Tag: cooking

Spice Up Your Life with Chile Peppers!

Posted on by Jamie

You’ve seen our Take It, Make It activities for children, but have you checked out our take home activity for adults? Every other month we have Spice Up Your Life packets available at both Aurora and Dillsboro. June’s packet includes three different kinds of chile pepper spices, recipes, and the history of the different spices! Once you pick up the packet, check out our online resource AtoZ Food America for more information about the spices and for more recipes to try! All you need is your library card number to sign into the website.

If you try one of the featured recipes, send a photo of your completed cuisine to stephanie@eapld.org, and we’ll show your creation on one of the library’s social media pages.

 

Spice Up Your Life!

Posted on by Peggy

This month we’re offering a “Take Home” activity for adults! Beginning April 1st, you can stop by the Dillsboro Public Library or the Aurora Public Library to pick up your “Spice Up Your Life” information. April’s featured spice is paprika, and you’ll receive a sample of three different types of paprika, along with recipes to try. Then read all about paprika (and check out more recipes) by using our online resource AtoZ Food America. You’ll just need your library card number to sign into the resource.

If you try one of the featured recipes, send a copy to stephanie@eapld.org, and we’ll show your creation on one of the library’s social media pages. You can also learn much more about the variety of spices in these three books which are available in the library’s print collection.

The Spice & Herb Bible by Ian Hemphill The Flavor of Spices by Fabienne Gambrelle The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

Baking with APLD

Posted on by Shelby

Listen, now is not the time to go on a diet. The holidays are staring us right in the face and the cold weather is making us layer up, so the time is right to experiment with all kinds of baking. The Aurora Public Library District can help! Instead of going out and buying tons of cookbooks you’ll only flip through once, check out up to ten cookbooks at a time for two weeks (+ two renewals on top of that = a potential month and a half of borrowing a book).

(Since I let you in on that little secret, you now have to bring me a sample of whatever it is you bake.)

The cookbooks begin on the nonfiction shelves with the call numbers 641. If you’re anything like me, you’ll easily get lost in the cookbooks, so it might be more fun for you to browse in person rather than going through our online catalog. But you can certainly do both! Personally, I can’t wait to check out American Cookie by Anne Byrn.

Maybe you’re looking to experiment with baking bread. We have all sorts of books with recipes for bakers of all levels.

 

Or maybe you want to start making more pies, tarts, or brownies. These might be some of the most underrated items of all the baked goods, in my opinion.

 

What about cakes? We have tons of titles on baking and decorating cakes to help you hone your skills. There are tons of new flavors to try too, instead of just plain white or chocolate cake. You can experiment with fillings and various flavor combinations to your heart’s content.

 

And we can’t forget about cookies! There plenty of titles for you to check out about all kinds of cookies, too, whether you’re looking for cake mix cookies, no-bake cookies, Christmas cookies, and more.

 

If you have little ones, we also have lots of books for baking and cooking with children. You’ll love spending time with children, making memories, and helping them learn new skills. Plus, with kids, anything goes, so that means you get to lick the batter, too! (I would have done that normally, but this isn’t about me.)

Maybe you’d rather browse online for recipes. Sign on to one of our public computers with your library card to scour the Internet to your heart’s content. If you need to print a recipe off, it’s only $.10 per black and white page or $1.00 per color page. You can also make copies directly from the books with our public copy machines.

It’s getting colder and the weather might start to get a little dicey, so you might not want to make the trip to the Library. We understand, and you’re in luck because you can also download baking titles digitally straight to your device from the Indiana Digital Download Center with OverDrive. Flip through digital recipe books and screenshot the images so you can have the recipes forever.

I want to help you hibernate this winter surrounded by baked goods and comfort food. So, Happy Reading! (And Eating!)

Cooking with Kids Around the World

Posted on by Shelby

September 13 is National Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day! Sometimes it can be hard to let go and let your little ones have free range anywhere, much less the kitchen where there are sharp knives, fire, and other dangerous items. The Aurora Public Library District has plenty of physical and digital copies of books to get your kids cooking with minimal supervision on your part!

Studies have shown that letting your kids help you out in the kitchen will make them more likely to eat what you put in front of them, including vegetables! So, if you do find yourself in the Library, here are some books you can check out for your kids to help make dishes from around the world:

If your family loves eating out but hates the bill afterward, try these cookbooks with your favorite ethnic recipes that you and your little chef can make right at home:

 

If you can’t stop in the library, be sure to check out a kid-friendly cookbook from OverDrive. You can prop your iPad, tablet, or smartphone up and cook straight from there! Let us know what you make!

Happy Eating! And Reading!

Holiday Cookbooks

Posted on by Shelby

The winter holidays are fast-approaching, and with them come the business of family gatherings, shopping, and parties. And of course, where there’s more than one person gathered, there are mountains and mountains of food waiting to be devoured. The Library’s collection of cookbooks can help you find that perfect recipe.

For Thanksgiving gatherings, the Aurora Public Library District has several cookbooks dedicated to the holiday. These books are filled with traditional recipes that your family will love (and come to expect!), as well as new twists on old classics. The Library also has a few Thanksgiving craft books, too, that your family will enjoy when they’ve eaten too much dinner and can’t move. Nancy Hathaway’s Thanksgiving Crafts and Cookbook is an excellent place to start.

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The Library has other holiday cookbooks to offer, too. Al Roker’s Hassle-Free Holiday Cookbook, Paula Deen Celebrates, Debbie Macomber’s Christmas Cookbook, and the Jewish Holiday Cookbook are just a few titles we have to offer. And if you’re looking for the perfect side dishes to go with your traditional main course, Choosing Sides by Tara Mataraza Desmond is a wonderful resource. We also have great cookbooks dedicated entirely to desserts, like Anita Prichard’s Complete Candy Cookbook and Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Desserts.

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The Aurora Public Library District has cookbooks specifically for entertaining guests in your own home as well as what to bring to parties, such as Bite by Bite, Relax, Company’s Coming!, Entertaining with Southern Living, and The Church Supper Cookbook. Get the kids involved, too; we have plenty of cookbooks with kid-friendly recipes, like I Can Cook, Cool Sweets & Treats to Eat, and the Better Homes and Gardens Step-By-Step Kids’ Cookbook. They’ll love helping you in the kitchen and you can make some great memories along the way.

better-homes-and-gardens

We also have several volumes of special dietary cookbooks on our shelves, like The Best Gluten-Free Family Cookbook, The Complete Step-By-Step Diabetic Cookbook, The American Heart Association Low-Salt Cookbook, and The Allergy Self-Help Cookbook. And if there’s a specific cookbook you’re looking for that we don’t have, we can always try to get it through Inter-Library Loan.

This time of year can be stressful enough without having to worry about cooking, so let the Aurora Public Library District help you. Stop in today with your questions, or visit the Indiana Digital Download Center for more cookbooks.

Happy cooking!