the cook stack

As I put my 2026 cooking goals on pause, I am going through my overflowing cookbook shelves in my closet. Seriously, I need a better storage solution because 1) I am out of space and 2) these beauties need a more prominent place in my house. I began collecting cookbooks in 2009, and I now have over 100. I read these instead of fine literature or memoirs. They are grown-up picture books!

However, I admit that I have too many. I simply cannot cook from them all, and it is time to donate or sell a few to a more attentive home. To kickoff this process, because I must work systematically (it’s just who I am), I pulled out all cookbooks published in the year 2009. Here’s the picture of that stack. These books are *gulp* 17 years old now (wait, does this mean I am much, much older than 17 now too!?!?).

Anyway, while my darling baby boy took an epic two-and-a-half-hour nap and my older girls played with their beloved uncle, I flagged three recipes from each of these cookbooks. I decided that I am going to work my way through each flag before classifying the cookbook as a “keeper” or a “purger”. My criteria for saving the cookbook is simple – did we like the recipes?

I started tonight with the cookbook Stir by Barbara Lynch, which I bought used many, many years ago. Yes, I know there is serious controversy surrounding her. I would not eat at her restaurants or support her in the future, for the record. My three selections to make for Sunday dinner, all quite simple recipes, were:

1. Classic Shrimp Cocktail
2. Mixed Greens with Fresh Herbs
3. Lemony Breaded Chicken Cutlets

The Classic Shrimp Cocktail recipe intro has a sentiment I agree with, “for all my innovation with other dishes, I want my shrimp served with the traditional cocktail sauce.” Classics are classics for a reason. A homemade, classic cocktail sauce recipe to have in the back pocket is a must for someone who, like me, aspires to be an awesome home chef. Here is a brief break to share an imaginary conversation with my imaginary dinner party guests:

“Mmm, shrimp cocktail – what a great sauce! What bottle is this from?”

“Bottle!? I made it myself!” *proceeds to humble brag by listing the ingredients, blush furiously, and be on cloud nine for the remainder of the party*

Okay, daydream over. Back to the recipe!

So, I really did stray quite far from the shrimp portion of this recipe. Barbara has a poaching liquid and method she prepares the shrimp in, which are then peeled and deveined. Well, I intended to do this, but, in a sign from the universe, my wonderful grocery store was out of shell-on shrimp, and I bought the peeled, deveined, and *gasp!* cooked shrimp that were already chilled for shrimp cocktail! Also today, my baby did not take an epic nap, and the entire afternoon would have been needlessly stressful and overwhelming if I had been making that poaching liquid and preparing shrimp myself. Thank you, universe.

Therefore, I really only made the cocktail sauce. Maybe one day I’ll try a compare-and-contrast of store-prepped shrimp versus Barbara’s method, but, for now, store bought is, what I call, simply good enough. The cocktail sauce was also, simply good enough. It tasted like, well, cocktail sauce. Nothing more, nothing less. My husband even thanked me for the shrimp cocktail.

Recipe 1 out of 3: liked

The next two recipes, Mixed Greens with Fresh Herbs and Lemony Breaded Chicken Cutlets, I served together for dinner with rice. The Mixed Greens with Fresh Herbs is, like the Classic Shrimp Cocktail, a rather basic recipe of mixed greens, herbs, and a dressing containing sherry vinegar, olive oil, shallot, maple syrup, mustard, salt, and pepper. I made the dressing exactly as directed and a grocery store mixed greens blend with parsley for the herb. The salad is finished with a much needed sprinkling of (use your best French accent here): “fleur de sel”.

The most useful thing about this recipe are the tidbits in the intro and on the facing page regarding washing, drying, and dressing greens. Barbara convinced me to bust out our salad spinner and wash and dry a week’s worth of greens from the plastic grocery store container. We’ll see how the week plays out, but, like pre-washing fruit, I believe I will be much more inclined to eat my salad mix if it’s already clean, crisp, and dry. The salad spinner is what I believe Thomas Keller would call a “tool of refinement” – meaning an extra step a home cook can take for more restaurant-quality meals. I am often disappointed in my basic salads. They are soggy, instead of fresh and crisp. My husband described tonight’s salad, made with the mixed greens I dried in the spinner, as “subtly better”. I also followed Barbara’s advice about dressing the salad, “just enough to make the leaves shine”. I hope to adopt all of these tidbits going forward in my home chef salad-ing.

Recipe 2 out of 3: also liked

What’s that with the salad in the picture, you say? That is the lemony breaded chicken cutlet, rice, and a lemon wedge. The lemony breaded chicken cutlets were recipe #3 from Stir. This was by far the most complex recipe I selected from the book, but not at all hard in the grand scheme of things. Chicken breast meat is pounded into thin cutlets, lightly dredged in flour before being sautéed and covered in an herby, buttery breadcrumb mix. Then, the cutlets are baked while a sauce is prepared on the stove. I mostly followed this recipe as written, but I did broil the cutlets for the last minute in the oven to get the breadcrumbs really brown and crisp. I also served the chicken broth-based butter and lemon sauce on top of the rice. The sauce on top of the crispy chicken would make the chicken, well, not crispy. The sauce worked very well on the rice, with the crispy cutlet on the side. The cutlet really needed that extra squeeze of lemon and was delicious. I would make this meal again. My kids did not eat it, as usual, but my husband said “there is nothing wrong with it.” He is a critical man (love him for it), so that is an endorsement.

Recipe 3 out of 3: liked

That makes three! Ding, ding, ding, folks! This book is a keeper! Woohoo!

This was a fun little challenge. I think I would like to try another Sunday dinner from this book with Asparagus Soup with Saffron Croutons as a starter and the Butcher Shop Bolognese as the main course. I have had an absolutely inexplicable craving for asparagus soup lately, something I have eaten only once nine years ago, lakeside in Switzerland (oh wait, that might explain it). The Butcher Shop Bolognese was highly recommended to me on Reddit as a reason to keep this book, so I think that one is also worth a try. Stay tuned and thank you, dear reader, for making it this far!

Now to all, a good night! May your sweet babies sleep.