Daily Blague

What are your thoughts about amateur cookbooks? I'm talking about the publications of Junior Leagues and Women's Associations. I've gotten rid of most of the ones that I inherited or accumulated; I simply don't have the room to keep them. Even if I did, I wouldn't consult them. I'm not looking for new ways of doing things - not anymore. I'm looking for more classics to do regularly, and the classics are best represented in the professional cookbooks - of which I don't have a great many as it is.

Nevertheless, there are two recipes that I got from the first Noteworthy, a series of cookbooks (perhaps there were only two) put out to benefit Ravinia, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's summer venue. One of them is for dilled green beans, and it's quite refreshing in the summer. The other one is for Herbed Pecans. These nuts are great with cocktails, and they're no trouble to make.

Herbed Pecans

6 tablespoons butter

4 teaspoon rosemary

1/8 teaspoon dried basil

1 tablespoon salt

cayenne to taste

4 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325^o. In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the rosemary, the basil, the salt and the cayenne and stir. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and toss in the pecans until well coated. Do not break the nuts. Turn the nuts into a jelly-roll pan and spread them out evenly. Scrape any remaining herb mixture onto the nuts.

Bake the nuts for 15 to 20 minutes, or until well browned, stirring gently two or three times. Drain in a colander and store when cooled.

In my experience, it takes a lot longer than twenty minutes to brown the pecans, and throw in a whole stick of butter.

Do you read cookbooks, leafing through them more for entertainment than for dishes that you would actually prepare? It is probably a very good thing to do, but I can't seem to swing it. I have enough trouble reading the books that are in my piles to have the time to wade into cookbooks. I rarely look at cooking magazines anymore, even the ones that I really like, such as Saveur. It's sign, perhaps, that my skill in the kitchen has outstripped my interest in cooking.