Kelly the Culinarian: Media meal: Top Secret Recipes

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Media meal: Top Secret Recipes

Now that I've started working in earnest, I'm paying far more attention to what I'm spending cash on. Funny how that works.

While I love treating myself to a restaurant meal, I knew paying $12 for a pile of pasta was ridiculous. Luckily, I've found this series of books that I highly recommend to help you recreate your favorite meals at home.

Both these books by Todd Wilbur give pointers on American classics. I checked out Top Secret Recipes from the library and it's quite a concise little book for recreating fast food and junk food favorites, such as Carl Jr.'s Star burger or the Taco Bell encherito, which they no longer have on the menu anyhow. Another great aspect of this first book is that he outlines the history of the eatery and the item, like the fact that the first Dairy Queen was right in Joliet, Ill.

The second book my family purchased a while back and we have gotten our money's worth. Top Secret Restaurant Recipe's Two gives pointers to creating favorites like Red Lobster's cheddar bay biscuits or the Olive Garden's fettuccine Alfredo. I've already tried a few of the recipes and they're pretty close to the classic, except much cheaper.

Wilbur does outline the costs extensively in the first book, pointing out that it may initially costs more to make a Big Mac at home, but once you have the basic materials at home, you can make it for about the same cost as eating at McDonalds, but you know where your burger came from.

These are great books worth checking out for some great copy cat recipes.

1 comment:

daphne said...

oh yeah! we all love a good recipe book! hehe