Take a frying puck

We have a lot of cookbooks in our house. Shelves and shelves of them. It is sort of a hobby; we pick them up on our travels though often end up cooking just one thing from each, over and over. Icelandic cookies; chicken casserole the Martha's Vineyard way; New Orleans gumbo. Then there are the cookbooks to which I turn all the time, again and again, familiar, reliable friends: Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food,  Pastability by Lizzie Spender, the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook, and of course, Joy of Cooking (its first edition would be my Desert Island book). Another favourite is one called Sugar and Spice by 'Durham Expatriots [sic] and Friends', assembled from recipes chosen or created by a group of us about 15 years ago, most with small children, and almost all ex-pat(riate)s living in the north of England.

In fact, I made Irena's mushroom-and-pea risotto only tonight. In her recipe notes, Irena mentions her sneaky addition of peas to the dish because her little girl is 'going through a picky-eating phase'. That little girl is now at university. It's a book is full of recipes and memories.

Sometimes our cookbook choices misfire, as when we bought a book of Jewish Greek cookery in the only synagogue in Crete (Etz Hayyim, in Chania: http://www.etz-hayyim-hania.org/) and walked away with a copy written in German. My husband is particularly fond of cookbooks from days of yore (I note that we have, but never cook from, Mrs. Charles Darwin's Recipe Book), or from cuisines now dead and gone (Roman, for instance).Mainly, the recipes don't matter all that much; the books themselves are fun to read qua books. The best are both, like the new one I bought in Asheville, North Carolina last summer, produced by the local Junior League-- there are still Junior Leagues!-- called Mountain Elegance. Most of its dishes require some type of canned soup (which is good; I have canned soup), but the best part is looking at the names and affiliations. For instance, 'Dorothy Jane Schafly Brown (Mrs. Elbert S.)' contributed 'Crunchy Broccoli Rice Casserole', requiring a tin of condensed cream of chicken soup. My margin note reads 'add garlic'.

All of which is to say that I'm happy to contemplate almost any cookbook although, sadly, cost and space prevent us from acquiring all of the ones that catch our eye. We don't as yet have many (any?) Canadian examples.The cookbook advertised in yesterday's newspaper caught my eye, and could be a candidate, though I think on balance it is unlikely to find space on our shelves:

Being a 'hockey mom' is well-known here as a demanding and self-sacrificing role, and anything that relieves stress in that situation must be welcomed. I have to admit though to a dubious curiosity as to what recipes those pro players contributed. Puck in a pan? Or... I know! Frozen food! In any case, I'm filing it under 'completely Canadian'.