Trying to get to 3 books for an artificial goal of 12 books a year only continues to hurt us.
If the goal is to try and boost participation, more discussion in fewer threads seems the most likely way to do that
We can see how it shakes out, but I think it’s relatively obvious when a book is “easy” vs “not”.
The additional hurdle of the summer is people traveling and cooking the bare minimum / grilling.
The additional benefit is summer produce.
It behooves us to try and corral ourselves in a way that tries to get as many people’s goals and lifestyles incorporated as we possibly can without spreading too thin across too many books.
My main concern is that we don’t have that many more months of non-participation before we all lose heart.
I own all of these books and would like to explore them. I’m not sure how to classify them. All of them have some weeknight recipes for the ”easy” category, but there are some recipes that could fall into the ”project” category.
GRAINS FOR EVERY SEASON by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg. This book is by the author of ”Six Seasons”.
TREASURES OF THE MEXICAN TABLE by Pati Junich. Summer is the one time when I can easily get fresh ingredients (chilies, tomatoes, tomatillos) for Mexican food.
@stockholm28 I’ve just borrowed Salad Freak from the library to take a look, not sure how involved it is in terms of sub-recipes but I’m hopeful it would fall into the “everyday/mainstream” category over the summer.
Also borrowed Grains… (though Six Seasons was lovely, there’s not a lot that became repeats for me).
I wonder if we could think about Pati Jinich quarter as the ”interesting/project” category — don’t know how many books there are, but I know @NJChicaa has been nominating them for ages! I loved the Rick Bayless books when they were COTMs but rarely cook Mexican otherwise, so it would be a nice motivator.
HEIRLOOM KITCHEN: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories from the Tables of Immigrant Women
(interesting / project)
MAANGCHI QUARTER — we did Maangchi’s book in combination with Koreatown several years ago on Chowhound, but I’d love another go because her website is prolific and very accessible to non-Koreans. I haven’t hit a dud yet, and often her instructions are helpful even when navigating Korean recipes from elsewhere.
(this could go either way, everyday or project, as many recipes are straightforward and weekday-friendly, but there are more complicated ones for those who want that)
KRISTINA CHO QUARTER — EatChoFood blog and Milkbread and Mooncakes cookbook
(interesting / project — and draws the prolific bakers here in to participate, hopefully)
DISHOOM: From Bombay with Love
(this could go either way, everyday or project, as there’s a wide array of recipes from the easy to the more involved)
@Amandarama started a Cooking-From thread for Gunpowder, but the book has disappeared from easy US access (though I think many of us bought it on kindle sale for $1 while back).
Dishoom has been at my library for years, so maybe other people will also have library access if they don’t want to buy it.
HEIDI SWANSON QUARTER — I have Near & Far, there are a couple more.
(everyday / mainstream)
DISHOOM. i have this book and I would put it in the project category as the dishes I’ve made to date (Chicken Ruby, House Black Dal) have been time consuming. There are some simpler recipes.
PATI JINICH QUARTER. I have one of her ebooks, and love Mexican food, especially in the summer, when I have time to cook and lots of garden produce like tomatoes, tomatillos and chiles.
KRISTINA CHO QUARTER. I love Mooncakes and Milkbread and would like to explore her blog more.
I think if you are going to have nominations, you should have voting.
DISHOOM
PATI JINICH
L.A. SON - Roy Choi covers a variety of Korean, Mexican, and Chinese dishes (all under the umbrella of LA/Southern California cuisine). Perfect for summer and an entertaining sorta memoir to boot.
Id be good for Pati Jinich and/or Dishoom. I think more than one book (2 or 3 seems right for me) is a good idea if we are choosing for a whole quarter. Maybe we ought to limit nominated books to those that have actual practical availability -. Dont care a bit about whether there are 12 books for the year, but not many books will hold interest for a whole quarter - which with such a small group participating makes a the activity very thin. Ive been planning to get back to padmanabhan for example and dip into Solomonov but life has gotten in the way and I will be doing precious little cooking in July.
I also think that starting “Cook Froms” can dilute the interest but dont want to discourage…especially for books that might not be good COTM candidates.
if the goal is cooking together I dont think we have gotten back into it yet.
My family gets grumpy when there aren’t meals they know and love thrown in with new recipes, so having a book for 3 months works wonderfully for me. Rare that I will cook more than 2 new recipes a week (and even that can be a stretch some weeks). Add in vacations, things that knock a hole in your plans, and suddenly you don’t have a chance to really explore a book. Of course sometimes you don’t find much you want to make, but there have been so many untried recipes through the years.
In the past, we were encouraged to nominate as many books as we wanted, and we knew that when it came time, we could think it through and choose the book we most wanted to vote for/cook from. Suddenly we have to think really hard about what we nominate, because it isn’t actually a nomination, it is a vote. Will I nominate more than the one book I’m excited about? Maybe, maybe not, since it could hurt the chances of a favorite book losing because I nominated another one that I like, but am not as excited about. And sure, maybe that second book will win no matter what, but at least I’ve gotten to share more than one single opinion in the previous process. Is this making sense?
I guess I am thinking about “project” books and how people in the past have complained about how some family member got tired of a cuisine. It really depends on the book, doesnt it? So I could drop into a cuisine like south indian from time to time for a few days, but not expect to keep going in a concentrated way for a month (as in the past) . The longer format does give the opportunity to do that. So if we have quarterly selections we are better off with 2 or 3 books because it makes that kind of dipping possible. But the lesser concentration many also means that people feel less committed to the group activity. I feel happy stickingwith what we are proposing.
Exactly! I remember when we did Vietnamese month, and I thought “no way can I feed my family the same cuisine more than once a week or so” and then of course I ended up loving it and wanting to eat a lot of it. But overall, yeah, you have to think about how it is going to effect the people you’re feeding, so three months is great.
and how people in the past have complained about how some family member got tired of a cuisine. It really depends on the book, doesnt it? So I could drop into a cuisine like south indian from time to time for a few days, but not expect to keep going in a concentrated way for a month (as in the past) . The longer format does give the opportunity to do that. So if we have quarterly selections we are better off with 2 or 3 books because it makes that kind of dipping possible. But the lesser concentration many also means that people feel less committed to the group activity. I feel happy stickingwith what we are proposing.
