Four favorite cookbooks. Notice the well-used dust jacket on The Ski House Cookbook. This one travels with us.
Without a doubt, my family loves to eat. And when we’re skiing, we eat a lot, which is why I’m a huge proponent of snacks.
Yet woman, man and children cannot live on snacks alone, nor can we afford to dine out on every ski outing. That’s why I love ski-themed cookbooks.
Easy + Tasty = Ski Day Food
If you’ve read Braveskimom.com for a while, you may know how much I love The Ski House Cookbook by Tina Anderson and Sarah Pinneo.
Perfect for condo cooking, the recipes don’t require an arsenal of ingredients or equipment. This is the only cookbook with which I travel and use, at least once a week, at home.
Creative Winter Cooking
Another volume to which I turn at home is The Ski Country Cookbook by Barbara Scott-Goodman. As far as I can tell, Scott-Goodman isn’t a skier, but she is a food editor, and she’s filled her book with creative cold weather fare.
While I’m not going to whip her most complicated recipes on a ski day, many are perfect for winter special occasions or a cold weather feast.
Which is not to say there aren’t easy recipes in this book, too. Here’s one of my favorites, adapted to our family’s taste with less sugar and more cranberries and walnuts.
Skiers’ Cranberry Muffins (adapted from The Ski Country Cookbook)
2 cups unbleached flour 1 stick melted butter
2 teaspoons baking powder ½ cup milk
½ teaspoon baking soda 1 egg
scant ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla
6 ounces fresh cranberries (1/2 of a bag)* 3/4 cup walnuts
1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar
- Preheat the oven to 400° F. Spray the cups of a muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, soda and salt) in a large bowl.
- Place the cranberries, walnuts and sugars in a food processor. Coarsely chop with 10 quick pulses.
- Whisk together the, milk, egg and vanilla and pour, along with the melted butter, into the dry ingredients. Add the chopped cranberry mixture and stir until everything is just combined.
- Divide the batter into the muffin cups. Bake 20 minutes until nicely browned. Cool slightly, remove from pan and enjoy every bite!
*Frozen cranberries can be substituted.
Restaurant Fare, At Home
Finally, last December I bought myself Ski Town Soups and Ski Town Après Ski, both by Jennie Iverson.
Beautiful large format books, filled with glossy photos, these volumes are compilations of favorite recipes from ski resort and ski town chefs.
The books, especially Ski Town Soups, are a bit repetitive. As compilations, Iverson was limited to the recipes each chef provided and there are definite culinary trends at play. I mean really, how many squash soup recipes does one book need?
I’ve also found that I have to adapt many recipes for home cooking. While chefs may buy tomato paste in bulk containers, I buy it in small cans, thus when I cook, I want to know how many cans of tomato paste are needed, not how many cups.
With each use, however, I’ve come to appreciate both books.
Like The Ski House Cookbook, recipes are rated green, blue or black according to difficulty. And even with the easiest recipes, pre-planning and prep are essential. Still, every dish we’ve tried (and we’ve tried a lot) has been delicious, from Asian ahi nachos to Bavarian goulash.
Enjoy!
More Food:
- You Gotta Get It: The Ski House Cookbook, November 7, 2011.
- Don’t Go Hungry! Ski Vacation Tips for Feeding the Family, January 23, 2013.
- Hot Winter Drinks for Everyone Help Ring in the New Year, December 30, 2013.
- Ski Snacks, December 8, 2011.
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