Thursday, February 19, 2009

Southern Cooking to Remember or Innocent Smoothie Recipe Book

Southern Cooking to Remember

Author: Kathryn Tucker Windham

Commercialized "Southern Cooking," the kind advertised by gaudy signs along highways in the South, has almost spoiled the reputation of real southern food.

The tasty dishes offered here in this delightful cookbook, despite what crass promoters and bigoted detractors say, prove that not all "Real Southern Food" is fried. Nor is it typically greasy or heavy and monotonous.

According to Kathryn Tucker Windham, the fine cook and deep-dyed Alabaman who compiled these recipes throughout the South, the notion that southern cookery must have its taste disguished by heavy slatherings of catsup is blasphemous.

Southern food is as delightful and as varied as the region from which it comes -- shrimp gumbo simmered in kitchens along the Gulf Coast, roast venison from Alabama's piney woods, wild ducks from Georgia's marshland, tall stacks of Tennessee in-fare cakes, charlotte piled high in crystal bowls, dewberry cobbler, scuppernong wine, tender turnip greens with wedges of hot cornbread, peas cooked with ham hocks. Brunswick stew made by an old family recipe, fresh fish with hush puppies, chess pie, squash souffle, spoon bread, smothered quail with baked grits, chicken fried to a crisp, thick slices of country ham with red-eye gravy. The list goes on and on, as good Deep South cooks and discriminating diners know.

Here is a collection of real southern recipes, a sampling of the foods that make even the simplest southern meal a memorable experience.



Interesting textbook: Social Ethics or American and Texas Government

Innocent Smoothie Recipe Book: 57 1/2 Recipes from Our Kitchen to Yours

Author: Innocent

Innocent smoothies and juices are sold in cafes and shops throughout the British Isles, with the company's insistence on all-natural ingredients proving a winning policy in these health-conscious times. At Innocent, taste is paramount, and their new book focuses on drinks that are not only healthy but delicious. Honeyed Pear and Ginger, Cantaloupe and Peach, and Strawberry and Rhubarb are just a few of the smoothies on offer, and there are also tasty fruit and vegetable juice concoctions and drinks created especially for kids. A joy for anyone who's serious about good health and great taste.



Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Nantuckets Bounty or Cookin with Honey

Nantucket's Bounty: Cooking with Regional Favorites

Author: Katie Moos

Nantucket's rich heritage with the sea brings a wealth of good dishes that mingle the flavors of a variety of cultures and the fresh vegetables and fruits now so abundant on the island. Recipes from the earliest Native Americans to the modern day offer the individual plenty of reasons to cook and enjoy Nantucket's bounty.

Who can resist succulent scallops just out of the bay, with only a dash of lime juice, or clams so fresh they too melt in your mouth. The recipes are easy, yet elegant and for all occasions. Menus assist in planning meals and marketing.

The book includes a history of the island, its inns and restaurants, and insights into some of the dishes. The author, descended from Nantucket's oldest families, on both sides, also shares some of her family secrets. Nantucket's Bounty will appeal to the determined cook, and the armchair reader as well.



Look this: Campus Safety or Inner Yoga

Cookin' with Honey: What Literary Lesbians Eat

Author: Amy Scholder

As much a book about the personal lives of these lesbian writers as it is a collection of well-loved recipes and opinions on matters of food.



Table of Contents:
Don't Try This at Home...9
Spirit in the Dark13
My Favorite Sunday Meal20
Crisp and Caramelized28
A Slave's Sacred Supper34
Making Whoopi40
Secret Family Recipes45
Thanksgiving Feast, Chinatown Style49
Two Transylvanian Dishes56
You Are What You Eat62
Veg Out64
Why, She Cooks!69
Crumbs78
Fayetteville, N.C., Heat-Wave Southern Fried Chicken85
Food for Thought91
Pseudo-Vegetarian Chili98
Play-Cards-All-Night Chili103
Greasy106
Pan Sexual Gorgonzola Cream Sauce and Friends109
A Recipe for Lesbian Brain112
Kate's Plate117
Blanche's Gumbo119
Modern Food, Modern Love121
Stokley's Shepherd's Pie for 150123
My Personal History of Pesto128
Pasta Don Juana136
Wild Rooms140
My Aunt Carolyn's Recipes142
Cornbread Muffins146
My Mom's Bavarian Bread Dumplings148
Two Cauldrons & A Recipe151
Harry Dodge's Popcorn154
Nacho from the Edge159
Chocolate Silk Pie, A Fish Story, and a Floating Island164
Love in an English Dessert, or Fabulous Fruit Flan167
Date Rape Brownies173
About the Contributors179
Illustration Credits185

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Cookbook for Grampa or Home for the Holidays

Cookbook for Grampa

Author: William J Gillard

There is a tremendously important social phenomenon unfolding in the United States, and there are few books dealing with the subject in creative, interesting, and helpful ways. It has to do with the huge and growing numbers of grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren for many hours of every week or even around the clock every single day.

Grampa's in particular need good guidance in order to give good guidance. This book is aimed specifically at them and it relates to one of the most important functions of caregivers: buying and preparing nutritious but kid-friendly meals, and having fun, too, with lots of participation by everyone.



Interesting textbook: Kitchen Coach or The Southern Gospel Music Cookbook

Home for the Holidays

Author: Great Tast

Home for the Holidays is a unique collection of 53 easy-to-make recipes from master chefs Jacques Pepin, Lee Bailey, Sheila Lukins, Joyce Goldstein and others. The cookbook's attractive yet practical design includes a covered spiral binding that allows the book to lie flat on the countertop for the cook's convenience. Gorgeous full-color photographs illustrate recipes like Salmon-Caviar Toasts, Cauliflower-Oyster Stew, Pork Loin with Wild-Mushroom Sage Stuffing and Christmas Bread Pudding with Amaretto Sauce. A special section on "Gifts from the Kitchen" offers such imaginative suggestions as Strawberry Vinegar and Cranberry Tea Bread.

Accompanying the cookbook is the "original soundtrack," a swinging and sophisticated CD of seasonal favorites from pianist Gregg Karukas and vocalist Shelby Flint. The original keyboardist for contemporary-jazz supergroup The Rippingtons, Karukas has recorded several chart-topping smooth jazz albums with guest stars Boney James, Dave Koz and others. His warm blend of melodic R&B/soul-jazz marries perfectly with Shelby Flint's soulful, airy vocals, which you may recall from her 1960s hits "Angel on my Shoulder" and "Cast Your Fate to the Wind." The 12-track, 49-minute disc is packaged in its own jewelbox so that it can be stored separately from the book. For 29.95 (list price) this is one of the finest holiday-gift values of 1999. Try it!



Monday, February 16, 2009

British Breweries or The Lighthouse Cookbook

British Breweries: An Architectural History

Author: Lynn F Pearson

"I have no pain now, mother dear, But, oh, I am so dry! Connect me to a brewery and leave me there to die."

Breweries were large and striking buildings whose towering presence was often reinforced by their occupation of sites in the middle of towns. They were the flagships of a major industry and generators of some of the great business fortunes. Designing their breweries for architectural grandeur as well as for their function, brewers were well aware of the marketing value of their buildings and used them as advertisements. What is surprising is that so little attention has been paid to breweries, in contrast to other great industrial buildings such as mills and warehouses. Lavishly illustrated, British Breweries covers the whole of their history, from the country house brewhouses of the eighteenth century to the great breweries of Georgian and Victorian England, and to widespread disappearance in the twentieth century.



Table of Contents:
Illustrationsvii
Acknowledgmentsxi
Part 1
1Towers of Strength1
2Brewing and Building13
3A Magnificence Unspeakable27
4Function and Style41
5Breweries of the 1870s61
6The Rise of the Brewers' Architect77
7The Ornamental Brewery101
8Decline and Fall121
9The Brewery in the Twenty-First Century141
Part 2
A Directory of Brewers' Architects, 1780-1939150
Brewery Construction by Town, 1865-1906199
Notes216
Glossary230
Bibliography237
Index247

Book review: Praktische Wirtschaftsstatistik

The Lighthouse Cookbook

Author: Anita Stewart

Bestselling cookbook author Anita Stewart presents a delicious selection of recipes from the keepers of British Columbia's lighthouses. From the traditional Clam Chowder and Apple Pie, to such gourmet creations as Mussels in Wild Mushrooms and Jalapeno Jelly, the dishes contradict the myth of rough living and near starvation on the isolated light stations. They are, however, uniformly simple; when food supplies are only available occasionally by helicopter, lighthouse chefs must be inventive about using materials at hand. This produces an emphasis on garden vegetables, wild edible plants and berries, and, of course, BC's prodigious variety of seafood! The recipes are interspersed with fascinating anecdotes of life on the lights.



Saturday, February 14, 2009

Breads or Joanne Weirs More Cooking in the Wine Country

Breads: The Best of Favorite Recipes from Quilters

Author: Louise Stoltzfus

One in a six-volume set of little cookbooks--each one a treasured collection of recipes from the best-selling cookbook, Favorite Recipes from Quilters.

Each book in the series presents a particular category of food. The six books are: Breads, Soups, Salads, Main Dishes (Pasta, Vegetables, and Meats), Pies, and Desserts. Each book offers 24-36 recipes--all proven favorites from the original collection. Each volume also includes several stories from the lives and experiences of quilters. The charming design of these books makes them an irresistible impulse item. Their colorful dustjackets and readable spines make them equally eye-catching on a bookshelf or beside a cash register.

Each volume contains warm and strikingly rich watercolors throughout its pages. Each painting was created exclusively for this series.

These books have about them the special vibrancy that comes from cooking and quilting. All who own them will share in that!



Book review: Conduit du Temps Basé sur l'activité de Valeur :un Sentier Plus simple et Plus puissant à de Plus hauts Profits

Joanne Weir's More Cooking in the Wine Country: 100 New Recipes for Living and Entertaining

Author: Joanne Weir

"Somehow, we all must eat. we can make indifferent meals, with little connection to where the food comes from. Or we can make meals that are cooked in harmony with the earth and with the seasons, and which are a recurring source of renewal, satisfaction, and celebration. The wine country just seems to require this kind of cooking, and that is part of why I love it." -- From the Foreword Northern California is on the same latitude as many of the countries of the Mediterranean, and award-winning chef Joanne Weir's cooking embodies the vivid flavors of that region. In this book, Weir shares 150 new recipes from the second season of her acclaimed public television series, Weir Cooking in the Wine Country, presented with all the warmth, enthusiasm, skill, and flair that has made her a household name.

Weir's style of cooking and serving changes throughout the year, celebrating the bounty of the field, the orchard, the pasture, the river, and the sea with simple, boldly flavored dishes inspired by the freshest ingredients of the season. Enhanced by more than 45 color and black-and- white photographs, this spectacular volume explores the vivid and varied tastes of California with a feast of Mediterranean dishes that are certain to delight you with their exceptional flavors.

From starters to desserts, Weir has created a bounty of delectable recipes, expertly explained. A first course of Grilled Bread with Fava Beans and Escarole or Endive with Gorgonzola, Caramelized Onions, and Fig Jam brings friends and family to the table. Creamy Fennel Soup chases the autumn chill, while Roasted Yellow Pepper, Corn, and Tomato Soup is the essence of late summer. Try the Stone Fruit Summer Salad whenpeaches and plums are at their juicy best, and the True Blue Salad on a cool evening. Main courses are deeply flavored: Chicken Rolled with Fontina, Prosciutto, and Sage; Braised Leg of Lamb with Artichokes, with Lemon and Garlic-Roasted Potatoes; Moroccan Spice-Dusted Salmon with Lemon Mint Yogurt. Tempting options for dessert include Double Chocolate Custard, Summer Cherry and Apricot Galette with Kirsch Cream, Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread, Polenta Shortbread, and Ginger Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Almonds. There are also suggestions for the right wine to pair with each dish.

No matter where you make your home, you can bring the pleasures of the wine country to your table.

Publishers Weekly

In this companion volume to her first wine-country cuisine book, Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country, Weir, a San Francisco chef who hosts a PBS cooking show, invites readers to sample the flavors of northern California through Mediterranean cooking. Weir's recipes are lusty and unpretentious, emphasizing fresh, seasonal ingredients, and her lucid writing makes seamlessly accessible the few that are more complex. With relaxed, reassuring confidence, Weir guides the reader through such challenges as making "the perfect risotto" and peeling fava beans, and she pays special attention to the blending of sweet, salty, sour and bitter and the result is magical. Endive with Gorgonzola, Caramelized Onions and Fig Jam; Heirloom Tomato Bisque; Hazelnut-crusted Salmon with Fennel Salad; and Summer Bread Pudding with Berries are luscious, startling in their contrasts. Weir's wine recommendations for each dish Shiraz with risotto, pinot noir with Turkish Pizza are as well considered as the recipes themselves: "We must make small celebrations of whatever catches our fancy." For those who love to live and eat well, Mediterranean or Californian-style, this book is reason enough to celebrate. Agent, Doe Coover. (Apr. 18) Forecast: Weir releases this delightful, artistic and accessible cookbook in anticipation of the April 26 airing of Weir Cooking in the Wine Country II on PBS. The mediagenic Weir is fast becoming a household name, particularly because her style is both instructive and inspiring; like her first volume, this companion work should be a popular seller. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This follow-up to Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country and companion volume to her latest PBS series offers more of the fresh, vibrant recipes Weir is known for. Weir is also author of From Tapas to Meze: First Courses from the Mediterranean Shores, and her love of Mediterranean cuisines is evident in many of the recipes here, from Greek Summer Vegetable Salad to Spicy North African Mussels to Grilled Lamb with Aromatic Moroccan Salts. Most of the recipes are uncomplicated Weir also worked at Alice Waters's Chez Panisse, where using the best ingredients and highlighting their flavors is the style, and her culinary training there shows. Recommended for most collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.



Friday, February 13, 2009

Everyday Cooking for the Jewish Home or Vegetables

Everyday Cooking for the Jewish Home: More than 350 Delectable Recipes

Author: Ethel Hofman

From the former president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals comes a beautifully designed, accessible and uniquely comprehensive guide to Jewish home cooking. Unlike many Jewish cookbooks that are limited to the traditional dishes of Eastern Europe, Everyday Cooking for the Jewish Home gives readers a truly international sample of what the world of Jewish cooking has to offer. Structured from soup to nuts, and including a special Passover section, it presents a spectacular array of dishes such as Peppered Chickpeas (Arbit), Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Beef and Barley Soup with Kale, Homestyle Gefilte Fish, Potato Chicken Cutlets, Shabbat Beef and Eggs, Cholent, Steamed Beef Greens, Israeli Salad, Poppyseed Noodles, Kasha and Bow Ties, Glick's Colossal Butternut Latkas, Shabbat Wine Mold with Cherries and Walnuts, Springtime Kugel with White and Sweet Potatoes and Matzoh Brie.



Book about: The Sims 2 or Information Security Governance

Vegetables (Quamut)

Author: Quamut

Quamut is the fastest, most convenient way to learn how to do almost anything. From tasting wine to managing your retirement accounts, Quamut gives you reliable information in a concise chart format that you can take anywhere. Quamut charts are:

  • Authoritative: Written by experts in their field so you have the most reliable information available.
  • Clear: Our explanations take you step-by-step through everything from performing CPR to threading a needle.
  • Concise: You’ll learn just what you need to know—no more, no less.
  • Precise: Quamut charts include detailed text, photos, and illustrations to show you exactly how to do just about anything.
  • Portable: Your know-how goes with you wherever your projects lead.

Vegetables, explained.

Everything you need to know in order to buy and prepare perfect vegetables every time, including:

  • The history, different types, and nutritional value of vegetables
  • Tips on how to buy, store, blanch, and prepare vegetables for cooking
  • Step-by-step instructions for cooking vegetables in a variety of ways



Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Stuart Cookery or Taste of Montreal

Stuart Cookery: Recipes and History

Author: Peter Brears

One of a series of books which look at the art of cookery in Britain at different periods in history. The recipes, which have been adapted for the modern kitchen, provide a taste of the times and the book also includes information on food, cooking equipment, kitchen designs, serving of meals and the development of etiquette.



New interesting textbook: Children Parents Lollipops or Healing in His Wings

Taste of Montreal: Tracking Down the Foods of the World

Author: Barry Lazar

Garam masala, lemongrass, sausage subs, spruce beer, epazote, and truffles are among the foods served up in the ethnic neighborhood restaurants and strip malls featured in this culinary sampling of the food and cultures of Montreal. Information on spices and flavorings, descriptions of savory tastes, and historical background on the meaning and tradition of certain dishes accompany directions for the traveler or city resident on where to find these restaurants.

An invaluable addition to any food lover's library.



Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements8
Introduction9
How to Use this Book10
Ten of the Best11
The Tastes of Montreal13
Montreal's Public Markets215
Guide to Shops and Restaurants221
Indexes
Shops and Restaurants Index271
The Tastes of Montreal Index275
Recipes Index277

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Aperitifs or The Sensible Cook

Aperitifs (Quamut)

Author: Quamut

Quamut is the fastest, most convenient way to learn how to do almost anything. From tasting wine to managing your retirement accounts, Quamut gives you reliable information in a concise chart format that you can take anywhere. Quamut charts are:

  • Authoritative: Written by experts in their field so you have the most reliable information available.
  • Clear: Our explanations take you step-by-step through everything from performing CPR to threading a needle.
  • Concise: You’ll learn just what you need to know—no more, no less.
  • Precise: Quamut charts include detailed text, photos, and illustrations to show you exactly how to do just about anything.
  • Portable: Your know-how goes with you wherever your projects lead.

A sophisticated start.

A pre-dinner apéritif always gets things off on the right foot—not just in terms of good taste, but because alcohol actually helps stimulate the appetite. Learn the basics of apéritifs, including:

  • A brief history of apéritifs and the basics of how apéritifs are made
  • A breakdown of the main types of apéritifs
  • Apéritif recipes from the Four Seasons restaurant



Interesting book: Breastless in the City or Give Sorrow Words

The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and the New World

Author: Peter G Ros

'In this beautifully illustrated book on the Dutch culinary tradition, Peter Rose has captured one important dimension of the proud legacy of Dutch contributions to American culture.' --Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Food Writer 'New York Times' and Editor, 'Journal of Gastronomy'

Booknews

A translation of the most favored Dutch cookbook of the 17th century (the period of the Dutch claim to New Netherlands, the territory between New England and Virginia). Presented here are the foodways of middle-class households in the Netherlands and their American colonies, the implements and ingredients employed, cooking methods, and typical dishes. Rose has also included introductory material and a section of recipes adapted for modern kitchens. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



Monday, February 9, 2009

The Imus Ranch or The Thing About Calories

The Imus Ranch: Cooking for Kids and Cowboys

Author: Deirdre Imus

The Imus Ranch ransports the reader to a unique place that the author and her husband, talk-show host Don Imus, created: a 4,000-acre working cattle ranch set in rolling hills and mesa country 50 miles east of Santa Fe. The children--who have cancer--visit the Imus Ranch and work alongside authentic western ranch hands, learning to ride horses and rope calves. The experience refuels their bodies and their spirits, and they leave stronger than when they came.

As Deirdre Imus explains:"We welcome kids who have known too much sickness and too much death, and we give them something they urgently need: a sense of independence and purpose through healthy, vigorous living."

Not only do the kids enjoy adventure at the ranch, but they learn from the Imuses that nutritious foods are fundamental to a happy, healthy life. Illustrated with full-color photographs that reflect the ranch's warmth and vitality, the book presents more than 125 vegetarian recipes that meet the true taste test: kids and cowboys love them! Readers will come away with a new appreciation of how important and how easy it is to incorporate healthier living into their everyday lives.

Publishers Weekly

Imus founded the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, a program that aims to identify, control and ultimately prevent environmental factors that cause adult and, especially, pediatric cancer. She rounds out this collection of basic vegetarian fare with a lengthy essay about life on the Santa Fe, N.Mex. ranch where she and her husband, radio personality Don Imus, practice "healthy living and healthy cooking" and teach self-reliance and horsemanship to kids who have "known too much sickness and too much death." Imus's diet is "organic, whole-food, ovo vegetarian, meaning that we don't eat dairy or animal products, but we do eat eggs," and she explains it with a rundown of the ranch's organic "vegan pantry." The informal recipes focus on basics like Orange Poppy Seed Muffins and Cowboy Potato Chowder, and fast sandwiches like I-Man Chimichangas. Dinner selections feature nostalgic favorites such as Spanish Rice updated with brown rice and olive oil, and Imus cleans up desserts (including Carrot Cake and Jeannie's All Out Brownies) by substituting unbleached flour and unrefined sugar. In addition to healthy lifestyle prescriptives and thank-you notes from some of the camp's young alumni, Imus includes sidebars on topics ranging from non-toxic head lice remedies to green cleaning agents to the dangers of PVC in children's toys. She ends this informative book with a complete nine-day menu, spanning the average duration of Imus Ranch guests. (May) Forecast: While serving more to promote the worthy mission of the Imus Ranch than to provide unique recipes, this consciousness-raising cookbook may appeal to novice vegetarians or to those interested in supporting holistic education and children's health. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.



Look this: Hotel Gestão de Office Dianteira

The Thing About Calories

Author: Liz Babbs

This light-hearted book combines commentary, quotes from Nigella Lawson, Delia Smith, Dawn French and Rosemary Conley, lively cartoons and practical tips to deliver a read is both entertaining and helpful.



Saturday, February 7, 2009

Noodle Know how or Pocket Guide to Good Food

Noodle Know-how: The Great Little Book of Noodle Dishes

Author: Emma Summer

Recipes includes traditional dishes such as Fried Singapore Noodles and Seafood Chow Mien, and delectable new combinations such as Seame Noodle Salad with Hot Peanuts.



Table of Contents:
Introduction6
Snacks & Light Suppers12
Main Course Dishes28
Vegetables & Salads44
Easy Entertaining54
Index64

Books about: Eat Our Words or Toasters Handbook

Pocket Guide to Good Food: A Shopper's Resource

Author: Margaret M Wittenberg

Illuminating ... concise ... instructive ... The Crossing Press Pocket Series are little books packed with lots of valuable information. This comprehensive series explores today's vast universe of natural health, personal growth and spirituality in a clear, easy-to-use format. Pocket Guides are ideal introductions for the expanding consumer interest in improving health, quieting the mind, and healing the spirit. Pocket Guides also make the perfect gift. Attractive, space-efficient displays are available, free with low minimum orders.



Friday, February 6, 2009

Scots and Their Fish or Favorite Family Recipes

Scots and Their Fish

Author: G W Lockhart

Fish and fisher-folk have long been part of the lore of Scotland, and this lively journey captures its history and culture. Lockhart charts the growth of the fishing communities, and the pressures placed upon them and the dangers they had to face. Containing many delicious recipes, this is an informative and entertaining collection of tales and legends, verse and song.



Books about: Self Help Guide for Special Kids and Their Parents or Watercress Soup Diet

Favorite Family Recipes: From Our Kitchen to Yours

Author: Teri Pingley

Favorite Family Recipes is friendly for all cooks new and experienced to accommodate every size family. We offer time and money saving solutions for families and teach how you can have a fancy taste for flair while maintaining or improving the budget for the savviest cook. In addition to great recipes, we offer helpful hints and tips and tricks for the cook(s) in the kitchen. We provide easy-to-follow instructions and even more important for the busy cook, most meals and/or dishes can be prepared in minimal time; some dishes only take 15 minutes to have on the table-ready to eat!



Thursday, February 5, 2009

2009 How to Cook Everything Box Calendar or 2009 Wine Country Wall Calendar

2009 How to Cook Everything Box Calendar

Author: Mark Bittman

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything cookbook is considered the bible for a new generation of home cooks. This one-of-a-kind calendar includes hundreds of simple yet healthy recipes from the now classic book, along with lots of tips, techniques, and terms that every cook—aspiring or seasoned—will devour.

• The calendar pages are removable 4" x 6" recipe cards



Book about: Das Handhaben: Eine auf die Befähigung gegründete Annäherung (mit InfoTrac? Binden Sie - in der Karte und BizF

2009 Wine Country Wall Calendar

Author: Susan Winget

Rolling country scenes of everyday life in the vineyards.



Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Are You Really Going to Eat That or The Taste of Conquest

Are You Really Going to Eat That?: Reflections of a Culinary Thrill Seeker

Author: Robb Walsh

From the top of the Blue Mountains of Jamaica for the perfect cup of coffee to the jungles of Thailand for an encounter with the abominably smelly "stinkfruit," Robb Wals has traveled the globe, immersing himself in some of the world's most interesting culinary phenomena. In Are You Really Going to Eat That? Walsh offers a collection of his best essays over the past ten years, along with some of his favorite recipes.

For Walsh, food is a window on culture, and his essays brim with insights into our society and those around us. Whether he's discussing halal organic farming with Muslims, traversing the steep hills of Trinidad in search of hot-sauce makers, or savoring the disappearing art of black Southern cooking with a inmate-chef in a Texas penitentiary, Walsh has a unique talent for taking our understanding of food to a deeper level.



Interesting textbook: Definitive Guide to Canadian Artisanal and Fine Cheeses or Herbs

The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice

Author: Michael Krondl

The smell of sweet cinnamon on your morning oatmeal, the gentle heat of gingerbread, the sharp piquant bite from your everyday peppermill. The tales these spices could tell: of lavish Renaissance banquets perfumed with cloves, and flimsy sailing ships sent around the world to secure a scented prize; of cinnamon-dusted custard tarts and nutmeg-induced genocide; of pungent elixirs and the quest for the pepper groves of paradise.

The Taste of Conquest offers up a riveting, globe-trotting tale of unquenchable desire, fanatical religion, raw greed, fickle fashion, and mouthwatering cuisine-in short, the very stuff of which our world is made. In this engaging, enlightening, and anecdote-filled history, Michael Krondl, a noted chef turned writer and food historian, tells the story of three legendary cities-Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam-and how their single-minded pursuit of spice helped to make (and remake) the Western diet and set in motion the first great wave of globalization.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the world's peoples were irrevocably brought together as a result of the spice trade. Before the great voyages of discovery, Venice controlled the business in Eastern seasonings and thereby became medieval Europe's most cosmopolitan urban center. Driven to dominate this trade, Portugal's mariners pioneered sea routes to the New World and around the Cape of Good Hope to India to unseat Venice as Europe's chief pepper dealer. Then, in the 1600s, the savvy businessmen of Amsterdam "invented" the modern corporation-the Dutch East India Company-and took over as spice merchants to the world.

Sharing meals and stories with Indian pepper planters, Portuguesesailors, and Venetian foodies, Krondl takes every opportunity to explore the world of long ago and sample its many flavors. The spice trade and its cultural exchanges didn't merely lend kick to the traditional Venetian cookies called peverini, or add flavor to Portuguese sausages of every description, or even make the Indonesian rice table more popular than Chinese takeout in trendy Amsterdam. No, the taste for spice of a few wealthy Europeans led to great crusades, astonishing feats of bravery, and even wholesale slaughter.

As stimulating as it is pleasurable, and filled with surprising insights, The Taste of Conquest offers a fascinating perspective on how, in search of a tastier dish, the world has been transformed.

Kirkus Reviews

A muddy walk through the history of Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam, whose heydays were all linked to the lucrative spice trade. Food writer Krondl (Around the American Table: Treasured Recipes and Food Traditions from the American Cookery Collections of the New York Public Library, 1995, etc.) debunks the myth that spices were used over the centuries to mask rancid food. He attempts to understand the demand that prompted Europeans to explore and conquer the world. Spices were a luxury, often used as payment and literally worth their weight in gold. Coming from exotic places few could reach, they represented the aroma and taste of paradise. Fantastic profits could be made in the spice trade. With its strong links to the Byzantine Empire, Venice muscled in on the Mediterranean route, and soon "pepper was the lubricant of trade." The Crusades spread the taste for spices, but the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 effectively sealed the Venetians' routes. Soon the Portuguese made incursions. King Joao I sent out looting caravels for West African gold and melegueta pepper; Portuguese explorers braved the seas around the Cape of Good Hope in search of Prester John and Indian black pepper. Vasco da Gama made a momentous advance for the Portuguese by establishing a route from Lisbon to the Spice Islands in the South Pacific. When the Portuguese crown fell to Philip II of Spain in 1580, the prosperous Dutch, inspired by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten's how-to on the spice trade, took up the slack through the corporate arms of the East India Company. Krondl scrambles and dodges to cover an enormous amount of ground, from spice wars and slavery to disease and the use of spices for medicinalpurposes. Trying to do too much, he produces a loose, unscholarly text that many will find difficult to digest. Many separate strands of this compelling story deserve to be pursued further by more focused historians.



Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Seafood Meals in Minutes or Successful Catering

Seafood Meals in Minutes!: 150 Simple Recipes to Make Low-Fat Seafood Dishes

Author: M J Smith

The latest in the bestselling Meals in Minutes series includes 150 delicious and easy seafood recipes. The book includes tips on buying fish, seasonal information, preparation hints, and serving ideas.



New interesting book: Bipolar Not ADHD or Writing the Fire

Successful Catering

Author: Bernard Splaver

With coverage of the management of a catering business and 201 expert recipes from The Culinary Institute of America, the new edition of this well-established book is an ideal basic text for students of catering.



Table of Contents:
Getting Started.
On-Premises Catering.
Off-Premises Catering.
Catering Personnel.
Writing a Contract.
Sanitation.
Setting Up a Kitchen.
Service Equipment.
Special Events.
Kosher Catering.
Wine and Bar Service.
Menu Making and Food Presentation.
RECIPES.
Hors d'Oeuvres.
Appetizers.
Soups.
Entrees.
Vegetables.
Potatoes, Pasta, Grains.
Salads.
Desserts.
Culinary Terminology.
Recipe Yield Conversion Chart.
Index.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Fast Food Fast Talk or 50 Fabulous Parties for Kids

Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life

Author: Robin Leinder

Attending Hamburger University, Robin Leidner observes how McDonald's trains the managers of its fast-food restaurants to standardize every aspect of service and product. Learning how to sell life insurance at a large midwestern firm, she is coached on exactly what to say, how to stand, when to make eye contact, and how to build up Positive Mental Attitude by chanting "I feel happy! I feel terrific!"
Leidner's fascinating report from the frontlines of two major American corporations uncovers the methods and consequences of regulating workers' language, looks, attitudes, ideas, and demeanor. Her study reveals the complex and often unexpected results that come with the routinization of service work.
Some McDonald's workers resent the constraints of prescribed uniforms and rigid scripts, while others appreciate how routines simplify their jobs and give them psychological protection against unpleasant customers. Combined Insurance goes further than McDonald's in attempting to standardize the workers' very selves, instilling in them adroit maneuvers to overcome customer resistance.
The routinization of service work has both poignant and preposterous consequences. It tends to undermine shared understandings about individuality and social obligations, sharpening the tension between the belief in personal autonomy and the domination of a powerful corporate culture.
Richly anecdotal and accessibly written, Leidner's book charts new territory in the sociology of work. With service sector work becoming increasingly important in American business, her timely study is particularly welcome.

Library Journal

Leidner (sociology, Univ. of Pennsylvania) uses participant observation to explore aspects of service-industry efforts to insure sameness of effort and routinization of work. The author chooses for examples the ubiquitous McDonald's and the Combined Insurance Company, whose founder, W. Clement Stone, formulated the Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). Both companies achieve service provider-service recipient relationships that are routinized yet acceptable both to the customer and employee. The much-touted ``worker rebellions'' are largely nonexistent; many if not most employees prefer a well-choreographed approach to the point of sale. Leidner's book includes much of interest to students of business and human behavior, but her turgid prose does not lend itself to easy reading. For academic libraries.-- Norman Lederer, Thad deus Stevens State Sch. of Technology, Lancaster, Pa.



New interesting textbook: Organisatorisches Verhalten: Eine Strategische Annäherung

50 Fabulous Parties for Kids

Author: Linda Hetzer

If your child loves parties, but you don't always love planning them here's a collection of 50 ideas for new, unusual, and easy-to-create celebrations for every occasion — birthdays, national and religious holidays, special family days like a new home or a new baby — that will not only thrill children but adults as well. 50 Fabulous Parties for Kids will show you how to choose a theme, make an invitation, select party crafts or games, and decorate a fun-shaped cake to go with the theme.

Parties are age appropriate, from three to twelve, have themes popular with all children and will not require expensive materials or excessive amounts of time.

50 Fabulous Parties for Kids is an invaluable sourcebook for any special event involving children.

Library Journal

This fun-filled book will get the entire family working together to prepare for special celebrations. Hetzer organizes the book into four categories of parties: for small children, for older children, for preteens, and family events. Each party receives several pages of carefully written directions, presented so that young children can do the reading. Line drawings illustrate the text. Topics include theme parties, such as a fairy-tale party for baby's first birthday. Directions are included for making all kinds of clever decorations, noise makers, invitations, and refreshments. Teachers as well as parents who do volunteer work with children will find this book a treasury of quick and easy ways to create perfectly fabulous parties. For most public libraries.-- Nancy E. Zuwiyya, Binghamton City Sch. Dist., N.Y.



Sunday, February 1, 2009

Cooking with Riesling or Kosher Kettle

Cooking with Riesling: 75 Remarkable Riesling Recipes

Author: Barbara Ray

75 remarkable easy-to-prepare recipes, each flavored with Riesling -- soups, pastas & grains, meats, poultry, seafood & desserts. Glossary and pronunciation guide for wine cooking terms. Introduction to Riesling. How to cook with wine, decipher wine labels, and serve wine.



Go to: The Purification Plan or Menopause Manager

Kosher Kettle: International Adventures in Jewish Cooking

Author: Sybil Ruth Kaplan

This cookbook brings together more than 350 kosher recipes from 27 countries, including Russia, Thailand, Israel, and Greece. From appetizers and desserts to special Shabbat and holiday meals, this cookbook teems with ideas to make kosher cookery an extraordinary international affair.