Mini Cookbook Library

Sponsored by News Ltd Food Month and Kidspot

I adore books. I always have and I always will. I love sitting down relaxing with a story and escaping on a new adventure. I have also always enjoyed cooking and building my cook book library has been a priority of mine lately. My dream cook book collection would include books from Jamie Oliver, Donna Hay, Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer and Kylie Kwong, to name a few.

So when I had the opportunity to add a few more cookbooks from these awesome chefs, to my collection I jumped at the chance! NEWS Limited is having a FOOD MONTH {May 8th ~ June 20th} and is celebrating by putting together a Mini Cookbook Collection for you to enjoy.

Here are some of the NEWS Limited books that now are part of my collection:

Each book is only $2 and has over 20 recipes in each mini book.

One of the things I ask myself when I buy a cook book is, 'How many of the actual recipes will I cook?'. Some recipes are just too difficult or expensive to adjust to a large family. So, I had to put some of these recipes in the Mini cook book collection to the test. To see if they would be recipes that I would actually make. 

The first recipe that I decided to make was from The Great Aussie Family cookbook. It looked super easy and tasty, Roast Chicken with Pancetta and Sage. Here are the ingredients needed:

A chicken for roasting (preferably an organic or free range chicken), thinly sliced pancetta (about 6 slices per chicken), sage leaves, 50g melted butter, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Here is how you make your chicken taste awesome:

Pierce the lemon a few times and then place inside the chicken with a slice of pancetta and some sage leaves. Lay your sage leaves on the top of the chicken and then completely cover with the remaining pancetta.

Brush the legs and wings of the chicken with the melted butter, sprinkle on some sea salt and season with cracked pepper.

Place your chicken in a heated oven in a large roasting tin for at least an hour or until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the flesh is pierced with a sharp knife. Leave to rest for about 10 minutes before  serving.

I used a large family sized chicken that already had some seasoning on it to add some extra taste and this recipe was super easy and the kids really liked it. Served with a salad or some vegetables it makes a great family dinner.

Now that I had the mail meal sorted, I of course had to try out a dessert recipe. Oh my! the choices were so awesome to chose from and I settled upon a lovely treat from the Grossi Florentino Secrets & Recipes mini cook book, White Chocolate Cheesecake.

Seriously, how could I go past it! This recipe is so easy to make I really hope that you will give it a try. Here are the ingredients needed:

160g white chocolate, 650g cream cheese (softened), 250g caster sugar, 3 eggs (lightly beaten), grated zest and juice of 1 orange, seeds from half a vanilla bean, 200g raspberries and icing sugar.

Here is how you make your awesome cheesecake:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Lightly grease a 5cm deep rectangular dish (about 28cmx21cm) and line it with greaseproof paper. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until smooth (I just melted it slowly in the microwave), combine the cream cheese and sugar, then slowly add the melted chocolate, eggs, orange zest and juice, and vanilla seeds.

Pour half the chocolate mixture into the baking dish. Cover with the raspberries and pour over the remaining mixture. Bake for 1 hour until just set.

Then allow to cool ~ the cake will become more stable and easier to cut. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm. Believe me, you will want to eat it warm and just so you know, it goes nicely with a little cream.

The finished product. A baked white chocolate cheesecake.

My first of several servings. Yummo!

I found that most of the recipes were the type I would cook and the ingredients are readily available for me to purchase. Making them a good purchase for my cook book collection. Now that I have you all hungry and drooling, go check out the site here, watch the gorgeous cherub who sounds exactly like Jamie Oliver and watch out for your free collectors case and $2 cookbooks in the mail. There are 15 different cook books to collect and if you collect them all you will have over 350 recipes. Love that deal!

Do you like collecting cookbooks???  Who is your favourite chef???