Cookbook #1: Joy of Cooking

I’ve counted. I had 115 cookbooks, but then I picked up another this weekend. Thank you, library sale!

With so many cookbooks, it was difficult to know where to begin. I settled on Joy of Cooking for many reasons. It was probably the first cookbook I ever used. Growing up, the blue Joy in my mom’s collection was where she’d press the flowers we gave her, and we always knew that it had been her mother’s. I have three copies of Joy now: the one Eliav gave me as gift, and two from my beloved Aunt Mary’s collection, both old-style and the controversial newly updated version. I’ll be cooking from the new version later, but I started with the classic.

Ah, Joy!

First recipe: Quick Creamed Chicken Breasts

This recipe seems like the epitome of old Joy: old-fashioned, practical, and not worried overmuch about being fashionable. And I had all of the ingredients on hand, so score!

Preheat oven to 350°. Okay.

Place in a shallow baking dish 6 whole chicken breasts. I had two breasts and a package of chicken tenders. Good enough.

Combine and pour over the chicken:

1 cup canned cream of mushroom soup

1 cup cultured (do they sell any other kind?) sour cream

(1/2 cup chopped mushrooms)

(Joy loves to put ingredients in parentheses.)

1/4 cup chopped parsley (Okay, I didn’t have this ingredient.)

Blerg!

I said “meh!” to Joy’s scant 1/2 cup of optional mushrooms and chopped up all that I had, maybe 1 1/2 cups. Also, the mushrooms in the fridge only had a few more good days left to them.

  

Mushrooms, happy to find a home in the sauce rather than in the trash.

Sprinkle with paprika and bake, uncovered, for about 1 hour.

Double blerg!

This is not a visually appealing recipe. But observe the paprika! Another quintessential Joy bit for me–it seems that older recipes loved to sprinkle paprika on stuff for extra fanciness, no matter what the taste result may be. I am dubious.

 

Josh, meanwhile, has observed these proceedings and requested Kraft mac & cheese. At this point, I’m not sure I blame him.

In much less than one hour later (maybe 40+ minutes?), I remove the chicken from the oven. And it’s looking pretty good. I have a serious weakness for creamy sauces, especially creamy sauces on rice, and you guessed it, baby, I’ve got some rice ready too.

Not too bad.

I make myself a pretty plate with a vegetable element.

Looking pretty tasty, actually!

And Josh proudly displays his own dinner of excellece.

Josh, Nat, mac & cheese

I’m pleased to report that it was a tasty and and successful recipe that I’ll probably make again. Eliav liked it too, which surprised me. The kids refused to try it. Maybe next time.

Quick Creamed Chicken BreastsThis recipe seems like the epitome of old Joy: old-fashioned, practical, and not worried overmuch about being fashionable. And I had all of the ingredients on hand, so score!

The recipe, free of adornment:

Preheat oven to 350°.
Place in a shallow baking dish 6 whole chicken breasts.
Combine and pour over the chicken:
     1 cup canned cream of mushroom soup
     1 cup cultured sour cream
      (1/2 cup chopped mushrooms)
     1/4 cup chopped parsley
Sprinkle with paprika and bake, uncovered, for about 1 hour.

 

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