Lest you think that salad is only a side dish or starter, Patricia Wells sets the record straight in Salad as a Meal: Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season.

If you’d like to delve deeper into the subject of salads, this is an excellent book to help you on your way.

The recipes are well written and inspired, and while every recipe doesn’t have a photo, the ones that are included ooze freshness and make you want to start experimenting.

Contents include:

• appetizers and sides
• soup sides
• eggs, cheese, beans, grains, and pasta
• classics, with friends
• fish and shellfish
• poultry
• meat
• bread
• pantry
• dressings and sauces
• Patricia’s pantry
• equipment: items for a dream kitchen
• internet and food sources

Although the book is not arranged by season (boo), there really are entries which are applicable to the winter months. There are also lots of excellent tips for making some homemade items which can be kept on hand or in the refrigerator, such as marinated artichokes, nuts, and dressings. Many of these recipes are perfect for entertaining, and Wells also includes wine pairing suggestions.

If you’d like to get a better sense for the author’s tastes and writing style, visit her website at http://patriciawells.com/.

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1. Green Market Baking Book {Cookbook Review}
2. Reflections on Complete Without Kids {Book Review}
3. Real {Fast} Food {Book Review}

First, let me say that although this book is written for singles, it is FULL of information that is relevant for anyone who cooks, whether that’s for yourself or your family. I wish I had this book when I first started to learn how to cook.

And by “learn how to cook,” I don’t mean when I married my first husband and became a Pampered Chef consultant and cooked by adding a box of this to a can of that; I mean REAL cooking. The cooking I do now with DH.

One Bowl: Simple Healthy Recipes for One by Stephanie Bostic covers all the bases. Highlights include

• a handy equipment and pantry list
• guide to reading recipes
• cooking techniques for eggs
• chart for using herbs and spices
• chart for cooking various grains
• vegetable cooking times
• nutrition basics
• worksheets for eating more fruits and vegetables
• glossary of cooking terms
• and, of course, lots of yummy-sounding recipes!

You can view the table of contents and index at Amazon.com.

Win a copy of your own!

The author has offered to send a copy to one of my lucky readers. You can enter up to two times:

1. Comment below with the answer to “What is your favorite thing to put in a bowl?”
2. “Like” The Local Cook on FaceBook, then come back here and leave a SEPARATE comment below saying that you did/do.

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3. Saving the Seasons: A Review and Giveaway!

Last week on the drive from Idaho to Michigan (helping my sister move), I reviewed several books on my Nook. One of them was Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig. Driving on I-80 through America’s heartland was the perfect setting for reading about the Midwest’s cooking traditions and updated recipes.

From the publisher:

Although much of the nation is only beginning to embrace the farm-to-table movement, residents of the Midwest have been living off the bounty of the land since the pioneer days. Judith Fertig’s Heartland melds contemporary cooking with an authentic and appreciative approach to the land, presenting 150 recipes for farm-bounty fare with a modern twist. With a focus on ethnic food traditions as well as seasonal and local flavors of artisan producers, heirloom ingredients, and heritage meats, Heartland embraces the spirit and flavors of the modern farmhouse. Inside, offerings such as Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Blackberry Syrup, No-Knead Caraway Rye Bread, and Brew Pub Planked Cheeses comingle with recipes such as Wild Rice Soup with Flyover Duck Confit, Heartland Daube with White Cheddar Polenta, and Italian Fig Cookies.

In addition to the mouthwatering recipes and time-proven wisdom, Heartland includes an ample mix of humorous storytelling, literary and cooking references, and lush full-color landscape and food photography that showcases the heart of American cooking from the nation’s heartland.

Maybe because I’m from Michigan (part of the heartland), I really resonated with this book. I could identify with her stories, especially when she talked about ethnic influences. I hadn’t realized how much my own Dutch heritage (and that of the Dutch community in which I grew up) influenced how we ate. And the recipes, in spite of being modernized in terms of technique (for example, bacon-infused vodka), used ingredients with which I have been enjoying all my life. I bookmarked several of her recipes which might very well become staples, such as the smoked tomato sauce and no-knead bread variations.

The stories and photos also struck a chord. I’ve recently realized how much I appreciate the well-written narrative that comes in cookbooks such as these. As great as the recipes are, if all we really wanted was recipes we would just search the internet. The more inspired cookbooks provide an escape while we’re reading it, conjuring up images of rhubarb borders in the side yard and making pickles in the summer.

Most of all, I gained an appreciation for Midwestern cooking. Maybe because it’s so common that people don’t think of it as its own cuisine (at least I didn’t), but it is distinct and one which I’d like to explore more. While I love Indian and Thai and California influences, I would love to get back to my rural West Michigan roots and begin learning more about cuisine from the Heartland.

Bottom line? This is one of the best cookbooks I’ve read in a long, long time.

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or Amazon.com (can also view index and table of contents)

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This post shared at Monday Mania, Gratituesday

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For some reason, because DH and I don’t have kids, people think we have all this free time. While it’s true that our free time is truly our own, we both work 40+ hour workweeks. Throw in church, brew club meetings, blogger meetings, couch to 5K, covering local food events for my other blog, and spending time with friends and extended family and we have the same challenges time-wise that parents do. So I was super excited when Trina asked me to review Real {Fast} Food.

Time is probably the biggest barrier to eating real food, and this book helps immensely in that department. Sure, I’ve read about once a month cooking, freezer cooking, etc. etc. but it seems like reading those methods make me tired just thinking about it and it seems way too overwhelming to start. This book breaks things into concrete, individual steps that make you think, “oooh, that’s a good idea. I might actually try that.”

Here is the table of contents:

As you can see, there are tons of tips as well as recipes. For those of you who follow Nourishing Traditions, you’ll be happy to know that instructions for soaking and sprouting are included. For those of you who have no idea what that means, don’t worry–there is plenty that is more familiar too.

My only complaint (and not really a complaint, more of an observation) is that vegetables and eating seasonally aren’t adequately addressed. Through my blog I’ve tried to show how vegetables can be the basis of many quick meals, but in this book they are more of side items or salads. Perhaps I should write a sequel

Overall, this e-book is a great resource and an excellent value at only $8. For more information, click here to visit AllThatIsGood.

Disclosure: I was given a complimentary review copy. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

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When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a veterinarian; or a writer. I grew up to be neither, although I do love to write (and pursue it as a hobby) and I have two dogs and two cats. My husband and I agree that we probably spoil our “babies” way too much. Perhaps it’s because we’re childfree. Hal Herzog, author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight About Animals, might have some other theories.

When I first heard about Herzog’s book, I was intrigued. Anyone who has watched Food, Inc. knows that our food system treats animals horribly. Yet my husband feels something is missing if dinner doesn’t have meat in it. And while I could probably go vegetarian, I really doubt I could go vegan. So I try to buy food that’s been humanely raised and eat as little meat as my husband will let me get away with.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I received the book. I was a little worried that it might be a bit too academic, given Herzog’s background in psychology and anthrozoology. Luckily I found it very accessible.

Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat covers a lot of ground, as you can see from the various chapters:

• ANTHROZOOLOGY: The New Science of Human-Animal Interactions
• THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CUTE: Why We Think What We Think About Creatures That Don’t Think Like Us
• PET-O-PHILIA: Why Do Humans (and Only Humans) Love Pets?
• FRIENDS, FOES, AND FASHION STATEMENTS: The Human-Dog Relationship
• “PROM QUEEN KILLS FIRST DEER ON SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY”: Gender and the Human-Animal Relationship
• IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER: The Comparative Cruelty of Cockfights and Happy Meals
• DELICIOUS, DANGEROUS, DISGUSTING, AND DEAD: The Human-Meat Relationship
• THE MORAL STATUS OF MICE: The Use of Animals in Science
• THE CATS IN OUR HOUSES, THE COWS ON OUR PLATES: Are We All Hypocrites?
• THE CARNIVOROUS YAHOO WITHIN OURSELVES: Dealing with Moral Inconsistency

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There are so many posts swirling in my head. I thought I’d get the easy ones out of the way first. Here are brief reviews of everything I read. by the way, I loved my Nook for the trip to Uganda! Battery life was awesome (good thing) and it kept me entertained for hours and hours and hours. Here’s what I read:

Left to Tell: Discovering God in the Midst of the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza

Genocide memorial in Rwanda

I’m sure the guy sitting next to me on the plane thought I was crazy, because I was crying by the time I finished this. I vaguely remember the Rwandan holocaust of 1994. This book was great preparation for visiting some of the genocide memorials in Rwanda, but was also a great inspiration to me. If you struggle with forgiveness, this is a book that will really make you think about your faith and what it means to truly forgive. I’m not sure I’ll be able to convey how powerful the memorials were. The photo, right, was taken as one of them. There were thousands of Rwandans killed in this church. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, but you can make out the rack of skulls and femurs just inside the door. Also in the church were machetes from the perpetrators and clothes of the victims. It was truly horrifying.

Abyssinian Chronicles: A Novel by Moses Isegawa

This was a story that spanned a couple of generations of people living in Uganda. I read it in order to understand a bit of the history of the country which I’d be visiting. I hadn’t realized how much I’d absorbed until I was listening to our hosts talk about events that had happened, and I remembered reading about them in the book. One of our hosts said she thought the book was obscene; to some degree it’s true. There is sex and violence and it takes a dim view of the church. However, I thought it was helpful to understand how some people experienced life in Uganda.

The Hunt by Jan Neuharth

After all that heavy reading I decided to read something to take me away, and this was a freebie that I got with my Nook from Barnes & Noble. I wasn’t expecting much but it was quite entertaining. A rich single lawyer who is involved in the fox hunting scene becomes entangled in a murder mystery and is falsely accused. Who did it? The ending was only a slight surprise, but it was fun reading about horses, lifestyles of the rich tweedy set, and the woman who almost got away. Great beach read.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

This was another freebie and I discovered a cool feature of the Nook–it had lots of footnotes to explain some of the idioms of 1897 and you can just click on the symbol and are magically taken to the footnote reference, then can click “back” to return to the reading. Nice! The story was riveting, and much better than any of the movies about Dracula that I’ve seen. It’s written as a collection of diary entries and telegrams. You can find it free online since its copyright has expired.

One of the best deals for my Nook was 50 Classic Books: Volume 2. For only $2.99, it includes 50 full length classic books. All of these have expired copyrights so you should be able to find them for free online. As one of my traveling companions was a retired English teacher, it was fun to talk about them with him and some of the other readers in the group. Here are the ones I was able to read so far:

• The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells. I know, hard to believe I haven’t read this before. A fascinating study of what does it mean to be human vs. animal. Sort of reminiscent of Lord of the Flies. A man finds himself stranded on an island with animals that seem to be part human. What’s going on here?
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. One of the ladies mentioned that she thought this book was incredibly boring when she read it. The soon to be senior in high school had just read this for her English lit class. The movie version was available on demand on the airplane. I didn’t watch the movie, but I did make it through reading the book. There is a lot more description than we’re used to in today’s books, but I didn’t find it boring. I did think my goodness, Jane can’t get a break! I also thought it could have ended sooner than it did. I once heard a saying, “Inside every fat book there’s a skinny book dying to get out.” Definitely true here! Think Annie meets Anne of Green Gables meets Beauty and the Beast.
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. If you’ve watched Food, Inc. you’ll be amazed that things have not changed all that much since 1906. Read about the horrifying things that were in food back then and how the meat packing industry impacted Chicago. On top of the disgusting description of what was in canned meat, you are treated to a heart-wrenching story about an immigrant and his family and the hard times they experience. As in Jane Eyre, I thought this could have ended much sooner. It would have been more impactful had it ended at one of the two major deaths in the story, instead of dragging on into other industries and ending with a call to socialism.

 This post shared at Works for Me Wednesday

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A lot of people think I’m Mennonite, perhaps because I have had a study series on Simply in Season and Living More with Less on my blog (both published by the Mennonite Central Committee). While I love the Mennonites, I have to confess that I’m Christian Reformed (a branch of Presbyterianism). So I was glad when Renee DeGroot contacted me to review her book, Health for Godly Generations: A Reformational Perspective.

If you did not grow up learning Reformed theology as I did, you may find the exegesis a bit intimidating and you’ll have to slog your way through the first eight chapters, designed to give a biblical basis for why we should be concerned about health and the earth in the first place. You might be tempted, especially if you have no idea what the word “exegesis” means, to skip them–but I encourage you to persevere. I’m a bit more crunchy than most Christian folk, so I don’t need convincing, but you would be surprised at how many conservative Christians think that care for the earth and eating organically is New Age (which DeGroot addresses). It’s nice to have some themes on which to fall back.

Chapters include:

1. God Created All Things

2. God Restores the World

3. Wise Physical Stewardship

4. Laws for the Israelites

5. For Pleasure and Sustenance

6. God’s Sovereignty over Health

7. Humanism Addressed

8. Biblical Principles Applied

In these chapters, DeGroot uses Bible passages and the writings of Reformers such as Calvin and VanTil to explore how those themes impact how we think about food, health, and our food systems. She then uses those principles to evaluate the research that she has done in the area of health and diet, which is synthesized in the next part of the book. Drawing from the likes of Sally Fallon, Jordan Rubin, and Joel Salatin, she does an excellent job of pulling together a lot of “real food” thought.

Chapters in this section include:

9. A Culture of Endurance

10. Toward Multiple Generations

11. Meals for Family Culture

12. Some European Trends

13. Our Natural Environment

14. Surrounded by Pollution

15. The Plague of Regulations

16. Buying What We Believe

17. Definitions for Agriculture

18. Categories of American Diet

19. Macro-and Micronutrients

20. Battle for the Balance

21. Charts for Comparison (this was an especially helpful chapter)

22. Health-Conscious Shopping

23. Actions Beyond Food

24. Putting It into Practice

25. Questions to Ponder

26. Resources for Further Study

Appendix A: Creation versus Evolution

Appendix B: Resources for Further Study

Overall, this is an excellent resource for thinking through biblical implications of why we should eat a more natural diet. Even better news? Renee has agreed to send one of my readers a copy of their own!

Giveaway

To enter, simply comment below saying why you’d like to win this book. Winner will be chosen at random. Limited to the U.S. only. Entries must be received by Thursday, June 30, midnight EST. Good luck!

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From the introduction I identified with the author.

“I keep writing about eating wisely, but I can’t help noticing the irony: while I am beginning to eat more wisely myself, I still eat too much and weigh too much.”

The basic premise is that Dayna would like to learn more about the foods that she craves, in order to gain control over her eating of them. And so in part one she describes sausage, cheese, chocolate, olives, and squash. Sprinkled among the mouthwatering descriptions are flashbacks to her childhood and events that she associates with the foods.

In part two, she demystifies these foods by visiting farms, foraging, feasting, watching a slaughter, and more.

In part three, she realizes that knowing is not helping. So she fasts, explores the yoga of food, and decides to write down everything she eats. She loses weight.

I can’t help but wonder, should I go on a fast? Take up yoga? My husband and I recently re-committed to losing weight. I’m definitely going to start tracking my food. This book provides encouragement for following one’s own journey, which is probably why I liked it so much. It’s not prescriptive; it’s inspirational.

Note: I received a complimentary review copy. All opinions are my own.

Shop Indie Bookstores

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Once in awhile I’m contacted by publishers to see if I’ll review their books on my blog. Since I LOVE to read, I usually oblige. So when Tim Young contacted me to review his book The Accidental Farmers: An Urban Couple, A Rural Calling, and A Dream of Farming in Harmony with Nature, I didn’t think anything of it. Little did I know how thought-provoking the experience would be.

When I received the book, I noticed a blurb (I should mention, that’s a technical term I learned when I used to work for publishers–I’ve worked for three) from Sally Fallon Morrell. You know, the Nourishing Traditions guru. Huh.

As I was behind on my reviews, it sat in my pile until Tim contacted me again and asked if I’d had a chance to read it. Um no, but I did move it to the top of the pile. I did finally get the chance to crack it open a few weeks ago, and discovered that Tim was a former entrepreneur (hence the slightly pushy vibe I was getting from him, figures! But he’s from the south, so I’ll cut him some slack.)

I’ve been working on the business plan for the brewery that DH and I hope to open, so leisure reading time has been scarce. But occasionally I would sneak an hour here or there and began to read about “the urban couple with a rural calling.”

I should mention that these types of books fascinate me. You see, I grew up in the country. I think I’ve mentioned before that my Dad was a conventional potato & onion farmer before selling the family farm when he and his partner realized they could make more money by selling the land than by farming it. And with my first husband I married into a large dairy family–well, large for our area anyway–they milked around 1000 cows if I remember correctly. I lived across from the milking parlour for a few years, not an experience I’d like to repeat. Come to think of it, I’d rather not repeat that whole first marriage LOL. After the divorce, I moved to the city–far away from the farm–and then the suburbs, and married DH, who is not from the country and looks upon my entire pre-meeting him farm existence as a novelty.

All that to say, I always approach these kinds of city-slicker-turned-farmer books with amusement, since my experience has been the reverse. Instead of moving TO the country, I moved FROM the country, and only in recent years have I begun to get back to my rural roots by supporting local farmers.

You might recall that I reviewed The Blueberry Years and Reflections on the Dirty Life. The Accidental Farmers began much the same. They discovered all the bugs and smells that go along with the country; that conventional farmers aren’t bad people–just trapped on the treadmill that is industrial farming; and that country folk, despite having little by way of formal education, are real handy to have around. Oh, I also noted that just like the others, the city-slickers-turned-farmers do not have children. That’s 3 for 3 of these types of books I’ve read where there are no children in the picture. Interesting.

But then, the carnage began. See, Tim and his wife decided they’d like to farm the “natural” way, with no vet, letting the animals die as nature intended. Page after page of industrial breeds of pigs, cows, and chickens getting sick and dying  because they were not adapted to the environment and because they had had the nurturing bred out of them. Tim made a decent rational argument for why they were doing this, but at a gut level I really resented being subjected to the gory details. It didn’t seem fair to the animals to suddenly had to adapt to a “natural” setting, when they hadn’t been bred for it, suffering and dying painful deaths. When he shot the mink that had been killing his turkeys and described it as “nature in the form of his gun,” I thought dude, what a hypocrite, and shot off an email telling him that I’m sorry, but I cannot finish this book. It felt like I was reading the animal version of the Saw movies.

Tim was quick to point out that it was for my own good that I read the rest, lest I never know where our food comes from. Um, dude, I DO know where our food comes from. I informed him of my farming background and then he told me to at least read the final two chapters. So I did, and they’ve been scaling back, trying to educate the public through farm tours and homesteading workshops and their blog. Their animals have quit dying off and they are big proponents for organic, natural farming.

I’ve been trying to figure out why the book hit me so differently from the others. Maybe it was the style? He does get rather technical in places, and applies business logic to something that most get overly romantic about. Maybe it was that I wanted to think that animal suffering only happened on the conventional farms I was used to? Maybe I was guilty of judging them for letting their animals suffer? (despite my best efforts to put aside my judgy mcjudgerson pants).

In the end, I would recommend this book, if only because it will make you think–hard–about where our food comes from.

Learn more about the book at http://www.naturesharmonyfarm.com/accidental-farmers/, check it out at your library, or

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When I read about Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing, I knew I had to have it. So what does a blogger do? Contact the publisher for a review & giveaway copy!

Clarkson Potter politely obliged, and soon I was drooling over page and pages of beautiful photographs of food and produce. Then I realized the writing was actually really good; something I wanted to read about. She really does capture moments of cooking. For example, “Last day of school, middle of June. Kid-Churned Ice Cream.”

“I think of ‘cooking in the moment’ as focusing on one meal at a time–an icy, spicy cucumber soup on an August night, a glass of tangerine juice on a frosty morning, or soft, braised shortribs with horseradish on a gray fall day. Cooking and eating in the moment allows food in season to become a reason for celebration–a Friday-night dinner made entirely from the first CSA share in spring; a whole week of fresh-picked corn every day; a blue-moon autumn asparagus harvest; a rich stew made with the last few sweet potatoes of winter.” — from the Introduction.

I was prepared not to like the recipes. After all, so few books have stories, photos, AND good recipes. I noticed from the back that she’s a semi-famous chef, so I was prepared for the recipes to be things I’d never make. And then as I was skimming I saw the no-poach poached chicken. Then I saw a couple more recipes I’d actually make. Jackpot!

But don’t take my word for it — I just discovered Scribd, which has a cool preview tool:

Recipes from Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing

On to the Giveaway

To enter, simply comment below sharing one of your favorite cooking moments.

Entries will be accepted until Thursday, April 14, EST. Open to the U.S. only, sorry.

I received a complimentary review copy and all opinions are my own.

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