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I know you’re wondering, so let’s get right to it: “B. T. C.” stands for “Be The Change,” and you know right away that the story, when you get to it, is gonna be a heartwarmer.
And so it is. The tale of the Little Grocery That Could – and several other small businesses that did – made it to the New York Times, which told a tale of rural revitalization in tiny Water Valley, Mississippi.
The story’s great, the design charming, the ethos both retro and sustainable. The recipes? Mixed bag.
Click here to read today’s review of ‘The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook’ in the Boston Globe. Hit the paywall? Click here for the PDF version of this week’s ‘B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocry Cookbook’ review.
On Cookbook Finder, my cookbook-rating app, you’ll find write-ups of 250+ of the latest cookbooks, and regular cookbook news. It’s the only up-to-the-minute cookbook app anywhere!
What, you say you’re already too much of a cookbook addict? Ah, but you see, Cookbook Finder will help you get control of your problem. Now you’ll only buy the good ones.
Available for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
Tandoori chicken. Falafel. Pad Thai. Gnocchi. Souvlaki. Goulash. Roghan josh. Empanadas. Pastitsio. Baklava. Gado gado.
It’s good to live in a melting pot, isn’t it? Practically everything we love to eat comes from somewhere else. After reaching these shores, it usually makes a stop for a while at somebody’s little first-generation restaurant, hanging out there for a few decades before the native-born have the nerve to try reproducing it in their home kitchens.
Cooking Light Global Kitchen may not pass the newness test, but it doesn’t have to. These are streamlined – but not dumbed-down – versions of global classics. And they do the most important thing a recipe can do when it comes to cuisines you’re not that familiar with: they work.
Click here to read today’s review of ‘Cooking Light Global Kitchen’ in the Boston Globe. Hit the paywall? Click here for the PDF version of this week’s ‘Cooking Light Global Kitchen’ review.
On Cookbook Finder, my cookbook-rating app, you’ll find write-ups of 250+ of the latest cookbooks, and regular cookbook news. It’s the only up-to-the-minute cookbook app anywhere!
What, you say you’re already too much of a cookbook addict? Ah, but you see, Cookbook Finder will help you get control of your problem. Now you’ll only buy the good ones.
Available for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
(This post originally appeared on Eat Your Books 06/10/14)
Every once in a while I like to catch up with what’s going on with kids’ cookbooks. I’ve looked at cookbooks for little kids (both story-based and picture-based) and cookbooks meant for teens. And, of course, family cookbooks, which tend to train a laserlike focus on Getting It Done on a Weeknight.
Yet for a long time, I wasn’t finding that these cookbooks played much of a role in my own family. Even though everyone here – age 54, 44, 13, or 8 – maintains a healthy obsession with food, my kids’ cookbooks seemed to hold no appeal for the kids themselves. I’d leave them out casually in common areas, or read them at storytime, but that’s as far as it went. The little one is good with flour and would join me in a heartbeat if she saw I was on a baking project. But she rarely followed even a stripped-down recipe. The big one avoided the kitchen entirely unless something snackable was out, or he had to put away the dishes.
I had little interest in pushing them to cook, knowing that when you’re a kid, being forced to do something by someone who’s an expert at it is a pretty good recipe for hating it. I decided to worry about other stuff, like car repairs and tuition and blackfly aphids on my broad beans.
But recently, something happened. The 13-year-old’s school year finished in the end of May. His school tablet computer was returned to the school’s tech department, and he suddenly found himself at home, faced with what I call the Gift of Boredom. He mooned around the house awhile, draping himself over furniture, pestering me while I worked, dipping in and out of a Game Of Thrones book.
I explained that he’d be making his own breakfast and lunch (cries of protest!) but that I’d help him if he needed me. He quickly got bored of his usual breakfast – eggs, scrambled flat and hard, with bacon – so I taught him mine, okonomiyaki. It’s just an egg batter plus whatever vegetables you have around, teased into a chunky pancake and glazed on one side. He started by mixing the flour and leavening and gradually progressed to chopping the vegetables, flipping the pancake (using a tart pan bottom), and cooking the sauce. His surprise and pride when he tasted his first okonomiyaki filled my heart – but I played it cool.
We ate at the kitchen table, where this season’s cookbooks were piled high. On top was The Soda Fountain, just sitting there waiting for a bored teen’s eyes to fall on it. He flipped through the pages, chewing thoughtfully. “These don’t look so hard.”
I sipped my coffee.
“Mom, why do they call it an egg cream?”
“Dunno, what does it say?”
Then, “Mom, do we have citric acid?” Then, “Mom, what are blanched almonds?”
Before I knew it, my son who hates to cook had occupied the kitchen like it was the Western Front in 1945. This was a week ago. Since then, nearly every day has started with okonomiyaki. Syrup after syrup has filled the fridge. Dinner often ends with an egg cream. Ants have come exploring for sugar spills and the dishwasher’s running twice a day.
Meanwhile, the 8-year-old suddenly remembered about Pretend Soup, which I bought a year ago. Post-Its were affixed. Ingredients were requested. And so my precious Me Time at 5:00 – that is, me with my cookbooks starting dinner while listening to the news and sipping my bourbon/ginger beer – got requisitioned for Projects. One day, a noodle pudding. The day before, a homemade lemon lime soda.
I make faces. I nag people to put away their stuff. I swear when I’m trying to fit things in the fridge and there’s no room next to the mason jars full of syrup. And both sets of measuring spoons are now always dirty when I want them. But secretly, I’m overjoyed. Even if it doesn’t last – even if they grow up and go through a ramen phase or a bagel phase or a nothing-but-kale-chips-from-the-store phase – I still have a feeling that a seed’s been planted, somehow or other.
Just don’t tell the kids.
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Today’s post is good for you and bad for you!
We’ve had a bounty of asparagus from the garden for the last 4 weeks. Little did I realize when we planted them, in two batches some 10 years and 4 years ago, that we’d be talking about one bunch a day right through spring. Finding new ways to prepare asparagus has taxed my ingenuity – but I’ve shared some of my favorites in today’s story. After it went to press, I discovered I also love asparagus lightly oiled and grilled…not that you even need a recipe for that.
Then, some of the most memorable testing in months happened a couple of weeks ago when I tackled Fried & True – an entire book’s worth of fried chicken recipes. My editor took pity on me and said I didn’t have to fry chicken all week, but I still did it twice (plus one oven-fry), and tested a whole bunch of high-octane sides for good measure. Many thanks to our good friends Mark, Mark, Cindy and Bella for helping us make our way through glistening heaps of poultry.
Click here to read today’s asparagus story and review of ‘Fried & True’ in the Boston Globe. Hit the paywall? Click here for the PDF version of asparagus story or PDF version of Fried & True review.
On Cookbook Finder, my cookbook-rating app, you’ll find write-ups of 250+ of the latest cookbooks, and regular cookbook news. It’s the only up-to-the-minute cookbook app anywhere!
What, you say you’re already too much of a cookbook addict? Ah, but you see, Cookbook Finder will help you get control of your problem. Now you’ll only buy the good ones.
Available for iPhone/iPad and Android devices.
Hooray for summer cookbooks!
After a year’s budget-induced hiatus, NPR is back with the summer roundup! 10 new and juicy, sun-kissed, wave-splashed cookbooks for the well-intentioned and the self-indulgent alike.
Click here for the official NPR summer cookbooks roundup.
Here’s a quick and dirty rundown in case you just want to check out the list:[Please note that I’m taking a leaf out of Stephen Colbert’s book this month to show solidarity with those publishers struggling with Amazon’s monopolistic recent moves: This summer roundup list features Powell’s affiliate links instead of Amazon links. Powell’s has excellent prices, fantastic customer service, and ethical business practices, so shop with confidence.]
Top 10 Summer Cookbooks of 2014
- Marinades
- The Soda Fountain
- Fried & True
- The Family Cooks
- Fruitful
- The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook
- Vegetarian for a New Generation
- The Better Bean Cookbook
- A Mouthful of Stars
- Simple Thai Food
And here’s the shortlist:
Because Kale Is Only the Beginning
Brassicas, by Laura Russell.
Memoir/Cookbook for Lovers of Whimsical Food Writing
Slices of Life, by Leah Eskin
Slightly Less Guilty Pleasures
Honey and Oats, by Jennifer Katzinger (Sasquatch)
Best Barbecue Book by a Former Baseball Star
The Nolan Ryan Beef & Barbecue Cookbook, by Nolan Ryan (Little, Brown)
Because Backyard Chickens Don’t Take a Vacation
Egg, by Michael Ruhlman (Little, Brown)
Most Empowering Buttercream Book Ever
Sensational Buttercream Decorating, by Carey Madden (Robert Rose)
Eye-popping Tropical Savories from Our Island Neighbors
Caribbean Potluck: Modern Recipes from Our Family Kitchen, by Michelle Rousseau and Suzanne Rousseau
Now that NPR’s Kitchen Window series has come to its bittersweet conclusion, I’ve found myself once again with a little more time for local food reporting. My first foray back on the beat took me an hour north to New Hampshire, where I spent the afternoon at a dairy farm owned by a family that’s lived and worked there for 200 years.
The realities of small farming being what they are, the family has diversified into cheese and small-batch ‘switchel’ vodka. Never heard of switchel? It’s a traditional farmhand drink also known as “haymaker’s punch” – and unique to New England.
Food reporting is a little more involved than cookbook reviewing, but I enjoyed learning about switchel – not to mention sampling it after – and seeing some less-well-known corners of the region. More food-beat-cop work to come.
Click here to read today’s Boggy Meadow Farm story in the Boston Globe. Hit the paywall? Click here for the PDF version.
cookbooks for dinner 