The Art Of Scottish American Cooking by Kay Shaw Nelson

I bought this book since I was checking out Scottish recipes. I think (I am not totally sure) I bought it at a museum store. It looked really interesting (not sure which museum store it was).

Even though I don't remember where I bought my copy of it, I have found a few places online that has it for sale. Amazon has it for sale. Good Reads has it listed plus places where one can buy it (assuming online). Google Books has it listed.

I have not read it all but I am working on it. I am reading two or three pages a day. It is not huge but it will take a short time to read all the recipes. I find each one to be very interesting. I will probably blog about this cookbook once I have completed reading it all. There aren't any photos of the foods in it but I don't think it is really necessary. The paper seems to be an inexpensive paper. I think the value is more in the recipes that is in the book instead of what they are written on. 

I don't think it is limited to just those of Scottish American descendants. I think anyone interested in reading about not only Scottish American recipes but also the history behind them. 

The book I bought has a hard cover on it with a dust cover over that. It looks exactly like the one above. One advantage over an e-book is that one can still read it even without power (e-book readers need power to read them) and one can easily search recipes on a printed book than an e-book reader (at least when compared to my Kindle e-book reader [had it for a few years and still works but I have not had a chance to see if I could do a search on it or find a way to find an index that takes me to a certain page - perhaps the newer ones do]). 

The book is published by Pelican Publishing. Here is a link to their site for this book; The Art Of Scottish American Cooking by Kay Shaw Nelson.  

Pelican Publishing Company seems to have a nice variety of books at their site. They seem to have a nice variety in the 'cooking' section. 

The Pelican Publishing Company.

The thing that I like it is that (almost - haven't read it through yet) has a bit of history for each recipe. I think it is not just a recipe book but a book on the history of the recipes and the people who created or used them. It is not just the history of the recipes but also about the people who either created them or used them or brought the recipe to the USA. Even if one doesn't really cook, it is still a good read. 

I have not tried any of the recipes., yet. Once I do, I will post a blog for the attempt (don't always succeed at it) here on this blog. It would be one blog post for each recipe tried. There are quite a few (of the ones I have read) that I definitely want to try.

My Art On Things For Sale.

The above shows art supplies and also a sewing machine. I am trying to get into sewing too. The sewing part is another blog; Big Quilter Guy. I have eight blogs but none as active as this one (I am working on them being more active). 

TomLeeM

Big Goofy Guy

Lunch At Starbucks of Newburyport MA.

I had two Starbucks gift cards. The first I used while doing laundry - afternoon / evening - and the second one now. The second one was my brothers but he gave it to me for taking to work a couple of times (normally he rides his bike to the train station then to work but the weather has not been great lately, a lot of rain and cold temps.

The Starbucks in Newburyport MA is a small place but it is cozy. They have a few seats on the inside. It is in the downtown area. There are benches not far from it; across the store and at the end of Inn Street. 

I had a blueberry muffin. It was moist. It had whole blueberries in it. As one can see, it did not fair well when I took it out of the bag they gave it to me. It was still very good even though it looks it was mangled. It was not too big. It was a great size for an appetizer type dish.

This is the chicken caprese panini sandwich. It was heated up. It was really good. It was not too big. It was great for lunch. I liked the way the cheese was 'stringy' and warm. It was a great combination. The bread was thick but excessively. It had a nice amount of meat and ingredients. It went well together. 

This is an unique egg combination. it was the Souse Vide egg bites. It was warm and delicious. It was not huge. It came with a fork but I did not use it. I picked it up with my fingers. They were about the size of a half dollar coin. The paper indicates it was the 'chicken chorizo tortilla'. 

I had a bottle water for my beverage. They also had tea and coffee. I am more of a tea drinker than a coffee drinking (tried coffee a couple of times and it tasted like burnt toast dipped in hot water, even when I added milk to it). I was not in the mood for their tea. The water was refreshing. I just wish they also had some diet soda's there too. 

I think I tried their tea latte once. It was pretty good. It was different. I know it was one of their teas. One does not normally think of tea when one goes to a coffee shop.

I have been to a few tea shops and would rather go to them than a coffee shop; unless they coffee shop offers more than just coffee and donuts. It seems many do this. 

I did not know Starbucks owned Teavana. I have been to Teavana shops in different malls. It was really nice. I read that they were going to close them since they sell Teavana in their Starbucks stores but some malls made them keep some open; it brings shoppers to their malls. I would rather go to a Teavana than a Starbucks. I think it would be cool if there was a Teavana in Newburyport. 

TomLeeM

My Art On Things That Are Used. 

Big Goofy Guy.

Supper at Starbucks of Newburyport MA

My sister gave me and my brother a Starbucks gift card. I used mine at a Starbucks located in Newburyport MA. It is not a big place but it is a nice place. 

It is not far from where I like to do laundry - Newburyport Laundromat. .It is not far from the downtown area and one can roam around the town while one has a load in the washer and while the cloths are in the dryer. They have a neat feature on some of their machines; one can use a credit or debit card to pay for it instead of quarters (they do have a change machine available in case you want to use quarters). 

This is their cheese Danish. It was pretty good. They heated it up for me. It was nice and warm. It was almost as good as Panera Bread (which I think is really good). It wasn't huge. I thought of it as an appetizer. The cheese was tasty but not too melted. The crust / bread was not over toasted. It came together quite well. 

I don't normally eat cookies since I am a diabetic. I felt my sugar level was low after walking a bit and having missed lunch and this looked really good. It was really good. It wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be. I walked it off afterwards. It wasn't a huge cookie and the icing was not too sweet. I am glad I had one. I went back another day but they either didn't have snowman cookies that day or they were out. 

I have never tried this before. It is sparkling water with some raspberry lime flavoring. It was good yet a little odd. I still drank it. I am not sure I would drink it again - at least not in that flavor - unless I was really thirsty. They had other drinks but they had too much sugar for me. The only other one was water. 

I saw this and was hungry for a bit of string cheese. It was tasty. I am not sure why I got it. It was one of those spur of the moment type of things. 

This is turkey and stuffing panini sandwich. It was heated up for me. It was really good. The only thing that was really missing was the gravy and the cranberry sauce. Perhaps they could have put the gravy in a small container so one could dip it in? I liked it even without the gravy. It wasn't too big. It was great for a lunch meal. 

TomLeeM

My Art Store at Cafe Press.

Personal web page is down but I am working on getting it back up again.

Big Goofy Guy

Great Grilled Cheese by Laura Werlin (cookbook on grilled cheese).

I bought a book titled 'The Great Grilled Cheese - 50 Innovative Recipes For Stovetop, Grill And Sandwich Maker - by Laura Werlin. Here it is listed on Amazon. I bought my copy at the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery Maine.

It covers a divers ingredients and cheeses. I think it has a recipe for almost everyone. It covers a wide variety of cheeses, breads and fillings. It not only has recipes but other information too; like sandwich making tips, bread lexicon, and about cheese. The sections of the book are classic grilled cheese, almost-classic grilled cheese, modern grilled cheese, seasonal grilled cheese, quesadillas, and sweet grilled cheese.

I think it is neat that it shows three ways to cook or grill the sandwiches; stovetop method, sandwich maker method and gas grill method. The method I am most interested in - since I don't have a sandwich maker and the gas grill is too much of a hassle - is the stovetop method (since I can do this method any time of the year - using my coated cast iron pan, my non-stick pan or some other pan I am hoping to get in the future).

The price varies but I think it is a good price for what one gets. I think it was worth what I paid for it.

It is not a very big book but it does have a lot of really nice recipes (I have not tried any but I will and will be posting a separate blog for each recipe tried). It has a lot of good photographs in it too.

When I was searching for a photo and information on this book, I found other books on grilled cheese sandwiches and other similar foods. It is amazing what one can find online. One must caution while searching online since one might find the bad in addition to the good. 

I found a web site that has some grilled cheese tips. It is at Pop Sugar. They are useful. 

On a side note, I have made a grilled cheese sandwich the 'bachelor method' (my method of making it that is easy to do). I toast two slices of bread. I butter the slices of bread. I put some cheese between the sandwich (and whatever else I want to add to it). I microwave it just long enough for the cheese to melt (varies with different microwaves and their power output. I think it comes out pretty good. I will try it again and will post / blog about it. 

Big Goofy Guy

(might just keep it this for my web site - once it is up again - it is still down).

My Art On Cafe Press.

TomLeeM