Does your library have Zinio? Have you checked it out already? Because if you haven’t, you’re missing out on a bounty of e-magazines!

(Or you could just subscribe via Zinio, but I’m a cheapskate frugal so I’m just borrowing)

Ah magazines. A great way to pass time at the doctor’s or dentist’s (I just say that my dentist’s waiting room has an excellent assortment). Before I had kids, and when I lived in Singapore, taking a flight meant buying a couple of magazines from the bookstores in Changi Airport. Magazines from the U.S. are easily available in larger Singapore bookstores but at a very steep price of more than S$10, about twice or more of the US newsstand price.

So when I moved to the US, I really wanted magazine subscriptions. Vogue! The Atlantic! Food and Wine! I don’t know about you, but magazines just seem to repeat themselves after a while and a year’s subscription often seems too long for me. Plus I hate that they take up so much space yet cannot bear to toss them out (although I eventually do). So I gave up on the subscriptions and just borrowed whatever the library had. Also not ideal as only back issues could be taken home and the latest issue had to remain at the library.

So a couple of years ago I discovered Zinio on my library’s website. The collection of e-magazines at that time was far less diverse than today, which includes magazines in Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Japanese. But there were e-magazines to download onto my nexus 7 that weren’t available in paper version at the library. Plus I didn’t have just one week to read them and return them! They stayed on my device until I was ready to delete them.

The food e-magazines that my library’s Zinio catalogue carries include:

Allrecipes
Bon Appetit
Clean Eating
Cook’s County
Cook’s Illustrated
EatingWell
Every Day with Rachael Ray
Food Network Magazine
Saveur
Taste of Home

And with Zinio I discovered some parenting magazines, lots more food magazines and fashion magazines that my library didn’t carry. And others that I never really bothered to take a look at, like Food Network magazine and the Rachael Ray magazine. I’m not very big on Food Network and Rachel Ray shows and was always a bit skeptical about her cooking abilities, having been less than impressed by one of her cookbooks I borrowed some years ago.

So I was surprised to find the magazines very readable and full of interesting ideas. One of my favourite sections of Food Network Magazine is when they do the 50 ways article. In March it was 50 ways to do meatballs, in April, 50 toasts! The May issue’s feature is cupcakes! I am so not a cupcake person but my 4yo had it in his cute little head of his to make “Mother’s Day chocolate cupcakes” together. I showed him the page and he was really excited to make it.

So since I’m not into cupcakes, I don’t really make them but this recipe was simple and I had all the ingredients! I was a bit concerned as the batter was very thin but it turned out to be a really moist chocolatey cupcake. The frosting was way too sweet for me even though I had reduced the sugar a little. I guess I’ll have to cut back more next time. Yes there will be a next time as I am so very tempted by their 50 cupcake ideas. Mojito cupcakes and stout cupcakes here I come!

Wee Reader sifts cocoa powder. The recipe doesn’t say to sift it but cocoa powder can be lumpy, or at least mine does.

 
Here he is stirring the cocoa powder into the warmed milk. 
  So I kind of messed up – I was attempting to pipe a pink and purple frosting. Ended up using a palette knife to just smudge it all together instead. But Wee Reader still said that he loved his purple cupcakes anyway.

Happy Mother’s Day!

What are your favourite food magazines?

Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, beer, wine, photographs