Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Baking with books or Google?

Over the last few years I have attempted to bake regularly, mainly so that we could save some money on treats and also because you can control what ingredients you use when you make it yourself.


I am by no means a great cook but I try and I do tend to keep my recipes simple, mainly ones that use standard ingredients that are kept in the pantry or fridge. I usually make muffins, slices and biscuits. I pick recipes with oats, fruit, honey etc that are healthier and good to take to school or work for a mid morning snack, afternoon tea or to have with a cuppa after lunch.


Most of the recipes I use have been recommended by people and if they email them to me I keep then in a folder in Outlook and then just use my laptop to read the recipe while I bake. 

I do own lots of recipe books, I love the look of them and I know this may sound strange but I have been know to buy a book because I like the way it feels.

Funny thing is that I rarely use them. If I want to try something new or make something I need a recipe for grab the laptop, google it and away I go.


What about you, do you use a book, your laptop/PC, google or just make it up as you go?

I confess most of our daily meals are a make up as I go, depending on what I have in the fridge, freezer and pantry :-)

Nick likes to cook but he prefers the fancy stuff, so I leave it to him when we have guests or special occasions.



I took theses photos not long after I finished up working at the Bank (before I had my lovely new Kitchen Aid Mixer) but I wanted to show off my cute Babushka Dolls. I love them so much I leave them out on display :-)

Thank you to my lovely friend Naomi who gave them to me as a farewell gift when I left the Bank. They are fabulous and I use them all the time. They also double as emergency toys when little kids come to visit.

Have a great day

xx

PS. If you have any simple but tasty recipes that fit my requirements please send them through or leave a link in your comments. That would be great :-)

11 comments:

  1. I'm with you, when I want a recipe these days I pick up the ipad or laptop, not saying that I don't buy cook books anymore, I do and I have such a hard time justifying the purchases. But what the heck they look so good on display and I really enjoy reading them.

    If you happen to purchase the latest 'Real Life' mag, try the quick Hungarian Goulash recipe, I substitued the veal snitzel strips for diced veal...delicious! x

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  2. I find lots of recipes on the net these days too, google is one of my good friends;) I've got a few easy recipes on my blog under the category cooking if you need any ideas:) Have fun cooking. xx

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  3. I tend to use both. I love real books but haven't bought any new cookbooks for at least a year. However I also have a pile of vintage cookbooks that I have collected too, just because they are a slice of New Zealand history.
    I like to try new recipes all the time, whether they are for dinner or for baking purposes.

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  4. I love looking through cookbooks and have quite a few in my collection. I also love watching cooking shows as well. I tend to google when I want to know how to cook something specific or that I already have the general idea of what I will cook.

    I like my baking to be pretty healthy and tend to use almond meal instead of flour and rapadura instead of sugar, if I do use flour I use spelt. At the moment I have two favs that I seem to bake and they are banana oatmeal cookies and orange almond cake but last week i made a lemon version of this and it was amazing. I would love to add another couple of no fail easy go to baking options to my repertoire though.

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  5. I/we do both. I like reading cookbooks to get ideas for dinner parties and just for inspiration. I google recipes all the time but mostly print them off and have them in a pretty binder. It annoys me using the iPad as it swiches off after a while, usually when I need to check something and don't want to touch the iPad with grubby kitchen fingers etc So i prefer to cook without technology but often use technology to get the recipe in the first place! Hope that made sense! x

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  6. I rarely (OK never) follow a recipe precisely. I have a few cook books that I love and always give me inspiration, and I use the internet for advice. Ultimately though all my recipes are made up. If I think might blog about it, I write down what I end up doing so that I can replicate it later.

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  7. Oh I gave away a set of Babushka measuring cups as one of my giveaways on the blog last year... they're gorgeous aren't they!?
    I love to bake home made treats also, I much prefer baking to cooking too.
    I tend to get my recipes from a mixture of books and online. I also find myself googling recipes more of I am trying to concoct something out of the ingredients I have available... whereas if it's a recipe from one of my cookbooks, I buy the ingredients especially.
    xo

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  8. *if* I am trying... not of! Sorry, need to proof read before hitting publish!

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  9. I'm hopeless at following recipes and always have been unless I'm baking because the measurements need to be fairly precise. For baking I use an ancient Women's Weekly book or my own collected cake recipes.
    Earlier this year I bought one of Nigella's books purely for inspiration and to sit looking pretty in my kitchen!
    How wonderful that your husband enjoys preparing fancy meals.
    xx

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  10. I completely understand the need to buy a cook book because of the way it feels or looks Nellie as I have done this many times myself.....I have my two fave Jamie Oliver cook books, my Julia Childes cook book and a couple of other including my mums old, old, old Margaret Fulton baking cook book. I use google when I don't have the recipes I want to try and I love it I found my fave basil pesto recipe online...I also have collected heaps of recipes from Super Foods Ideas magazine and the meals all make regular appearances throughout the week....I love to bake and don't do it as often as I should but am making more of an effort to do it more often as I like the idea of knowing what I've made is as healthy as possible and not full of preservatives....I have a fairly easy and oh so delicious sticky date pudding if you'd like it......I have never had one person ever say they don't like it....in fact my kids come back for seconds and always make sure they leave plenty of room for desert when they know sticky date pudding is on the menu......xo

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  11. I tend to jump online for taste.com or I try things from the free magazines at the supermarket or the recipe section in Home beautiful & my other housie mags!!!

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