I received a new book to review! I was really excited to use Substituting Ingredients: The A to Z Kitchen Reference. for my cooking adventures. I am not crafty, or artistic, but I am very creative in the kitchen. I can’t stand it when I am in the middle of some cutting-edge culinary masterpiece and I need something like capers, only to realize I haven’t actually owned a caper since 2007. Quick flip to page 22 – and I learn that I can use chopped green olives. Yes! Brilliant.
There are some really fancy things in there. I don’t know that I’ll ever be in a crunch for shark, but if I am, I now know that scallops will do just fine instead. I do like knowing some of the less expensive substitutes, though so I can do a ‘practice’ dish with the cheaper ingredient before I attempt the real thing. Or, as happened last week, I spend too much money at the Farmer’s Market and have to cut back a little on the rest of my weekly menu. There are even “oops” remedies. As in, oops, I just over-anticipated the garlic needs of that soup. What to do? Simmer a small bunch of parsley in it for ten minutes.
The book is $9.99 at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Schuler Books. Even if you don’t live in Grand Rapids, shipping is a dollar a book from Schuler so unless you have other stuff you are ordering to get Super Saver Shipping, that’s probably the way to go. It’s small, so even if you wanted to leave it on your kitchen counter or somewhere easy to grab, it doesn’t take up much space. I appreciated receiving a copy of this book to review, and as always, all opinions are my own.
[...] was terrible, but my kids liked it. I didn’t have any heavy whipping cream and tried use a substitute I found in a book. It said to use milk and melted butter, but left out the very important step of [...]