In the Kitchen with KRL! Bibliography

I think it's safe to say that we all love lists. The one we posted below is by no means inclusive, but just a taste of what we have to share. I think it's a matter of sheer numbers more than anything else. The cookbook world is burgeoning with great titles to buy these days, lists packed with old favorites but also with tons of new titles that are inspired by our ever widening world of international cooking. Every week seems to unearth yet another type and style of ethnic or regional or local cooking previously uncelebrated, and the cookbook publishers are never far behind with a cookbook or ten for us to buy and place on our shelves, or, at the very least, put on our must see lists.

Food blogs and recipe sites and cookbook sellers are also blossoming like never before. Since most of us who frequent cookbook aisles in the bookstores or the local public library love to eat, and since quite a few of us love to cook as welll, the online sites have grown astronomically to help us to expand our cooking repetories, help us find last minute recipes, and help us uncover new and exciting cooking techniques and tools we never knew existed. Online sites help guide us to new restaurants, turn us on to the latest ingredients, and help point us in the direction of the best and lastest local sources of cooking gear, food festivals and the like. Because of the 'net we are not only better able to look at cooking in a global fashion, we can look at the world of cooking and apply it to our lives and bring it to our tables.

The following bibliography was developed for our upcoming Cooking With KRL! program. Think of it as a kickoff list, an appetizer of sorts, something to help you whet your appetite and get you cruising our library catalog or the Internet. The world of cooking is at your fingertips, so let's go exploring!

Cooking with KRL!
Bibliography

Electronic Media

KRLCatalog http://www.krl.org/
Use the subject heading "Cookery".

Online food sites
Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/
Joy of Baking http://www.joyofbaking.com/
Epicurious http://www.epicurious.com/
My Recipes http://www.myrecipes.com/
Better Homes and Gardens www.bhg.com/recipes
101 Cookbooks http://www.101cookbooks.com/

Celebrity sites
Graham Kerr "Galloping Gourmet" http://www.grahamkerr.com/
Jacques Pepin http://www.jacquespepin.net/
Donna Hay www.donnahay.com/au
Martha Stewart http://www.marthastewart.com/
Rachael Ray http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/
Emeril Lagasse/ http://www.emerils.com/
Tom Douglas http://www.tomdouglas.com/
Jamie Oliver http://www.jamieoliver.com/
Nigella Lawson http://www.nigella.com/
Nigel Slater http://www.nigelslater.com/

Cooking DVD's
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Julia Child
Rachel Ray
America's Test Kitchen


Online Cookbook sellers
http://www.ecookbooks.com/
http://www.cooking.com/
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.borders.com/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Old Cookbooks:
http://www.oldcookbooks.com/
http://www.vintagecookbook.com/

Blogs
http://nycdonutreport.blogspot.com/
http://www.101cookbooks.com/
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/
http://chocolateandzuchinni.com/
http://coconutlime.blogspot.com/
http://orangette.blogspot.com/

Radio shows
The Kitchen Sisters http://www.kitchensisters.org/
The Spendid Table http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/

Newspaper food columns
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/newspaper.htm

Nigel Slater's Guardian column
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/series/nigelslaterrecipes

Cookbook Awards:
International Association of Culinary Professionals: http://www.iacp.com/
James Beard Award: http://www.jamesbeard.org/

Books

Memoirs
Art of Eating /MFK Fisher
Garlic and Sapphires / Ruth Reichl
Tender at the Bone / Ruth Reichl
When French Women Cook/Madeline Kamman
My Life in France/Julia Child
MFK Fisher: Among the Pots and Pans /Joan Reardon
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment / Julie Powell
The Kitchen Diaries/Nigel Slater
Toast/Nigel Slater
Kitchen Confidential /Anthony Bourdain

Great Fiction food moments
“ A Clean, Well Lighted Place”/Ernest Hemingway
The Hobbit/Tolkien
Wind in the Willows/Kenneth Grahame
Like Water for Chocolate/Laura Esquivel
And to help tie that "food theme" into your monthly bookgroup meetings:
The Book Club Cookbook/Judy Gelman

Mysteries
A Puree of Poison/Claudia Bishop
A Catered Murder/Isis Crawford
Corpse Suzette/G. A. McKevett
Chocolate Snowman Murders: a Chocoholic Mystery/Joanna Carl

Reference
Larousse Gastronomique
Food Lover's Companion
Oxford Companion to Food
Bowes and Church Food Values

Cookbooks

Award Winners
James Beard
The Border Cookbook/Cheryl A Jamison and Bill Jamison
KitchenAid
Moosewood Cookbook/Mollie Katzen
IACP
Local Breads/Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman

Classics
Joy of Cooking/Irma Von Starkloff Rombauer
Better Homes and Gardens
Betty Crocker
The Gourmet Cookbook

Celebrity
Martha Steward Living Cookbook/Martha Stewart
Flavors/Donna Hay
Guy Food/Rachel Ray
Every Day’s a Party/Emeril Lagasse
Tom’s Big Dinners/Tom Douglas
Jamie’s Kitchen: a complete cooking course/Jamie Oliver
How to be a Domestic Goddess/Nigela Lawson

Ethnic
Travel
Tale of 12 Kitchens/Jake Tilson
Culinaria Series
Italian
Marcella Says.../Marcella Hazen
Lidia's Italian Table/Lidia Bastianich
Spanish
1080 Recipes/Simone and Ines Ortega
Jewish
Jewish Cooking in America/Joan Nathan
Asian
Seductions of Rice/Jeffery Alford
Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet/Jeffery Alford
Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook/Miller
Washoku:Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen/Elizabeth Andoh
Mexican
Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey Through Oaxaca, Mexico/Susana Trilling
My Mexico: A Culinary Odyssey with more than 300 Recipes/Diana Kennedy
Rick Bayless Mexico One Plate at a Time/Rick Bayless

Regional
Southern
Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cookbook/Fannie Flagg
Ya'll Come Eat/Jaime Deen
Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen/Trisha Yearwood
In a Cajun Kitchen/Terri P. Wuerthner
Southwest
Los Barrios Family Cookbook/Diana Barrios Trevino
Savor the Southwest/Barbara Pool Fenzel
Fonda San Miguel/Tom Gilliland
Northwest
Pike Place Market Cookbook/Braiden Rex-Johnson
Ray's Boathouse/Ken Gouldthorpe
West Coast Cooking/Greg Atkinson
Kathy Casey's Northwest Table/Kathy Casey

Single Food Focuses
Bake Until Bubbly:The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook/Clifford A Wright
Country Egg, City Egg/Gayle Pirie and John Clark
Onion/Brian Glover
Delicious and Dependable Slow Cooker Recipes/Judith Finlayson

Vegetables
The Produce Bible/Leanne Kitchen

Chocolate
Chocolate: a Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light/Mort Rosenblum
Chocolate Cake/Michele Urvater
Ghiradelli Cookbook/Ghiradelli Chocolate Company

BBQ
Barbeque Nation/Fred Thompson
Asian Grilling/Su-Mei Yu
Peace, Love and Barbeque/Mike Mills and Amy Mills Tunnicliffe

Vegetarian
Amazing Soy/Dana Jacobs
Beautiful Bowl of Soup: the Best Vegetarian Recipes/Paulette Mitchell
Enchanted Broccoli Forest/Mollie Katzen
Tasahara Recipe Book/Edware Espe Brown
Laurel’s Kitchen/ Laurel Robinson

Baking
The Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook/James Barrett and Wendy Smith Born
Baking Illustrated, A Best Recipe Classic/Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine
Baking with Julia: based on the PBS series hosted by Julia Child/Dorie Greenspan

Sauces
Salsas and Tacos/The Santa Fe School of Cooking
Get Saucy/Grace Parisi
Mole!/Gwyneth Doland
Asian Flavors/Wendy Sweeetser

Seafood
New York Times Seafood Cookbook/Edited by Florence Fabricant

Just a few ideas! Share anything and everything you love that might make this list even better!

Cooks Talk!

Upcoming program: In the Kitchen with KRL!

What's lovely about writing in a blog is that you don't have to be an expert about anything, you can just pretend to be! With a nice camera, a flair for writing, a good imagination and a nice software package you can publish your tales online and share your feelings and thoughts with the world. Cookstalk! is a great example of that. We don't pretend to be great chefs or food experts, we just like to talk about food!

What's one better than just writing in a blog is knowing that you can, on occasion, have a platform out there to share not only your thoughts, but local resources available to the public as well! The Kitsap Regional Library will be hosting two cooking resource programs in November to help highlight our month's theme, which is..taa dah!..cookbooks! And while displays and bibliographies scattered about the branches will show off some of the latest and greatest book titles in our collection, my colleague and I will go one step further and not only share with you the best and brightest of our cookbook collection, but online resources, great food blogs, electronic cookbook purveours, memoirs and food focused literature, amongst a wealth of other treats and resources.

Our chat will primarily focus on "what makes a cookbook great", but know right off the bat that this program is a perfect time for show and tell, not only to show off what's great in our collection, but to give you recipe and gift ideas for the upcoming holiday season. It's one thing to go to a bookstore or an online site with a vague idea to buy something, but it's another to have a title in mind, something that you have handled and put into play. It's great to be able to buy the latest Naked Chef or Nigella tome for your friends and family, but it's another to be able to give it and recommend it because you knocked out and really loved the recipes contained therein. So check out our books, give them a test drive and see what you think! Try before you buy!

So, if you are in the mood to celebrate cookbooks and have a desire to discover some new cookbook favorites for the holidays as well, come by the Port Orchard Branch on Sunday November 2nd at 2 PM or the Sylvan Way Branch on Sunday November 23rd at 2 PM. As always, there will be freshly prepared refreshments and doorprizes, too! See you there!

Cooks Talk!

A simple marinara sauce!

All good cooks know shortcuts, or ways to get a good but simple meal to the table in minutes. good cooks know what to stock, what is essential and what they have to have on hand to pull off not only a satisfying meal but a healthy one as well.

Making a tasty tomato sauce is one of the easiest and most enjoyable kitchen experiences going. Who is not beguiled by the scent of simmering sauce, redolent with garlic and basil? Who can pass up a tasty plate of noodles and sauce, especially if it's accompanied by a nice crisp loaf of fresh bread and cool, refreshing side salad?

Savor the following NY Times article and then rush off to your pantry and get out the makings for this simple and delightfully basic sauce!

Cooks Talk!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/health/nutrition/13recipehealth.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Nice pans!

Several years ago I attended a local rummage sale and walked away with a box full of copper and Commercial pans for twelve dollars. At the time I had no idea what I had just bought. I knew nothing about pots and pans outside of the collection of cast iron and Revere Ware goods I had been using for years. I had no concept of the variety of types and styles of industrial kitchen goods outside of the occasional stainless steel utensil I would find second hand. I didn't know NSF from a hole in Swiss cheese. I just knew that those pans looked solid, were nicely built and reasonably priced. I had to have something to use along with the oodles of cookbooks I had been accumulating. No sense getting into a new recipe with all my old pots and pans when heavy duty "new" stuff would serve me even better.

Needless to say I haven't gone out and bought anything new lately, as the price of a new pot or pan can be somewhat prohibitive on a librarian's salary. I do like to look and see what's new on the market, though. And I never tire of lessons and such that make me a more savvy person in the kitchen. It would be great, I suppose, to see a brand new set of heavy stainless steel goods hanging and sparkling from my kitchen pot rack, but whenever I cook I employ those beat old masters of mine and manage to pull off some fabulous dishes. I've found that new isn't always necessary, nice as it can be.

I must say, though, that I look at purchasing cooking gear the same way I look at buying any kind of tool for the house: buy cheap and you'll replace it many times over, buy quality and you'll own it for life. And as much as I would like to own, say, a nice French ceramic cast iron casserole, I'll read up about them first and know what I'm looking for when I come across them at the next rummage sale I attend. Knowledge is power, indeed, and a nice way to save a few bucks as well!

Cooks Talk!

Great NY Times article on what to look for in a pan:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08curi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



Nice LA Times article on gadgets and gizmos to buy and pass up:

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-worthitornot8-2008oct08,0,4672867.htmlstory

Steamers!

I like rice and so does the rest of the world in all it myriad forms and types and styles. It's good with just about anything, fits itself into darn near any meal, and it pretty much one of the easiest foods to prepare. Nevertheless if you aren't paying attention you can end up with a pot of scortched rice on your hands. It's not a reflection on the cook, as it is on a number of factors: the age of the rice, the quality of the pot, the variables in the ratios of rice to liquids, preparation style among others.

The answer to those problems seems to be adding a countertop rice cooker to my kitchen tool collection. Is it a necessary item? Seems to be, if those millions of happy rice cooker users are any indication. Someday I will break down and buy a steamer. I suppose that it would cut down the occasional problems I have with scorching a pilaf or undercooking a pot of steamed rice. They are ubiquitious tools found in millions of kitchens, they cook up a perfect pot of rice time after time, can be used to pull off any number of dishes other than rice, and help to free up valuable stovetop space when you are desperate to pull off a wok full of vegetable stirfry, a pot full of curry and a pan readying itself for a round of pot stickers all at the same time!

Cooks Talk!

Nice NY Times article on steamers!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/dining/01rice.html

Cooking for the young ones

I know all about foodmills. And blendered food. I know how to steam and mash and puree just about anything. It helps to have had four kids to feed over the years. You learn not to become squeamish over pulverized spinach or majorly macerated chicken breast. It's just part of the deal to be able to deal with runny plums and very loose pumpkin and squished squash. It's all part of the bargain, and it's all to the good. A good eater is a happy eater, especially later on in life.

I found the following article out of the New York Times to be especially interesting. There's no doubt about it, living in the big city affects the way you approach eating. It's that daily exposure to new and different and interesting foods, not only familiar ethnic foods and traditional family flavors, but also those from around the world. Living in a small town has it's disadvantages. I'm always excited when a new restaurant opens up here in town, but I know that it's only a speck in the eye when it comes to the variety of flavors and cooking styles available in a major metropolitan city.

Cooking is an exciting adventure, and cooking for children should be no exception. I remember being very tuned into size and shapes of those early foods, being turned onto sensitivity issues and the like from the start. But I also knew that experiencing different foods and flavors was important. So it was a thrill to see that that writer was so tuned into contemporary ingredients, fanciful flavors and unique combinations of tastes and was willing to share them with her toddler. I grew up in a fairly mono-flavored home, and rebelled against flavors and textures and anything unique. Reading this I wished my mom was more experimental. For someone who loves to cook, it's great to see that simple yet interesting foods have finally made their way to the high chair tray.

Cooks Talk!

Interesting eating adventures for baby!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/dining/01baby.html

This Weeks gadget: Skruba Scrubbing Gloves

Sharing kitchen duties is half the fun of cooking. I don't necessarily mean just washing dishes or cleaning up after the cook, but jumping in and providing meaningful help, too, in the preparation and planning of meals. I don't know about you, but meals do not magically appear on the kitchen table in my house. There are many steps involved to get food from the supermarket to the table and it's important, both in the appreciation of the art of cooking as well as the training of youngsters, to get them in there and have them learn the basics of cooking. And while it's not always easy to make disagreeable work fun, it seems that's there's a new product out there that might make prepping vegetables a bit easier to take.

Simple, functional tools can go a long ways towards turning a hard bit of work into a pleasant task. Take Skruba gloves, for instance. You slip them on as you would any other work glove and then go after that sink full of potatoes or carrots or other root vegetables you would otherwise have to peel. As their product information states, most of the nutritive value of these types of vegetables are affectively lost when they are hit hard with a peeler. With these gloves you essentially scrub away dirt, pesticides and bacteria and leave all the nutrients on the vegetable. How grand. No messy peels in the sink, and a fun bit of action for the kids as well.

I know that you can probably do the same thing with any number of other scrubbing products that are available out there, but apparently these wash up beautifully and are built to last. I haven't seen one these gloves in action yet so can't vouch for them personally, but they look like a winning product. Seek them out and let us know what you think!

Cooks Talk!

What I would call Italian Migas

In a waste-not, want-not world learening to make the most of out our food dollar is a coming a dedicated art. It's one thing to know how to bake a wonderful sourdough boulle or know where you can buy a sublime pain de lavain in town, but it's another thing to know what to do with it when two days later you're looking hard at that pound of bread going stale before your eyes. "Is there justice in the world?" you might ask as you contemplate throwing it out. No, maybe not justice in the world's food court but you can turn it into tasty garlic croutons or make a very stylish and rustic antipasto dish, Italian Bread Salad.

Years ago I had a friend of the family who would fry up a couple onions and a handful of chopped up tortillas in oil before adding eggs to the pan. At first I couldn't quite understand why anyone would want to sully the beauty and purity of a scrambled egg. But, of course, I was the only boy in the house at the time and food dollars weren't as tight as they were in Maria's house. It was an age old device that I was being made privy to, using old starches and breadstuffs and such to stretch out a protein, but more, to make it more of a complete meal. My simplistic taste buds at the time may have thought that a side of buttered toast would be better for that scramble egg, but over time I have found many interesting rustic style recipes that have done the same and better than that simple pan of Migas. These days I can't even begin think of what soft tacos would be like without potatoes. Fried rice without a handful of leftover meats and somewhat wilted vegetables wouldn't be the same.

The ingredients to bread salad are simple, but I imagine like anything else you make you want to be sure that you start out with the best that you can afford. In many cases, that loaf you made two days ago and handful of basil you just picked from your windowsill garden should do the trick. A nice fruity olive oil and a tasty red wine vinegar are always good to have on hand, as well as a solid pepper grinder for that fresh ground black pepper taste. How much sea salt you use is up to you!

Healthy, imaginative, simple, refreshing. What more can you ask out of a salad?

Cooks Talk!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/health/nutrition/12recipehealth-1.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1221264056-+xKm0RTcYvUN6glfYYL/lg

Gleaners of the field and your local grocery stores!

Are you looking for a fresh volunteer experience, one gives you an instant return on your time and sweat investment? Are you looking for something more than just a place to sink money in your community? Want to see excess food go to where it should, like into the hands of those who need it most? Then give gleaning a try.
Over the years I have volunteered with various gleaner organizations, notably one's located in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties. I ended my last gleaning "career" as a Saturday morning Sorting Supervisor, overseeing the work of twenty voluteers who sorted through deliveries from ten supermarkets and two to three bread distribution facilities. It was good work, hard work, sometimes wretched work, but in the end pretty nice if only because we were there on hand to glean from the best breads and produce that came in for that particular shift. "Shopping" during the week was also an option, but for those of us who traveled a distance to help in the pulling, sorting and distribution of many tons of foodstuffs, once every two weeks was ample. The foods that we processed and set aside were distributed not only to local food banks, church networks and hot kitchens, but also to households and gleaner subscribers alike. It felt great keeping edible food in the pipeline, and made those fifty mile round trip drives out to Spanaway all that more worthwhile.

I was reading a new local food magazine today, titled Edible Seattle. One of the articles highlighted a local gleaning hero, Carrie Little, of Mother Earth Farm, who along with her volunteers provided 150,000 pounds of organic produce to food banks in 2007 . That was exciting enough, but the article also gave a great overview of a fantastic food distribution organization, The Emergency Food Network, located in Lakewood, Washington, who's online site has a multitude of resources for those in need as well as numerous volunteer opportunities for those who wish to help food find the needy in Pierce County.

Working for The Gleaners was for me a very moving and meaningful experience. I can't abide by food waste, not when there are so many that are hungry. If you feel a need to volunteer in the area of food redistribution, and wish to go beyond helping at your local foodbank once a year, give them a call. The best part of your effort is knowing that your energy and goodwill goes straight into the homes, pantries and refrigerators of those who need it most.

Cooks Talk!

Contact information about The Emergency Food Network:
http://www.efoodnet.org/

Thurston County has a Gleaner organization as well:

http://www.gleanerscoalition.org/

And here's information about Snohomish County's Evergreen Gleaning Association:

http://www.freewebs.com/egassociation/index.htm

Corti Brothers, Sacramento!

"Really, it's just a grocery" says Darrel Corti. So says the man who was knighted by Italy for helping to promote Italian food products and who inducted into the Culinary Institutes vinter's Hall of Fame. It's great and pretty rare to see humbleness at work in the world of food these days, let alone shop in an unassuming grocery store packed to the brim with treasures.

Up until this morning I had never heard of the Corti Brothers in Sacramento. But from what I've read they were the leading advocates of the gourmet grocery shopping back in the seventies and eighties when such a thing was a rarity. And according to the alarm that went up in the community when it became known that another gourment chain was going to taking over the site, apparently they still are.

There are many high end natural food chains available these days where you can drop in to pick up fresh, wholesome ingredients, but that can also be said for a wide variety of regular grocery stores as well. Safeway, Albertsons and Fred Meyers all have a plentiful variety of natural and gourmet foods available that would have been unthinkable ten to fifteen years ago. I think we take for granted such food stuffs as high quality olive oil, basalmic vinegar and exotic cheeses, but someone had to start the trend on the West coast and it was great to finally read about the orginal pioneers.

I know that there will always be Trader Joes for those of us with a passion for interesting foodstuffs at a low price. But for those rare imported goods and high quality items that helped to spark a food revolution, Corti Brothers on Folsome sounds like a mecca to me. I figure between a platter of The Sister's enchildas in Sacramento, a good In-N-Out cheeseburgerburger in Redding, a decent bowl of fish chowder in San Francisco and a loaf or two of Boudin's sourdough straight from the bakery at Fisherman's Wharf that a three to four day weekend gustatory tour to Northern California might be in order!

Cooks Talk!

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-corti10-2008sep10,0,968086.story

Corti Brother's web site:

http://www.cortibros.biz/

Big Mac Thrills!

"Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." One man in particular really took that jingle to heart.

23,000. To have eaten twenty three thousand of anything would be a feat, but to have eaten that number of Big Mac's over the course of 36 years is a phenomenal record. I think it's easy to enjoy the simple pleasure of a Big Mac now and again, but to consider the highlight of my day every day? More power to Don Gorske. I suppose that his taste buds are built a little bit differently than mine, that's all. So here's to the man who is both a dedicated McDonald's customer and an avid eater of one the great pop cultural burgers of all time! After reading that article I think I'll run out and grab one, too!

Cooks Talk!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080909/ap_on_fe_st/odd23000_big_macs

Latest take on the Big Mac jingle:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/16/business/adco.php

And a bit of a story about the "jingle" culled from Wikipedia:

"The Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. concept for the jingle was created by Charles Rosenberg, Creative Supervisor of the Dan Nichols team at Needham, Harper and Steers, Chicago. Originally, the ingredients appeared as a one-word heading for a McDonald's ad developed for college newspapers. The words were then set to music created by Mark Vieha, who performed the original jingle. Charlie's advertising concept was to purposely turn the ingredients into a tongue twister. The jingle first appeared in a TV commercial titled "In a Word" developed by Dan and the advertising agency team. The first run of commercials ran only a year and a half, going off the air in 1976, but its popularity remained beyond its TV life."

Calabasas and the Sagebrush Cantina

Southern California has changed many times over in the fifteen years that I've been gone, I am sure. But some things never change, and those things are the hills and valleys and mountains surrounding Calabasas, which is situated on the far north end of the San Fernando Valley. That region has always smacked of the old West, of the days when prospectors and ranchers and badmen roamed the hills and ruled the territory.

Calabasas has always been a prime place to escape to, and because of it's somewhat iconic stature, as well as it's remote and romantic location, it has attracted over the years a comfortable mix of gentry and cowboy, displaced hippie and high-rolling movie producer, all mixed together in a land that even today seems far, far removed from the pace of metropolitan Los Angeles. Put all those elements together, the hills and the sagebrush, the easy access to the ocean and natural wonders, to cosmopolitan malls and Hollywood dreams and you find yourself in a community that is a throw back to another time and a place in California history that still stands today as a first rate destination for locals and visitors alike.

Years ago, when I regularly daytripped in and out of the area, it was mandatory, especially on warm Sunday afternoons, to stop by the Sagebrush Cantina and partake in a little bit of refreshment and tuck into their all-you-can-eat brunch. It was more than just the high quality Tex-Mex food, the sawdust on the floor and the ice cold margaritas that made the place a must see. It was more than catching out of the corner of your eye the jaded showmen or the bikers or the famous faces that go to these kinds of places just to be seen. Rather, it was the combination of all of those things, along with the sun spilling through the California oaks in the late afternoons, the piquant sage smell wafting off the hills, the ample portions that made their way to the table and the wild, wooley comraderie that only a place were everyone feels safe and comfortable and themselves that made this restaurant and bar a legend. I only remember good times there, and apparently, according to the article tagged on below, there are still plenty of good times to be had.

It has been many years since I've been to the Sagebrush Cantina but apparently some places, like the hills and valleys and mountains surrrounding it, are timeless. Happy days for all of us. Be sure to stop in on your next visit to LA. You'll be happy you did.

Cooks Talks!

http://www.latimes.com/theguide/events-and-festivals/la-et-neighborhoods2-2008sep02,0,2771038.story

Brave new world of cookbooks!

Oh, the joys of holiday cooking! There was a time when searching for a holiday recipe at home was a casual affair, casual only because there was usually just one cookbook in the house to choose from. That sole title was the family standard, the all-in-one kitchen bible that set the tone for our food tastes and helped build family traditions for both holiday and weekday meals alike. In those days that lone, cherished cookbook tended to be passed down from generation to generation, marked up, and liberally stained from years of use in the kitchen. The key component to that hallowed tome was trust, and that trust was based on the number of recipes made, eaten and enjoyed out of it by our families over the years.

There is no reason why anyone would want to have just one cookbook to choose from anymore. Depending on your food tastes and level of expertise, there are quite a few places where you can now go to find inspiration that’ll get you excited about being in the kitchen again. The internet, of course, is a gourmet’s paradise, teaming with specialty food and cooking sites, but it’s the brave new world of cookbook publishing that’s made being a casual cook so exciting these days.

Gone are the days when it was difficult to track down authentic regional or ethnic food recipes. Gone, too, are those “old fashioned” cookbooks packed solid from front to back with text. Colorful photographs and graphical playfulness rule the cookbook aisles these days, supporting an array of titles packed with outrageously authoritative, tasty, tested recipes from around the world.

So, need some mealtime inspiration but don’t know where to start? The Kitsap Regional Library is here to help. Our cookbook collection is burgeoning with hundreds of titles, from the most basic and practical, such as The Joy of Cooking and Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book to inspired vegetarian classics such as The New Laurel's Kitchen to solid upscale fare such as The Gourmet Cookbook. These practical titles have been around for years, have gone through multiple printings and revisions, and have helped many a home cook through many a kitchen trial. Have a hankering for something "homemade" and straight out of your past? Check out one of those titles and you're bound to find some old family favorites or regional standards you’ve always wanted to try.

There are a number of reasons for the blossoming of the cookbook industry: easy access to once rare ingredients, in-home gourmet kitchens, inexpensive travel, cooking shows, celebrity chefs and a proliferation of ethnic restaurants. The Food Network, Martha Stewart and magazines such as Sunset, Cooking Light and Bon Appetit have also contributed to the boom and we are all happier because of it.

Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries and Donna Hay's Instant Entertaining are examples of today’s colorful and imaginative trend of cookbook publishing. Both authors are well known for their conversational writing, their food prep simplicity, but also for their immimicable style, love of presentation and keen knowledge of food. Both Donna and Nigel's cookbooks are breezy, casual and filled with recipes that are easy to make yet represent the wholesomeness and freshness of many of the world's great cuisines.

Looking for something a bit more specialized? Need a good barbecue book to test out that new grill? Take a look at Peace, Love and Barbeque by Mike Mills. Need a solid primer for vegetable cooking, one that will introduce some new tastes and flavors into your life but cut out the guesswork? Give The Best Vegetable Recipes by the Editors of Cooking Illustrated a try. Maybe you’re looking for some connoisseur quality bread recipes that will yield you artisan style loaves. Then Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery is the book for you.
Maybe a bit of ethnic cuisine is what your holiday cooking repertoire needs to spice it up. For a homespun touch of Europe seek out titles by Lidia M. Bastianich, such as Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen for sound recipe advice, or for a tour of French food that won’t intimidate give Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris a whirl.

If true Mexican regional cooking done with an artistic flair is what you are after, then look up Fonda San Miguel for some interesting south of the border excitement done Santa Fe style. Lastly, if what you are after is the latest in "fusion" food, then look no further than Babette de Rozieres' Creole. The delightful photos and book design are flashy in and of themselves, but it’s the incredible Caribbean recipes that make this book a “must see”.

The holidays are here, and it’s time to experience new dishes and enjoy old family favorites. Stop by your local branch library and take a peek into some of those old cookbooks from out of your past. Then, if you dare, take the culinary high road and start some new traditions by picking up some fresh, invigorating ideas from a new cookbook today. You, your family and your friends will be happy that you did.

Rombauer, Irma von Starkloff: Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary, Scribner, 2006
Robertson, Laurel: The New Laurel's Kitchen: a Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition: Ten Speed Press, 1986.
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 2005
Reichl, Ruth: The Gourmet Cookbook, Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Hay, Donna: Instant Entertaining, Ecco, 2006
Slater, Nigel: The Kitchen Diaries, Gotham Books, 2006
Silverton, Nancy: Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery,Villard, 1996

Garten, Ina: Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Really Make at Home, Clarkston Potter, 2004.
Gilliland, Tom and Ravago, Miguel: Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art, Shearer Publishing, 2005
Editors of Cook's Illustrated: The Best Vegetable Recipes, America's Test Kitchen, 2007
Mills, Mike: Peace, Love and Barbeque: Recipes, Secrets, Tall Tales and Outright Lies from the Legends of Barbeque, Rodale, 2005
de Roziere, Babette: Creole: The Original Fusion cuisine-from the culinary hertiage of the Caribbean, blending Asian, African, Indian and European traditions, Phaidon Press, 2007
Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio: Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen, Alfred A. Knopf, 2001

Cooks Talk!

Say it isn't so, cupcake!

The New York Times today reported that we may have hit the tipping point with commercial grade cupcakes. Personally I know that to hit a tipping point with a tray of cupcakes would be a disaster, but as for the industry, who knows? Boutique cupcakes are the rage, are pretty and are pretty expensive, much moreso than their late pal the bagel. Pretty much everyone likes sweets, and what's there not to like about a cupcake?

The article also mentioned Krispy Kreme donuts in the same breath, but, really, who can look at donuts and cupcakes in the same way? I know that I can always make a mighty fine cupcake at home, even if they aren't as pretty as their 5th Avenue cousins. But a donut the quality and calibre of a Krispy Kreme? How can I even begin to compete? Hmm, maybe by pulling together a couple dozen recipes and investing in a deep fat fryer? Sam, I think I smell the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Cooks Talk!

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/will-cupcakes-be-the-next-krispy-kreme/index.html?hp

Gadget of the week!

I think it's safe to say we all love buttered corn. Some like it out of the can, others like it from the frozen food section. But when you get a cob right off the stalk, fresh out of a pot of boiling water, served up with oodles of butter and salt, well, I think that's about as sublimb a summer experience as you can get.

Sometimes it's handy to have tools around that make messy work a little easier. This week's one piece stainless steel tool looks to be a little safer to have around that corn cob than a chef's knife, and looks to be a lot more fun to use than a boily bag when you need fresh kernals for cornbread or chowder. Have a need to own it? It's called the Corn Zipper, and it's available through Crate and Barrel.

Cooks Talk!

Crate and Barrel's site and pricing information for the Corn Zipper:
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=746&f=27451

Someone else thinks kindly of this tool, too:
http://happymundane.blogspot.com/2007/06/corn-zipper.html

Wine snobs need not apply!

Good wine is everywhere to be found. Look in the least likely places, such as discount supermarkets, drugstores and bargain merchants and you're bound to find a number of interesting and wonderful deals, cut outs and long lost treats and value treasures. But what is even better is that there are a number of vinters out there that know that there is a demand for something more than just plonk in a jug, but rather, tasty wines at a good price.

Value is important when it comes to stretching out a food dollar, but what matters even more is quality. There is nothing worse than opening a bottle of wine with friends and finding out, from that first sip, that was you thought was a good deal was, in the end, a real dog. The following article will help direct you to a nice line up of 2007 varietals from the Yakima Valley. Someday a field trip is in order to see this place first hand, but for the time a chat your local grocer or wine shop merchant should be enough to help you find the wines mentioned.

Cooks Talk!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/wineadviser/2008153948_winecol03.html

Three hot titles from the stacks!

I went to the stacks the other day to find a book for a patron that needed to be somewhat new and exciting and have a lot of ethnic vegetarian recipes in it. It was great to find her something that she liked, and afterwards I decided to go back and pull a few more books off the shelf that I hadn't seen for awhile or ones that had hidden themselves away from me. The three I pulled all sit together rather nicely, as they are beautifully designed and handsome as a set. And while they represent three different types and styles of cooking, one could mix and match recipes from them and come up with some very exciting menus.

Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World/Gil Marks/Wiley Publishing, 2005. There aren't as many Jewish cookbooks on the shelves as I would like to see. Many are less than ethnic and more American in style and taste, an assimilation of styles of home cooking that leave the diner or the cook less than satisfied and wondering if all the recipes that they are finding are typical or stereotypical in nature. Olive Trees and Honey takes us on a world wide tour of Jewish cooking and makes it unique in two ways: one, these recipes are all vegetarian, and two, they are approached from a larger, global, decidedly ethnic point of view.

The recipes focus not only on festival and Sabbath foods found in all Jewish communities, but also on foods shaped by the various regions and groups Jews have melded with. The recipes that we think of today as Jewish food have been altered and synthesized from these unique recipes and far flung regions, and yet, as you go through this fascinating overview, you find yourself wondering why so much of it has been "lost" up till now. Lost to us here in the United States, mostly, but still. Indulge in this title and you will find foods that are Sephardic, Mediterrean, Israeli and Ashkenazim as well.

Within these pages you'll find exquisite recipes like Romanian Stuffed Mushrooms, Middle Eastern Stuffed Zucchini in Yogurt Sauce, Moroccan Spicy Chickpeas, Azerbaijani Rice Pilaf, Czech Bread Dumplings, Italian Eggplant Relish, Central European Cabbage Strudel, Yeminite Baked Flaky Rolls and Shephardic Leek and Cheese Casserole. These foods come from 'round the world and will be a welcome break from traditional deli foods that we associate with urban Jewish cooking. Look up this title soon and be amazed at what "real" Jewish cooking is all about.

Seductions of Rice: a Cookbook/Jeffery Alford and Naomi Duguid/Artisan, 1998. This duo continues to amaze me with their wonderful titles. Each one is a treasure, filled with fantastic photographs, incredible recipes and seductive travelogue. This particular title is one of their first, with a primer chapter up front covering all the basics one needs to know about all the various types and forms of rice found 'round the world, and then a world wide overview of rice as it's used and prepared in various lands. As you might expect there is an extensive section on rice as it's used in Asia, but recipes out of Africa, North America and the Mediterranean are eye opening and tasty as well.

I've enjoyed this book so much that I've personally owned and given away three copies of this book to friends and family. And it's easy to, with dishes such as Stir-fried Shrimp Kerala Style, Lamb and Peanut Stew, Hoppin' John with a Side of Peas, Aromatic Rice Pudding, Gobindavog Rice from Calcutta, Thai Red Curry Paste and Three Quick Dashi Broths, a quintessential broth out of Japan. Be sure to check out their other titles as well, as each one builds on the one before it. They just keep getting better and better.

Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art/Tom Gilliland and Miguel Ravago, Text by Virginia B. Wood, Foreword by Diana Kennedy/Shearer Publishing, 2005. I like the way that cookbooks are heading these days. Yes, I understand that there are reasons to have cookbooks on the shelves packed solid with print and recipes, ones just like The Joy of Cooking, and then there are good reasons for large, oversized, thick-n-glossy publications to be on the shelves that not only glorify and "paint" food in a beautiful light, but also bring you into a world where food and culture and art all come together and make a glorious synergistic experience out of food, enticing you and encouraging you to get up off the couch and make your way into the kitchen.

This particular title sings praises about art and at the same time tells the tale of dedicated folks working together to bring to you unique and long lost foods in beautiful surroundings. Many of the recipes are twists on old Mexican traditionals, but for many these recipes will be unique and satifying as they are more regional than what folks expect in a Tex-Mex border recipe saturated world. Take, for instance, a Fonda San Miguel signature dish, Pollo en Mole de Zarzamoras, Chicken in Blackberry Mole. That dish could easily become your own signature dish here in the Pacific Northwest in the summer time. I certainly plan on making it mine!

Cooks talk!

Ginko inspired lemon squeezer!

I have a galvanized tin Mexican lime squeezer in my
gadget drawer at home. I put it to work last week when I needed some lime juice for a marinade. That squeezer works like a charm every time but the sprayback of the lime juice into the eyes can be a bit of a drag.

I wasn't looking for this tool but I think that this might be one I might want to seek it out, if anything just to try it out the next time I need a little lemon juice to go along with a nice salmon dinner or want a bit of lime juice for a small bowl of Pico de Gallo. The design is gorgeous and the space it takes up must be minimal. Seek it out and tell me where you found it if you find it first. I'd also love to see a comment here if you have one and have a tale to tell about it.

Cooks talk!

http://www.busyboo.com/2007/11/01/kitchen-gadgets-lemon/

Wonderful gifts and gadgets for giving!

Bridal registries are a wonderful thing. They help to take the guess work out on what to give someone on their very special day. What amazes me is the amount of gear and gadgets it takes to set up a really nice, functional kitchen these days. It's not always possible to know what someone might or might not already have in their home, hence the blessed relief of seeing a lists of wants and needs when you're ready to shop for wedding gifts.

The Seattle Times put out a very nice, locally focused article on what's hot this summer to give to those newlyweds in your life, or just good, sensible, fun gifts to give for housewarmings, graduations and the like. The suggestions are sound, the style and quality looks fabulous and number of them look to be an awful lot of fun to own and operate. I think I would like to find my way back onto a registry sometime soon just so I can look forward to recieving some of the nifty products listed below!

Cooks Talk!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2008053428_giftregistry16.html

Burger ooh-la-la!

“It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said Hélène Samuel, a restaurant consultant here. “Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it.”

What does everyone want in Paris these days? A hamburger. I've eaten them all my life and never thought of myself as subversive, but if I ever take a trip to France I can truly let my anarchic flag fly. It's truly a foodlover's world when one of the basics of American style "cuisine" has hit the bigtime in the tonier restaurants of Paris, and basic French peasant foods like Coq au Vin are made in humble, copper potted, granite counter topped kitchens in the suburbs of Seattle.

Burgers as the ultimate in forbidden foods. Who would have guessed? After reading this I think it's time for In-N-Out burger to think about expanding it's territory, not up here to Washington but to France. They need to show those Parisian chefs what a real hamburger is all about! And how would you say "I'd like a Double Double with Cheese" in French, anyway?

Cooks Talk!


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/dining/16paris.html

Great Chef!

Cooking shows and bookstores all crow the greatness of "great" chefs. Almost anyone with a modicum of talent, a handful of nice pots and pans, great cheekbones and a pushy agent can get acclaim. But think about all the great restaurants you've eaten at that haven't been given a five-star rating but have been incredible to the point of being legendary, think of all the great cooks in your family who have never had a cooking show on The Food Network and who never will yet were stellar, knock-your-socks-off kind of cooks. I think it's the great unsung "heroes" of the cooking world that make eating and sharing talk about food such a pleasure. Such it is about this man, Dave Pearson, a chef to the greats of the Dodger world in Los Angeles. There can't be anything better than a cook with humility, especially one who can make a mean batch of fried chicken to boot!

Cooks Talk!
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-me-lopez13-2008jul13,0,1291180.column

This week's languishing cookbooks!

In this world one cannot have enough cookbooks.

I read cookbooks like others read novels. I have a stack of both by my bed but for the moment, reading fiction, at least until my book group resumes in the fall, is just not grabbing me. That's almost heresy for a librarian to say that, but at least my nose is stuck in a book, even if it's "just" a cookbook.

I like to buy cookbooks because I tend to trash them. Not a good policy if you are borrowing them. But if you are not in the mood or are inclined to purchase cookbooks the way I do, then the local public library stacks is still a great place to review titles and try out recipes before you add a title or three to your own personal collection. On occasion I like to use the library's collection as a testing place, a place to not only come across new recipes to taste but a place where I can "taste" new words, learn new techniques, get a sense of an author's or cook's version of the food world. It's a cheaper practice that schlepping down to Borders each time I want to try out a new recipe. And it's certainly alot more fun than hitting up the 'net.

But first and foremost, in order for a book to walk out of the branch with me it has to fill a need: topic, illustration, photography, layout, writing style. There are lots of reasons for picking up a fresh title, I know, but something has to be there in the first place to draw you in. Make you want to stop, read through it and say "man, that sounds tasty! Gotta check this one out!"

Take, for instance, the following title. Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie/Ken Haedrich/Harvard Common Press, 2004. We're now deep into summer. Many you out there have gardens and trees that are producing or are heading towards producing a bumper crop of delicious fruits and vegetables for your table. Maybe you like to visit a local farmer's markets on the weekends, or tend to occasionally head out of town to pick up boxes of fruit from orchards or farms, and wonder, in the end, what to do with all that fresh picked fruit.

Pie is a title ripe for your summer wanderings, full of ideas on how to capitalize not only on the fresh fruits of summer but those stored ones of fall and winter, too. Berry, cherry and pear pies. Cheese, nut, fried and ice cream pies. Pies with names like Strawberry-Raspberry Mint Pie, Georgia Orcutt's Thanksgiving Dried Fruit Pie, Chocolate Lava Pies, Watermelon Chiffon Pie, Black Bottom Ricotta Cheese Pie and many, many more. There is a full sections on crusts and pastries, turnovers, freezer pies and the like. Very user friendly, nice selection of photographs and plenty of tips they call "recipes for success" at the end of each recipe to ensure that your pies will turn out awesome.

Some titles just have to find their way into your own personal collection after one viewing. I found a copy A Tale of 12 Kitchens: Family Cooking in Four Countries/Jake Tilson, foreword by Nancy Harmon Jenkins/Artisan, 2006 last summer at my local branch library, and within a week of returning it knew I had to have it for my own. My local independent bookseller had a copy on the shelf and I was only too happy to part with my hard earned dollars for the pleasure of owning it. This title is not one that I would qualify as a cookbook as much as it is a coffee table cooking memoir. It's not only one family's history of cooking and food and travel, but it's an overview of life in Britain in the seventies, Scotland in the eighties, as well as life and travels in Italy, New York and California. The book is a veritable scrapbook of cooking ephemera, full of snapshots of food, family, restaurants and places that I long to see and experience in the way that Jake Tilson made seem so friendly and appealling. One peak into his restaurant supply house experience had me pouring through my local yellow pages to set up something similar here.

But to be sure there are recipes here, too: A turkey mole rojo recipe out of California, Kailkenny, a regional Scottish potato/cabbage dish, E Train Cherry Cola Roast Ham from New York, Slow Cooked Rabbit in Porcini Sauce (Conglio con Panna Porcini) from Tuscany and Bigo's Polish Hunters Stew. All sound wonderful and look easy to make, but face it, cooking takes second place here. It's a museum, a travelogue, a catalog and a snapshot into a food loving family's life, all rolled into one.

The Book Club Cookbook: Receipes and Food for Thought From Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors/Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp/Penguin, 2004

I love my bookgroup. I love to share titles with friends and suggest books to patrons when they're looking for a new and interesting read. What is wonderful about this book is that it ties a specific recipe to a particular title, which I can see would be handy if you are hosting your bookgroup and you wanted to make something special for them to nosh on that month. This title contains synopses of a wide variety of books, ranging from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird, to The Killer Angels and The Good Earth. For instance, Love in the Time of Cholera is matched with Mango, Jicama and Corn Salad, while The Bonesetter's Daughter is fixed up Fountain Court Eggplant Sauteed with Fresh Basil. I'm looking forward to a having a Pumpkin Biscuit while reading Seabiscuit, or maybe snacking on Mozzarella Sticks while I'm being Nicked and Dimed. Each chapter also chronicles different bookgroups around the nation, all with their own take on what makes a bookgroup great.

Food and books. What better combination?

Cooks Talk!

This week's wacky kitchen gadget!

Gadgets-a-go-go!

Cheese graters are easy to spot and figure out, especially if they look like great big chunks of cheese and are designed by Stanislav Katz http://www.stanislavkatz.com/ . But this week's kitchen toy is especially interesting, especially if you are pasta challenged! Ever take a fork to a spoon in a mess of spaghetti and twirl it around, hoping to make an impression on your date, only to get a inexplicable fist sized mound of pasta on your fork instead? Ever wonder if there was a device out there that would help you spin while you carried on a conversation so you wouldn't have to concentrate so hard on what you were assembling on your plate?

Well, pasta fans, you are in luck. Hog Wild has taken all the thrills and chills out of whirling spaghetti and placed it firmly in control of their Hog Wild Twirling Spaghetti Fork. Easy to operate, simple to store, with one of these in hand you will be a smash hit at The Olive Garden or your favorite Italian restaurant!

Cooks Talk!

http://www.shopatron.com/product/product_id=HGW10475/208.0

The Treat Trucks of New York

It's summertime, you're outdoors playing and suddenly you hear that sweet tinkling sound that tells you right away that the local ice cream truck is in the neighborhood. But what if your neighborhood truck served up creme brulee or chocolate eclairs instead? Wouldn't that be something worth chasing down? The article below will give you a glimpse into the serrendipidous sweet snack life of New Yorkers. What a thrill. Another reason to move to the East Coast!

Cooks Talk!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09unde.html

"10 Best Foods You Aren't Eating"

What's wonderful about reading the food sections of the big city newspapers here in Port Orchard is knowing that one, I'll find great reviews for wonderful restaurants that, more than likely, I'll never get a chance to eat at in this lifetime, and two, I'll come across recipes from a wild variety of ethnic groups and regions that I might otherwise miss.

Another thing that comes along with big city newspapers is exposure to a large pool of fellow readers. With the coming of the internet and blogging most newspaper articles and blog posts are now open to commentary. Take, for example, this article that I found in the New York Times a few days ago. It's a basic wellness article on different kinds of foods that are good for you, that you should find fairly easy on your supermarket shelves and that you need to incorporate into your diet for good health. Well, the article was short, which made it easy to clip and save in my wallet. But the comments! My! It was at 190 the day I saved the article for this post. Amazing. Alot of the commentary was in agreement with the author, but like an article I read recently on The 100 Most Important Books You Must Read it wasn't so much the article that thrilled, it was the lists and suggestions from hundreds of people with their own viewpoints on what I need to eat in order to live a better, healthier life.

With that list in hand I suppose it's possible to do just that. Incorporating cinnamon and cabbage and prunes into my life should be easy enough. Beets, well, the jury is out on them but if the doctor says so I'll give them a go in a salad. Let's take along that list to the market, pop those other things into my cart, take them home and stuff them in my pantry. Anything to help make my cooking more interesting is always fine by me. But more than that, anything I can build into my diet that will help my health along is a wonderful plus not only for me but for those around me that will get to hear a bit of healthy commentary out of me, too!

Cooks Talk!

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/?em&ex=1214971200&en=49df7aef9ad8754e&ei=5087%0A

Interesting new cooking tool of the week!

It's no secret that I love to troll cooking supply houses and second hands and always come across a tool or a widget or a gizmo I haven't seen or used before. It's usually after the fact that I find out that I really want it or need it and then come to find when I go back to seek it out that it's gone.

The kitchen world is full of tools, many of them too focused on a task to be of any real use, but then again, some things are totally indispensible and are tools we can't live without. Sometimes we find that out afterwards, like when I came across a Rabbit knockoff wine bottle opener. I have had dozens of wine openers in my life but nothing opens a bottle of wine like that tool!

Then again, there are things like those rubber jar grips that I'm always scouting around for when I have pickle jar that doesn't want to give. I find that a rubber kitchen glove or even a gentle tap of the jar lid on the countertop and a damp rag will do it. We tend to get obsessed with tools, believing that with the right tool we'll be able to pull off the perfect meal. Sometimes all it takes is a quality chef's knife, a seasoned cast iron pan, a Swing-away manual can opener, a sauce pot and a handful of fresh ingredients. But try to tell that to the man with the food processor or the gal with a new full set of Caphalon pots and pans. We love our toys and if we're good to them they'll love us back for a good long time in the form of great meals and long use.

So, what I'll do is this: I'll find the tool and then it'll be up to you to tell me what it is. I'll maybe throw in a clue or two but the rest is up to you. I'll let you know next week what it is and what it does before I share a new one with you. Okay, here's an easy one. See you next week!

Cooks talk!

This week's cookbook finds!

We live a very spoiled life here in Port Orchard. Every week brand new cookbooks come into our lives. Some are spectacular, some are stupendous, some make me want to race home and fire up the stove to make wonderful and delicious things. But with this plethora of new cookbooks coming at us almost daily, that means that there are countless thousands of titles languishing on our library shelves,and if not here, on shelves of local big box bookstores and second hands alike. I am here to help fill in the gap between the brand spanking new and the books that are calling out to be seen, appreciated and used.

This week, in setting up a bibliography for a cooking resource class we will be holding later on this year, I came across three very nice looking titles. They represent three different types of cooking, are all fairly new, all slightly compact and lacking of gloss. But what they lack in "WOW" they give back in value, quality, incredible recipes and style.

The Produce Bible: essential ingredient information and more than 200 recipes for fruits, vegetables, herbs and nuts by Leanne Kitchen, forward by Deborah Kitchen,
Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2007

We can all use a good guide to vegetables around the house, if anything to take us out of that midweek rut that says that we can throw a salad or some steamed brocolli at the troops and everything will be alright. Take a cruise though your local supermarket or your local farmer's market and you might see a few or dozens of mysterious fruits and vegetables that you've never tasted or ever seen. Some may have landed in your crisper but languished and then turned into science experiments only because you didn't know what to do with them!

Leanne Kitchen's Produce Bible will help you out with that problem. This books is filled beautiful photographs, information on use, selection and storage, varieties and preparation of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and nuts. It is very user friendly, a guide that will help you feel good about using rutabaga and kumquats, okra and lemongrass, rhubarb and pomegranates again, or even for the first time. Highly recommended for beginners, but an asset for those cooks who want or need a refresher course in locally grown produce.

Recipes to try right away: Finnish Cream-baked Casserole, Pear Tarte Tatin, Sweet Potato Ravioli, Tsatsiki and Rhubarb and Apple Upside Down Cake.

Bake Until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Cookbook by Clifford A. Wright, Wiley, 2008

There's nothing quite like coming home and opening the door and smelling that smell that only a bubbling hot casserole can produce. It's a combination of the senses..the heat as hits your chilled face, the way that your nose perks up to the scents of hot, bubbling cheese, the withering assault to your work fatiqued brain knowing you will soon engage your other senses..taste, sight and sound, when you spoon out a heaping portion of casserole and spoon it into your mouth and sigh. What a treat that can be.

So let it happen tonight or today or this week in your home. Clifford Wright's Bake Until Bubbly is a utilitarian compilation of recipes. Don't expect colorful photographs or how to illustrations here. This is a phone book sized cookbook chock full of the standards we all love, like Macaroni and Cheese and Stuffed Rigatoni, but also new and exciting recipes for dishes like Sausage, Red Bean and Apple Casserole, or Potato, Bacon and Gruyere Casserole, or that old Cape Cod favorite, Kedgeree. There are recipes here that you won't find elsewhere, such as Karelian Hot Pot or Tuscan inspired Roasted Vegetables of the Full Moon. It's full of ideas for leftovers, innovative in use of things you need to use up and turn into something else. Isn't that what casseroles are all about? Reinventing and recombining foods and turning them into fantastic new dishes?

The Border Cookbook: Authentic Home Cooking of The American Southwest and Northern Mexico by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison, foreword by Mark Miller, Harvard Common Press, 1995

Is there such a thing as too many good Mexican food cookbooks? We are a nation addicted to Tex Mex, to cheesy, saucey and overly prepared foods lacking in spice, originality and freshness. We come away from all too many Mexican eateries without really tasting Mexican cuisine. Not that I'm complaining, but there's a world of flavors to be tried out there. Why not make some of them at home? Well, make them at home providing you have access to some fairly unusual ingredients, that is.

The Border Cookbook by the Jamisons is not only James Beard award winner but it's a mighty fine cookbook as well. The illustrations are sparce, but it is thorough and concise, friendly and nicely laid out. The recipes range from appetizers to desserts, and use all manner of ingredients you'll find in bigger supermarkets, larger cities and in smaller tiendas in the barrios of your communities. Be sure to try out the Green Corn Tamales, Sonoran Menudo Blanco, the classic Chiles en Nogada and a simple, unpretentious pot of Frijoles de Olla. Be sure to follow up those toothsome recipes with some tasty and easy to prepare desserts. Try your hand at fried Bunuelos with syrup, or Sopaipillas with honey butter, the Mexican bread pudding Capirotada or even a simple flan.

So take a look in one of these delightful books or take a peek in some of the many hundreds of other titles we have available in our catalog. The recipes will not confound you, they will console you and will happily send you straight into the kitchen to prepare many delicious things to amaze and delight your friends and family

Cooks talk!

Farmer's Markets in Kitsap County

Having plenty of fresh ingredients on hand are a hallmark of every great cooking experience. As produce is concerned, the closer you can get to the source, the more flavorful and nutritious your vegetables will be. Why go to a grocery store during the spring, summer and fall months when you can cook with the seasons at one of your local farmer's markets?



Every Saturday from mid-spring through mid-fall you'll find a farmer's market in the parking lot right behind the Port Orchard Branch library. Not only will you find an abundance of locally grown produce, but there are all sorts of other treats and treasures to be found: fresh baked goods from local bakeries, flowers of all kinds at very reasonable prices, trees and plants, locally produced folk art and plenty of vendors with tasty foods of the world.

Port Orchard's Farmer's Market is only one of many in the county and the region. Take a look at the link provided below to find out where the closest farmer's market is to you. I am certain you will find the change of taste worth the effort!

Cooks talk!

http://kitsap.wsu.edu/ag/markets.htm#market

http://www.pofarmersmarket.org/Vendors.html

Cookbook bestsellers!

Kitsap Regional Library has a wonderful tool for you to use if you are fond of cookbooks. We have an ongoing Bestsellers list that is attached to our online catalog. Take a look at the cookbook list. Not only will you find a wide variety of award winners listed but we also provide a link to let you know where it can be found in our collection. Need something off the Beard or Kitchenaid award winners list? Take a look in our catalog and place one on hold today!

Cooks Talk!

http://kitcat.krl.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/b61KPhTcna/SYLVAN/0/49