Hacker News Books

lol, I have to agree with SEO spam. I tried looking for a good pasta sauce recipe lately. I remembered something recommended by Pocket, which was amazing (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking), but it didn't even show up in the first few Google search pages for pasta. None of the results were even a variation of the superior recipes.

The top search result has 9 (!) ads, mentions the book, but butchers everything that makes the recipe good. It shows rave reviews and a rating of 4.8. It probably is better than what everyone's mom taught them, and better compared to a generic tin can sauce. But I think the old school algorithm of "best selling cookbook" does better.

Try looking for other heavily SEO-ed things and it's even more hopeless: weight loss, business advice, games.

My favorite thing: cooking. I have been the primary cook at home for 30 years but only in the past few years have I had time for anything more than what we can get on the table in 20 minutes after soccer practice.

Every once in while I get a new cookbook like "Voila! Effortless French Cookbook," "German Meals at Oma's", and "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" and then work my way through the recipes that look interesting. I have found a lot of recipes that take hours of preparation and cooking, but I have also found many that I love that I can get together in 20 minutes.

Spending some time learning how to cook is very relaxing, but it also is quite cost effective because now we very rarely go out to dinner. The best part is that the whole family actually looks forward to trying new meals together, so Friday nights have become what they should be: long hours gathered around the table talking and laughing, eating well and drinking wine by candle light.

I cherish every Friday night that the kids are home from university and appreciate even more the quiet nights that I share with my wife.