CMT Blog: Archive

Last night I tried three recipes from Trisha Yearwood's cookbook, Georgia Cooking From an Oklahoma Kitchen. I had invited one of my friends over for dinner, but since I've been traveling so much, I hardly had any ingredients on hand. In situations like that, I usually grab either Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (the book that taught me how to cook) or Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Italian (since I eat pasta almost every day). But I've heard Trisha talk about how she wrote this cookbook to be accessible, so I flipped through the pages and found a few recipes that seemed to go together.

The first was chicken tortilla soup, which she says her husband, Garth Brooks, always orders. Me too. It involved lots of cans (stock, beans, corn, cream of chicken soup), but I didn't have to search the aisles for anything except taco seasoning. Anyway, it was super easy, and I made it lighter by substituting 2 percent milk for the half-and-half, because I don't care for creamy soups and I'm trying to lose weight so I can run faster. I also tossed together a Mexican salad, which is essentially a layered bean/corn/cheese dip. I used most of my leftover ingredients from the soup, and the salad was irresistibly delicious. Neither one was too spicy, but both were still flavorful.

When this cookbook was brand new, we posted Trisha's recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and I haven't been able to get that photo out of my mind since. I don't usually like baking, but these cookies are possibly the easiest dessert I have ever made. And they go with everything. I think I'll have to dig into this cookbook a little more to see what else she's got in her repertoire.