Cook Healthier Foods

I happen to be one of the millions of Americans who teeter on the verge of cholesterol numbers that concern my doctor. The American Heart Association's Healthy Fats, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook arrived just in time for my final round of "please let me try diet and exercise" rather than medication plea to my doctor.

I am so thrilled with this cookbook, I cannot tell you!

The subtitle, Delicious Recipes To Help Reduce Bad Fats and Lower Your Cholesterol is spot on. These are some delicious recipes! We had already lowered the amount of red meats in our diet a couple of years ago, so I was very happy to have new poultry and fish/seafood recipes to try. One key, it seems to me, that runs throughout the book is the addition of spices that you might not have used or considered before which take away any and all sense of "missing out" where the fat content has been reduced or eliminated. For example, the recipe for Crispy Oven-Fried Chicken adds a bit of ginger along with the paprika when seasoning your meat. (p. 144) This is brilliant and we both enjoyed this little addition immensely.

You are going to find recipes for any and all times of day, types of foods, and diets. Yes, there are vegetarian dishes included. There are also breads, breakfast, and desserts!

What I found myself turning to and really using were the Appendixes at the back of the book. These include helpful tips and strategies for healthy shopping, healthy cooking, healthy dining out, and the science behind all recommendations. There are even sections of risk factors for heart disease and warning signs of heart attacks and stroke. This could potentially be some life saving information!!

I have had the wonderful opportunity to review many cookbooks. I love cookbooks, cooking, and eating! Healthy Fats, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook will be my main go-to cookbook for the foreseeable future. (Even when using others, I will have it open to the tips on making other recipes healthier and more heart friendly!) Thank you to Blogging For Books for the review copy I received in exchange for this honest review. You have helped to change our lives for the better!

From the Publisher . . .

The classic cookbook for achieving heart health and wellbeing through a diet that is low in cholesterol and saturated fat--updated and revised with 200 recipes (including 50 new to this edition)

Lose the bad fats, but not the flavor.

Now in its fifth edition, American Heart Association Healthy Fats, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook provides the most up-to-date information on heart health and nutrition. Good-for-you food should also be satisfying, and the American Heart Association reveals how easy it is to replace the bad fats in your diet with healthier ones. This classic cookbook offers more than 200 tempting dishes, 50 of which are new, including:

· Fresh Basil and Kalamata Hummus · Triple-Pepper and White Bean Soup with Rotini · Taco Salad · Hearty Fish Chowder · Chicken Pot Pie with Mashed Potato Topping · Balsamic Braised Beef with Exotic Mushrooms · Grilled Pizza with Grilled Vegetables · Stovetop Scalloped Tomatoes · Puffed Pancake with Apple-Cranberry Sauce · Mango Brûlée with Pine Nuts


The perfect companion for today’s healthy cook, this indispensable collection of recipes proves you can eat deliciously and nutritiously.

About the Author . . .

The AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION is the nation’s premier authority on heart health. Its bestselling library of cookbooks and guides includes American Heart Association Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook, Fourth Edition; The New American Heart Association Cookbook, Seventh Edition; American Heart Association No-Fad Diet; American Heart Association Low-Salt Cookbook, Third Edition; American Heart Association Meals in Minutes Cookbook; American Heart Association Low-Calorie Cookbook; and American Heart Association Quick & Easy Cookbook.

The Longevity Kitchen

If you are interested in a healthy diet to help optimize your wellness and promote longevity, you are going to want to run out and pick up a copy of The Longevity Kitchen: Satisfying Big-Flavor Recipes Featuring the Top 16 Age-Busting Power Foods by Rebecca Katz.

The book features everything you would expect to find in a cookbook: delicious, well-written, and easy to follow recipes grouped in intuitive sections (“Life-Enhancing Soups and Broths,” “Vital Vegetables,” “Protein-Building Foods,” etc.), beautiful, full-page color photographs of scrumptious dishes, nutritional information for each recipe, notes and tips to help ensure your success, and an extensive resource directory to help those of us in less urban areas acquire some ingredients and supplies that may not be available in our area.

What is unique to Kates Longevity Kitchen is the first three chapters of the book. There Katz walks readers through a fascinating tour of the body’s various systems such as bones & muscles; the immune system; the gut, liver, and kidneys; the respiratory system; etc. She explains how each system is designed to work and the fuel needed to help it do so. In chapter two, Katz discusses how the foods we eat can play either a harmful or healing role in our bodies. She provides readers with an extensive list of nutritious, healing foods, detailing the benefits of each. I found this both fascinating and enlightening! Finally, Katz offers readers some words of wisdom in making the most of the book. I found her list of questions regarding discovering your culinary GPS thought-provoking and a bit unnerving in places which highlighted some of my poor habits!

The Longevity Kitchen will be making a permanent home on my counter as it becomes my go-to standard in cooking for my family in the days ahead. I’d like to thank Blogging For Books for the review copy I received in exchange for this review.

From the Publisher . . .

A collection of 125 delicious whole-foods recipes showcasing 16 antioxidant-rich power foods, developed by wellness authority Rebecca Katz to combat and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, inflammation, arthritis, and other conditions that plague American adults, enabling readers to live longer, healthier lives.


In this collection of more than 100 recipes that combine smart nutrition and superb flavor, culinary nutrition pioneer Rebecca Katz highlights the top sixteen foods proven to fight the most common chronic conditions. Katz draws on the latest scientific research to explain how super foods such as asparagus, basil, coffee, dark chocolate, kale, olive oil, sweet potatoes, and wild salmon can build immunity, lower cholesterol, enhance memory, strengthen the heart, and reduce your chances of developing diabetes and other diseases.

This practical, flavor-packed guide presents the most effective—and delicious—ways to use food to improve the performance of every system in the body. Katz explains the health advantages of each main ingredient, and includes menu plans to address specific symptoms and detailed nutritional information for each recipe.

Easy-to-find ingredients are incorporated into a powerful arsenal of tantalizing recipes, including:
• Roasted Asparagus Salad with Arugula and Hazelnuts
• Costa Rican Black Bean Soup with Sweet Potato
• Black Cod with Miso-Ginger Glaze
• Herby Turkey Sliders
• Thyme Onion Muffins
• Yogurt Berry Brûlée with Almond Brittle

Based on the most up-to-date nutritional research, The Longevity Kitchen helps you feed your family well and live a long and vibrant life.

About the Author . . .

As the senior chef-in-residence and nutritional educator at one of the country’s leading cancer wellness centers, REBECCA KATZ, MS, is the culinary link bringing together physicians and patients with a common goal: eating well to maximize cancer treatments, minimize side effects, and improve outcomes. She is the founder of the Inner Cook, a Bay Area culinary practice that specializes in meeting the specific nutritional and appetite needs of cancer patients, and a senior chef at Commonweal Cancer Help Program in Marin County, California. Katz has been a guest chef and lecturer at top academic medical centers throughout the country, including the annual Food As Medicine conference.

Two Titles For Your Consideration - Tacos & A Mystery!

BOOK ONE

I believe I have never eaten a "real" taco.

I'm not easily intimidated by cooking/food books, however, Alex Stupak's Tacos: Recipes and Provocations, left me quivering. Not only did I discern a visceral sense that I would never be able to measure up in the taco making realm while reading Stupak's book, I also sensed a longing for said "real" taco that may never be fulfilled. All in all, I felt a bit empty.

The book is lovely to look at and inspiring in its attempt to familiarize us gringos with the foods that are so much more familiar to those living closer to the southern border and beyond it in foreign lands. Although my part of the country has some immigrants from Mexico and points south of there, most people in my immediate area equate Mexican food, and tacos, with the national chains. For us tortillas come in "shelf stable" packages that last forever, and salsa comes in jars or packets.

Thus the overwhelm I felt when Stupak writes, "There is absolutely no substitute for a fresh, homemade tortilla, and suggesting any kind of store-bought alternative would keep me up at night. To fully use this book as it's intended, you have to reconcile to the idea of making your own." (p. 27) Despite my gut screaming, "Turn back! You're in too deep!", I forged ahead with the discussion of types of corn. (I live in Iowa. I am surrounded by fields of field corn. Every kid in Iowa gets a detailed education on the bamboo-related grass that is corn which is growing all around us. Still, onward I read.) Stupak presents an interesting and detailed account of the types of corn, the process needed to make field corn digestible, and the tools and machinery needed to make it happen. On page 33 you learn the truth: masa fine enough to make tortillas with cannot be made at home. He tried. Extensively. It did not work. (At least according to his standards--yours may vary.)

I was quite disappointed at this stage of the reading, because I realized I was never going to make a tortilla.

I'm glad I kept reading, however. I eyed all the recipes for the delicious varieties of tortillas Stupak offers with equal parts longing and jealousy. There is a wonderful section on the many different types of chilies available along with their various attributes (taste, heat, etc.). I found this very educational. I wanted to be able to taste the different proteins that Stupak offers readers. The wide variety of salsa types blew my mind: I had no idea there were so many options to choose from!

If you are a serious foodie or a very adventurous cook, you may want to get your hands on a copy of Stupak's Tacos. Perhaps you've never really spent much time considering the taco from the perspective of artful cuisine. This book affords you that opportunity. Thanks to Blogging For Books for the free copy I received in exchange for this review!

From the Publisher . . .

Superstar chef Alex Stupak’s love of real Mexican food changed his life; it caused him to quit the world of fine-dining pastry and open the smash-hit Empellón Taqueria in New York City. Now he’ll change the way you make–and think about–tacos forever.

TACOS is a deep dive into the art and craft of one of Mexico’s greatest culinary exports. We start by making fresh tortillas from corn and flour, and variations that look to innovative grains and flavor infusions. Next we master salsas, from simple chopped condiments to complex moles that simmer for hours and have flavor for days. Finally we explore fillings, both traditional and modern–from a pineapple-topped pork al pastor to pastrami with mustard seeds.

But TACOS is more than a collection of beautiful things to cook. Wrapped up within it is an argument: Through these recipes, essays, and sumptuous photographs by Evan Sung, the 3-Michelin-star veteran makes the case that Mexican food should be as esteemed as the highest French cooking.

About the Author . . .

(From his Facebook page): Alex Stupak is the chef and owner of Empellon Cocina and Empellon Taqueria in New York and is one of Food & WIne's Best New Chefs 2013.

His address on the Web is:
http://www.empellon.com/


BOOK TWO

I really enjoyed returning to a mystery and discovering a new author whose writing I found engaging.

Secret Sisters is written mainly from the viewpoint of the main female character, Madeline Chase, who is called back to the scene of her traumatic childhood incident that has changed the lives of several people. She arrives just in time to witness the death/murder of the man who has been the property's caretaker for the intervening 18 years. From there, I found it a compelling read with a variety of suspects, motives, and danger to keep me flipping pages as quickly as possible.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the book is the fact that there were several crimes that had to be sorted through. The 18-year old incident that involved Madeline and Daphne, revealed an older murder two states away and prompts a closer look at the current deaths for signs murder too. This makes the perpetrator unfold more dastardly deeds in an attempt to throw off suspicion.

The romance part of the mystery didn't bother me as I thought it potentially might. (I generally like to keep my genres separate.) It is integrated into the overall story in such a way that it unfolds naturally but does not detract from or overpower the mystery.

If you enjoy a good "who-dun-it" that keeps unfolding even when you think it has wrapped up, you need to give Krentz's Secret Sisters a read. (Be warned that it does involve a child abduction and near rape, if that is a trigger for you.) Thanks to the publisher for the Advance Reading Copy I received in exchange for this review!

About the Book . . .

No one does romantic suspense better than Jayne Ann Krentz. Now, the New York Times bestselling author of Trust No One and River Road delivers a novel that twists and turns into a read that will leave you breathless.

Madeline and Daphne were once as close as sisters—until a secret tore them apart. Now it might take them to their graves.

They knew his name, the man who tried to brutally attack twelve-year-old Madeline in her grandmother's hotel. They thought they knew his fate. He wouldn't be bothering them anymore...ever. Still their lives would never be the same.

Madeline has returned to Washington after her grandmother's mysterious death. And at the old, abandoned hotel—a place she never wanted to see again—a dying man’s last words convey a warning: the secrets she and Daphne believed buried forever have been discovered.

Now, after almost two decades, Madeline and Daphne will be reunited in friendship and in fear. Unable to trust the local police, Madeline summons Jack Rayner, the hotel chain’s new security expert. Despite the secrets and mysteries that surround him, Jack is the only one she trusts...and wants.

Jack is no good at relationships but he does possess a specific skill set that includes a profoundly intimate understanding of warped and dangerous minds. With the assistance of Jack's brother, Abe, a high-tech magician, the four of them will form an uneasy alliance against a killer who will stop at nothing to hide the truth....

About the Author . . .

The author of over 50 New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 35 million copies of her books in print.

A Jewish Baker's Pastry Secrets

This book should come with a warning label: May Cause Drooling and/or Hunger Pangs.

I will be the first to admit I have a problem passing up pastries. So it is my own fault I found it hard to put this book down. I grew up with a grandmother who baked and I miss her cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes, Christmas bread, and pastries. Discovering this book is like wandering into her kitchen while she was in the throws of kneading the dough or forming the rolls. What a treasure!

If you haven't baked pastries or been around others who do, one thing that you may find surprising about this book is that several different creations can be made from each "master dough". The main difference in results comes from the fillings and the way the dough is formed or shaped.

Greenstein, and his off-spring who helped compile this book following his death, offers readers detailed instructions not only on each recipe, but also on things such as why measuring is most important in baking and how to "read" your oven and adapt your baking to maximize what's going on in your particular kitchen. (I found this insight most helpful!)

Two drawbacks I discovered while enjoying this book: 1) I began to feel sorry for myself for not having a stand mixer (this would make the job of producing yeast bread doughs infinitely easier!) and 2) I found myself hating the fact I live in the middle of Iowa in a place devoid of a bakery (other than what you can find at the local grocery store. Which is better than nothing, I know.) I found myself ruminating on what it must be like to live in New York or another metropolis where neighborhood bakeries abound, and you come to know what day the baker is going to have your favorite pastries fresh in the display case just waiting for you to stop in and pick one up. A girl can dream, can't she?

If you have the slightest interest in learning to bake, you NEED this book! It'd be crazy to pass on the lifetime of insights a professional baker is offering you! Many of the treats are of Eastern European or German descent, which is a plus in my book since that is a big part of my own heritage. I am going to pass this free copy (which I received from Blogging For Books for this review) on to my daughter (who does have a stand mixer and a love of baking!) in hopes she will bake me something, ANYTHING from it!

From the Publisher . . .

This follow-up to the author’s James Beard award-winning Secrets of a Jewish Baker is a charming collection of European-style bakery classics, such as coffee cake and strudel.

George Greenstein had a gift for teaching home bakers to think, work, and bake like the pros with his evocative and tactile descriptions of baking. In A Jewish Baker’s Pastry Secrets, he crafts master dough recipes for Jewish holiday baking and European classics, creating a comprehensive set of building blocks for both beginners and baking enthusiasts. Greenstein’s expert guidance for making doughs like bundt, babka, strudel, gugelhopf, stollen, pressburger, puff pastry, and Danish create a jumping-off point for more than 200 variations of classic pastries, including napoleons, coffee cakes, and sweet buns. The book also offers an in-depth guide to ingredients and equipment, including both professional and home ovens, as well as basic recipes for fillings, icings, and glazes. With Greenstein’s steady guidance and familiar voice, home bakers and professionals alike will be encouraged to turn out flawless pastry creations for any occasion.

About the Author . . .

GEORGE GREENSTEIN is a third-generation professional baker, now retired. For twenty years he owned and operated a Jewish bakery, The Cheesecake King, on Long Island. He lives in Monroe Township, New Jersey. This is his second book.

Genius Recipes

Have you ever wished that you could have professional chefs right beside you in the kitchen, giving you their secret tips to ensure the dish you're working on turns out better than ever? Now you can!

Food52's Genius Recipes serves up 100 recipes from top chefs with genius tips, easy to follow directions, and extra help in note form--all designed to ensure your success in the kitchen. Along the way, you are sure to discover and adopt some new techniques which will change the way you cook other dishes too!

What's a great way to add creaminess to soups, purees and sauces without using cream or butter? Look to the Genius Tip on page 194 which is included with Julia Child's Gratin of Zucchini, Rice, & Onions with Cheese for the surprising answer.

Want a great way to simultaneously prepare both a first course and a vegetable course that everyone will be talking about for days to come? Don't miss the Genius Tip that goes with Alon Shaya's Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Whipped Goat Cheese on page 174.

The book is beautifully put together with introductory explanations, clear layouts, and gorgeous, full-paged photographs guaranteed to make your mouth water. Sections include: Breakfast, Snacks & Drinks, Soups & Salads, Meaty Mains, Meatless Mains, Vegetables, and Desserts. If you can't find at least a dozen recipes to try from this generous offering, I'll be surprised! (Did I mention that some of the recipes include secondary recipes that ride alongside? Cheater Soft Served Ice Cream anyone?)

I am thankful to the folks at Blogging For Books for the free copy I received in exchange for this review. I will be putting this one to good use for many years to come!

From the Publisher . . .

There are good recipes and there are great ones—and then, there are genius recipes.

Genius recipes surprise us and make us rethink the way we cook. They might involve an unexpectedly simple technique, debunk a kitchen myth, or apply a familiar ingredient in a new way. They’re handed down by luminaries of the food world and become their legacies. And, once we’ve folded them into our repertoires, they make us feel pretty genius too. In this collection are 100 of the smartest and most remarkable ones.

There isn’t yet a single cookbook where you can find Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter, Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread, and Nigella Lawson’s Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake—plus dozens more of the most talked about, just-crazy-enough-to-work recipes of our time. Until now.

These are what Food52 Executive Editor Kristen Miglore calls genius recipes. Passed down from the cookbook authors, chefs, and bloggers who made them legendary, these foolproof recipes rethink cooking tropes, solve problems, get us talking, and make cooking more fun. Every week, Kristen features one such recipe and explains just what’s so brilliant about it in the James Beard Award-nominated Genius Recipes column on Food52. Here, in this book, she compiles 100 of the most essential ones—nearly half of which have never been featured in the column—with tips, riffs, mini-recipes, and stunning photographs from James Ransom, to create a cooking canon that will stand the test of time.

Once you try Michael Ruhlman’s fried chicken or Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s hummus, you’ll never want to go back to other versions. But there’s also a surprising ginger juice you didn’t realize you were missing and will want to put on everything—and a way to cook white chocolate that (finally) exposes its hidden glory. Some of these recipes you’ll follow to a T, but others will be jumping-off points for you to experiment with and make your own. Either way, with Kristen at the helm, revealing and explaining the genius of each recipe, Genius Recipes is destined to become every home cook’s go-to resource for smart, memorable cooking—because no one cook could have taught us so much.

About the Author . . .

Kristen Miglore is a food writer who blogs at Food52.

This Book Will Stir You

I can only imagine that Jessica Fechtor's journey through the trauma of a broken aneurysm and surgeries on her brain was a long and arduous road to follow. Yet her memoir about the event that re-shaped her entire life, Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home, is a story of courage, resilience, and grace.

As I read about this young woman's experience with a brain bleed, brain surgery to correct the aneurysm, and subsequent issues (some of which lead to yet more brain surgery!), I was amazed and uplifted by the fact that she was able rise above what so many of us might imagine for ourselves if we were in a similar situation. She did not get bitter. She did not assume the role of victim. She never saw herself as handicapped or limited. (Yes, she acknowledged her physical limits post-op and during her recovery, knowing it would take time to rebuild her stamina. This is a normal, healthy part of getting your life back.)

During the long hospitalization and rehab process and the equally long recovery process at home, Fechtor was surrounded by people who loved her and cheered her on. She found her way back to them, and to living her life to its fullest once more, through the foods she was able to enjoy, to create, and ultimately share with them and all of us fortunate enough to read her book.

Some may find it odd that a memoir about a life-changing trauma would center on and include so much talk of food and recipes. I find it most a propos! Because I was bed-ridden with pneumonia on my 18th birthday, my mother nursed me back to health by driving across town (in horrible wintry weather!) to get matzo ball soup from the only restaurant in town that made it. To this day I crave that soup whenever I get a winter cold or flu. Food has that kind of power in our lives!

I hope you will run out and get a copy of this amazing woman's story! I found it so encouraging and uplifting. Also, there are some great recipes included! My daughter and I can't wait to try her buttermilk biscuits and the cherry clafoutis! There are some serious comfort foods included. (Though I confess to a few fits of jealousy as I read about the seriously scrumptious toast in her near-by cafe and the ability to buy Copper River salmon in Seattle. I've had it twice. BEST. SALMON. EVER.) You will not be disappointed in this most stirring memoir!

My thanks to the publishers for the copy of Stir which I received in exchange for this review.

From the Publisher . . .

An exquisite memoir about how food connects us to ourselves, our lives, and each other.

At 28, Jessica Fechtor was happily immersed in graduate school and her young marriage, and thinking about starting a family. Then one day, she went for a run and an aneurysm burst in her brain. She nearly died. She lost her sense of smell, the sight in her left eye, and was forced to the sidelines of the life she loved.

Jessica’s journey to recovery began in the kitchen as soon as she was able to stand at the stovetop and stir. There, she drew strength from the restorative power of cooking and baking. Written with intelligence, humor, and warmth, Stir is a heartfelt examination of what it means to nourish and be nourished.

Woven throughout the narrative are 27 recipes for dishes that comfort and delight. For readers of M.F.K.Fisher, Molly Wizenberg, and Tamar Adler, as well as Oliver Sacks, Jill Bolte Taylor, and Susannah Cahalan, Stir is sure to inspire, and send you straight to the kitchen.

About the Author . . .

JESSICA FECHTOR writes the popular food blog, Sweet Amandine. She is a PhD candidate in Jewish Literature at Harvard University, where she has received numerous awards for her research and teaching. She lives with her husband and daughters in San Francisco, and doesn’t believe in secret recipes.

Francophiles, Find Yourself In A French Kitchen

If you love books and films set in France and spend as much time soaking up the sensual background details in each and every scene on the page or frame, you are sure to be delighted by Susan Herrmann Loomis' revealing new cooking memoir, In a French Kitchen: Tales and Traditions of Everyday Home Cooking in France.

To my delight, I discovered at the outset of the book I must actually be French! First, I love food. (Chapter 1: Loving Food begins, "The French love of food is primordial.") Second, I owe the vast majority of my kitchen and cooking knowledge to my grandmother. (Chapter 2: It All begins With Mamie.) [Never mind that my family tree stretches back to England and Germany and that I was raised in the tradition of Midwestern farmhouse cooking; I am now considering it a high probability that my ancestors somehow stumbled into these areas from regions of France!]

Despite Julia Child's best efforts, I believe that most American cooks still see French cooking as the most complex/difficult form of food/technique to master. Loomis' book is a reassurance that any one of us, with whatever we have on hand at this very moment for equipment, can likely whip up a meal on par with what is being served in a typical French home on any given day. If I was skeptical that any book could answer the question as to how the French cook can put "a multicourse meal on the table at least once every day, and usually more often than that, and still manage to look great, act normal, and do everything else that needs to be done, from working to raising kids, to taking care of the dog," all I needed was the reminder that they are just like me, simply being intentional and mindful about everything to do with food.

Loomis describes most of the French home kitchens as being on the small side. That means that the cooks are organized. They know what utensils and equipment they need and they know where each item is kept. I so appreciated her chapter on this and have been inspired to get my own kitchen in better order. (Goodwill is going to be getting some great items I rarely or never use!)

The rest of the book is devoted to chapters on courses typical to French meals: salad, cheese, dessert. She includes a chapter on bread (it's French cooking after all, who wouldn't include baguettes and croissants?) as well as using leftovers (the French are not wasteful). If you love breakfast, rest assured that the French do as well. (It's the basis for Chapter 8.) In Chapter 10 readers get the inside scoop on indispensable techniques used in every French kitchen. I was so inspired, I made my own mayonnaise!

The recipes included in the book come with delightful introductions and plenty of detailed instruction to walk you through to a successful completion of the dish. As with any new recipe, simply be sure to read it through once or twice before embarking on the actual preparation. At the end of the book Loomis offers ways to put together varies recipes from throughout the book into complete, successful French meals. Voila! C'est fini! Vous l'avait fait! (Voila! It's finished! You did it!)

If you are interested in all things French, in cooking, or in learning new ideas, techniques and recipes, you are definitely going to want a copy of In a French Kitchen! Check back in the next couple of days for your chance to win one!

I would like to thank Gotham Books for the Advanced Reader Copy of book I received in exchange for this review.

From the Publisher . . .

A delightful celebration of French life and the cooks who turn even the simplest meals into an occasion

Even before Susan Herrmann Loomis wrote her now-classic memoir, On Rue Tatin, American readers have been compelled by books about the French’s ease with cooking. With In a French Kitchen, Loomis—an expat who long ago traded her American grocery store for a bustling French farmer’s market—demystifies in lively prose the seemingly effortless je ne sais quoi behind a simple French meal.

One by one, readers are invited to meet the busy people of Louviers and surrounding villages and towns of Loomis’s adopted home, from runway-chic Edith, who has zero passion for cooking—but a love of food that inspires her to whip up an array of mouthwatering dishes—to Nathalie, who becomes misty-eyed as she talks about her mother’s Breton cooking, then goes on to reproduce it. Through friends and neighbors like these, Loomis learns that delicious, even decadent meals don’t have to be complicated.

Are French cooks better organized when planning and shopping? Do they have a greater ability to improvise with whatever they have on hand when unexpected guests arrive? The answer to both is: Yes. But they also have an innate understanding of food and cooking, are instinctively knowledgeable about seasonal produce, and understand what combination of simple ingredients will bring out the best of their gardens or local markets.

Thankfully for American readers, In a French Kitchen shares the everyday French tips, secrets, and eighty-five recipes that allow them to turn every meal into a sumptuous occasion.

About the Author . . .

Susan Herrmann Loomis is an award-winning journalist, author, professionally trained chef, and proprietor of a cooking school, On Rue Tatin. She is the author of twelve books, including French Farmhouse Cookbook and her memoir, On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town, which was named the IACP’s Best Literary Food Book in 2002. She lives with her two children in Louviers, where she moved nearly twenty years ago.

Got a Bowl? Grab a Spoon!

Sara Forte's second cookbook, Bowl and Spoon, is a visual feast chocked full of sumptuous bowls of vibrant fare tempting even the pickiest eaters to try a taste.

Forte is a blogger (her husband Hugh is a photographer who enjoys his wife's cooking and capturing said food for the beautiful illustrations in Bowl and Spoon) to whom I was introduced to via this book. She fully admits she is simply a home cook with an interest in good food that is simple and nutritious. She has no culinary school training. And I find that truly inspiring! I figure if Sara has no special, "insider" foodie knowledge and can put together such comforting and wholesome dishes which are loved by her family and friends, then--by golly--so can I!

Another reason I love this book is because the impetus behind Forte's cooking style is a "farm to table" mentality. She uses what is available at the time from her own garden, the local farmer's market, or the local produce section. I am trying to do this more and more in my own cooking as well. Forte's Bowl and Spoon does it in a helpful way, allowing for regional differences and growing seasons. She offers up options, basically saying this is what's available where she lives--you might try this or that if it's what you've got where you live! I love it when a recipe's author is willing to allow (or even encourages!) the user/cook to stray from the recipe and make it their own.

The book is divided into different "bowls" . . . breakfast bowls, small/side bowls, big bowls (main dishes), and dessert bowls. Don't let the title fool you: this is not a book about soup or other "traditional" bowl foods. Forte's recipes will surprise and delight you in the way she combines grains, lean protein, veggies and sauces. And who doesn't love being able to serve the whole meal in one vessel? There is something very comforting about eating something from a bowl!

If you are a person who needs to have definitive nutritional information for the food you make, make note that Bowl and Spoon doesn't include such info with the recipes. Each recipe does have a brief introduction and is easy to follow. Most are accompanied by large, rich photographs of the finished dishes. I love the photos, the layout of the book, and the typeset. Bowl and Spoon has the look and feel of a coffee table book, but take it to the kitchen as I do believe you will want to try the recipes within!

I received my copy of Bowl and Spoon from bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for this review.

From the Publisher . . .

In this follow-up to her successful first book, The Sprouted Kitchen, blogger and author Sara Forte turns her attention to bowl food, which combines vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins in one vessel to make a simple, complete, and nutritious meal.

The bowl is a perfect vessel in which to create simple, delicious, and healthy meals. When gathered together in a single dish, lean proteins, greens, vegetables, and whole grains nestle against each other in a unique marriage of flavor and texture. This is how Sara Forte, beloved food blogger and author of the James Beard Award–nominated book The Sprouted Kitchen, cooks every day—creating sumptuous recipes colorful enough to serve guests, simple enough to eat with a spoon while sitting on the couch, and in amounts plentiful enough to have easy leftovers for lunch the next day. In this visually stunning collection that reflects a new and healthier approach to quick and easy cooking, Sara offers delicious, produce-forward recipes for every meal, such as Golden Quinoa and Butternut Breakfast Bowl; Spring Noodles with Artichokes, Pecorino, and Charred Lemons; Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce; and Cocoa Nib Pavlovas with Mixed Berries.

Savoring Soul Food Love

Embracing their cultural heritage, both the good and the bad, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams share the stories of the women who shaped their family's past and their hope to build a healthier future upon that foundation in their book Soul Food Love. It's a compelling story which leads to even greater appreciation for the recipes included in the text.

I come from a long line of Upper Midwestern women who's family heritage includes a solid girth and hearty work ethic--farm wives, blue-collar workers, and homemakers who needed to find a way to stretch the family food budget to feed many mouths. That meant lots of potatoes, pasta and bread. (My grandmother's favorite family gathering meal was chicken and noodles served over mashed potatoes with a side of homemade dinner rolls and jelly. There may or may not have been peas or beans on the side. Meals always concluded with your choice of pie or cake.) This model for eating has left us in the "stocky" category and candidates for stroke and heart disease.

I loved that Soul Food Love includes so many wonderful recipes for getting vegetables on to the table! I find great inspiration in Williams' story of eating the same vegetable (sweet potato) different ways simply depending on the herbs or spices used. Brilliant! You will also find that many of the traditionally fried foods have been redone to include baking and roasting. Even the desserts center on getting fruits to the table and eliminating (or at least significantly cutting) amounts of processed sugar.

The fact that their family could go from large hams to a side of salmon for family celebrations gives me hope that it is possible to change my own food future and steer my family's health in a new direction.

If you grew up with soul food, or have enjoyed the wonderful Southern food traditions in your travels, you will find the requisite flavors present in Soul Food Love. There are recipes for greens, sweet potato pie, peanut chicken stew, shrimp salad and a host of other favorites, although the recipes have been updated and made more healthful.

The book also includes many dishes which were new to me, but contain exciting, mouth-water flavor profiles: carrot ginger soup, broccoli with peanuts and raisins, sweet potato skewers, warm onion and rosemary salad, and "new school" fruit salad which incorporates watermelon, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and feta cheese. Are you salivating yet?

There are many recipes in this book which I will be trying out on my family. I would add that Williams makes no bones over the fact that these dishes can be made quickly and simply with ingredients available at Walmart -- no high-end, specialty shops required. What's not to love about that? Don't forget--these recipes are healthier alternatives to her family's past repertoire of recipes. I love that! While I am enjoying eating my way through this new tradition thanks to Randall and Williams, I will be thinking of ways to remake my own family's recipes.

I'd like to thank Blogging For Books for the review copy of Soul Food Love.

From the Publisher . . .

A mother-daughter duo reclaims and redefines soul food by mining the traditions of four generations of black women and creating 80 healthy recipes to help everyone live longer and stronger.

In May 2012, bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family. She turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes, such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans, and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie. Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history (which mirrors that of much of black America in the twentieth century), explores the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage. This is what the strong black kitchen looks like in the twenty-first century.

About the Author . . .

Alice Randall is the author of The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, and Ada's Rules. Born in Detroit she grew up in Washington, D.C.. As a Harvard undergraduate majoring in English she studied with Julia Child as well as Harry Levin, Alan Heimert, and Nathan Huggins. After graduation Randall headed south to Music City where she founded Midsummer Music with the idea she would create a new way to fund novel writing and a community of powerful storytellers. On her way to The Wind Done Gone she became the first black woman in history to write a number one country song; wrote a video of the year; worked on multiple Johnny Cash videos and wrote and produced the pilot for a primetime drama about ex-wives of country stars that aired on CBS. She has written with or published some of the greatest songwriters of the era including Steve Earle, Matraca Berg, Bobby Braddock, and Mark Sanders. Four novels later, the award winning songwriter with over twenty recorded songs to her credit and frequent contributor to Elle magazine, is Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University. She teaches courses on Country Lyric in American Culture, Creative Writing, and Soul Food as text and in text. Randall lives near the University with her husband, a ninth generation Nashvillian who practices green law. Her daughter graduated from Harvard and is now teaching and writing in the Mississippi Delta. After twenty-four years hard at it Randall has come to the conclusion motherhood is the most creative calling of all and health disparity is the dominant civil rights issue of the first quarter of the 21st century.

Caroline Randall Williams--the third-generation poet and author (her great-grandfather is Arna Bontemps, and her mother is The Wind Done Gone author Alice Randall)--is following in her family’s footsteps with her writings (including kids’ book The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess) that promote African-American culture. Caroline, who is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Mississippi, published Soul Food Love, a cookbook and African-American culinary anthology co-written with her mother. The book redefines traditional soul food cooking with a healthful spin.

The Paleo Chef

I am a newbie when it comes to the Paleo eating movement. I have picked up enough hearsay to believe that it is all about eating as our prehistoric ancestors would have eaten in the days when life was centered on the survival of hunting and gathering. I knew that the eating part of the Paleo lifestyle centered on meats and vegetables while grains and dairy were off the table. And that most recipes I had seen that touted themselves as Paleo also decried processed ingredients (including sugar). With a family member who suffers from an auto-immune disorder of the digestive tract, I was quite thrilled to have the chance to get my hands on a cookbook dedicated to the Paleo diet as it offers a note of promise for improved health/symptom management. (My thanks to Blogging for Books for the review copy!)

The great thing about Chef Pete Evans' new cookbook, The Paleo Chef is that it is beautifully photographed, well laid out, and an easy read.

The chapters are laid out in an intuitive order, beginning with breakfast and working your way through side dishes/vegetables, various types of meats (a chapter for each), and rounding out the offerings with dessert and drinks. There is also a very helpful index of "Basics" at the back of the book that offers followers recipes for the essential ingredients (stocks, how to activate nuts, etc.) that are integral to so many of the recipes throughout the book. As a beginner, I was very thankful to see this!

I also appreciated Evans' introduction on the ideology behind the Paleo diet. While I understand that not everyone who picks up a copy of the book will be as new to the movement as I am, and that space is limited in a cookbook for details on the science and philosophy of a particular diet, I was hungry for this type of information and found The Paleo Chef left me wanting a bit more. I was disappointed that Evans did not annotate any of his introductory remarks, nor did he offer other resources for readers to turn to should they want to learn more.

When all is said and done, I will be trying several of the recipes Evans offers readers in The Paleo Chef. I am very interested to discover if making the changes to diet proposed by the Paleo movement can improve the health of my family. I am also interested to find out if this diet is truly workable in the part of the country where I live, given the resources available. Time will tell.

If you have been curious to explore the Paleo diet and try some recipes, I would encourage you to get a copy of Pete Evans' book. If you are just uncovering the Paleo option and in need of more of the science behind the diet, you will want to find some extra resources to supplement what Evans offers in The Paleo Chef.

From the Publisher . . .

Acclaimed international chef and television personality Pete Evans takes a whole new approach to making gluten-free, grain-free, and dairy-free, completely Paleo recipes that are worthy of a restaurant but effortless to prepare.

More and more people are discovering the health benefits of the Paleo lifestyle by cutting out processed, sugary foods and instead eating quality proteins and fats, fresh vegetables and fruits, and nuts and seeds. However, following this way of eating doesn’t mean sacrificing flavor or spending a long time in the kitchen. In The Paleo Chef, Evans provides more than 100 recipes for gorgeous food that is satisfying, distinctive, and good for you, including Kale Hummus, Vietnamese Chicken Wings, and Key Lime Tart.

Each and every one of Evans’s innovative recipes pops with flavor and is brought to life with stunning, full-color photography. Living—and eating—the Paleo lifestyle has never been so effortless and so delicious.

Sunday Suppers Worth Lingering Over

They say we eat with our eyes first. It's certainly true of Karen Mordechai's tome which serves up readers a sumptuous feast for the soul!

Mordechai writes in her introduction, "Sunday Suppers is a communal cooking center and food website based out of Brooklyn, New York, whose premise is to bring together food, gatherings, and community. Through inspiration and instruction, Sunday Suppers allows people to gather and cook in their homes, and experience the world's oldest act of community: sharing a meal." This was the impetus for my excitement at receiving my review copy of Sunday Suppers. Fewer and fewer people remember the days of weekly meals shared with family or friends or entertaining dinner parties with colleagues. (In my childhood my parents frequently hosted or attended card parties with neighbors or friends which always began with delicious pot-luck meals which I recall with great fondness. I have heard people bring to mind stories of Sunday dinners at grandma's house with extended family with the same sort of nostalgic happiness.)

As the introduction states, the goal of Sunday Suppers is to "remove much of the fuss and formality of 'entertaining'. The table is set in a modest manner, and the food is honest and straightforward." I found this to be the bulk of the appeal of the photographs, recipes and table presentation suggestions. When I cook for others, especially people I am "entertaining," there are a few simple things at which I aim: tasty, nourishing food which is easy to prepare and the ability to spend time enjoying the people with whom I have gathered. Mordechai's recipe format ensures that even those with little to no experience at putting together dishes and meals for others will succeed. Ingredients are listed in the left-hand column. Step by step preparation instructions are presented in the right-hand column. Extraneous tips on unusual ingredients or techniques follow at the bottom in easy-to-spot print.

I loved that the gatherings and dishes are presented according to times in the day. Several options for breakfasts, lunches (including a birthday gathering and a camping excursion!), and evening meals provide the organization of the cookbook. This strikes me as very user-friendly and intuitive!

Accompanying each gathering (meal) and the individual dishes are some of the most beautiful food and scenic photography I have witnessed in a cookbook. They elevate Mordechai's writing more to the level of a coffee-table book. (Certainly a recipe book I would be worried about splattering up on my kitchen counter during a tragic accident with the hand-held mixer!) It is bound in a linen feel cover and uses luxurious quality paper stock on which to present Mordechai's fabulous recipes, photographs, tips, and suggestions.

Thanks to Mordechai's encouragement that anyone can make delicious food and share it with others, I will be trying many of the recipes from this book! I am thankful to Blogging For Books for providing me with the complimentary copy for this review.

From The Publisher . . .

Rediscover the art of cooking and eating communally with a beautiful, simple collection of meals for friends and family.

With her dinner series Sunday Suppers, Karen Mordechai celebrates the magic of gathering, bringing together friends and strangers to connect over the acts of cooking and sharing meals. For those who yearn to connect around the table, Karen’s simple, seasonally driven recipes, evocative photography, and understated styling form a road map to creating community in their own kitchens and in offbeat locations. This collection of gatherings will inspire a sense of adventure and community for both the novice and experienced cook alike.

About The Author . . .

KAREN MORDECHAI, a photographer and stylist, is the founder of Sunday Suppers, a Brooklyn-based food community and blog that has won many accolades, including a 2013 Food and Wine Digital Award, top food blog by Saveur, and #6 in Babble.com’s Top 50 Design Blogs. Karen’s work is regularly featured in the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Remodelista, New York magazine, and more. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, New York.

Provence, 1970

Having been born in 1966, most of my childhood memories are from the 1970's. I recall seeing episodes of Julia Child's program on our local PBS channel on a few occasions. I grew up in a family of women who cooked, mostly out of the necessity to make the weekly paycheck stretch as far as possible. My parent's tilled up half of our urban Iowa back yard and grew gorgeous and plentiful vegetable gardens each summer. Eating out was a luxury few in my neighborhood could indulge in.

I have an idea that people like me and my family were a part of the revolution in food that some of those giants in the food scene who gathered in Provence in 1970 had in mind. The shift from French cuisine and technique being the "be all and end all" of the food world to a more open and inclusive (not to mention casual and local) approach to cooking paved the way for things like the Food Network--one of the "go to" channels at my house.

Barr's memoir is written in a very easy, approachable style. Although I only knew some of the food writers/celebrities mentioned on the cover of the book, I felt it was easy to become not only acquainted, but somewhat intimate with each of them by the end of the book. (I had not heard of Richard Olney--despite his being from the same state in which I reside--until this book.) Barr underwent thorough and extensive research through personal letters and archived materials on each of the chefs and gourmands in putting together the events which transpired during that time when there was a shift in thinking in the world of food. It is a very well written book!

I found it interesting to see what sorts of food these "giants" put together when they gathered for social affairs. Menus and wine lists were fascinating, even though I have virtually no knowledge of wine. (Because I do watch a lot of cooking shows and have read a lot of cookbooks, I found the talk about food choices and preparations much easier to follow!)

If you enjoy food, history, celebrity chefs, France, travel, or memoirs....you will enjoy Provence, 1970. I would like to thank Blogging For Books for the free copy of Provence, 1970 in exchange for this review.

From the Publisher . . .

Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.

About the Author . . .
Luke Barr is an editor at Travel + Leisure magazine. A great-nephew of M.F.K. Fisher, he was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Switzerland, and graduated from Harvard. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their two daughters.

A Bowl of Olives

This evocative little book lead me down a fragrant memory lane even as Midda shares her own journey of food-induced memories. What a pleasant stroll! Each page a feast for the eye, A Bowl of Olives by Sara Midda is a cornucopia of lovely little watercolor illustrations, photos, quotes, prose, and recipes.

Food, for many people, is the currency of relationships--the thing around which we gather with family and friends to make memories, celebrate milestones, or dive deeply into the present moment. Simply smelling the fragrance of a remembered dish can unleash an avalanche of images, feelings, tastes, and more from a time long past. Cookies or bread baking in the oven trigger memories of my childhood. A whiff of chicken frying will bring to mind summer picnics. Squash recalls me to fall dinners served which gathered a busy household together if only for an all-too-brief moment at the table.

A Bowl of Olives is my first exposure to Sara Midda's work. What a delight all her petite, delicate watercolor illustrations are! I love the feel of the pages. The color, the layouts provide such pleasure!

Because the book centers on the illustrations, it is a very quick read at only 128 pages. Seasoned with a smattering of quotes, Midda's memories, and recipes (some of them are just the bare bones!) . . . readers will find themselves savoring not only Midda's offerings, but the reflections of meals and dishes past too. I highly recommend this book to all who love food, visual arts, great paper, and books in general!

I am so thankful for the opportunity to review Sara Midda's latest offering, A Bowl of Olives, and thankful to Shelf Awareness for the complimentary copy!

From the publisher...

From the author of the international bestseller In and Out of the Garden and the wondrous sketchbook Sara Midda’s South of France comes a long-awaited treasure of a book. Drawn from the artist’s wealth of impressions and memories, it is a book for lovers of food and art and fine gift books—a book for anyone who, upon arriving in a new town, seeks first the local market, or who believes the best thing to do on a given night is to share a table with friends.

Sara Midda is a watercolorist whose delicate and beautiful paintings shine like jewels, evoking the sweet purple taste of a summer raspberry or the silvery greens and gnarled burnt umber of an olive grove. And she is also a collagist, weaving together photographs, line drawings, her personal swatches—all the hues of a spice cabinet, or the sensations of a picnic, the colors of the breeze, sunshine, laughter, the cooling grass. And a poet, in love with words that sing, like podding and wicker, nettle and snug.

By turns reverent and playful, A Bowl of Olives is a work of pure enchantment, celebrating food—of the seasons, of family, of travel and memory. It is as richly layered as a favorite meal.

The book is cloth-bound, jacketed, and printed on uncoated stock to convey the feeling of an artist’s sketchbook.

About the author...

Sara Midda is an artist who lives in West Sussex, England, and previously lived in the south of France. Her most recent book is Artisan’s children’s activity book How to Build an A.