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Time for some summer cooking! Reynolds Libraries have plenty of cookbooks that will get you started on everything from searing meat to churning cream.
If you want to teach yourself everything about grilling–beginner tips to expert tricks, with lots of recipes–start with The Essential New York Times Grilling Cookbook. Lots of contributors to the legendary NYT culinary section weigh in, including personal fave Mark Bittman.
And here’s a bonus grilling safety tip–an article explaining why you should NOT clean your grill with a wire brush! (Spoiler alert: the wire bristles can come loose and you might accidentally EAT one. Do not recommend.)
Want to get even more adventurous with your outdoor cooking? Wood-Fired Cooking frees you from the grill with recipes you can cook to perfection on a campfire! It even includes some bread recipes.
If you’d rather not do the cooking yourself, did you know that Richmond is a top ten national BBQ city? RVAMag rounded up some of your best options here. (One of the chefs mentioned in the article beat Bobby Flay!)
Just too hot to even think about cooking outside or firing up the oven? Throw together a salad! Salad Freak has more than a hundred recipes by Martha Stewart’s personal salad chef, so you know it’s gonna be a winner. (I’m curious about the “breakfast salads” section, myself!)
And after a salad you’ve got to balance out all those veggies with some sugar, right? In the summertime, there’s no better way to consume sugar than in ice cream form! The recipes in the Coolhaus Ice Cream Book let you construct your own fancy ice cream sandwiches. There are vegan and gluten-free options for those with dietary restrictions, and even some savory confections–Chicken and Waffle ice cream, anyone?
There are so many more options available on the shelves of our library or in e-book form–come ask library staff to help you pick out some cookbooks (and some novels for beach reading, while you’re at it.) Meanwhile, have a happy summer with lots of delicious food!
