It’s My Turn For The Book Meme!

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Melissa
Filed Under Food, Miscellaneous

I’ve been tagged with a few interesting memes lately and I’ve been meaning to find the time to respond to them. My plan is to fit in one a week so we don’t get meme’d out.

I love that I’ve Paid Twice For This Already tagged me for a cool book meme going around. I had seen it on a few other blogs and was hoping I’d get to play along.

According to PaidTwice’s post the meme is super easy:

Grab the nearest book that has at least 123 pages, open it to page 123, and count down 5 sentences. Then, type the next three sentences here.

The two books closest to me on my desk happen to both be cooking related:

Hors d’Oeuvres by Eric Treuille
Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

Flipping to page 123 on the Hors d’Oeuvres book (incredible book, by the way) I discovered that it’s full page picture with no text. So I guess that one is out. I next turned to the ever fabulous Joy of Cooking and found this useful advice:

As for stocks, see 116, there are three simple methods for removing fat from soup. Chill the soup, the fat will solidify and then it is easy to spoon it off. Or float a paper towel on the surface of warm soup, and when it has absorbed as much fat as it will hold, discard.

Joy is such a monstrous book of cooking know-how that page 123 hasn’t even hit the salad section yet. We are still in soups!

I think every home cook should have a copy of Joy of Cooking. It is a wealth of information and really comes in handy when you are stuck trying to figure out a new skill like cutting a mango or making a roux.

Why the cook books nearby? I’m preparing to do my first official (in other words, paid) catering job at the end of the month! I’ve been scouring my favorite books for interesting recipes to test in addition to my tried-and-true classics. I cooked all day and into the night on Monday to test 18 potential recipes for this “classy but not too fancy” baby shower. The host has decided she wants an abundance of vegetarian heavy hors d’oeuvres for the party and at this point, she is expecting about 30 guests. That’s a lot of cooking!

We have chosen a tentative menu and are still deep in the planning stages. We need to map out the table presentation, create the cooking schedule, and compile the shopping list next week. It’s a big ordeal but I’m loving every minute of it. It’s a great way for me to use my passion for cooking to bring in a few extra dollars.

Oh, and in case you actually wanted to know the third method for removing fat from soup, here it is:

Or roll up a paper towel and use one end to skim over the soup surface to remove the fat as shown. When the end becomes drenched with fat, cut off the used part with scissors and repeat the process, as shown.

I’ve seen this meme floating around a lot so I hope I’m not double tagging anyone:

Image Source: Hors d’Oeuvres p.123

Comments

6 Responses to “It’s My Turn For The Book Meme!”

Kaye on February 15th, 2008 8:32 pm

Thanks for the tag! I too had been hoping to get in on this. Thanks for making my dreams come true! =)
Carol on February 16th, 2008 8:52 pm

I have always said everyone should read the Joy, it is filled with so much information and my daughter always said “when you pass can I have your Joy of Cooking” so I bought her a copy of her own.
Deborah on February 18th, 2008 8:20 pm

The Joy of Cooking is absent from my shelves, and it leaves a large empty place. I need to head off to half.com and find me a copy!
Kyle on February 19th, 2008 11:18 am

Cool, thanks for the tag, this looks like a fun one!
Brip Blap on February 19th, 2008 9:50 pm

I had seen this meme going around, so I was getting ready to get tagged … I will post the results shortly (they were actually a little weird). Thanks!

– Steve
RacerX on February 21st, 2008 7:04 pm

I have followed the Meme around and come here. Really interesting way to be exposed to neat new (to me) blogs!

Really enjoying reading!