Back in Business
Still struggling to find that chanukah, Christmas, Festivus or just regular old “I like you” gift? Here’s my three part series. Keep this in mind for birthdays and anniversaries too (my birthday is coming up in a little over two months, ahem). Part 1 is here, part 2 is here.
These are some books that I’ve acquired in the last few months, some of which I’ve written about previously:
All books in this section are worth having on your shelf for a variety of reasons.
A shortened version of Amazon’s description:
Eleven Madison Park is one of New York City’s most popular fine-dining establishments, and one of only a handful to receive four stars from the New York Times.
ELEVEN MADISON PARK: THE COOKBOOK is a sumptuous tribute to the unforgettable experience of dining in the restaurant, where the latest culinary techniques are married with classical French cuisine. The book features more than 125 sophisticated recipes, arranged by season, adapted for the home cook, and accompanied by stunning full-color photographs…. ELEVEN MADISON PARK is sure to be one of the most talked-about cookbooks of 2011.
Most of the recipes are involved but this is a beautiful book. It’s basically food porn. As the authors advise in the introduction to the book, “If you never cook, this is probably a book that should stay on your coffee table. Many recipes require a significant time commitment, a certain level of skill, a reasonably equipped kitchen and a healthy dose of persistence. That said, every recipe has been tested multiple times by both members of our team and by friends of the restaurant. If you follow them exactly, they will work, and you will be rewarded for you efforts.”
In other words, it’s a coffee table book.
The images in Eleven Madison Park seem to leap off the page. For example:
Eleven Madison Park is a hefty tome. At nearly 400 pages, it feels like it’s around 8lbs (though I haven’t lifted a weight in the gym in awhile so my sense of weight might be off) and is 12 inches tall, 11 inches wide. This is one with which to whack burglars (on TV they always use baseball bats). The recipes are organized by season and are intended to be cooked in the season in which they’re presented.
Description from Amazon
(I’d have shortened it, but it was too good to.)
Reviving the inspiring message of M. F. K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf— written in 1942 during wartime shortages—An Everlasting Meal shows that cooking is the path to better eating.
Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks.
In chapters about boiling water, cooking eggs and beans, and summoning respectable meals from empty cupboards, Tamar weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. Tamar shows how to make the most of everything you buy, demonstrating what the world’s great chefs know: that great meals rely on the bones and peels and ends of meals before them.
She explains how to smarten up simple food and gives advice for fixing dishes gone awry. She recommends turning to neglected onions, celery, and potatoes for inexpensive meals that taste full of fresh vegetables, and cooking meat and fish resourcefully.
By wresting cooking from doctrine and doldrums, Tamar encourages readers to begin from wherever they are, with whatever they have. An Everlasting Meal is elegant testimony to the value of cooking and an empowering, indispensable tool for eaters today.
This isn’t really a cookbook, though I’ve put it in the “cookbook” section of this article. Modeled on M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf and written in descriptive prose, Tamar Adler has produced a book about eating affordably, responsibly and well. Every chapter has an essay but not every chapter has a recipe. An Everlasting Meal is the exact opposite of Eleven Madison Park. Both are enjoyable for their own reasons and both add something to your bookshelf. Foreword by Alice Waters.
Partial description from Amazon:
In his more than sixty years as a chef, Jacques Pépin has earned a reputation as a champion of simplicity. His recipes are classics. They find the shortest, surest route to flavour, avoiding complicated techniques.
Now, in a book that celebrates his life in food, the world’s most famous cooking teacher winnows his favourite recipes from the thousands he has created, streamlining them even further.
Essential Pépin spans the many styles of Jacques’s cooking. Many of the recipes are globally inspired, from Mexico, across Europe, or the Far East.
In the accompanying searchable DVD, Jacques shines as a teacher, as he demonstrates all the techniques a cook needs to know. This truly is the essential Pépin.
Essential Pepin is beautiful and educational. As blogged about here. Essential Pepin is useful for cooks of all levels.
Euell Gibbons was one of the few people in this country to devote a considerable part of his life to the adventure of “living off the land.” His greatest pleasure was seeking out wild plants, which he made into delicious dishes. The plants he gathers and prepares in this book are widely available everywhere in North America. There are recipes for delicious vegetable and casserole dishes, breads, cakes, and twenty different pies. He also shows how to make numerous jellies, jams, teas, and wines, and how to sweeten them with wild honey or homemade maple syrup.
I blogged about Stalking the Wild Asparagus here. I had a library copy, returned it, and then bought a copy from Amazon. It was subsequently loaned to a friend who facetiously reprimanded me a couple weeks later because he’s reading it now and it’s not foraging season. I’m okay with that. He’ll just have to get his own copy. Or, if he steals mine, buy me one.
As blogged about here.
Description from Amazon:
If there is a frontier beyond organic, local, and seasonal, beyond farmers’ markets and sustainably raised meat, it surely includes hunting, fishing, and foraging your own food. A lifelong angler and forager who became a hunter late in life, Hank Shaw has chronicled his passion for hunting and gathering in his widely read blog, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, which has developed an avid following among outdoor people and foodies alike. Hank is dedicated to finding a place on the table for the myriad overlooked and underutilized wild foods that are there for the taking—if you know how to get them.
In Hunt, Gather, Cook, he shares his experiences both in the field and the kitchen, as well as his extensive knowledge of North America’s edible flora and fauna. With the fresh, clever prose that brings so many readers to his blog, Hank provides a user-friendly, food-oriented introduction to tracking down everything from sassafras to striped bass to snowshoe hares. He then provides innovative ways to prepare wild foods that go far beyond typical campfire cuisine: homemade root beer, cured wild boar loin, boneless tempura shad, Sardinian hare stew—even pasta made with handmade acorn flour.
I still haven’t given it a thorough read because library books and other books keep distracting me. I’m still reading my way through my liquor cabinet.
Partial description from Amazon
When school teacher Mrs. Q forgot her lunch one day, she had no idea she was about to embark on an odyssey to uncover the truth about public school lunches. Shocked by what her students were served, she resolved to eat school lunch for an entire year, chronicling her experience anonymously on a blog that received thousands of hits daily, and was lauded by such food activists as Mark Bittman, Jamie Oliver, and Marion Nestle. Here, Mrs. Q reveals her identity for the first time in an eye-opening account of school lunches in America. Along the way, she provides invaluable resources for parents and health advocates who wish to help reform school lunch, making this a must-read for anyone concerned about children’s health issues.
I read some of her blog in 2010. I may have commented once or twice. This book is a great first-person account of what a lot of people know is a flaw in school meals. It also points to the overall affects of food with little nutritional value that’s served to school children.
Partial description
From farmer Joel Salatin’s point of view, life in the 21st century just ain’t normal. In FOLKS, THIS AIN’T NORMAL, he discusses how far removed we are from the simple, sustainable joy that comes from living close to the land and the people we love. Salatin has many thoughts on what normal is and shares practical and philosophical ideas for changing our lives in small ways that have big impact.
Salatin understands what food should be: Wholesome, seasonal, raised naturally, procured locally, prepared lovingly, and eaten with a profound reverence for the circle of life. And his message doesn’t stop there. From child-rearing, to creating quality family time, to respecting the environment, Salatin writes with a wicked sense of humor and true storyteller’s knack for the revealing anecdote.
This is what I said about the book last month: “Humourous, astute (though with a bit of “kids these days!” ranting that may seem cantankerous to some) and inspiring with action items for change at the end of each chapter.”
Product Description
From the author of the bestselling Red, White and Drunk All Over, this book will amuse and enthrall with its character sketches of obsessive personalities, travel to lovely settings, mouth-watering descriptions, of food and wine, “hidden” wine education and neurotic humor. Standing firmly against wine snobbery by insisting that good wine doesn’t have to be expensive, award-winning wine writer Natalie MacLean travels the globe on an uncompromising quest to find fabulous wine bargains.
You can read my post about it here. I’m still reading my way through my liquor cabinet with stops to read library books. I think that I need to use the holiday break TV hiatus as my opportunity to read more.
Other gift guides online:
WISHING YOU A HEALTHY, HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON FULL OF GOOD BOOKS, PATIENCE AND LOVE.
