The First Annual Christmas Cookbook Contest Page One

To see some of the great entries received in the contest, scroll down to your heart's delight. There are more entries on Page Two.

Comments

[Julie Walker]

My favourite cookbook is The Margaret Fulton Cookbok which was given to me as a wedding present in 1973. It is extremely "dogeared" and stained and this book has seen me through Christmas dinners (her Christmas pudding recipe is to die for) and many a dinner party. It covers everything from traditional English cooking and baking to Ceviche and Satays. This woman was way ahead of her time.

[KL Mitchell]

James Barber's Fear of Frying and GInger Tea Makes Friends bought when I was living on my own for the first time many long years ago. His simple and delicious recipes writ out in comic drawings encouraged me to just go for it with what was at hand and sparked a true enjoyment of the process of cooking. Over the years I have introduced friends and family to his fabulous Eggplant Tomato Spaghetti and now we think of each other when we make it. In fact I just made it last night because my sister told me she'd made "The Classic" last week and I immediately craved it!

[Monica Tang]

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison is my favorite. I have never had a recipe fail from this book--it just works everytime. I wanted a vegetarian cookbook that I could use as a reference book as well--this is like the Joy of Cooking with gorgeous pictures--great recipes, and terrific explanations and techniques that then allow you to use your own creativity to produce unique dishes. Yummy!

[Brenda Wagner]

My favourite is the original Joy of Cooking. I love the information about the inredients and the substitutions. It is always a great place to start with a recipe although I often make some adjustments. It was also a great way to train my husband how to carve the various meats we eat and I still use it for selecting cuts of meats for various recipes.

[Ted Vance]

My favorite cookbook is
The Food of Italy - Whitecap one of the series of International cookbooks.
This book is a treasure trove of Italian culture, photos and oh yes, recipes! My wife and I honeymooned our way through Italy last year and this book brought back wonderful memories (visual and gastronomic).
The selection of recipes is very thorough and each has an excellent photograph and very clear, simple instructions.
We have tried lots of the recipes and each has been a hit, whether for entertaining or just making everyday meals.
If I could only have ONE Italian cookbook this would be it!

cheers
Ted Vance

[Nicole Milkovich]

My favorite cookbook would have to be the Betty Crocker cookbook that I have grown up with. It can teach you all the basics and my copy, which is an edition from 1963, even teaches a young lady like me how to set the table and receive guests. Eeeek. However, it is very informative all the way back to how to boil an egg.

Mostly this book hits my top 5 list because it was my first cookbook.

(Donna Hay's Books are numbers 2-5 in my top 5 list)

[Barb Latham]

Favourite? I'm not much of a cook so I begin at the beginning of a cookbook, and work my way through it, recording notes on the page as I go. So the one that has the most notes, and is falling apart is JUST THE BEST produced by L.E.A.F as a fundraiser back in 1992. Many of the recipes were visionary in terms of trends for 2003. Recipes are donated by top chefs and food writers back then.

HOpe I win this new crop. I could use them!

Barb

[Linda Page]

The Rebar Cookbook by Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbanowicz is my favourite right now. I've been enjoying the recipes and find everyone a winner. Our book club, which is really a "cook club" does wonderful pot-lucks at each and every meeting. When it came to my turn to choose the theme, I had everyone select and item from Rebar. What a meal! The recipes are challenging to some degree but the results are complex, and provocative. I'm proud to nominate a cookbook from Victoria for an all -time great and proud to say it's a vegetarian delight.

[Roland Tanglao]

My favourite cookbook is Seductions of Rice by Alford and Duguid because all of the recipes are fabulous, flavourful and easy to make. Not to mention the fabulous photos and the wonderful food philosophy of the authors.

Cheers!

...Roland roland AT VanEats.com

[Enoch]

The French Laundry Cookbook, here's a link to my blog entry about it: http://www.enochchoi.com/thoughts/archives/000292.html

[deb hind]

My favourite cookbook would have to be The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. It was one of the first books I used when I "left the nest" . The book is well illustrated, clear instructions and covers everything from soups to menu planning for 50+people.

[eileen]

I must confess that 2 of my favourite cookbooks are, one, a church fundraiser from a little country church where ther are some wonderful cooks and secondly a cookbook that was created as fundraiser for a school my children attended when they were younger. Outside of those two I think that the book I use the most would be LOONEYSPOONS by Janet and Greta Poleski. It is a low fat cookbook and it is so much fun to make each of the recipes because there is some great low fat information. This information is presented in a funny, funny manner. The recipes are truly delicious and they are low fat to boot.

[Tim]

Hi Don - Listen to your show on CBC most mornings on the way to work- Really interesting recipes you present from around the world- I dont do a huge amount of cooking but after hearing your show this morning I decided that my favorite cookbook is not really a book but actually a box. My mom taught all her children to cook mostly from the recipe card box with all her favorite recipes that her mom taught her. We all copied these favorites and now they are being passed on to my children. I think Nana's Ice box ginger snaps are everyones favorites from our recipe box!

[Denise]

I have so many cookbooks, that I'm having great difficulty decideing on my favorite! It must be "the New Canadian Basics Cookbook" by Carol Ferguson. It's great because it really is everything basic and if you don't know the answer about how to do something or where to find it, the answer will be there! Time and again, I go back to this book.

[Edna Boland]

My favourite cookbook--that is a tough one! I
am very fond of Marcella Hazan's Essential's of
Italian Cooking. For me she captures the very
essence of Italian cooking. My other favourites would have to be the Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins and the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks by Ina Garten. I love cookbooks so choosing one is impossible for me!

[John of New Brunswick]

Good morning Don.
My favourite cookbook is bound to be one very worn-out, hard backed copy of 'Perfect Cooking' by Margeurite Patten, circa 1972. The year I graduated in the UK. Shortly after this event my mother thought I should go forth and make my mark on the world and if nothing else, at least learn to cook and fend for myself. This book will take the reader from: how to hold a carving knife and boil an egg to creating dinner for eight, with four or five courses and feeding ones guests with simple but entertaining meals and serving cheeses with port at the correct temperature. To this end, I now have a wife of 23 years who also loves to cook, thanks to this publication and our friends are numerous on both sides of the Atlantic and always wish we were closer at this time of year as we have a crab dip to die for.
I wish you a very Merry Christmas and love your input on the CBC. Long may it last. Cheers.

[megan]

Hi Don,
I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have a well-worn, adored cook-book. My favourite thing to reach for when it's time for nourishment is a huge folder of printed off or hastily scrawled recipes. alternately, I’ll do a quick web search for recipes including the ingredients I happen to have around the house.....perhaps I am in serious need of your cookbook prizes!!
I love hearing you on the Early Edition!

[Kay Whelan]

My very favorite cookbook is The Silver Palate by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. This book was a gift to me by my sister several years ago. It contains recipes which have become family favorites. While they all contain ingredients that are easy to find, the recipies themselves are great for even the most elaborate entertaining. Some of my favorites are Carrot Orange Soup, Sausage Ragout and Scallop Bisque.

[Andrea Furlong]

Hi there!
My favorite all time cookbook is Low Fat Favorites Vegetarian Cookbook by Moosewood Restaurant.

Why do I love it? Well, I fell in love with the cookbook when I was a student. I found that meat did not always fit into my budget but I wanted to eat healthy and balanced and of course eat yummy food! I was introduced to Moosewood by vegetarian friends of mine who always made the best food and when I discovered that the meals in the cookbook were easy to make, with on hand ingredients and each meal made lots of leftovers (which is excellent for students with busy, cheap lifestyles) I was sold!

The cookbook also taught me a lot about cooking. There is a great index that educated me on various ingredients and the entire cookbook taught me to be creative and daring with my cooking. There is also a 'healthy lifestyle' sectio, again teaching not preaching.

This cookbook was my first and still the best cookbook that I have ever bought. The cookbook still acts as a reference for conversions and cooking times for various ingredients i.e. beans. And altough I have developed into a cook who will try anything to please my dinner guests ( recipes from many cookbooks0, I must admit that the Low Fat Favorites Mooswood icookbook is still (7 years later) the cookbook that I will go to as a sure way to wow guests - veggie and non veggie ppl because flavour and impressiveness are the most important themes in the cookbook, they also include menu suggestions with each recipe! I can say no more, only that whomever have eaten meals that I have prepared from this cookbook usually have it on their 'cookbook wishlist' very shortly! Thanks! Happy Holidays!

[Marcia Trail]

My favorite cookbook is the "Joy of Cooking". My sister gave me this as a gift when I graduated from university in 1973. I have several other good cookbooks but the "Joy of Cooking" provides all sorts of information about the particular food-making pie crust for example. It also features a section on entertaining-how to set your table properly, accompanied with pictures. My husband still digs it out when his job is table setting for our dinner parties. It also provides detatiled descriptions about cooking methods-whenever I need to know something about food preparation that is the book I choose because I always find the information I am looking for and good recipes as well. To me. it is more like a how-to book-something all cooks need at one time or another.

[Carol Best]

I have dozens of cookbooks in the cupboard and often search the Internet for new recipes. But the one cook book I always fall back on, my cooking "bible" you might say, is the red, hard cover Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that my mother gave me in 1978 when I left home to make my way in the world. It truly has the most "best" recipes of any books I have ever tried. Like our favourite brownies and sugar cookies, BBQ sauce and more.

And now that I live across the country, the BHG cookbook is there, when mom isn't home to answer the phone and my questions about the temperature and time to cook a turkey just the way she does, or how to artificially sour milk.

Last month, my son asked me to make candy apples (like the red sticky ones you find at carnivals). I searched the internet and tried 3 different recipes, all failures for one reason or another. But the BHG cook book explained clearly that once the syrup reached a certain temperature I was not to stir, not even once. And those candy apples were fantastic, just like when I was a kid.

So that is my vote - the traditional Better Homes and Gardens book!

Carol Best
Goose Bay, Labrador
NL

[Nancy in North Saanich]

My favourite and most referred-to cookbook is called "The Cash Book", a compilation of family recipes kept in a cash ledger. The recipes go as far back as the late 1800's. In addition to the unbelieveably wonderful Mary's Plum Chutney or Aunt Dot's Green Tomato Relish, there is even a recipe for homemade hand cream! On the commercial side, my choice would have to be The Gourmet Cookbook Volumes I and II (1979). It's not the actual recipes and stunning photographs that are appealing (who has madeira or truffles on hand???) but it's the fact that they were given to me by my mother - one of the all-time great cooks - on the occasion of my 21st birthday, when my skills as a maker of lump-free sauces were just being honed. My siblings were likewise recipients of her generosity and to this day, we all LOVE to cook.

Bon appetit!

Nancy

[Jason Miller]

Hi Don.

My favorite cookbook is any of Jamie Oliver's series (Particularly his first... I use it the most!). Three years ago I had the luxury of watching an episode of Jamie's first show, The Naked Chef, broadcasted on the Food Network. So after watching some episodes I though I'd look out for his book, with the same name. Now if anyone knows me, I rarely read little alone cook, but there was something about his great awareness of my generation, and that we work 9-5 a day and live off fast food. I didn't have the 2 hours to prepare a meal when I got home from work. Before Jamie, most cook books were creating boring dull dishes which seemed to take forever to make and that only you'd serve once every couple of years to company. Jamies dishes, however, are something you can put together relatively fast and easy for friends or yourself. Jamie doesn't use culinary jargon or waste time with processes. It is almost like he would take a fine dining recipe, cut the time, and hard-to-get ingredients and make it better than the original. Cutting the recipes to a "naked" like state. The combination of watching the recipe made by him on the series and referring to the book I soon got use to making meals I would never attempt before. His books are easy to read, well presented and you can read a little about himself in each book. And so this is why I would pick the "Naked Chef". Not only does this book educate a "wannabe" chef like me but it achieves what a cookbook should do – get you to try recipes you originally never would.

[Diane Green]

My favourite cookbook is "Fanny Farmer". I purchased it on my honeymoon 38 years ago and as a new bride I found it pretty well "had it all" for the basics. I have returned to it many times over the years when I wanted some common-sense cooking and ideas, as it has information on pretty well everything. My husband retired two years ago and has taken on much of the cooking and I've noticed he's been using it on occasion. I think I would give it as a wedding gift as it served me very well when I gave it to myself as a wedding gift.

[Dianna Anderson]

My favourite cookbook of all time is likely little known by those outside of my home-town of victoria. it is Erik Akis' "everyone can cook". Erik is a weekly "epicure" columnist for our local paper and puts a few of his recipes in a local grocery store flyer. All of his recipes are fairly simple to make, but what draws me to his recipes are these things: 1)most recipes in this book are minimalist... meaning they have few ingredients, but are full of flavor, and 2)they cover a wide range of ethnicities. I have never before had a cookbook where every recipe is one i want to try. This book is full of scrumptious recipes that do not fail to please. And best of all, none of them have (that i've noticed) appeared in his column!