Cooking with Gwynnie

I am not much of a cook, I'll admit it. My husband does a lot of the cooking in our household because he takes pleasure in cooking. I take pleasure in eating. And thinking about cooking.

I really like reading cookbooks. When I heard Gwyneth Paltrow out promoting her new cookbook a couple of months ago, I knew I wanted to check it out. I've been a fan of Gwyneth ever since watching Spain: On the Road Again which she filmed with Mario Battali and Mark Bittman as they ate their way across Spain. When I saw her lunge into a perfect churro, I thought, "There's a girl who loves to eat!"

The cookbook is a mix of simple, accessible recipes with a few Big Deal recipes that would take a lot of work. Although Gwynnie doesn't eat red meat, she includes a recipe for beef brisket just because it is her family's traditional meal. She often includes "healthier" alternatives for ingredients (example: substituting spelt flour for all-purpose) and several recipes have a standard and a "healthier" variation. As a mother trying to reduce the sugar in our diet and still have meals that are attractive for children, I appreciate the attempt to keep it healthy.

So far we've made:
-Homemade Veggie Burgers (great)
-Vietnamese Prawn Sandwiches (good)
-Fish Tacos (superb! I will never be able to eat these in a restaurant again now that I know we can make them better at home)
-Blythe's Blueberry Muffins (mediocre...but I'm picky about muffins)

The personal anecdotes interwoven with the recipes draw me into the book, and the photography and styling is simply beautiful. Brief fantasies of dressing in only white linen float through my head... And then I remember that I live with toddlers and dogs and dirt. Sigh.

Gwynnie writes an enjoyable read of a cookbook. I recommend it if you're a cookbook-reading geek like me.

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What's been inspiring your cooking and eating lately? Are you put off by celebrity cookbooks or do you secretly find them fascinating?

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