Voting Thread -- Cookbook of the Month February 2013

[blue room]

Good evening! Sometimes in the early evening (here it's just past 7 p.m.) I can't decide whether to have coffee or a drink. But I realized it doesn't matter because if I have coffee now I'll have to have some wine later to settle down, and if I have a drink now I'll have to have a cup of coffee later to wake up. A slave to chemicals after dinner!

This month's tallies were easy -- the two books that are far far ahead be these two:

Bistro Cooking at Home by Gordon Hamersly and

Burma: Rivers of Flavor by Naomi Duguid

The nominating thread can be seen here:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/885696
It contains discussion of the books and general information about this COTM group.
Everyone is now welcome to vote -- which book for fleeting February, folks?
Voting thread will stay open until 9 p.m. Sunday, January 20, 2013
Thank you all!

[blue room]

Done and done. This voting thread is closed, I‘ll put up an announcement thread shortly , which I’ll link to from here.

Thank you all!

Announcement thread can now be found here:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8871...

[kateq]

Burma

[alliegator]

Caps, please. I'm pulling for that one ;)

[dkennedy]

What do you think is with all the lower case votes this time around? Do you think people are voting on their cell phones? I only ask because I voted on mine this month and I had to redo it a trillion times because I kept forgetting to hit the capital button for each letter.

[kateq]

sorry--
BURMA

[LulusMom]

That is a very reasonable (and smart) guess. Or it could be new people? (if so, welcome!)

[blue room]

Please note it's the 20th, so voting for February 2013 COTM will end tonight --
9 p.m. Eastern Standard Timearooney sharp.

[dkennedy]

Thank you blue room, I'm very excited for February!

[DebHo]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME please!

[bonbon35]

Okeedokes, BISTRO COOKING!

[bonbon35]

Bistro Cooking works for me!

[LulusMom]

caps!

[blue room]

bonbon35, please put the book title in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS if you mean this as a vote. Thanks!

[DebHo]

Thanks, I think I missed that piece of advice too.

[pikawicca]

I should probably rescind my vote: Broke my foot last night, need surgery, and will not be cooking from whatever book is chosen.

[dkennedy]

Ouch, poor thing!

[Breadcrumbs]

Oh pika, I'm so sorry to hear this. Please take good care and get well soon.

[pikawicca]

Thanks, I will. And maybe will be able to coach Hubby into participating (although he hasn't cooked in the 35 years we've been married. He loves to eat, so I might succeed.)

[herby]

Pika, I am so sorry to hear about your misfortune - do take good care and let someone else cook for you!

[pikawicca]

Thanks, herby. Candy (from Home Cooking) has offered to supply meals, as have several of my chef friends. It's very frustrating, though.

[herby]

Frustrating and painful no doubt! You have good friends - allow yourself to be spoiled, you'll do it for them when they are in need :)

[geekmom]

Oh no, that sounds painful. I hope your healing is as quick and smooth as possible.

[blue room]

Aaagh -- bad news -- I'm so sorry!

Whoever cooks for you should cook whatever you want, any book on the shelf!

[alliegator]

Ooh, that's awful. So sorry to hear. Hope your surgery goes well, and you heal up quickly. Sounds like you'll be brought some good food to help that process along!

[Hadil100]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

[Berheenia]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

thanks Blue room!!

[ptrefler]

Bistro Cooking at Home

[blue room]

ptrefler, votes must be in CAPITAL LETTERS to count.
Thanks!

[dkennedy]

Ptrefier, hope you see this. Come back and put your vote in capitals so it will count!

[blue room]

I'm keeping an eye out for this poster! I also might be able to reach him/her through a different board if a ptrefler post appears elsewhere.
It's an awfully close vote so far, and I have no clue what I'd do to break a tie. Would hate to have half the place mad at me if I voted.
Of course my alter-ego (rue bloom) might vote :)

[Gio]

Rue Bloom... Love it. No, really:

[blue room]

Ha! Thank you for the lovely flowers, Gio. If I found the right google pic, they are "rue anemone" -- ? Sweet looking, and not unlike my favorite flower
the "poet's daffodil"
http://www.thebattery.org/plants/plan...
(smell like heaven.)

[Gio]

..... those sweet white flowers are Rue Anemone in bloom.

[L.Nightshade]

I think the thing about all caps is just to make it easy for the counter. Sometimes when people are talking about cookbooks, you really need the caps to tell which mentions are conversation, and which are the votes. I wouldn't discount a vote in lower case, if I was certain it was a vote. I think that happened only once for me, but it wasn't a tight race like this one.

[blue room]

I've thought of that, it's clearly a vote and not part of a discussion..
I suppose if it comes to that I could not ignore it in the end.

[L.Nightshade]

I agree. And that is what I would do if it came down to a tie. But, I would also not hate you if you had to cast a deciding vote and it went to the "other side."

[LulusMom]

I voted once when I was in your shoes and didn't feel a bit of guilt about it.

[JoanN]

Don't worry for a minute about the possibility of having to break a tie. Clearly there's a lot of enthusiasm for both these books and whichever one doesn't win this month will certainly win soon.

[Breadcrumbs]

Funny you should say that Joan because I was thinking about a past COTM nominee "One Big Table" that so many folks wanted to cook from but it was nominated shortly after it came out and I think that put a damper on things. Somehow that book dropped completely off the map. I ordered it (no surprise I know!!) on the basis of all the buzz but I haven't cooked a thing from it I don't think. I saw it on my shelf on the weekend and wondered what folks think about it now. Recipe reviews in EYB are mixed it seems.

[JoanN]

Over the years we COTM contributors have become enthusiastic about a book because one person speaks highly of it or the ad copy is unusually good. Then more people take a careful look and enthusiasm wanes. It may not be Quinnipiac poll worthy, but you have "One Big Table" and have never cooked a thing from it and I have "New York Cookbook" and never cooked a thing from it. Molly may yet have her day, but clearly whatever excitement was generated by the initial mention of the book just wasn't sustained.

[Breadcrumbs]

So true Joan. In this case, as you suggest, I wonder if it wasn't the ad copy that propelled this into the spotlight.

FWIW, looking at EYB it seems I've made 2 recipes from New York and we liked both. If memory serves MO didn't actually create the recipes in One Big Table, I think she just accumulated them. Perhaps that wasn't the greatest idea in the world. I don't know of her but if she had a reputation, I wonder if that book might have hurt it?

[blue room]

I just looked through the list of books that were *not* chosen, but made it to the voting, from the last 5 months --
Mozza
Food of Morocco (Wolfert)
The Book of Jewish Food (Roden)
Bistro Cooking at Home
Food from Plenty (Diana Henry)
Best Soups in the World
Thai Food
Burma

We can be pretty forgetful & fickle.

I'd love to do Molly O'Neill's New York Cookbook! Amazon tells me I bought it (new) in 2003 -- and now you can get it for a penny. I remember thinking how cool & urban, but never tried one recipe. Looking at it a little tonight, it seems worthwhile!

[Breadcrumbs]

Wow, that's a really interesting list blue room. Thanks for pulling it together. Some real heavy hitters there. I actually have all those books and would love to cook from any of them. I wonder if too much choice is a factor at times?

We may need to take another look at Molly too!

[jen kalb]

some of these will come back Morocco Thai and Burma (if it doesnt make it here) are specifically on my list. But there's time for all.

[Westminstress]

I'd like to see the Diana Henry come back too.

[JoanN]

She was a reporter/columnist for the NYTimes. And a damned good one. I used to enjoy her articles a great deal. (And in the useless trivia category, her brother was damned good right fielder for the NY Yankees during some of their rule-the-world years.)

[Breadcrumbs]

Love that Joan...all of it!

[The Dairy Queen]

I was one of the people who really wanted to cook from OBT when it was new (still own it, still love reading it, haven't cooked from it much but what's new there) but I think that OBT lost steam once people started cooking from it and reported back with results that were less than glowing.

~TDQ

[pluralofcow]

I'm intrigued by both, but with a big move coming up I'm in a strict de-accumulation phase. I already have BURMA so it gets my vote.

I'm hoping to find some recipes in there that will still be workable once I've moved to a place without Asian grocers.

[LJS]

BISTRO, please!

[nomadchowwoman]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME (which I have cooked from, quite successfully, and it strikes me as a cool-weather, comfort-food book), but if Burma wins, I'll happily take a crack at it as I do have it--and the food looks fabulous.

[Westminstress]

I've decided not to weigh in for now. Either way, I will be cooking from online recipes as I don't want to buy any new books at the moment (at least not without a thorough test drive first). Thanks Gio for pointing out that both books have lots of recipes available online, easily found through EYB!

[Westminstress]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME. After looking at recipes in EYB, both look great but I'm more in a bistro mood this time of year. I'd definitely be interested in Burma sometime soon though.

[geekmom]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

...think I'll put my name down for Burma at the library, though, just in case :-)

[dkennedy]

Great idea, geek mom. I just tried to find Burma at my library, in case the vote goes that way, but no copies available. Will have to wait and see if I am going to buy it. I am suppose to be on a moratorium.

[geekmom]

You might be able to ask them to bring it in - I've had pretty good luck with that, especially if I can point out that the book is very popular, or that the library has books by that author already.

[herby]

My library has 8 copies of Burma and I am #52 on the waiting list :( I am in moratorium too but there is a good chance that I'll buy Burma if it wins - these boards are oh, so seductive...

[LulusMom]

I just tried to put my name down for Burma at my library, in case it wins. Sad to say they don't have the book yet.

[Gio]

Just a little tip for those who are trying to make this very tough decision. Since I only own the bistro book I looked at the index of each book at the Eat Your Books site and could make a better comparison between the two. One doesn't have to be a member to read the indices....or any book for that matter. And, the plus is there are 30 or more recipes from the books to be found on line at EYB so I could see if one book suited me more than the other...

[JaneEYB]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

[angelsmom]

Thanks blue room......BISTRO COOKING AT HOME.

[JoanN]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

[Musie]

BURMA

[jpr54_1]

BURMA

[alliegator]

Thanks, blue room! BURMA

[pikawicca]

BURMA.

[JoanN]

You stuffing the ballot box, pika? You've already voted for Burma upthread.

[blue room]

As they say on the teevee, curb your enthusiam, pikawicca :)
I'll let you change your mind, but you can only vote for the same book once!

[pikawicca]

Oops! Got carried away.

[qianning]

and so far it is looking like a close one, too.

[Allegra_K]

BURMA.
Many Thanks!

[Gio]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

Well done as usual Blue Room!

[MelMM]

BURMA

[LulusMom]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME please, and thank you blue room!

[L.Nightshade]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

Tough decision, I'd be happy with Burma in February or in a future month, but I think BCaH is about due.

Brilliant job blue room; thanks so much!

[juliejulez]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME - already ordered it!

[JulesLP]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

[twyst]

BURMA

[pavlova]

BURMA, please! And thanks for all your hard work blue room!

[pagesinthesun]

BURMA

[BigSal]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME. Thank you blue room.

[delys77]

BURMA, thanks Blue Room

[Breadcrumbs]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME - thanks blue room!

[herby]

BURMA please!

[emily]

BURMA, but I like both.

[eperdu]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME

[pikawicca]

I have BURMA, so will vote for that.

[dkennedy]

BISTRO COOKING AT HOME