Holiday Cooking Made Simple

We consider our patients an extension of family and as such,
we love learning and sharing their many interests and talents. We recently
learned that Janne Taubman is the author of two cookbooks, and with the
holidays just around the corner we thought it might be nice to learn more from
a resident chef, before tackling the task of cooking this year’s Thanksgiving
feast. Janne’s cookbooks   offer at-home cooks some great recipes and
instruction. When we spoke with Janne about her books and holiday cooking this
is what she had to say:

AD: What inspired you
to write a cookbook? 

When we lived in San Diego years ago, my hairstylist
mentioned that she was hosting 17 of her family members from Phoenix for
Thanksgiving.  I remarked that I knew
that she didn’t cook much and asked if she was nervous. She replied that she had
plenty of time to practice.  Thanksgiving
was nine weeks away. Three weeks before Thanksgiving I was back at her salon
and she said, “I know you cook a lot, can you tell me how you make mashed
potatoes?”  I knew then she was in
trouble!  I offered to go to her house
soon and help her plan. When I arrived and looked in her pantry and found only
salt, pepper and garlic salt, dinner plates for 4 and a small set of cooking
pans, I knew she really needed my help. 
We sat down and planned her menu, and I wrote out the recipes and a timetable.
If I hadn’t, I knew she would be putting a frozen turkey in the oven.  After Thanksgiving, she thanked me and said,
“I don’t know what made me think I could pull that off without help. You ought
to write a cookbook for people like me.” 

For the next year, I took some notes when we entertained for
holidays and parties and DinnerOn Time: Holiday
and Special Occasion Cooking was born. 
I immediately started working on the second book, DinnerOnTime: Serving Hot Things Hot and Cold Things Cold, was
published in 2008.  Now that I’m retired,
I feel a third book is on the way. 

What kind of recipes
will we find in your books? 

Both cookbooks include a variety of down-home cooking
recipes, many of which came from my mother who taught all eight of her children
how to get a meal on the table.  The
thing that sets my holiday book apart from other cookbooks is the timeline I
provide with all the recipes and menu to help coordinate the preparation so
that the meal comes together at the same time. 
I also include a prepared shopping list to ensure that when you start
cooking you are not missing an ingredient needed for the recipe.  In my second book, I have a chapter of make-ahead
meals where you can spend an afternoon in the kitchen and end up with at least
10 dinners to store in the freezer. 
Another chapter focuses on entertaining and includes everything from a fancy
sit-down dinner to feeding a crowd for a football game. 

What are your some of
your favorite dishes to cook?

It’s tough to narrow it down to a few dishes. We have been
blessed to travel to Italy a number of times and I love real Italian food.  I like to experiment and try to recreate
those simple dishes at home.  Steak the
Italian Way, Tomatoes and Mozzarella au gratin and Onion Mushroom Risotto are a
few of my favorites.

Any special plans for
the Thanksgiving holiday? What will you be cooking?

I will actually use my own cookbook menu and timeline for Thanksgiving.  It really makes it easy on me to not have to
think about it.  The shopping list is
done and all I have to think about it what time we want to sit down to eat and look
at the timeline in the book.  We will
have our local family, friends and stragglers that don’t have family in town.
Some years, we have as few as 8 and other years as many as 24.  We have many blessings for which to be
thankful. 

If you could invite
any three people in the world to dinner, who would they be?  I would be hard pressed to choose 3 because
I would give anything to have my Mom and Dad and grandparents at our table
again.  I always miss them, but the holidays
especially shine a light on their absence from my life. 

How long have you
been a patient at Artistic Dental? 
My husband and I moved to Phoenix in 2004. After settling in, we looked
for a dentist that was on our plan and located near work.  Dr. Dougherty’s name came up and we decided
to give him a try.  We have been going to
him for more than 10 years now.  He is
the most progressive dentist I have known and everyone in the office is great
as well. Coming to the office feels like visiting old friends now.  

Where
can people purchase your cookbooks?