Vegetable Love

Nothing says “Summer” like vegetables fresh from the garden (or farm stand).  These books have some great new ways to fix summer’s finest.  Eating Local: The Cookbook Inspired by America’s Farmers, by Janet Fletcher and the kitchen style mavens at Sur La Table , is both beautiful to look at and chock full of great recipes.

Love Soup, by Anna Thomas has 160 vegetable recipes for all year round. 

Have too many tomatoes?  Is that even possible?  Maybe it’s time to check out The Too Many Tomatoes Cookbook by Brian Yarvin. 

Not to be forgotten is Barbara Kafka’s Vegetable Love , more than 700 pages of vegetables alone and vegetables with pasta, seafood, meat, and more.  

Then, top it all off with Farmers Markets Desserts. Yum!

Feed’em for Less!

It’s no secret that grocery bills are going up, up, UP!  How to satisfy the hungry horde at home and still have a little walking-around money?  Start by checking out one of the cookbooks featuring budget recipes from Science & Technology.  

1. Miserly Mom Jonni McCoy’s latest book, Healthy Meals for Less
2. Frugal Foodie by Alanna Kaufmann and Alex Small
3. Mary Ostyn’s Family Feasts for $75 a Week  or
4. Eat Cheap But Eat Well by the “Poor Chef,” Chris Mattocks.

 Try one of these for some great, new recipe ideas designed to save on the grocery tab.

Gourmet meals for your pets

We all love our pets, and just as humans need a proper nutritional diet so do our four legged friends.  Preparing and cooking natural food for your dog can be easy and fun (and you can even eat it too!)  Check out the following books for recipes:   

Chow hound : wholesome home cooking for your doggie / by Eve Adamson

The organic dog biscuit cookbook : from the Bubba Rose biscuit company / Jessica Disbrow and Eric Talley

Cooking the Three Dog Bakery way / Mark Beckloff and Dan Dye ; illustrations by Meg Cundiff

The good treats cookbook for dogs : 50 home-cooked treats for special occasions plus everything you need to know to throw a dog party! / Barbara Burg

The natural pet food cookbook : healthful recipes for dogs and cats / by Wendy Nan Rees, with Kevin Schlanger ; illustrations by Troy Cummings

And for our cat friends:         

Real food for cats : 50 vet-approved recipes to please the feline gastronome / by Patti Delmonte           

Meow chow : hearty recipes for happy cats / Julia Szabo

The Art of Big Food, or Cooking for a Crowd

It’s that time of year: graduations, weddings, block parties, summertime bashes, and anniversary parties.  How to feed all those hungry guests without hiring a caterer?  Check out some of these titles for inspiration:

Do it for Less: Parties, by caterer and author Denise Vivaldo is a great how-to guide for the new quantity chef.  She not only provides great tips for entertaining on a less-than-generous budget, with menus for various theme parties (including shopping lists and time lines for getting organized) but the recipes are written in a chart format which lets the cook prepare the same recipe for 12, 25, 50, or 75 guests!

Another caterer-turned-author is Nicole Aloni and Secrets from a Caterer’s Kitchen.  Covering more of the planning aspects, including how to construct a guest list, wording the invitations, and ensuring adequate space, this guide also includes suggested menus and recipes.

Got loads of hungry vegetarians on the guestlist?  Then you definitely need Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd.  Containing more than 250 recipes designed to serve 24, tested and served in this Ithaca, New York ground-breaking vegetarian restaurant, even the most devoted meat-cooker can find some things that will please everyone.

Need more recipes?  Check out this list of titles on entertaining and cooking for your big group.

Prefer to search for recipes from the comfort of your easy chair?  Here’s a sampling of some favorite websites.  Betty Crocker’s been cooking for decades so it’s a fair bet she’s got some good tips on her site.   Planning for overnight guests?  Culinary.net offers some budget-friendly tips and sneaky substitutions that allow you to serve elegant fare and still feed the family the following week.  The Graduationparty.com site is great for planning any large event, but has some great tips specific to keeping that particular party fun for all generations.  And About.com offers advice for both home cooking and special occasions.

Anyone CAN cook!

The clever cooks at Better Homes & Gardens have come up with possibly the greatest beginner cookbook ever.  Anyone Can Cook features fabulously stylish yet simple to prepare recipes for any novice cook.  There’s an Intro to Cooking section which shows how to prepare your ingredients and use the many appliances, cookware and gadgets available.  Each recipe comes complete with photos showing the new chef what the dish will look like during the various steps and all recipes are graded by difficulty with a “skill level.”  There’s even a DVD for more visual learning!

Great recipes for everyday cooking and for special meals.  So,  you start out with  German-Style Turkey Sausage Skillet (level 1),  move up to Polenta and Black Beans (level 2), and then really  challenge yourself (and wow your pals) with Chicken and Spinach on Phyllo (level 3).  Cook with the confidence of reliable Better Homes & Gardens recipes, super-instructive photographs, and the assurance that you’ve chosen a recipe designed for your success.  Check this book out!

Romantic recipes for l’amour

Cooking a special meal for a special someone is the gold standard by which to demonstrate your love.  This Valentine’s Day, try a new recipe from one of Science & Technology’s huge collection of cook books.  Meredith Phillips  Date Night CookBook: Romantic Recipes for the Busy Couple will let your treat your sweetie to such trendy tastes as Coconut Black Beans ( p106) and Roasted Chicken Salad with Beets and Gorgonzola (p 43).  Janeen Sarlin and Jennifer Rosenfeld Saltiel show you 50 Ways to Feed Your Lover and Rachael Ray cheers you on with 2,4,6,8 Great Meals for Couples of Crowds to create T-Bone Steaks with Arugula and Tomatoes (p 33), and top it off with Wine-soaked Peaches with Ice Cream (p 80).  Even local cooking expert  Bev Shaffer gets in on the date-night act with No Reservations Required, full of restaurant-quality recipes you can fix at home.  And if you don’t go out, that means more time at home for … Well, we’re not recommending you spend it doing dishes!

Local author’s recipes published in Jane Snow Cooks: Spirited Recipes and Stories

Former Beacon Journal food editor Jane Snow is on a local book tour with her University of Akron publicist promoting her cookbook Jane Snow Cooks. Click on the title to check the library’s catalog for available copies. There are still many opportunities  to see Jane Snow  if you would like to purchase an autographed copy – a great holiday gift for the foodies in your life.  Recipes include  local favorites like sauerkraut balls and Lou and Hy’s cheesecake. For dates and times of personal appearances follow this link to Jane’s eNewsletter www.janesnowtoday.com 

        

The Demise of Gourmet Magazine

I know we’re all mourning the loss of Gourmet magazine but the library subscribes to a number of food magazines that are worth checking out. Saveur magazine is the most similar to Gourmet in that in addition to recipes there are reviews of cookbooks and cooking tools, essays about food and wine trends and restaurant reviews.  Other similar magazines are Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking and Food and Wine.

If you don’t mind doing a little conversion from metric two other magazines are Good Food and Donna Hay Magazine.  Good Food is a glossy oversized publication of the BBC which each month focuses on everyday menus as well as in season ingredients.  Most of their recipes do include US measures but in some cases the conversions can take a little thought for example 150 m/l olive oil is converted to ¼ pint. Donna Hay has been referred to as the Martha Stewart of Australia. Her magazine includes beautifully photographed recipes as well as items to buy for the home. Of course since it comes from Australia you have to get used to the idea that the June/July issue features classic winter recipes.

If you’re a fan of the Food Network we have a new title Food Network Magazine. Each issue includes recipes from your favorite Food Network stars as well as tours of their home kitchens and contests to enter. The great feature of this magazine is that the index to the recipes includes a picture of each recipe.  We also have magazines from other Food Network stars Cooking with Paula Deen, Everyday with Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade.

For people who prefer PBS we have Cook’s Illustrated and Everyday Food Magazines. Cook’s Illustrated is the magazine from America’s Test Kitchen television show. Except for the cover the magazine is printed in black and white but it’s more about learning how to cook then the recipes themselves. For example one issue devotes 2 pages of mostly text to making the best blueberry pie. Everyday Food is a smaller format (think Reader’s Digest) and is devoted to healthy quick meals that are family friendly. In addition to cooking and prep time each recipe includes nutritional information. These and other magazines are available in the Magazines and Newspapers section of the Science and Technology Department.  For more information call 330-643-9069.

Dig out your bundt pan from the cupboard this weekend

Believe it or not, November 15th is actually designated as National Bundt Day!   So dig out that bundt pan you haven’t used in years and surprise your guests this holiday season with a wonderful new twist on an old favorite. 

Check out the book,  Bundt cake bliss : delicious desserts from Midwest kitchens  by Susanna Short for mouthwatering easy to make recipes.  Have fond memories of that cake your grandma used to make?  Vintage favorite recipes from the 60’s included as well.

Fix yourself a sandwich today!

On November 3rd,we honor John Montagu’s birthday!  John Montagu, the 4^th Earl of Sandwich, may not have invented the sandwich, but he sure made it popular. Known as a heavy gambler, he apparently placed  meat between two pieces of bread to save time while playing in a 24 hour long gambling session in 1762.  What you may not know is that he also had the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) named after him.

Check out the book ‘wichcraft : craft a sandwich into a meal–and a meal into a sandwich by Tom Colicchio.  You may recognize Colicchio as the head judge on the TV series “Top Chef”.