World's Best Cook Book

I found it. The world's best cook book (or at least the best one on my bookshelf):

Cooking with Vegetables and Fruits IN SEASON by Sarah Raven

The book takes you through the seasons by month, highlighting which fruits and veggies are at their prime when. Um - brilliant. I guess the downside is, if your recipe doesn't turn out, you can't blame it on your veggies being bad... another thing some people might view as a downside is, the author is clearly a dump and pour cook and writes her directions that way, so if you're looking for step by step and very specific instructions, you might be a little frustrated. But, as a fellow dump and pour cook, I'd like to focus on why this book rocks: 

- Beautiful pictures! Which, come on, everyone knows a cook book is really all about the pictures anyway. Daydreaming about what your meal COULD look like. It's like flipping through Glamour magazine - you can read all the articles you want, but really you're just looking at the models in the ads thinking, "this is what I COULD be if I read this article." I don't think anyone every really believes this, but I guess it's just our instinct that says we have to imagine it's true. I digress

- Awesomely unique recipes. I just tried one out on my brave husband and it turned out really good:

Orange Pasta (I know, right?)

8 Ounces Tagliatelle (aka linguine - I used bowtie pasta)

1/4 Cup Heavy Cream (how can anything not be good with this?)

1 garlic clove, crushed and peeled but left whole

Juice and grated zest of 1 orange

Grated zest of 1/2 lemon

Salt and Pepper

2 Tbsp Brandy (I left this out)

3 Tbsp Butter

5 Ounces Parmesan cheese, grated plus a little extra for garnishing

- Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until just al dente

- When it is cooking, heat the cream with the garlic and bring to a boil for a minute. Remove the garlic and add the orange and lemon zest, some salt and plenty of pepper, then remove the pan from the heat to allow the cream to steep in these flavors for about 10 minutes 

- Add the orange juice, brandy, butter, and Parmesan, and toss with the drained hot pasta

- Garnish with a little more Parmesan cheese and add salt and plenty of pepper. 

It was tasty and really really easy! Next time, I'm going to add some greens in there - maybe some asparagus and peas or something. mmm

I made a rhubarb tart from the book too, but we haven't tried it yet and I'd be lying if I said I was a great baker (refer to "dump and pour" title... doesn't work with baking so much), so we'll see how it works out!