What sites / books inspire your cooking?

rachbc

pioneerwoman.com and her tasty kitchen blog

thriftlady's blog (thequicetree65.blogspot.com)

in addition to those mentioned

aberdeensaver

Thank you to everyone who replied this will definitely help remove some of the 'rot' we seem to have some recipes once a week and I would like to make life a bit more varied!

meritaten

ok - for basic recipes my go to book is Good Housekeeping. circa 1977!
for inspiration I like Food Network on FreeSat! Nigella Express and Nigella Kitchen have inspired more than a few meals in my house! So has Thirty minute meals - all the recipes are on the site.
Ellie Kriegers Healthy eating has inspired me in making recipes more 'health conscious'!
I also liked Nigel Slaters Simple Suppers on BBC on saturdays after the annoying Saturday Kitchen - I am currently looking for his books - I wont pay full price so keep hoping to find them in charity shops - a great source of cookbooks btw!

LondonDreamer

meritaten wrote: »

I also liked Nigel Slaters Simple Suppers on BBC on saturdays after the annoying Saturday Kitchen - I am currently looking for his books - I wont pay full price so keep hoping to find them in charity shops - a great source of cookbooks btw!

I am a Nigel Slater fan as well, I picked up his books really cheaply in a pack at The Book People. So could be an option if you don't find them second hand.

I love the more recent Jamie books. Ministry of Food is my most used book, followed by 30 Minute Meals. I received the newest one (Jamie's Great Britain) for Christmas, still need to have a nose through.

I also like the Australian site Taste. Super Food Ideas (one of the mags they publish) is the more budget side, I used to always get it when I was living there.

meritaten

thanks Londondreamer - I like Nigels way of making simple ingredients appear special.

Cat501

lostinrates wrote: »

The bbc food website is good, as are some of the cooking forums and chef websites, but I prefer books personally.

I have a huge food and cooking boo collection...mostly still in boxes from our move, but quite often just read a book to refresh my memory and "read a meal". I find this very satisfying.

When choosing a cook book in a shop or charity shop, I do the "three recipe test". That is at least two out of three recipes opened at random must be new to me or an interesting take on something familiar, and they must be something I would like to cook and eat.

We try generally to eat fairly seasonally, and ATM I have a leaning towards vegetarian and seasonal cook books. This Christmas I was given the great British food rivaval book which I really love, and onto lenghi which is mouthwateringly superb...the way we really like to eat but better IMO. I have a lot of 'poncey' celeb chef books, but only buy the ones who cook in a way that really appeals to me. Nigella, nigel slater, a little bit of Jamie....

But, some of the very best value books I have, despite it being a surprise to some of my friends who say 'your a bit beyond all that, aren't you?...are the type that say 100 Chinese meals, or 300 cakes etc etc, usually the same puBlishers, and often the recipes cross over, so check them if you buy more than one on cross over recipes....the pics etc are all the same in different books. These books contain simple, clear recipes with a picture..I do like a picture.....and can give tiny insights into other cooking cultures...I bought an eastern European one I have not yet read a few weeks ago, for example. I know it will be clear and easy to explore a different culture of eating in this way, even if it is a little prosaic and doesn't touch on the culture. These modern and inexpensive books are very undervalued. One of the best books I ever had was picked up by my mother when I was a student and called 1001 recipes. It died because it was well used, by me and flat mates and we used to joke that whatever we had in our cupboard we could cobbled something out of that book together...it was totally not flash, just a basic book based on the realities of a simple kitchen.

That's a great book I'm a fan of the simple books too - 1000 Beginner's Recipes, 400 Budget Recipes, that kind of thing, because they contain all the stuff we'd actually eat and that I would actually bother making! I have a Jamie Oliver and a Nigella but just don't use them!

I've got a few of the little Good Food books as well, they've come in handy for a few recipes, and old supermarket pick ups (Midweek Family Meals, Low Cost Family Cooking, that sort of thing) have been well used.

eta used to buy Good to Know and loved it, but have stopped buying mags now and just use the website though I prefer having something down on paper

PipneyJane

Apologies if someone else has already mentioned either of these (I haven't read ahead), but my absolute favourite frugal cookbooks are:-

1. How to Feed Your Family for £4 a Day by Bernadine Lawrence. There is a newer edition, but this is the one I have. This book is fantastic. It has all sorts of recipes: savoury pancakes, stews, bean-based dishes, meat based dishes, lentil roasts, sandwiches, etc. I have probably cooked 90% of the recipes in this book and there is only one I couldn't make work (the peanut cookie recipe).
2. Cheap & Easy Vegetarian Cooking by Rose Elliott. This is my other favourite and I'm a long way from being a vegetarian. Rose starts with really basic recipes (i.e. pasta dressed with oil and grated cheese) and builds up from there. There are recipes for soups, nut roasts, pasta dishes, bean/lentil based dishes. It also has recipes for cakes, flapjack and other baked goods.

I regularly cook recipes from both cookbooks and would be lost without them.

aberdeensaver

Sorry one other question those who have said the goodtoknow website, do you get the magazine as well? OH offered to subscribe for me as a well done for having kicked the fags, but not sure if all their recipes are on their website in which case it would be a waste of ££?

lostinrates

Abdeen saver, the only magazines i get, though i don't usethat site, are foreign ones. I usually get cucina italiana to practise italian, but when dh was in brussles he got me some french ones. I am considering a subscription to a french food/cooking magazine. Not only does it imporve language skills, but food trends and there interpretations are different.

squeaky

My best site: this one