theculinarycanary

Cookbook Review:  Ready, Set, Eat by Dawn Perry  I'm a huge fan of cookbooks for recipe inspiration. So many ideas in one place, there's usually going to be at least a few worth trying in any given cookbook. It's always so fun to page through a new one, marking all the recipes that look interesting so I can try them later. With today's cookbook, "Ready, Set, Eat"  by Dawn Perry, I had little post-it flags sticking up out of at least half of the pages by the time I was done.  This book has a lot of really good instruction and advice for people who are unsure of where to start in the kitchen.  It starts off with a handy guide to which ingredients to stock up on. The author includes helpful instructions for preparing many kitchen basics and ways to turn those basics into meals or jazz them up a little bit.    Overall I would say that this book will be more appealing to novice cooks.  Many of the recipes are things that more experienced cook won't req...

 Happy Coconut Cream Pie Day! During the pandemic my family decided we'd get crazy and try to celebrate allllll the food holidays. We quickly realized that was feasible but have continued to choose a few every month to celebrate. This has encouraged us to try new things and make foods we normally wouldn't. Today is National Coconut Cream Pie Day, also known as My Husband's Favorite Pie day.  In honor of this momentous occasion I used the crust I shared yesterday and this filling from the awesome baking blog, Sally's Baking Recipes.  This is the second time I've followed this particular recipe, and it's been great both times. In the past when trying to fulfill my husband's wish for coconut cream pie, I've attempted to follow the recipe his mom gave me and it.....didn't go well.  This recipe, on the other hand, has well-written directions that are easy to follow. The coconut flavor is out of this world thanks to the addition of coconut milk, and the t...

 Let's talk about pie. Although I'm a pretty strong baker, I've never felt fully confident with my pie game.  The crust, in particular, has always stymied me a little bit. I always found it a little bit difficult to work with, either too crumbly or too soft. I recently found what I consider to be the best pie crust recipe I've ever tried. I got it from   " Ready, Set, Cook",  a cookbook by Dawn Perry.  Believe me when I say that thanks to this pie crust, I've leveled up my pie skills. I made up a batch of this lovely pie crust today in preparation for a coconut cream pie. The directions are simple and easy to follow, and the results haven't disappointed me yet. You get a pie crust that is easy to roll out and shape and bakes up flaky and flavorful.   I started with a crust that I had prepared yesterday and chilled overnight. As you can see in the following photos, it rolled out really nicely.    It was somewhat warm in my kitchen, so I opted for ...

 Hello, there, and welcome to the Culinary Canary! For my first ever post on my pretend blog, I'll talk a little bit about what I'm doing here and why. First off, I'm Erin.  I live in San Antonio with my wonderful family and a house full of cats. I'm really fortunate that my husband and I both love to cook, and we're teaching our sons what we know now.  So, we cook most of our meals at home. We like to explore new cuisines and techniques and try to keep things fresh. The reason I'm calling this a pretend blog is that I don't have the time, space, or even really the desire to spend hours creating and perfecting new recipes.  I can't imagine attempting the same recipe over and over again with minute variations, and I certainly can't imagine my family being okay with eating the same food on repeat while I perfect it.  None of this sounds remotely fun or fulfilling for me. What I like to do instead, is explore the nearly infinite number of re...