A Good Cookbook is Never Out of of Season

Newlywed and Newly Hired.

When I was a newlywed (over 40 years ago), I was also a newbie at my job, and my boss stopped by my desk one time just for general conversation.  That's what I thought.  I didn't realize that she was talking to me just to get an idea of what would make a really good Christmas gift for me.  She was also new at the job and wanted to make a good impression on her staff.  We were not allowed to give her gifts because she was our superior.  But she could get us gifts because we were her subordinates. 

Guess what she gave me for Christmas?  A cookbook!  It was the perfect gift for me.  I loved it and used it for years.  Based on that experience, I always say "a good cookbook is never out of season".  It's a practical gift idea for newlyweds, college students, aspiring chefs, etc., for the holiday season, any season, or any other reason. 

Here are some suggested cookbooks.

Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals: Recipes and Techniques for Part-Time and Full-Time Vegetarians ~ https://amzn.to/4pw3uJX

Skip the recipe, keep the flavor 🌱
Cook without a Book: #MeatlessMeals = your guide to effortless #vegetarian #cooking. 📖 https://t.co/tzNSxS2H28 #VeggieEats #Foodies #PlantPowered #HealthyEating #newbie in the #kitchen #MeatlessMonday#WellnessWednesday#FoodieFriday pic.twitter.com/I0oP13Jjwi

— My Shopping Channel (@goshoppingbees) November 22, 2025

Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food ~ https://amzn.to/44fDZEi

Ever wondered why bread rises or steak browns? 🔬
Cooking for Geeks mixes science + flavor for curious cooks. 👉 https://t.co/e1UmzwQYmO #FoodScience #CookingForGeeks #KitchenHacks #STEMFoodies#newbie in the #kitchen#MeatlessMonday#WellnessWednesday#FoodieFriday pic.twitter.com/MzSeA76ADj

— My Shopping Channel (@goshoppingbees) November 22, 2025

Cooking Without Borders ~ https://amzn.to/3KeQrxk

Food is the language we all share ❤️
Taste the world without leaving your kitchen 🌎✨
Cooking Without Borders brings international #recipes & stories to your table. 📖 https://t.co/QCBV0fi2xM #WorldCuisine #GlobalFlavors #FoodieReads #CookbookLove #newbie in the #kitchen… pic.twitter.com/ZiiVS2w5SX

— My Shopping Channel (@goshoppingbees) November 22, 2025

Now Eat This! 100 Quick Calorie Cuts at Home / On-the-Go ~ https://amzn.to/4rfEkRk

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard 🌱
Discover 100 easy calorie cuts in Now Eat This!
📖 https://t.co/VOTn70MXJU#WellnessJourney #HealthyLiving #NutritionHacks #FoodieReads #newbie in the #kitchen#MeatlessMonday#WellnessWednesday#FoodieFriday pic.twitter.com/uFsjVO6sln

— My Shopping Channel (@goshoppingbees) November 22, 2025

Special Diets for Special Kids, Volumes 1 and 2 Combined: Over 200 REVISED and NEW gluten-free casein-free recipes, plus research on the positive ... ADHD, allergies, celiac disease, and more! ~ https://amzn.to/4oRKplh

Managing ADHD, allergies, or celiac? 🌱
Special #Diets for Special Kids offers #recipes & guidance for everyday meals. 👉 https://t.co/DRf9mODeNZ #GlutenFreeCooking #CaseinFree #HealthyFamilies #NutritionTips #CaseinFreeRecipes #HealthyEating #newbie in the #kitchen… pic.twitter.com/aWMHy2O49L

— My Shopping Channel (@goshoppingbees) November 22, 2025

The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing – City ~ https://amzn.to/48gLUCE

Paris: glorious, perplexing, and oh-so-delicious 🇫🇷
Taste the city through The Sweet Life in Paris.
👉 https://t.co/qUWyUDR7sk #ParisLife #FoodieAdventures #BookTok #FrenchCuisine #FrenchLifestyle #newbie in the #kitchen#MeatlessMonday#WellnessWednesday#FoodieFriday pic.twitter.com/cZ6sO3etIq

— My Shopping Channel (@goshoppingbees) November 22, 2025

Food Blog Spotlight: Home Cooking Presented by Hilda's Touch of Spice

Spotlight on another awesome food blog. This one should be saved in your bookmarks for forever! It's called “Hilda'sTouch of Spice”. The blog is published by Hilda Mascarenhas. Her recipes include a wonderful sampling of European, Asian, and American cuisines, and categories are for holidays, by countries, vegetarian versus non-vegetarian, desserts, side dishes, soups and salads, and more! The best way to describe her blog is using her own words: 

"Mouth watering recipes & essential cooking advice, helping you to add the right Touch of Spice to make simple home cooking special!"

That's the description from her Facebook page.  In 2013 her page reached 1,000 Likes.  As of today (2016), it has over 5,000 Likes!  Isn't that marvelous?

Since it's the holiday season you're going to love this share. It's her Christmas Special menu, followed by a few more selected blog posts that I like. Enjoy!

Christmas Special Menu - Hilda's Touch Of Spice

(Click here to view all of Hilda's Christmas recipes.)

Christmas Special Menu

This year Christmas is going to be filled with traditional sweets at our home.

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Japanese Cheesecake

Japanese Cheesecake

Popularly known as "Japanese Cotton Cheesecake" due to its cotton texture this beautiful baked cheesecake is delicately soft. Very famous years ago on the net, you will find several recipes to this delicious cake.

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Steamed Momos

Steamed Momos

The weather in Pune is chilly & cold in the nights.

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Carrot Coconut Ladoos / Gajar Nariyal Ladoos

Carrot Coconut Ladoos / Gajar Nariyal Ladoos

Two of my eternal favorites... Carrots and Coconut. Just can't do without them! 🙂 They bind beautifully to form into gorgeous,sweet and yummy ladoos. A perfect ball of melt in the mouth goodness to satiate that sweet craving.

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Chicken Handi (Murg Handi)

Chicken Handi (Murg Handi)

Rustic and full of flavor this delectable Chicken/Murg Handi is so succulent. Like many who love this dish, we are no exception. There are many good restaurants in Pune who prepare this dish really well. Making an almost authentic, traditional Murg handi at home is an experience to be savored.

Other food bloggers highlighted by Food Ways:

• JovinaCooks Italian.
• CiaoFlorentina ~ Easy Italian Recipes
• Flaming Vegan

World Cuisine : The India-Africa Cooking Connection

For me, a hearty stew has always been the ultimate family-style comfort food. Prepare a big pot, fill the bowls for family, friends, and honored guests, break bread, and chow down!! (Keep reading and you'll get the "bread" and "chow" references.)  Such a meal can unite family and friends, make strangers feel welcome, and dare I say ... connect countries?  Hey!  Nothing wrong with wishful thinking and dreams of world peace. 

Indians love curry; in fact that's where it originated. Africans like peanuts; it was a food used to feed the slaves because it was an excellent source of protein. These tidbits of info gleaned from researching world cuisine, global flavors, and food history.  When the Indians and the Africans combined their food loves ... the "mix" was WOW!  Let the links shared below explain the impact.  They lead to recipes that introduce your palette to the blending of the cultures of  India and Africa in every delicious mouthful.  Not just dishes that use curry and peanuts but meals with other flavorful cultural ingredients.  It's family food, it's comfort food, it's "all kinds of deliciousness" food!! ☺

Let's Go to South Africa for Some Indian Food

Experience the flavors of Indian food in South Africa.

Indian cuisine South Africa style blends Indian and African foods

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African cuisine reflects the amalgamation of hundreds of different cultures and groups that inhabit the continent. The local culinary traditions are a fusion and it can be seen in the choice of ingredients, method of preparation and cooking techniques.

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More of My Best Of Chicken Recipes

When I published the first list of My Best of Chicken Recipes, it was well-received.  But such a list is never really complete. Here are a few more recipes. Hope you like them! 

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5 Facts About Chicken:

1. Chicken is the most common poultry in the world.
2. PerTV chef Lidia Bastianich, chicken is the most Googled food term.
3. Chicken is shown Babylonian carvings that date back to 600 B.C.
4. Africans love chicken so much, suppliers have a hard time keeping up with the demand.
5. Alektorophobiais the fear of chickens. ( Who would be afraid of a chicken? (O.o)}

Find more interesting facts at The Fact Site.

  ♦♦♦

  

#1 Jamie Oliver’s Thai Chicken Laksa

They say that while the king and his noblemen feasted on large portions of meat, the peasants were content to take the leftover meat scraps to make hearty soups or stews to feed themselves and their families.  It has also been said that the servants actually enjoyed better health and lived longer because they consumed less meat, ate more vegetables, and the broth was good for their innards. {Heard that on a televised documentary. I don't get Time magazine anymore.}

I fancy most soups, but particularly chicken soup.  Plus, Jamie Oliver believes in healthy eating.  This sounds marvelous!!  Take this to a soup party, and there won't be any leftovers to take back home. 

#2 Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken

This recipe has three key ingredients: sesame oil, Chinese rice wine, and soy sauce. The word “cups” means these ingredients should be in equal ratio, not a literal measurement.  You will enjoy learning this interesting food history.

#3 Hot Chicken is a Favorite in Nashville

Hot chicken is an extremely popular, fun food, and it has an interesting history.  One legend says it was invented in Nashville, Tennessee, during the Great Depression. 

#4 Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup is one of my favorite soups.  Instant Pot seems to have become a favorite small kitchen appliance that many of my friends are using for cooking.  An easy recipe for my favorite soup using an Instant Pot?  I should pass this on to my friends to prepare, and hope they invite me over to enjoy it.  LOL.

Can You Name 5 British Desserts? (NO Googling!)

My youngest child is practicing (and hopefully improving) her writing skills. She picked a random topic and did some research.  The topic was British desserts, a subject matter which she definitely had to find out about on her own because: 

(A) Her American mother was clueless.
(B) Even though her late father was from The Bahamas, which at one time was beholden to the Queen of England, Bahamian food is in no way a reflection of British cuisine.  In other words, he was also clueless.

(Arctic Roll)

I was pleasantly surprised with the results of her search.
Has anybody ever tried any of these treats?
Can you name 5 more British desserts? ☺
(Supplied a link below if you can't think of any.)

1. Arctic Roll
2. Bakewell Tart
3. Eton Mess
4. Flies Graveyard
5. Rock Cake

Flies Graveyard?? Sounds perfect for celebrating Halloween.

1) Classic Arctic Roll

My mother;s favorite sweet treat was a jelly roll. It looks like the British Artic Roll. But the two recipes are completely different. I prefer the British recipe because it's made with ice cream. YUM!

2) Traditional Bakewell Tart

“... a traditional English baked dessert tart. It consists of a shortcrust pastry shell, spread with jam under a layer of frangipane, which is a sponge cake-like filling enriched with ground almonds.”

3) Eton Mess

From my favorite TV chef, Nigella Lawson. Made with strawberries and pomegranate juice. Don't know why anybody would you call it as mess.

4) Flies Graveyard

Also called “Fly Cemetery”. Flies Graveyard?? Sounds perfect for celebrating Halloween. But looks nothing like a Halloween treat. More like a breakfast treat.

5) Rock Cake

“... curious hybrid of a scone and a butter cake ...”

6) Spotted Dick (English Steamed Pudding)

We get that the “spots” refer to the dried currants used in this recipe. But nobody seems to know why it's called “dick”. “The first known recorded recipe of Spotted Dick is found in the mid-19th century cookbook, The Modern Housewife or Ménagère, by Alexis Soyer, one of Britain’s first celebrity chefs who seems to imply that the pudding had already been around for some time.”

♥️ I must say that my daughter surely picked a fun topic. 😋 😊

Also published here: Read.Cash

Recipe Sharing : CHICKEN RECIPES – The Best of

Award-winning TV chef, Lidia Bastianich, says that “chicken” is the most searched for food term. There is no reason to think that fact needs to be checked out. Lots of people love chicken! Fried, stewed, baked, barbecued, grilled! There has got to be a million plus ways to prepare this delightful bird and make it taste like it's the first time you've ever eaten it! Agree? 

 



What's your favorite part of the chicken? (Breasts or dark meat?)

• I like chicken thighs.

Do you also like chicken livers, gizzards, and hearts?

• If you tenderize them you can cook them in a stew with carrots, potatoes and green cabbage. It's a poor man's meal but very filling.

Do you have favorite way you like to eat chicken?

 
When people say “best of”, it's almost always purely subjective. However, for several years I have been collecting what, in my opinion is the “best” chicken recipes from wherever they can be found and as of today my Pinterest board boasts close to 600 recipes.

Here is a quick list of just a few of the best chicken dishes ever.

Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken

Yeah mon!! :)

16-Spice Fried Chicken with Mango–Red Chile Honey

Mango makes everything taste good!

 

Easy Greek Marinated Chicken

Greek Chicken with Garlic and Feta

Grilled Thai Spice Chicken Sliders

Who doesn't like Greek or Thai food? (O.o) (???)

 

Honey Jalapeno Chicken Tenders

Finger food in its finest hour!

 

Best Ever Roast Chicken

* soy sauce, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, olive oil.

Just listing the seasonings makes my mouth water.

 

Chicken Rice Casserole Sunday Supper

The mighty one-pot dish!

 

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

* use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.

 Chicken Rice Casserole Sunday Supper 137 ​ 138
The mighty one pot dish!

Easy Chicken Enchiladas 

 * use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. 

 Said the magic word. Easy!!

Lemon Chicken Rice Soup 

Best Chicken Detox Soup 

Don't resist chicken soup! It's good for the soul! :) 

 

Lemon Chicken Rice Soup

Best Chicken Detox Soup

Don't resist chicken soup! It's good for the soul! :)