Cookbook Tradition & Rice Noodle Salad with Lemongrass Chicken

When my daughter Joanna went off to Dalhousie University in Halifax years ago (if I'd known she'd actually decide to live there, I might have made her stick closer to home. Although, she is supremely happy with her job, her beautiful home, her loving hubby and her delicious little son, so I guess I'll just have to visit more...but I digress). When she went off to university, I started buying her cookbooks. Not just any cookbooks, but ones that I own and love. I would inscribe them with something corny and annotate them as I do my own..."fabulous", "never do this again, it's too mushy", "change/add these ingredients". So over the years her collection has grown to include some books we both consider to be favorites. One such book is HeartSmart Cooking for family and friends by Bonnie Stern (who we both love and own all of her books).

Rice Noodle Salad with Lemongrass Chicken

The other night, while I was doing baby things, Joanna was making dinner which turned out to be a delicious Rice Noodle Salad with Lemongrass Chicken, a recipe I hadn't tried. As all other Bonnie Stern recipes, this one was delicious. But what I enjoyed even more, was flipping at random through her copy to see which were her favorites (by the amount of ingredients stuck to any given page), and the first page the book automatically opened to was Cilantro Roasted Sea Bass

(I used cod here, but often do the dish with other fleshy fish varieties and even chicken). It's nice to know we're so connected even when we're not physically close.

So even though Sara of I Like to Cook came up with the latest Weekend Cookbook Challenge - cook from a newly acquired cookbook, I decided to take a slightly different tack...use Joanna's copy of HeartSmart Cooking for family and friends (I'm reading it from a different perspective - Joanna's, so it's kind of new to me) and making a recipe I'd probably never try - too many parts, or so it seems at first glance.

Third reason I love this book and all the recipes...very South Beach Diet friendly!

Related links: Food and Drink recipes Weekend Cookbook Challenge South Beach Diet chicken cookbooks salad noodles fish