Tag Archives: Cookbook

The Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler

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Synopsis:
A beautifully written meditation on eating simply and well.

Review:
Oh, how I loved The Everlasting Meal! I will be referring to this book for countless years to come. Tamar Adler is a protege of Alice Waters an believes in eating locally and seasonally, a philosophy I very much agree with. She’s also a proponent of using everything, eating meat that has lived well, and that anything, no matter how humble, can make a delicious and nourishing meal. Her chapters touch on simple things like eggs, beans, and broth, and offer a foundation for a way of thinking about food that I found utterly inspiring. I can’t wait to hit the farmer’s market this week and select a bountiful assortment of vegetables to roast and nosh on all week, ideally topped with eggs and good Parmesan.

James Beard’s American Cookery by James Beard

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Synopsis:
Oh, yum.

Review:
James Beard’s American Cookery is my favorite kind of cookbook. Light on pictures, and heavy on techniques like “cut off a piece of the fat, melt it down, and combine it with butter.”

I love to cook, and traditional American home cooking is probably my favorite mode. I am so excited to add this book to my collection, so that I can have Bittman vs. Beard face-offs on a near-nightly basis. For example, I looked up “beets.” Both had me cook for about an hour, but Bittman gave me 400 and Beard gave me 325. I went with the 400 because the beets were a little large and because I didn’t have time to go longer than an hour. They came out PERFECT. But I’m left wondering–could they have been more perfect? I mean, Beard made sure to tell me not to scrub my beets because otherwise I could bruise the skin. Then all the juice would leak out, leaving me with a pulpy, tasteless mess. Bittman didn’t think I needed to know that seemingly crucial point. So next time I’ll try the lower temp and see what happens.

I’m so completely looking forward to spending the rest of my life with this book.

Many thanks to Hachette Book Group for the review copy.

Cooking For Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser

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Synopsis:
A food writer tells her own love story through vignettes of the wonderful meals she had during her courtship and engagement with a man who nearly lost her by putting Equal in his latte.

Review:
Amanda Hesser is so charming! Cooking for Mr. Latte was both romantic and mouthwatering, filled with funny, honest, and delightful anecdotes about food, dining, relationships, and love. Each chapter offers recipes that seem accessible and sound absolutely delicious. You bet I will be making her Kadjemoula (North African Lamb and Beef Stew) once the fall weather hits–I plan to adapt it to my slow cooker. Oh yum.

The Scandinavian Cookbook

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I don’t ordinary review cookbooks on my blog, though I am a pretty darn good cook. I love reading about food and trying new recipes, so when The Scandinavian Cookbook came up on Librarything‘s Early Reviewer program, I was hoping I’d score a copy. So glad that I did! This is a gorgeous cookbook with recipes that I’m dying to get cracking on.

The format of the cookbook takes you through a Scandinavian year, placing the emphasis on traditional dishes and seasonal cooking. The recipes are heavy on the seafood, with a few different kinds of fish cakes and a gorgeous looking gravlax. Each month features breakfast, a few savory dishes, an entree, and some luscious desserts. Accompanying the pictures are short paragraphs on culture in various parts of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and beautiful full-page pictures from all over the region. I’m so ready to move there–I’ve never been but I could get lost in these pictures.