The Kitchen Counter Cooking School [Book Review]

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

Y'all, I devoured this book. Admittedly I was pretty sure I was going to like it because I had already enjoyed Mrs. Flinn's first book "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry", but I didn't know that I would be unable to put it down. It's funny, packed with great information and instructions, and I love her attitude about food. I started reading this book on Sunday, and was so pumped about it that I tried one of her recipes (Leek and Potato Soup) for Monday night's dinner. It was delicious! I wish I had taken a picture of it because it was very pretty for being a soup, but I had three hungry guys waiting and I didn't want to hold everything up.

 I don't know if I can pick out a favorite thing about this book; I was inspired by so much of it! I actually bought a whole chicken, and I'm determined to get at least two meals plus some stock out of it, I'll let you know how that goes. Oh wait! now I remember the thing that was the most helpful to me was her cheat sheet for seasoning veggies! I have always relied very heavily on things like butter and cheese (yum!) for vegetables because I was so terrified to try seasoning them with spices and herbs. There are a lot of flavors out there, how could I possibly pick the right one? I didn't want to choose the wrong things and end up with yucky food that no one would eat. But this book has totally changed that. Now, I am an empowered vegetable eater, with a nifty sheet of tasty (and quick!) ways to boost/enhance the tastiness of my food in a myriad of ways! How exciting is that? (I'm pretty excited.)

After powering through this book, I did a quick Google search to see if Mrs. Flinn had any cooking classes available (I desperately want to take one from her!), which sadly, she doesn't. But, she has the next best thing; this website!

http://cookfearless.com/

There will be new lessons uploaded every month for a whole year! The lessons that are already up are the basics, stuff like knife holding and reading nutrition labels. (Haha, if there was anything that could chase you out of the store and into your own kitchen it would probably be those labels! "Partially hydogenated soybean oil" in a cake mix? Yikes!)

So, go! Read! Cook! And have a blessed Tuesday.

~Noble