovely story about a man who decides he’d like to have some blackberry jam, and goes off to search for some blackberries. As with the Gruffalo it is really easy to read, as it all rhymes:

This morning he was feeling grumpy.

He’d made the porridge and it was lumpy.

He’d put two sugars in his tea,

then spilt the lot and burnt his knee.

The plot is simple, but Adam finds a lot of it very funny. He has read it so many times that he can recite it. I highly recommend this book for three-year olds.

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

This picture book is a must for all book lovers. It’s about a little boy that decides to eat books. He discovers that by doing so he learns everything that is inside them. In the end he realises that it is better to read them though!

Adam is happy to read this, but never requests it. I think it is much more appreciated by the adult than the child, but if you get the chance you should have a quick read of this one, as I love it!

Whiff

You’ve probably never heard of Whiff, but I don’t know why, as he should be a classic! Whiff finds it hard to find friends, as he smells and is surrounded by flies. These flies tickle everyone leading to all sorts of trouble, including Adam’s favourite – jelly and custard getting stuck to the ceiling! It flows nicely, is a great story, and makes toddlers laugh. If you’re after something new, then this book is a good choice.

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

Very Lazy Ladybird

The Very Lazy Ladybird is another classic. It teaches young children about lots of different animals, and they love the sneezing pop-up at the end. Adam still enjoys reading it, although it is probably best for children under three.

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

My son’s favourite books

Steam Trains

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

This non-fiction book on steam trains is my son’s favourite book by a long way. Published in 1978, it is packed with photos of trains from around the world. He spends hours comparing relative chimney sizes, the colour of traction rods and how many carriages each train is pulling. It bores me to tears, and it doesn’t matter how many times I hide it at the bottom of the pile – he always manages to find it!

Mighty Tugboats

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating –

This large, bright board book is another favourite. Six plastic tug boats are visible through holes in the pages, and each one has it’s own page, explaining the job it is going to perform that day. Each tug boat has a name and my son want to know it, and why it is helping the tourists/going to the docks/helping the sail boat etc. I think this book is OK, but I don’t really understand his fascination with it. I have now read it so many times that I can recite it without the book!

Harry and the Dinosaurs Romp in the Swamp

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

Adam loves all the Harry and the dinosaur books, but this is his favourite. They build a swamp in the garden using plants and pretend the hose is a snake. He thinks it is really funny, especially when they capture the snake in a basket. I quite enjoy it too. It is a nice gentle book, which is easy to read, and has the added benefit of explaining that it is not scary to go and play with new friends.

Bedtime Bear

The Bedtime Bear is a very confusing book to read. There is no real plot; instead each page is crammed with little pictures, flaps to lift up and a few words to describe what is happening. Adam finds this book funnier than any other. He is literally crying with laughter when he reveals the skunk in the bunk or the wombat in a bath hat. I find it quite annoying to read, but it is worth it for the pleasure it gives him.

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

One Day in the Jungle

This book has a very simple concept – basically each page consisits of animals sneezing. As the book progresses the animals and the sneezes get bigger. Children find it hilarious, but pretending to sneeze can only be fun for so long. I don’t like reading it more than two or three times a day, which unfortuanetly isn’t enough for my boys. Only buy this if you enjoy sneezing!!!

Adult Rating

3 Year-Old Rating

Writing this list has just emphasized the differences between books that children love, and books that adults like to read to their children. I think it is important to read a wide range of books, but just remember to ensure that the children are getting to read books they really enjoy too!

Do you agree with my ratings? Does your three-year-old agree? If you have a three-year-old girl I’d love to know her opinion of the books – do they like the same ones as the boys?

Edited to add: See my new post on the Best Books for Four-year-old Boys.

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Tags Children

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Weekly Geeks – Community Building

Post author By Jackie
Post date March 29, 2009
8 Comments on Weekly Geeks – Community Building

This week we are building our Weekly Geek community by linking our book reviews to each other. You can find all my reviews on my Book Reviewed tab (top right). I’ve been very bad at doing this in the past, so this is a great opportunity for me to rectify this situation.

If you’ve reviewed any of the same books as me, please leave a link to your review in the comment section for the book.

Other Weekly Geeks

Weekly Geeks – Historical Fiction

Post author By Jackie
Post date March 23, 2009
11 Comments on Weekly Geeks – Historical Fiction

The weekly assignment for Weekly Geeks is to discuss historical fiction.

I love historical fiction. Knowing that the book you are reading is based on events which actually happened adds to the magic of them. It’s also a great way to learn about history, without having to get bogged down in dry text books!

I don’t have a favourite historical era – I love reading about all different periods of history.

My favourite historical fiction book is probably The Other Boleyn Girlby Phillipa Gregory. I read this pre-blogging, so haven’t written a review of it yet, but two great reviews are here:

Book Club Queen
All Things Girl

The writing is so vivid that you become totally immersed in 16th century life. I highly recommend that you read it.

One of my other favourite historical fiction reads is The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. This book is set 35,000 years ago, and gives a great insight into early human life. The characterisation and plot are amazing, and this book is one of my all time favourite reads.

I’m not sure that either of these books are appropriate for a book club read, as they are both a bit too long, but there is a lot to discuss if you do give them a go.

Tags Historical Fiction, Weekly Geeks

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Weekly Geeks – Worst Movie Adaptation

Post author By Jackie
Post date March 14, 2009
17 Comments on Weekly Geeks – Worst Movie Adaptation

The weekly assignment for Weekly Geeks:

Worst movie adaptations: The recent release of Watchmen based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore got me thinking about what I thought were the worst movie adaptations of books. What book or books did a director or directors completely ruin in the adaptation(s) that you wish you could “un-see,” and why in your opinion, what made it or them so bad in contrast to the book or books?

The Golden Compass was one of the worst film adaptations of a book I have seen. Entertainment Weekly agree with me, and voted it the most disappointing movie adpatation of all time. I loved the book; it’s rich, original plot was packed with great characters, vivid descriptions and thought provoking topics, making it one of my favourite novels of all time.

The film failed to come anywhere close to my expectations. It was so short, that it felt as though everything was being crammed in as quickly as possible. Many of the most interesting religious aspects of the book were not included, or glossed over really quickly. I’m not sure how anyone who has not read the book would have have managed to follow the plot, but I urge you to read the book, and ignore the film.

I’m not sure that it counts, as I haven’t actually seen the film, but I can’t imagine how they managed to make a screen version of Blindness, which I read recently. The reviews seem to indicate that they haven’t. The unique feature of this excellent, but scary book, is that the characters have been affected by an epidemic of blindness, and so cannot see a thing. This leads everything in the book to be described through the other five senses, making the reader effectively blind too. Showing the action on camera will ruin this main feature of the book, diliuting the intensity of its message. Many of the scenes were powerful and disturbing, and I find it hard to imagine how they could have been sensitively shot. If you have read the book, and seen the movie, then I’d love to know your opinion of them.

The Cat in the Hat has to be the worst movie adaptation of a book for me. The book is a delightful, rhyming children’s story about a mischievous cat who entertains a young boy and girl with ever more daring and messy games. My children love listening to it again and again, so we were really looking forward to watching the film together over Christmas. My boys lost interest in it very quickly. The film is too slow, wih nothing remotely funny happening for half an hour. The action, when it does occur, is so spread out that I found myself clock-watching the majority of the time. None of the magic of the book is present, there is no rhyming, and the cat come across as annoying, rather than endearing.