Reference Books

Super Baby Food

Ruth Yaron

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Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Family Health
Subjects -> Parenting & Families -> Parenting -> Child Care

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 617 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ruth Yaron cares deeply about what your baby is eating--so much so that her bestselling Super Baby Food is encyclopedic in both scope and size. Ounce for hefty ounce, this manual/cookbook/reference guide is worth its weight in formula, packed as it is with detailed information on homemade baby food, nutritional data, feeding schedules, cooking techniques, recipes, and other invaluable feeding tips. Yaron builds her compelling argument for making baby food at home on the simple premise that food profoundly impacts health, especially when an infant's developing digestive tract is involved. Parents will learn why babies should start out on rice porridge, bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes before advancing to more difficult-to-digest foods such as wheat cereals and milk products. While Yaron's passionate stance and vegetarian bias may turn off some parents, others will be grateful for her strict attention to potentially harmful additives and chemicals. No matter what their eating philosophy, most parents will appreciate the economy and surprising ease of making baby food at home. This is not gourmet cooking; all you have to do is learn how to boil water and operate a blender. For veggies, simply steam some vegetable chunks and blend. For baby porridge, just grind some whole grains in a blender and boil. It's that simple. And when you're feeding your baby, simple is best. --Sumi Hahn

The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition with 1,000 Recipes

Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: America's Test Kitchen Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $15.87

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 194 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With The New Best Recipe, we invite you into America's Test Kitchen where you will stand by our side as we try to develop the best macaroni and cheese, the best meatloaf, the best roast chicken, the best brownie, and nearly 1,000 more best recipes for all your favorite home-cooked foods.

Behind this book is a deeply felt understanding of how frustrating it can be to spend time planning, shopping and cooking only to turn out dishes that are mediocre at best. With The New Best Recipe in hand, you will have access to a wealth of practical information that will not only make you a better cook but a more confident one as well. In fact, as long as you follow our instructions, we guarantee that these recipes will work the first and every time.

We have also included 800 illustrations showing you the best way to do almost everything from how to carve a turkey and beat egg whites properly to how to frost a layer cake and set up your grill. Also, get valuable information on how and when to splurge on that expensive knife or baking pan and when the basic model will do just fine. We also explain the science of cooking since understanding the science of food can help anyone become a better cook. Complete with recipes ranging from appetizers to desserts, The New Best Recipe

The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book

Carla Emery

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Reference

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 107 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Epic Reference! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you are looking for a book that will cover all your bases, this is it. Obviously it can be supplemented with other specific books, but if you are looking for an excellent reference book to any question you've ever had, this is the book for you.

awesome book FOR LIFE! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

BUY THIS BOOK AND DITCH ALL THE REST. This book will tell you everything you ever need to know about homesteading, animals, cooking, canning, washing, planting, EVERYTHING... dont waste your time buying 10 different books on 10 different subjects... just buy this ONE and you are set!

Editorial Review:

For twenty years people have relied on these hundreds of recipes, instructions, and morsels of invaluable practical advice on all aspects of growing and preparing food. This definitive classic on food, gardening, and self-sufficient living is a complete resource for living off the land with over 800 pages of collected wisdom from country maven, Carla Emery--how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, catch a pig, make soap, work with bees and more. Encyclopedia of Country Living is so basic, so thorough, so reliable, it deserves a place in every home--whether in the country, the city, or somewhere in between.

Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Martha Stewart Living Magazine

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 By: Martha Stewart - Model: RH35146 Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $14.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 97 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

If you are a fan of Everyday Food magazine (and you should be), you will be wowed by Great Food Fast, a gorgeous full-color cookbook filled to bursting with recipes for fresh, flavorful food that is easy to prepare. Organized by season, Great Food Fast features simple recipes for year-round cooking, including no-cook pasta sauces, main-course soups, one-dish meals, and more. --Daphne Durham

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Great Food Fast Recipe Preview

Pan-fried Shrimp with Green Curry Cashew Sauce

Serves 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

You can purchase bottled Thai green curry sauce in most supermarkets, but this recipe proves how quick and easy it is to make your own. Refrigerate any leftover sauce, covered, for up to 3 days.

1 slice (1/4 inch thick) peeled fresh ginger
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons roasted unsalted cashews
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/4 cup packed cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon curry powder
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 In a food processor, pulse the ginger until finely chopped. Add the 3/4 cup cashews; process until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.
2 Add the yogurt, cilantro, sugar, and curry powder; season with salt. Process until incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Transfer to a serving bowl; sprinkle with the remaining cashews.
3 Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the shrimp; cook until opaque throughout, 2 to 3 minutes. Repeat with the remaining tablespoon oil and remaining shrimp. Serve the shrimp with the sauce.

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Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Isa Moskowitz

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Diets & Weight Loss -> Diets -> Vegan

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 236 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This girl does great things with seitan... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I'm a huge fan of all the recipe books that Isa Chandra Moskowitz has put out. Her cookbooks are the inspiration for me to return to being vegan after a few sad years of being just vegetarian. All the recipes are delicious, all of the recipes are creative, and all of the recipes have appealed to even my non-vegan friends (which we all know it's not easy to please them when it comes to eating & actually enjoying vegan food!).

What I am most impressed with is her use of seitan in recipes. Before her recipes books, I used tofu, oh, about 100% of the time!! I never bought seitan because it was on the more expensive side, and I was too intimidated to think about MAKING my own to use in recipes. But alot of the recipes in Vegan with a Vengeance (VWAV) that looked so awesome were recipes that call for seitan & so I jumped right in, made my own seitan (well, Isa's recipe) & I will say I am now obsessed with all things seitan. Btw, I use the basic seitan recipe from her Veganomicon cookbook for any recipes in VWAV that call for seitan; I find it to be a slightly better taste than the recipe she uses in VWAV (and not as high sodium too).

The recipes from VWAV that blew me away are the Seitan-Portobello Stroganoff, the Ethiopian Seitan and Peppers with Savory Crepes, and Cold Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Seitan. The other recipe that I am compelled to rave about is the Tofu Dill Salad. I cannot believe that I can now make a better Salad spread than what I used to pay lots of money for (for little quantity) at a health food store. The key to this recipe succeeding is that you HAVE to follow it exactly - don't skimp on draining the tofu for an hour, and don't skimp on refrigerating before eating. Isa has mastered her recipes - follow them & you'll be in vegan heaven!!!!!!!!

Editorial Review:

In Vegan with a Vengeance, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, host of the community access vegan cooking show The Post Punk Kitchen, brings the do-it-yourself, community-driven ethos of punk rock into the kitchen. Her cooking philosophy embraces being kind to animals (all recipes are completely animal-product free) and your wallet—while being creative and having fun in the process. She emphasizes staying clear of corporate brand-name foods, and says that cooking should be an innovative, experimental, and completely real experience. This one-of-a-kind cookbook offers 125 recipes for all meals of the day, from stuffed mushrooms to tofu pizza, gingerbread cupcakes to pasta with "alfreda sauce," and is full of tips and tricks on how to keep your diet vegan, inexpensive, and liberated.

Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2008 Edition (Windows on the World Complete Wine Course)

Kevin Zraly

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Windows on the World Complete Wine Course is simply the bestselling wine book in North America—it’s a classic. The 2007 edition alone has sold over 100,000 copies and reorders continue to pour in. Along with the expanded text that has made last year’s update so successful, the 2008 revision will include a special 16-page supplement on “How to Taste Wine,” taken directly from Kevin’s world-famous class. This new material will include more than 100 wines that Zraly selects for his students to taste, along with the tasting sheet they use for their evaluations. Organized by region, from simple to complex, his list begins with white wines from France, the U.S., and Germany; moves on to the red wines of Burgundy and the Rhône, Bordeaux, the U.S., Italy, Australia, Argentina, and Chile; and concludes with champagnes and ports. By following Kevin’s order, readers will experience the best wines and the wide diversity of taste, style, region, and country. It’s not only a comprehensive and bargain-priced hands-on wine education, but a superb catalog from which to start a wine cellar or find a bottle appropriate to any occasion. In addition, the label for each of the 101 wines is shown, along with commentary on how to read it, suggestions for alternative wines, and specific instructions on how to set up a tasting using Kevin’s techniques. This is the first time Kevin’s actual list has ever been offered in book form and it alone is worth the cover price of Windows on the World Complete Wine Course.
Of course, as always, this unequaled volume retains all the invaluable information, fabulous illustrations, and gorgeous styling of the previous editions—all presented in Zraly’s inimitable, irreverent style. This is the wine guide against which all others are judged.

The Silver Spoon

Phaidon Press

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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> History
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Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> European -> Italian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 153 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

First published in 1950 and revised over time, Italy's bestselling culinary "bible," Il Cucchiaio d'argento, is now available in English. The Silver Spoon boasts over 2,000 recipes and arrives in a handsome (and weighty) photo-illustrated edition complete with two ribbon markers. Its chapters make every menu stop from sauces and antipasti through cheese dishes and sweets, with many standout dishes like Genoese Pesto Minestrone, Eggplant and Ricotta Lasagna, Pork Shoulder with Prunes, and Chocolate and Pear Tart; the book also includes a number of "eccentricities," like sections on patty shells and bean sprouts, surely not an Italian dining staple. Meant to be inclusive, the book also offers a wide range of non-Italian, mostly French formulas, supplemented by a few "exotic" and other non-traditional entries.

Though the recipe range is vast, it must be said that American readers, anxious to cook this authentic fare, will encounter problems. Translating a cookbook from one language to another requires cultural recasting as well as word substitution, and in this the book's editors have been lax. The problems include non-idiomatic usages, for example, calling for "pans" when "pots" is needed; awkward conversions from the metric system, resulting in requirements like eleven ounces of zite; and the inclusion of ingredients like cavolo nero (Tuscan cabbage), tope (a Mediterranean fish), and pancetta copatta (ham-stuffed pancetta) that are unavailable here and for which no alternatives are suggested. In addition, the recipes themselves are often insufficiently specific or detailed--even seasoned bakers will pause before cake recipes that don't specify pan size--and can also lack yields. Space considerations have also meant printing recipes in single, one-column paragraphs, which can make place-finding while cooking difficult, and there are typos and other goofs (one recipe for four specifies six cups of sliced scallions; another requires that a marinade be "stirred frequently for five to twelve hours").

All this said, many cooks--casual and serious alike--as well as cookbook collectors, will want The Silver Spoon. It's an essential document of the Italian table and as such a classic. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a complete cookbook library without the book--a welcome evocation of a much-beloved repertoire by those who know it best. --Arthur Boehm

The New Food Lover's Companion

Sharon Tyler Herbst, Ron Herbst

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The brand-new fourth edition of this widely praised reference guide has been updated with new information for everyone, including lovers of ethnic foods and health food aficionados. The authors have added many all-new entries on exotic produce and other unusual ingredients. An earlier edition of The New Food Lover’s Companion was hailed by Bon Appétit magazine as “one of the best reference books we’ve seen, a must for every cook’s library.” This new edition has even more to offer! Among the myriad foods and culinary subjects defined and explained are cooking tools and techniques, meat cuts, breads, pastas, international foods, cheeses, eggs and omelets, herbs and spices, fruits and vegetables, candies and desserts, wines and cocktails, and literally everything else related to good food and enjoyable dining. Handy and helpful appendices cover a wide range of food-related topics. They include suggestions for substituting recipe ingredients, high-altitude baking adjustments, a microwave oven conversion chart, recommended safe cooking temperatures for various meats and fish, a guide to reading food package labels, seasoning suggestions to enhance favorite dishes, a food additives directory, and much more. The New Food Lover’s Companion is a reference guide—not a cookbook—but it includes hundreds of cooking tips plus an extensive bibliography of recommended cookbooks and other food-related literature. Here in one volume is an invaluable companion for cooks—and for everybody else who loves good food. More than 6,700 entries plus line art that shows retail cuts of lamb, pork, beef, and veal.

Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed

Shirley Corriher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 112 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Is it safe to let a biochemist into your kitchen? If it's Shirley Corriher, extend an open invitation. Her long-awaited book, Cookwise, is a unique combination of basic cooking know-how, excellent recipes--from apple pie to beurre blanc--and reference source. She makes the science of cooking entirely comprehensible, then livens it up with stories, such as when her first roast duck blew up because she overstuffed it and the fat from the bird caused it to expand beyond capacity. Food companies pay Corriher fancy fees to troubleshoot their recipes, and Cookwise puts her encyclopedic knowledge ever at your fingertips. If you want to know how to make the flakiest pastry, best-textured breads, delicious fruit desserts from fruit that's not fully ripe, impeccable sauces, and attractively bright cooked vegetables, this book contains the answers. "What this recipe shows" tells you up front what's useful in each of the book's 230-plus recipes. "At-a-glance," "What to do," and "Why" help you learn or troubleshoot in minutes. If eight steps to a perfect Juicy Roast Chicken are daunting, think of the delight of Rich Cappuccino Ice Cream in three steps or the seductive Secret Marquise in five.

The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition

Amazon Price: $41.60 List Price: $65.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $29.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Part of book missing 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

While I've found the book book very informative and helpful, pages 601-624 are missing. I guess I shouldn't complain though, since I have pages 625-648 twice. Has anyone else noticed this in their 3rd edition? I can't believe mine is the only copy where this mistake has occurred.

Editorial Review:

With more than 3,000 entries on every aspect of wine from vine pests to specific grapes, this hefty tome has something for both the seasoned connoisseur and novice alike. Edited by one of today's premier wine columnists, the work covers all aspects of wine, travelling back in time to early Greece to examine wine's role in Dionysian revels, then returning to today's wine centers to explore all aspects of wine appreciation. A full third of the book is dedicated to specific wines and wine-producing regions. All those technical terms you've heard and puzzled over at tastings are clearly explained, making this the perfect reference for newcomers to the world of oenology.

For the true connoisseur, The Oxford Companion offers detailed information on the history of the vintner's art, as well as a plethora of details on everything from climate effects on vine disease to the function of the second malolactic fermentation. If you buy only one wine book, this should be it.