Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Old Magazines & New Recipe Choices

We still have a month to moving date, and it really is too early to do too much packing. I hate living in a pile of boxes. But I still have lots of old magazines to sort through. Fortunately, Epicurious.com has this great recipe box feature, that allows you to save most recipes from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines. Which means that I won't be keeping more boxes of ripped out pages that I kept before moving from Toronto to Halifax, three years ago and never look at...sitting on the top shelf of my bookcase. As for the rest...well, fingers crossed that I can at least find them on websites and bookmark them.
I have this habit, when I get new magazines (and cookbooks, for that matter), I dog ear the pages that appeal to me. Those of you who like pristine books and magazines...well...I believe in the spattered, crumbled, and bubbled from use method. How else will I know how loved an old recipe is? I also make notes in the margins, so that when I have a vague idea for a dish ...I also have a starting point. Typically, books and magazines fall open to treasures.

Wandering down memory lane, looking at the folded down corners of a bazillion magazines made me think about how my tastes have changed (some of the magazines date back to the mid '90's). Some, just because I'm trying to reduce the amount of fat we consume - not so big on making those unbelievably rich cream sauces or deep frying these days. Others, just because... well, I wonder what I was thinking! Too many pots and pans, too much prep time...bottom line...too much work.

Anyway...in a back issue of Bon Appetit, dated August 1993 I found a few gems and because I do want to get in a pasta dish this week, I used a minty orzo dish as a springboard to this one that I will be making often. It was rich and creamy from just a tablespoon of butter and so flavorful that , little piggies that we are, we ate the entire dish that was supposed to serve four!

Shrimp & Minty Garlic Orzo

Don't forget to send your Presto Pasta Night entry to this week's wonderful host Mansi of Fun & Food Cafe. Email your link to mansibshah (at) gmail (dot) com and cc me - ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com

3 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I really need to go through all of my old magazines. I still have all of the special monthly cookbooks Canadian Living used to publish in the 70's, although I will never part with them. I should at least have a peak into them once in a while though. Our eating habits really have changed haven't they!!!

Mansi said...

Looks great Ruth! you always have to find time to cook good food, right? even while you'r moving:)

Katie Zeller said...

Mon mari specialty is Caesar Salad. The page in our old Joy of Cooking is so spattered one can barely read the words.
Cook books are to be used! I have that same box of ripped out pages....