Cooking, Food & Wine Books - Page 14

Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader: Recipes from Mitford Cooks, Favorite Tales from Mitford Books (Mitford)

Jan Karon, Martha McIntosh

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Millions of Mitford fans around the world will agree—it’s easy to put on a pound or two reading a Mitford novel. Scene after scene of the bestselling series’ colorful characters enjoying tantalizing dishes can immediately start a craving. Then, before you know it, you’ve read several pages by the glow of the refrigerator lightbulb.

Packed with more than 150 recipes from the Mitford novels and from the author’s own recipe box, Jan Karon’s Mitford Cook-book & Kitchen Reader is loaded with tips, hints, jokes, culinary quotes, and delightful side-dish sidebars guaranteed to start a stomach rumbling. From Miss Sadie’s Apple Pie to Puny’s Cornbread, from Emma’s Pork Roast to Marge’s Sweet Tea with Peppermint, beloved characters come alive through their own favorite recipes. Here, too, are Karon’s reminiscences of her own family’s food traditions and—as dessert—four stories never before published in her books.

Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader is a charming companion to the Mitford series that will have readers clamoring to bring into their own kitchens the aromas and flavors that swirl within the little town with the big heart.

Olives and Oranges: Recipes and Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Beyond

Sara Jenkins, Mindy Fox

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

Editorial Review:

By the time she was a teenager, Sara Jenkins had lived all over the Mediterranean, from Italy and France to Spain, Lebanon, and Cyprus, in cosmopolitan cities and in rural hamlets. The family eventually put down roots in a ramshackle farmhouse in a small Tuscan village, where she learned how to make ragù and handmade pasta at the elbow of her Italian "grandmother" on the nearby farm. Meals came from the garden and the surrounding pastures, not the supermarket, and Jenkins grew up schooled in the tradition of cooking from what was on hand.

In Olives & Oranges, Jenkins shares the simple, striking dishes she learned at the source. Many, like Peppery Braised Short Ribs and Classic Tuscan Eggplant Parmesan, are favorites from childhood. Others, like Short Pasta with Mushrooms and Mint and Spicy Lemon–Chocolate Ganache Tart, have a contemporary sensibility. Jenkins shows how understanding the Mediterranean "language of flavor" can help you follow your instincts and make your own great meals based on what you have, too. You'll see how salt and lemon juice bring out the natural sugar in Carrot Salad with Lemon, Sea Salt, Parsley, and Olive Oil, and how to use the same technique with lime, salt, and a Moroccan condiment called harissa for a completely different effect in Tunisian Raw Turnip Salad.

The opening chapter introduces "small plates"— easy, versatile dishes that can preface a dinner or be grouped together for a small feast, from Roasted Red Peppers with Garlic and Celery Leaves to Chicken Liver Crostini. Soups are spontaneous and flexible, whether they are cooling purées like White Almond Gazpacho or sturdy full bowls like Rich Chicken Soup with Greens. The incomparable pastas encompass fast every-night selections (Spaghettini with Burst Cherry Tomatoes) to complex celebration affairs like Braised Rabbit Ragù and Homemade Lasagna.

Fish, poultry, and meat chapters feature rustic preparations: roasted scallops capped with a pale green butter seasoned with parsley and garlic; an impressively big-flavored chicken smeared with a mixture of bacon and herbs and baked in a salt crust; and a spectacular staple of Roman trattorias, veal cutlets wrapped in prosciutto and sage and crisp-fried. Desserts range from fresh Strawberries with Prosecco to a sumptuous Coffee Cardamom Crème Caramel to the rich but light Lemon Olive Oil Cake.

Each of the recipes in the book is identified as "Quick-Cook" or "Slow-Cook" so you can choose which fit best into your schedule. "Flavor Tips" throughout the book suggest ways to modify the dishes so you can use what's freshest and most available.

The daughter of the noted food authority Nancy Harmon Jenkins, SARA JENKINS has earned raves at all the New York restaurants where she has been the chef, including 50 Carmine, Il Buco, I Coppi, and Patio. Her newest venture, Porchetta, is located in New York City's East Village. This is her first book.

Back to Basics

Editors of Readers Digest

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Some good information, but unfocused (details) 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This illustrated book has been published chiefly for those who are new to country living, and/or who have an interest in self-sufficiency and in retrieving some of the "lost arts" which are appurtenant to traditional country life. The information is mostly introductory and rudimentary... a good start for most folks new to these areas of interest.

I have lived in the foothills of rural Appalachia for 55 years and have been involved in carrying out nearly all the construction, activities, arts, and crafts found within this text. Some of the text, (along with the accompanying drawings and photos), is quite good. The information is solid and one can get started along the right track; however, the work goes astray (the publishers sort of "threw in the kitchen sink"), into areas which are not particularly relevant to traditional country living. The editors simply went too far afield when they got into topics such as "Winter Sports," "Kayaking and Rafting," "Foraging for Flour and Emergency Rations," and so on. Most of these subjects are tagged on at the end, I felt just to make the book longer, (it's plenty long enough at 456 pages!)

Additionally, on topics such as "Emergency First Aid," "Fly Fishing" (and fish identification), and "Recipes," there are obligatory sections, none of which are all that useful since these are subjects, any one of which could fill volumes. Had these areas of specific interest been omitted, the more appropriate topics could have been somewhat expanded, such as "Barn Building" or "Preserving Meat and Fish".

There is a far superior (albeit, much older) version of this sort of book which was published by Reader's Digest some years ago: READER'S DIGEST BACK TO BASICS. I can highly recommend it and I've referred to my worn copy time after time.

While there is quite a great deal of quality information in this Skyhorse Publishing Third Edition (2008) for those seeking a new or improved life in the rural countryside, I still feel that the editors strayed off-base to the point that I cannot heartily recommend the work.

Editorial Review:

This how-to, user-friendly guide teaches self-sufficiency-covering all of life's essentials: shelter; alternative energy sources; growing and preserving food; home crafts; directions for making herbal remedies; and even home-grown entertainment.

Think Like a Chef

Tom Colicchio

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With Think Like a Chef, Tom Colicchio has created a new kind of cookbook. Rather than list a series of restaurant recipes, he uses simple steps to deconstruct a chef's creative process, making it easily available to any home cook.

He starts with techniques: What's roasting, for example, and how do you do it in the oven or on top of the stove? He also gets you comfortable with braising, sautéing, and making stocks and sauces. Next he introduces simple "ingredients" -- roasted tomatoes, say, or braised artichokes -- and tells you how to use them in a variety of ways. So those easy roasted tomatoes may be turned into anything from a vinaigrette to a caramelized tomato tart, with many delicious options in between.

In a section called Trilogies, Tom takes three ingredients and puts them together to make one dish that's quick and other dishes that are increasingly more involved. As Tom says, "Juxtaposed in interesting ways, these ingredients prove that the whole can be greater than the sum of their parts," and you'll agree once you've tasted the Ragout of Asparagus, Morels, and Ramps or the Baked Free-Form "Ravioli" -- both dishes made with the same trilogy of ingredients.

The final section of the books offers simple recipes for components -- from zucchini with lemon thyme to roasted endive with whole spices to boulangerie potatoes -- that can be used in endless combinations.

Written in Tom's warm and friendly voice and illustrated with glorious photographs of finished dishes, Think Like a Chef will bring out the master chef in all of us.


From the Hardcover edition.

Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet

Elaine Gloria Gottschall

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 211 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Answer to Our Prayers (Crohn's + J-Pouch story) 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I usually don't write reviews, but this book has literally changed the lives of so many people in my family, I thought I'd at least have to thank Elaine for this book publicly.

My mother has had Crohn's disease since she was a little girl, but Doctors didn't know what was wrong with her until later. She'd literally drink gallons of anti-acids and over time, began to think that everyone just went around having a stomach ache and other "bathroom" problems...that was normal to her.

After having children, she had severe flare-ups that left her skeletal and hospitalized, fighting for her life. She went to a Naturapathic Doctor and he got her on a raw diet (free of processed flours or sugars, no meat, dairy, eggs or grains whatsoever). This healed her for the time being. She was able to maintain herself and go back to her regular eating habits carefully through having the next 5 children, but the last one, along with financial troubles and a death in the family left her stress levels frazzled, and made her immunity susceptible to the Crohn's. She went down to 100 lbs for her 5'8 frame and was too weak to walk. She tried to go back the raw diet, but it didn't help. Nothing did.

The Doctors told her she didn't have Crohn's (even though she'd been diagnosed numerous times previously that she did), but Ulcerative Colitis and that cutting out her large intestine would solve the problem. She finally gave in and got the surgery and had a J-Pouch made from her small intestine to work as a small colon, but the surgeon made mistakes...he left a small hole which seeped toxic waste into her abdominal cavity causing excruciating pain. She convinced them that this was not normal, since not even the highest morphine doses were helping subdue all the pain. They fixed it, but she would regularly pass little titanium staples and once they found the reason behind another extremely painful gut pain: there was a staple that hadn't been closed all the way and was ripping her with its sharp edges. The doctors gave her a 1% to 2% solution of Nitroglycerin (yes, that Nitroglycerin: to make bombs) for the "butt burn" which made things worse and had her on numerous medications to mask all of her symptoms. Steroids, blood thinners, opiates, Azacol (the "cure all"), and dermatologist prescriptions for her Pyoderma gangrenosum: this is where you get deep ulcers on the skin of your legs that start as hard lumped hot-spots and then erupt (sorry, pretty graphic). All the while, her doctors and dietitians have told her to eat whatever she wanted. She had no reason not to trust them, but her doctor actually told her just recently: "You have exhausted my knowledge base." So, basically he'd give her whatever she wanted just to shut her up because he could no longer help her and her constant pains and burning.

Happy Ending: A friend gave me the title to this book, I researched it and flew home to give it a go. They were tiresome of the "Cure-alls" that everyone was giving them. They tried Acupuncture, Homeopathy and herbs...you name it, they tried it. Why would this be any different? Because of the science behind it!

The first day, she showed improvement and burning started to subside to the point that she has been on the diet for 3 weeks now and has stopped taking all of her medications, which I don't know if I would recommend because it was really hard for her and it might've been better to stay on the drugs and get better at the same time. But she couldn't tell if the diet was working or not past a certain point because she wasn't sure if the pain was being masked by the drugs. She was already trying to detox off Oxycontin when she started the SCD, but was sick of the withdrawals, so stopped cold turkey to get it out of her system.

Currently her burning and pain levels are at a "1" and "2", 10 being the worst pain, and is off all medications. She now has only a small amount of pain in a specific spot (the doctor says it looks like a bruise and offered to just kill the nerve endings there...of course we said no! Come on, is there any holistic view here at all folks?) and though she was had a hard time with energy, she is getting stronger day by day! I share her entire story in case someone with similar experiences is searching for the answer because we couldn't find anyone who had a J-Pouch AND Crohn's!

Perhaps someday she can transition into more raw foods for the concentration of energy and nutrients or at least juicing, since she has no large intestine, but for now, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" has saved her life along with my family's. She still has kids living at home that she can be a Mom to now: a 6 yr-old, a 10 yr-old, and a 16 yr-old. This has truly been a blessing.

The New Moosewood Cookbook (Mollie Katzen's Classic Cooking)

Mollie Katzen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 74 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Vegetarian? No. Healthy? No. 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 21 people found this review helpful.

First of all, I would like to say that I am not biased against this book because I am vegan. I was vegetarian for 2 years before going vegan, so that has nothing to do with it.
Having said that, I would like to express my opinions.
First, it offends me to no end that the author uses fish in the Puttanesca sauce. She also uses the term "strict, not even fish vegetarian", which is ignorant. Vegetarians DO NOT EAT FISH! By definition, vegetarianism is abstaining from eating the flesh of any animals or eating anything that results from the death of an animal. FISH IS MEAT! Period!
Secondly, I can't put my support behind any book claiming over and over to be healthful that includes dairy and eggs in almost every recipe. From a health standpoint, you can include eggs and dairy in a well balanced diet and still be okay. But not in the LARGE amounts used in these recipes.
Frankly, I detest this book.

Editorial Review:

Among the most influential cookbooks of our time, the Moosewood Cookbook is such a powerful symbol that the publishers were tempted not to tamper wi th it. But times have changed, and knowledge about the foods we eat and their nutritional value has increased. So, after many inquiries and requests, the author has revised many of her recipes to be lighter and healthier. Illustrated.

Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed

Shirley O. Corriher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 117 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Can you tell whether a recipe will work before you cook it? You can if you really know what's cooking.

In the long-awaited CookWise, food sleuth Shirley Corriher tells you how and why things happen in cooking. When you know how to estimate the right amount of baking powder, you can tell by looking at the recipe that the cake is overleavened and may fall. When you know that too little liquid for the amount of chocolate in a recipe can cause the chocolate to seize and become a solid grainy mass, you can spot chocolate truffle recipes that will be a disaster. And, in both cases, you know exactly how to "fix" the recipe. Knowing how ingredients work, individually and in combination, will not only make you more aware of the cooking process, but transform you into a confident and exceptional cook -- a cook who is in control.

CookWise is a different kind of cookbook. There are over 230 outstanding recipes -- from Snapper Fingers with Smoked Pepper Tartar Sauce to Chocolate Stonehenge Slabs with Cappuccino Mousse -- but here each recipe serves not only to please the palate but to demonstrate the roles of ingredients and techniques. A What This Recipe Shows section summarizes the special cooking points being demonstrated in each recipe. This little bit of science in everyday language indicates which steps or ingredients are vital and cannot be omitted without consequences.

Among the recipes you'll also find some surprises. Don't be afraid of a vinaigrette prepared without vinegar or a high-egg-white, crisp pâte â choux. Many of the concepts used here are Shirley's own. Try her method of sprinkling croissant or puff pastry dough with ice water before folding to keep it soft and easy to roll.

CookWise covers everything from the rise and fall of cakes, through unscrambling the powers of eggs and why red cabbage turns blue during cooking but red peppers don't, to the essential role of crystals in making fudge. Want to learn about what makes a crust flaky? Try the Big-Chunk Fresh Apple Pie in Flaky cheese Crust. Discover for yourself what brining does to poultry in Juicy Roast Chicken.

No matter what your cooking level, you'll find CookWise a revelation. Different people will use CookWise in different ways:

• Home cooks will value CookWise as a collection of extraordinarily good recipes.
• The busy chef can use CookWise as a reference book to look up and solve problems. Major headings are shown in the Contents and 42 At-a-Glance summary charts make problem solving quick and easy
• Beginning cooks can use CookWise as a howto book with easy-to-follow recipes that produce dishes looking and tasting like the work of an experienced chef.
• Food writers and test-kitchen chefs who are developing recipes can find the formulas and tips for successful recipes,
• Anyone who wants to improve a recipe can use CookWise as a guide. Here is how to make cakes moister, a pate A choux drier and crisper, a dish lighter or darker in color; how to make muffins peak better, cookies spread less, or a roast chicken juicier.
• Everyone who cooks needs to be able to spot bad recipes and save the time, money, and frustration that they cause. Many of the At-a-Glance charts point out specific problems.

CookWise is not only informative, it's engrossing, and many sections react like a mystery story. The knowledge you gain from its pages will transform you, too, into a food sleuth, an informed and assured cook who can track down why sauces curdle or why the muffins were dry -- a cook who will never prepare a failed recipe again!

What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea - Even Water - Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers

Andrew Dornenburg, Karen Page

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The most comprehensive guide to matching food and drink ever compiled, by the James Beard Award winning author team of Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, with practical advice from more than seventy of America’s leading pairing experts

In a great meal, what you drink is just as important as what you eat. This groundbreaking food and beverage pairing reference allows food lovers to learn to think like a sommelier, and to transform every meal - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - from ordinary to extraordinary.

Exceptional in its depth and scope - with over fifteen hundred entries - What to Drink with What You Eat is based on the collective wisdom of experts at dozens of America’s best restaurants, including Alinea, Babbo, Bern’s, Blue Hill, Chanterelle, Daniel, Emeril’s, French Laundry, Frontera Grill, Inn at Little Washington, Jean Georges, Masa’s, The Modern, Per Se, Rubicon, Tru, and Valentino.

You’ll find authoritative recommendations for stocking your cellar and kitchen with must-have beverages, from wines to waters. You’ll also learn what to drink with everything from French toast to Chinese food, and what to eat with everything from Pinot Noir to green tea, to create mouthwatering matches. Follow the authors three simple Rules to Remember when making a match - or just dive into the wide-ranging listings in chapters 5 and 6.

This incisive, hip writing team (Publisher’s Weekly) distills history, geography, science, expert technique, and original insight to create a remarkably user-friendly and engaging reference. Lavishly illustrated with gorgeous four-color photographs, What to Drink with What You Eat is an instant classic essential to every connoisseur’s bookshelf.

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As featured on The Martha Stewart Show and The Today Show and in People Magazine!

 

Hip. Cool. Fashion-forward. These aren’t adjectives you’d ordinarily think of applying to baked goods.

 

Think again. Not every baker wants to re-create Grandma’s pound cake or cherry pie. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito certainly didn’t, when they left their advertising careers behind, pooled their life savings, and opened their dream bakery, Baked, in Brooklyn, New York, a few years back. The visions that danced in their heads were of other, brand-new kinds of confections . . .

 

Things like a Malt Ball Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting, which captures the flavor of their favorite Whoppers candies (and ups the ante with a malted milk ball garnish). Things like spicy Chipotle Cheddar Biscuits that really wake up your taste buds at breakfast time. Things like a Sweet and Salty Cake created expressly for adults who are as salt-craving ?as they are sweet-toothed.

 

Which is not to say that Lewis and Poliafito sidestep tradition absolutely. Their Chocolate Pie (whose filling uses Ovaltine) pays loving homage to the classic roadside-diner dessert. Their Baked Brownies will wow even the most discriminating brownie connoisseur. And their Chocolate Chip Cookies? Words cannot describe. Whether trendsetting or tried-and-true, every idea in this book is freshly Baked.

Paula Deen Celebrates!: Best Dishes and Best Wishes for the Best Times of Your Life

Paula Deen

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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Beloved Food Network personality, restaurateur, and author Paula Deen loves a party, and in her latest book, Paula Deen Celebrates!, Paula shares with fans old and new how she celebrates a year's worth of holidays and special occasions. Now anyone can share in the down-home celebrations Paula, her husband, Michael, their kids, and extended family enjoy at their beautiful home in Savannah, Georgia.

What better way to start off the New Year than with a New Year's Eve Brunch with friends -- at midnight! This colorful celebration includes Crab and Spinach Casserole and Baked Tomatoes, and finishes with a quintessentially southern Hummingbird Cake and Irish Coffee. Welcome St. Patrick's Day, Savannah style, with Lamb Stew and Green Grits Pie. The centerpiece of an Easter dinner is a Peanut Butter-Glazed Ham, accompanied by Spinach-Swiss Casserole, Squash Boats, and flaky Butterhorns, with a bonus recipe for Ham Salad that makes eating leftovers a treat. Looking for a reason to party, south-of-the-border style? Try Paula's Cinco de Mayo Fiesta menu, with Macho Nachos and a cool and creamy Margarita Mousse. Paula honors the memory of her mother, and all the other women who have blessed her life, with a Mother's Day Tea of dainty sandwiches and irresistible cookies served on her best china, and fathers get their due with a Father's Day Boating Picnic. The Fourth of July is the perfect occasion for an Outdoor Grill Party and Low-Country Boil, and if what you want is a quiet evening at home, pop a movie in the DVD player and chow down on your choice of Paula's savory and sweet pizzas. Gather the family to watch some football and savor Jamie's Cheeseburger Pies, and give family and friends the gift of a sweet treat at the holidays with Paula's Icebox Fruitcake or Peppermint Bark. Her Christmas feast starts with Cranberry Holiday Brie and stars an impressive Standing Rib Roast, with Twice-Baked Potato Casserole. The show-stopping dessert is Paula's butter-laden Coconut Pound Cake glazed with coconut syrup and covered with icing and toasted coconut!

Paula brings you into her home, her kitchen, and her heart with family stories and photographs. This time, her husband, Michael, sons Jamie and Bobby, and brother, Bubba, chime in to share their memories, too. Decorating and serving ideas will inspire you to use what you have to carry through a theme to make the most informal meal special. And Paula shares her most private thoughts in a special feature -- Paula's Pearls of Wisdom -- which you'll find with each menu.

Paula Deen Celebrates! is Paula at her very southern best. Join her in making and sharing her best dishes for the best times of your life.