Monday, February 28, 2011

Cooking Light



My hubby will tell you - - one of the best days of the month is the one where my bright & shining COOKING LIGHT magazine arrives. I've been a subscriber to the magazine since 2004 and haven't missed an issue!  I have some great memories from college, going over to Lindsay's house and cooking great recipes out of the newest edition (I miss that!)  But nowadays, I have developed a little system to squeeze every pinch of enjoyment out of its arrival:

First, there is the "preliminary glance" - I thumb through the magazine to get an idea of what kind of recipes and features await me. I don't linger on any of the pages or really read through the recipes or articles.

Then, there is the second read through. Now I start to be a bit more detailed. I read the articles and evaluate the recipes to see if any of them will make an upcoming appearance on our dinner table.  (I read through the ingredients, how to prepare the dish, and try to decide if it's binder-worthy).

I leave the magazine intact for a few weeks so that I can look through it during my down time - then afterwards comes the last step: extraction. I go through and tear out the pages that feature recipes to add to my collection. I used to just clip recipes that "looked good" but then didn't really consider whether or not I'd actually make them. Now that I'm married - I know there are some things that my hubby doesn't like or will particulary want on a Tuesday night - so I've scaled it down a bit. Then the recipes get added to my binder...and I've even created an index so it's easy to find the recipes I've been longing for!

About a year ago, the magazine went through a facelift and my new favorite section is the "Editor's Dozen" - where they feature 12 gadgets or kitchen tools and where to get them. I actually got some of my wish-list items around the holidays from these few pages.


Here are a few of my all-time favorite recipes from over the years:
Walnut crusted pork chops 
Basil and three-cheese thin-crust pizza with the Pizza sauce
Sausage-stuffed chicken breasts
Italian creme cake
Yankee pot roast
Crab cakes with roasted veggies
Crisp mashed potato cakes
Pear crisp

Wow, it was hard to narrow those down! Am I the only one who is seriously in love with a cooking magazine (enough to blog about it)? :)

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