Cookbookmaniac
  • Curried Butternut Squash Soup by Ellie Krieger
    Curried Butternut Squash Soup by Ellie Krieger
    Asian Recipes

    It was not long ago when I first made this soup. If you follow me on facebook you would recall a status update that read something like "ARGH!!!" I had the hardest time peeling the skin off the butternut squash. I used almost every sharp utensil in the kitchen to skin the bastard and I barely scratched the surface. I even beckoned Pizzaboy for help. We stood at the kitchen bench for almost an hour trying to cut away the tough outer layer and chop the flesh. Although the soup tasted very nice - albeit thin because i had cut quite a bit of flesh away with the skin and ended up with less than what the recipe called for - I declared I would never do it again. I told my mother about our ordeal and she let out a chuckle. "You are silly. You did not boil the…

  • White Velvet Cake with Real Buttercream Frosting
    White Velvet Cake with Real Buttercream Frosting
    American Recipes

    I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to children. I've never grown up with a burning desire to become a wife and a mother. My parents spent more time pressuring me to go to university and study than teach me how to keep a house and tend to babies. Please don't get me wrong. I am not a hater of children. I want to have children of my own in the future. I'm just not the first person in the room to leap out of their seat when a baby enters the room. In fact, the desire to have children of my own only sprung up when I met Pizzaboy. He was so cute and wonderful. I decided that I would one day need to produce more little joys like him. (My apologies if that sounds a bit too gross). I become really confused when I receive Baby Shower invitations. Firstly,…

  • Mushroom Risotto from Valvona & Crolla by Mary Contini
    Cheap Eats Recipes

    Cutting corners. If you have read my previous post about patience you'll know that I have very little of it... except when it comes to cooking. I will not tolerate waiting in line for a sandwich but I can stand over a pot and stir a risotto for ages. There is something about the stirring that brings me joy and comfort. However, time is not the kind of corner that I am writing about. It's the expense of ingredients. I try my best to stay faithful to a recipe when I am cooking. However, I am not opposed to substituting, adding or eliminating ingredients if I find them unnecessary, difficult to find, or ridiculously expensive. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I approached the cheese counter at the local delicatessen only to find that the fontina cheese that this recipe called for was $65.99 per kilogram. Good golly! Although…