Books Blog : Food

Thanksgiving

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:50:00 GMT

Thanksgiving is maybe one of our simpler holidays. We give thanks for what we have and we eat good food. The giving thanks part usually doesn't require a lot of preparation; maybe just a few minutes quiet consideration. The good food, on the other hand, can sometimes be a challenge. Last November, it seemed like a lot of people came to the library looking for Thanksgiving cookbooks, so I thought I'd highlight a few here this year.

Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well by Sam Sifton

Thanksgiving by Lou Seibert Pappas, with photographs by Lara Hata

How to Cook a Turkey and All the Other Trimmings by the editors of Fine Cooking

Betty Crocker Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook

Thanksgiving 101 by Rick Rodgers

Vegetarian Times Complete Thanksgiving Cookbook by the editors of Vegetarian Times

If you're looking for something beyond the food, try these titles:

The Thanksgiving Book: A Companion to the Holiday Covering Its History, Lore, Traditions, Foods and Symbols, Including Primary Sources, Poems, Prayers, Songs, Hymns, and Recipes, Supplemented by Chronology, Bibliography with Web Sites and Index by Laurie C. Hillstrom

Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday by James W. Baker

My Cooking Class Book Series

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:47:00 GMT

A new series of cookbooks has recently caught my attention. The My Cooking Class series includes Vegetable Basics, Sauce Basics, Chocolate Basics, Steaming Basics and Middle Eastern Basics. All the books have large color photographs to illustrate every recipe. I'm looking forward to spending some time with Vegetable Basics and Chocolate Basics, then maybe I'll try some more titles from the series.

Geeking Out in the Kitchen

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:05:00 GMT

I've always thought if you can read a recipe, you can cook, more or less. However, I've been told this simply isn't true and that there are actually very smart people who fail miserably in the kitchen. This past summer O'Reilly, a publisher I usually associate with software manuals, published Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks and Good Food by Jeff Potter. It is not just a cookbook. Yes, there are recipes aplenty but the book is more about cooking as a science, which might just be perfect for challenged cooks with scientific minds.

The book also features brief interviews with people like Adam Savage, from the television show Myth Busters.

Previously on the Books Blog: The Hungry Scientest Handbook

An Almost Overwhelming Selection of Yummy Cupcake Books

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:46:00 GMT

Cupcakes are for everyone! Who doesn't love cupcakes? They're fun, they're delicious and they can be easy to make. There are more than a dozen books devoted to cupcakes here at EVPL! Hello, Cupcake! and What's New Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson are good choices if you want to get fancy with the icing on top. Do you know someone who eats a vegan diet? Surprise them with cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. If you prefer to work with boxed cake mixes, Cupcakes From the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn and Betty Crocker Just Cupcakes are for you. Personally, I think Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella is one of the most promising of the batch, but you'll have to come to the library, check some out and see what you like best.

Halloween is Almost Here

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:16:00 GMT

Halloween is almost here and new books for Halloween have been arriving at the library over the past month. Here are the two that have me most excited:

Ghoulish Goodies by Sharon Bowers is a whole 150-page cookbook just for Halloween! Extreme Halloween by Tom Nardone covers a broader range of Halloween excitement while doing exactly what the subtitle says: making Halloween scary again!

You might also look at Tom Nardone's older books, Extreme Pumpkins and Extreme Pumkins II, as well as his Extreme Pumpkins website.

The Ripest Moments by Norbert Krapf

Bufkinite@evpl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:00 GMT

The Ripest Moments is a simple pleasure to read. While reading this memoir of growing up in the 40s and 50s in Jasper and rural Dubois County, Indiana, I found myself reminded over and over again of my own childhood in northern Indiana, and the cousins, aunts, and uncles we'd often visit in Ohio and West Virginia.

While this is primarily a book about place, and family, it's also a book about community, and the work ethic that built communities like Jasper - and like Evansville, for that matter - with materials and stock that, in the author's words, were "one generation removed from the farm, two or three generations removed from Germany, and a hundred years beyond the wilderness."

As the title suggests, there's quite a bit remembered about the importance of gardens, orchards, and farms in this book. Family garden plots were central to the survival of pre-suburban, working families. "Summers on the Farm," "The Rye Field," and "The Garden and the Strawberry Patch" are just a few of the more mouth-watering chapters.

If you were born & raised in southern Indiana, you'll find something familiar, and likely something warm, in this book. But even if you're a transplant, this book may speak to you. Quoting the author's preface: "I have always believed that any story set deeply in one time and place, if told well, speaks for other times, places, and people. To put it another way, a sense of time and place travels well. A life lived deeply anywhere resonates beyond the context of its specifics."

This one resonated with me.

The author's website.

Cooking Knowledge for College: Vegetarian Edition

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:27:00 GMT

When I decided to become a vegetarian in the fall of my third year at University of Southern Indiana, Carole Raymond's Student's Vegetarian Cookbook quickly became a favorite of mine. It isn't intimidating like a lot of the vegetarian cookbooks I'd looked at before it. Its recipes generally don't make big heaps of food that one person might have trouble eating on their own, which I find nice as well. If I'd had the brand new College Vegetarian Cooking: Feed Yourself and Your Friends by Jill & Megan Carle, back then, it would have had me pretty excited as well. In fact, it looks good enough I am excited! I'm looking forward to trying the enchilada recipe on page 88. Like its non-vegetarian counterpart I wrote about before, the recipes are organized into chapters such as "Just Like Mom Makes" and "Impressing Your Date". Another book you might look at is The Starving Students' Vegetarian Cookbook by Dede Hall, although I wasn't very impressed with it. If you've given up egg & dairy along with meat, check out Carole Raymond's other book, Student's Go Vegan Cookbook.

Cooking Knowledge for College

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:15:00 GMT

If you're ready to try cooking something more than Hamburger Helper, check out these books: College Cooking: Feed Yourself and Your Friends by Megan & Jill Carle, The Healthy College Cookbook by Alexandra Nimetz, Jason Stanley & Emeline Starr and The Everything College Cookbook: 300 Hassle-Free Recipes for Students on the Go by Rhonda Lauret Parkinson. All three cookbooks offer tips for those just getting started with cooking and lots of recipes to try. The one that looks most promising, though, is College Cooking. It has chapters like "Impressing Your Date", "Just Like Mom Makes" and "Avoiding the Freshman Fifteen". In addition to those chapters, College Cooking has sections with ideas for food for theme parties-- Toga Party, Cinco de Mayo, Tapas Party, Oktoberfest, & 80's Party.

Do You Love Tomatoes? I Love Tomatoes!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:30:00 GMT

So far, I have recieved tomatoes from three different gardens this year, which is great because I love tomatoes! They're beautiful and taste good with almost anything; one of my favorite, simple things to do is put them on a grilled cheese sandwich. Yum!

Last week, a new cookbook, The Too Many Tomatoes Cookbook by Brian Yarvin arrived at the library. I was amused to see a whole book devoted to one of my favorite garden fruits. As so often happens, curiosity got to me and soon I was looking to see if we had other tomato books. It turns out there are more than a dozen just waiting for tomato-loving cooks!

So, how do you like your tomatoes?

The Heirloom Tomato : From Garden to Table : Recipes, Portraits, and History of the World's Most Beautiful Fruit by Amy Goldman; photographs by Victor Schrager

Tomatoes and Mozzarella : 100 Ways to Enjoy This Tantalizing Twosome All Year Long by Hallie Harron and Shelley Sikora

The Great Tomato Book by Gary Ibsen with Joan Nielsen

Tomato Imperative! : From Fried Green Tomatoes to Summer's Ripe Bounty by Sharon Nimtz and Ruth Cousineau

Lee Bailey's Tomatoes by Lee Bailey

Cooking With Sundried Tomatoes by Lois Dribin and Denise Marina ; illustrated by Susan Ivankovich

My Favorite Baking Book

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:36:00 GMT

In January, I made a New Year's Resolution (even though I don't like New Year's Resolutions) to cook and bake more. I've used recipes from many sources but some of the best have been from Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine. I've made the banana bread on page 23 and also the variation with coconut and macadamia nuts on page 25 and both are quite tasty. The yellow cupcakes on page 343 will turn anyone who doubts the deliciousness of plain yellow cake into a believer. Oh, and the simple chocolate frosting for the cupcakes? It is quite possibly the easiest frosting to make and better yet, one of the most delicious I've ever had! On March 14th, Pi Day, I turned to page 178, the Pies & Tarts chapter, for guidance to make my very first pie, a yummy peach pie.

Baking Illustrated is part of the A Best Recipe Classic series of cookbooks. One of the really fun things about this series of cookbooks is that each recipe is preceded by a page or two describing how the authors came up with the final recipe. They discuss ingredients they tried in previous versions and why they felt the final product didn't benefit from them or what it is that an ingredient they kept in the final printed recipe brings to the mix.

Tell everyone about your favorite cookbook(s) below in the comments!

Additional Links:

Cook's Illustrated magazine

America's Test Kitchen

Love & Death

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:42:00 GMT

Sunday night I finished reading The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll. I still haven't figured out how I really feel about it. It's a little bit creepy, a little bit funny and a lot weird. It is a book that entertains, but also makes you think about some big things. It's a lot about love and how much we need it. Everything in the book changes constantly and at times I found it hard to keep track of what was happening, but that gave the book a nice momentum too. I can say with confidence that I enjoyed reading it and hope others will enjoy reading it too. To sum it up though... I don't think I can do that. Instead, I will tell you a little about the characters. They're a unique bunch.

Ben Gould loves to cook and talk about food, cares for his dog Pilot and is in love with German Landis. He had a bad fall and hit his head on a curb. He was scheduled to die that day, but he did not. Not-dying has complications of its own. German Landis is Ben Gould's (ex)girlfriend. She's an art teacher, loves Formula One racing, shares responsibility for Pilot and struggles to understand what Ben is going through. Pilot is a sort of stoic dog. His character is much rounder than most animals in works of fiction where the majority of characters are human. From the title, you know there is a ghost. Ling is Ben's ghost, even though he didn't die. Danielle Voyles is pulled into the mix because she too had an accident that was supposed to kill her but didn't. These are the main characters, but there are other interesting appearances by characters such as the Angel of Death (call him Stanley), some unique, protective creatures called verzes and others.

Have you read The Ghost in Love? What did you think of it? Have you read anything else by Jonathan Carroll?

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs

HRevvdon@evpl — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:05:00 GMT

Comfort Food (2008) by Kate Jacobs is a light book set in the world of a cable cooking channel. I listened to the audio version while on a road trip. That's a good format for this novel. There's not much to think about with this book, it is just good entertainment. Funny and ecclectic characters are jumbled together in predictable but funny situations. The main character is Gus - a middle aged widow with two grown daughters with their own problems as celebrity kids. Gus is thrown into a new cooking show format with Carmen, an ambitious Spanish ex-beauty queen who's main ambition is to be in the spotlight and own her own restaurant. The cooking assistant is a financial whiz millionaire who has given up his career, but not his money, to pursue his love of food and cooking. My favorite quirky sidekick minor character is Gus' next door neighbor - an ex-tennis star who has become reclusive since she was ostracized for throwing matches at her father's behest. All ends well, as you would expect.

This is a quick read and very entertaining, especially if you like watching the shows on the Food Channel.

Jacob's other books, Friday Night Knitting Club and its sequel Knit Two, have been very popular. I have not read them but if they are the same as Comfort Food, I am sure they are worth a listen.

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise - Ruth Reichl

HRevvdon@evpl — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:08:00 GMT

Daphne Durham (Amazon.com) says “Ruth Reichl is a wonderful memoirist--a funny, poignant, and candid storyteller whose books contain a happy mix of memories, recipes, and personal revelations.” This is a great description of Reichl's book Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (2006). Reichl was the New York Times food critic for several years, a coveted job considered to be the top of the profession.

The book is interspersed with her own recipes – usually very simple and delicious sounding. If I cooked I would certainly try one or two of them. The humor is in Reichl's equally delicious disguises in which she visits New York’s most famous restaurants to avoid being recognized. She loses herself in the characters she develops and quickly learns how differently she is treated dependent on the costume. She also learns much about herself and grows from the experience. She describes New York’s harsh restaurant reality with humor and personal observations that are at times touching. Actual published reviews often follow the stories in the book as well. The reviews are humerous and different than most restaurant reviews that I have read; they are not pretentious or condescending.

This book is a memoir that reads like a funny novel. I am anxious to read her other books. A great light read for everyone – foodie or not.

My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals

librarianinheels@evpl — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:18:00 GMT

I love food, and I am a sucker for a man who can cook. So when I heard Melanie Dunea being interviewed on NPR about her book My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and their Final Meals, I knew I needed to check it out, especially since the Introduction is written by Anthony Bourdain, one of my all-time favorite chefs and creator and star of the Travel Channel series No Reservations.

This is more of a coffee table book than I expected it to be - but it's still full of great interviews with great chefs like Anthony Bourdain (once again - a personal fave), Eric Ripert, Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pepin, and others. Dunea is a photographer, so the book includes a wonderful portrait of each chef, accompanied by a scripted set of questions about his or her last meal. Some of the answers given are surprisingly simple meals - others are sophisticated and complex. The portraits are also wonderful and each seems to perfectly fit the character and style of the chef being interviewed. The book also includes recipes for these final meals, if you are so industrious that you want to attempt to make some of them.

I really enjoyed sitting and looking through this book, and reading what some of these amazing chefs have to say about food, life, and love. My Last Supper would make a great Christmas gift for the food lover in your life, too!

The Hungry Scientist Handbook

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:54:00 GMT

The Hungry Scientist Handbook: Electronic Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami and Other DIY Projects For Techies, Tinkerers and Foodies by Patrick Buckley and Lily Binns

If you're a foodie and a techie, this is the book that will allow you to combine your hobbies for maximum enjoyment. Personally, I'm not really a foodie or a techie, but I wouldn't mind eating wonton wrappers folded like cranes and then fried, a 20-sided pecan pie or a birthday cake lit up with LEDs.