I just found a new cooking blog, run by a New Jerseyan. It's full of farmer's markets, and butter, and cream, and I need to cook everything in the 6-year backlog, immediately if not sooner.
Cooking blogs are a new favorite pastime. It's fascinating -- you get a bit of a story, a recipe, the comments from other foodie-types, and sometimes photos. After a few posts, you can usually figure out if the poster knows what they're doing and whether their culinary style meshes with yours. (Good litmus test: how much butter do they want you to add to basic pasta? If it's 6x your normal amount, move on.) Then, it's actually worth it to go out on a limb and trust the weirder recipes.
It's such a bizarre medium, though. (Well, so's blogging in general.) I know more about the dietary restrictions and preferences of these complete strangers than I do about some members of my family. (And I actually trust their opinions. Gasp.) Plus, each blogger has their own little niche side hobby that seems permanently meshed with the recipes.
This new blogger is an amateur photographer. In addition to photos of the recipes, she'll throw in envy shots of the pile of fresh veggies, semi-chopped herbs, and cooking utensils. Frankly, I'm kind of envious...even if I had the talent (no) or enough lighting in the kitchen to take a decent shot (also no), I am nowhere near organized enough to map out the photos required for a properly documented cooking experience. However, it's insanely helpful -- THIS is what a carmelized onion looks like, THIS is the thickness the sauce should be, THIS is the shade of green your spinach should turn. Why don't more cookbooks do that?
...Cannot waiiiiiiiit to get back to Dallas, dive headfirst into the (apparently large and impressive) farmer's market, and start cooking again. A month of no cooking? Eep! (Plus, I need to use those new, risque cookie cutters! :) )
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I can imagine why photos would be helpful; odds are that the reason you don't see them in more cookbooks have something to do with printing costs.
What's interesting to me about cookbooks is how different vocabularies develop to describe different stages (when you don't have pictures, this suddenly becomes important). German cookbooks use the word "glasig" for a certain stage of onion sauteing. Glasig translates roughly to "glassy" and describes onions that have started to turn slightly transparent and reflective after a few minutes in the pan.
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