The Chef’s Garden: A Modern Guide to Common and Unusual Vegetables — With Recipes lives up to its subtitle. It is a thorough discussion of “common and unusual vegetablesâ€, ranging from garlic flowers to carrots to ground cherries, “with recipes†that are slated for experienced chefs. With such a sweeping subject matter, it’s a hefty […]
I have a confession to make.
I write in my cookbooks. Shock. Horror. And you should too. No one is going to judge you for that. In fact, if for some reason your cookbook ends up being given to someone else, they’ll probably be delighted to see your notes. I know I always am when I find a used cookbook. Why? […]
[Book Review] The Householder’s Guide To
I stumbled upon The Householder’s Guide to the Universe through a mention in Organic Gardening. (What can I say? I read a lot.) This book, by Harriet Fasenfest, is a dense combination of memoir and manifesto, dotted here and there with observations about the kitchen and garden month-by-month, recipes, and a few useful organizational tips. […]
Poudre Douce and Poudre Fort
If you don’t do a lot of medieval cuisine, you’ve probably never heard of poudre fort and poudre douce — literally, strong powder and sweet powder. I was first introduced to the concept when I was doing SCA regularly, via a nifty little pair of books called Take A Thousand Eggs or More, by Cindy […]
Current Reading and Rosemary-Buttermilk ...
I make extensive use of my library system. Mostly, this is because if I bought every book I wanted to read, my house would be overflowing with books and I’d be broke!
This week’s library food-related selections are:
* Farm To Fork, Emeril Lagasse
* Why Italians Love to Talk About Food, Elena Kostioukovitch
* The Art of Eating In, Cathy Erway, of Not Eating Out in New York
This wasn’t initially supposed to be a book review post, but what the heck. Quickie reviews.
…. Now, on the subject of those scones. I had buttermilk in the fridge and an intense desire to bake last night, so …
Back to Wendell Berry
I wanted to tell you folks that I really think you should take a few hours and read Wendell Berry’s book, Bringing It To The Table. There are really good essays in there, and I want to point you in particular at a couple which I was moved by. The first examines how we have […]
Current Reading
Wendell Berry’s Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food. Only halfway through. Fantastic read so far, especially in how he relates how the industrial concept (bigger, better, faster, mechanized) doesn’t work when applied to human society itself. Recommended. On a related note, given that it got mentioned in Berry’s book, do they really […]
Kitchen Lit: Books I Can’t Live Without
Today’s post is brought to you by the inimitable W. Park Kerr and Norma Kerr, the founders of the El Paso Chile Company, and their book, The El Paso Chile Company Texas Border Cookbook, is a book I cannot live without. Now, it’s Texan, and the portions reflect the same. If you prefer portion sizes […]