June is my first month cooking with the Cottage Cooking Club. The Cottage Cooking Club is an online cooking group created through Andrea at The Kitchen Lioness, Notes from a very small German Kitchen. The club includes varying food bloggers from different parts of the world and is dedicated to the cookbook, “River Cottage veg everyday!” whose author, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is a broadcaster, writer, and British celebrity known for his ‘uncompromising commitment’ to seasonal, ethically produced food.
As we cook through the book, Andrea designates a selection of ten choices to prepare throughout the upcoming month with each among the food bloggers making their picks and posting their featured Posts by the end of that current month.
Since the cookbook is printed in the UK, if you live in America, you will, as I did, likely wait for about three weeks for your book to arrive. So, I am currently pressed for Posting time having just received this really terrific cookbook only three days ago. Nevertheless, I’ve managed to prepare two among the choices that I am sharing today, The Frittata with summer veg and goat’s cheese admittedly had me on edge as my family loved it so much so that I literally had to hide a piece in order to have something to photograph before the months end deadline. Using cooked new red potatoes, and a veg combination of broccoli, fresh peas, haricots vert, and asparagus rounded out the flavors well topped with the goat’s cheese.
Another quick preparation were the Honey roasted cherry tomatoes. While roasting these juicy delights, I used a mortar and pestle to crush some garlic with sea salt before combining in olive oil and honey. Crusty sliced bread hosted the finished tomatoes then drizzled with the garlic and honey mixture. These make a tasty appetizer or serve well as part of an outside summer dinner with friends, the Frittata with summer veg and goat’s cheese, perhaps alongside a tray of salami, cheeses, olives complete the main course with ease.
So my first two choices made it worth the wait for this vegetable cookbook that provides an excellent selection of dishes using fresh produce. And far beyond the ho-hum if you know what I mean. Sometimes I look at vegetarian cookbooks and scratch my head confused that a third of the book is filled with desserts. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m into real food, and this is what I serve to both my family and friends.
River Cottage veg everyday! offers an extensive selection of real foods, easy to prepare and imaginative. The recipe format is clear alongside beautiful matted photographs. Now, one of the details of the club is that we cannot share the precise recipe, so you’ll have to use your cooking skills in the form of using a bit of this and that from among ingredients, or, better yet, click on the Amazon button to the right of the page on Spiced Peach Blog and order your book without delay. This is a book I guarantee will be one of your favorites, and this coming from an individual with a couple hundred cookbooks.
In moving forward, I’ll share the links on what some of the other bloggers are preparing in our club. It was Cheri from My Savory Spoon that first introduced me to the club. This month Cheri shares Pizza with new potatoes, rosemary, and blue cheese, and, Lettuce, green onion, and cheese tart. I look forward to the fun ahead.
Have you ever participated in some type of a cooking club? What did you think?
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