Books, Beverages, and Bites

Cup of coffee on book. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/105_264745/1/105_264745/cite. Accessed 8 Jul 2017.

Seems like almost everyone can relate to the cozy feeling of curling up with a good book and a delicious drink. Whether it be coffee, tea, or something a bit stronger, there's really nothing better than sipping while you read. That's why I was jazzed when I came across Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist by Tim Federle -- a recipe book that shares my love of cocktails, mocktails, and even snacks while simultaneously pairing them with some fantastic reads. As an added bonus, the drinks and treats are named with fantastic puns. Prepping for a book club would be especially convenient with many popular titles and hilarious drink name combinations like One Flew Over the Cosmo's Nest (p. 15) and Fahrenheit 151 (p. 97).

And if you happen to enjoy a good movie as well, you'll be pleased to know that Federle has that covered, too. Gone With The Gin: Cocktails with a Hollywood Twist is his follow-up recipe book which adds the same delicious twist of pairing beverages and foods with popular and classic movies. 

Whether you're hosting a book club, movie night, or just gearing up to enjoy some alone time, there's something for everyone. It's not just Tim Federle, either. I've found a few other entertainment and literary recipe books through my curiosity and hope you get as much enjoyment from them as I have!

Movie Night Menus: Dinner and Drink Recipes Inspired by Films We Love by Tenaya Darlington

To Have And Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion by Phillip Greene

Cocktails for Book Lovers by Tessa Smith-McGovern

Teatime

Tea party. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/132_1252872/1/132_1252872/cite. Accessed 20 Jan 2017.

Last month was National Hot Tea Month, and that got us thinking - how much do we know about tea? Between types of tea (green, black, white) and types of tea service (afternoon tea, royal tea, cream tea), it's a lot more than just pouring boiling water over your teabag in a cup. There is a whole complicated etiquette if you are taking tea, more so if you are preparing it! And what about the long and winding road that is the history of tea?

The library catalog can help. We have recipes for teatime! We have books about varieties of teas! We have books that discuss tea's (sometimes unsavory, pun intended) place in culture.We even have a book for those tea-loving knitters assured enough to make their own cosies for teapots and books to read to your children about taking tea, so you can inspire a new generation of tea aficionados. And, if you want tea party inspiration, we highly recommend the Vintage Tea Party books by Angel Adoree of London's Vintage Patisserie. The recipes will make you drool, and the crafts are delightful, even if, like us, you never have the time to recreate her magical tea wonderland.

For Adults

The Vintage Tea Party Year by Angel Adoree

Afternoon Tea at Home by Will Torrent 

The Art of Tea and Friendship: Savoring the Fragrance of Time Together With Paintings by Sandy Lynam Clough 

The Afternoon Tea Collection 

Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties by Kevin Gascoyne ... [et al.].  

Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire by Roy Moxham

The Art and Craft of Tea: An Enthusiast's Guide to Selecting, Brewing, and Serving Exquisite Tea by Joseph Wesley Uhl

Homegrown Tea: An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes by Cassie Liversidge 

How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior 

The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss 

Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery by Rose Carrarini 

For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose

The Green Tea User's Manual by Helen Gustafson 

Tea-Cup Reading, and Fortune-Telling By Tea-Leaves by a Highland seer

    

For Children 

Fancy Nancy Tea Parties by Jane O'Connor

Tea Ceremony by Shozo Sato

Tea Rex by Molly Idle  

Mad Hatter's Tea Party by Jane Werner 

Tea for Ruby by Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York 

Tea For Me, Tea For You by Laura Rader 

Teatime With Emma Buttersnap by Lindsey Tate

Tea With Grandpa by Barney Saltzberg 

Tea Party Rules by Ame Dyckman 

How To Behave At a Tea Party by Madelyn Rosenberg  

Tea Party Today: Poems To Sip and Savor by Eileen Spinelli 

Pinkalicious: The Royal Tea Party by Victoria Kann 

A Royal Tea by Debbie Dadey

There are many locations in Albuquerque to take tea - the St. James Tearoom was featured the other day in Huffington Post, but you can also enjoy a cuppa at Hadley's Tea, the Ivy Tearoom, the Fragrant Leaf, and Figments Tea Shoppe and Gallery. 

     

FSA Photography, The Works Progress Administration, and the New Deal

Contrary to popular association, photography was not the primary work of the Farm Security Administration. The FSA was a New Deal agency designed to combat rural poverty during a period when the agricultural climate and national economy were causing great dislocations in rural life. The photographers who worked under the name of the FSA were hired on for public relations; they were supposed to provide visual evidence that there was need, and that the FSA programs were meeting that need. Beyond serving this institutional image, the photographers were to document aspects of "the American way of life" that caught their eye. This looser and farther-reaching mission ultimately accounted for the vast file of photographs (over 80,000 black and white images) that is now considered one of the most famous documentary photography projects ever.
~Juliet Gorman 

We have long had an interest in the Great Depression and the New Deal - perhaps early exposure to the musical Annie is to blame, or we got too caught up in the drama of 1999's Cradle Will Rock, or we saw Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" photograph at an impressionable age. But when New Deal Photography: USA 1935-1943  rolled across our desk one day, we thought now might be a good time to delve deeper into this topic!

Recently we were at Roosevelt Park in southeast Albuquerque and noted its sign:

We had never before considered how the New Deal had touched New Mexico - in fact, had touched all the states, if the amount of  WPA state guides in the library catalog are anything to go on. But what was it, exactly? We had always thought of the Works Progress Administration (sometimes called the Works Project Administration) in terms of the murals, posters, and the photography. But  that was just the tip of the iceberg, we discovered.

The WPA was created in 1935 as a work project for the unemployed. There were 11 million unemployed in 1934 and the WPA put 8 million of them to work, constructing roads, creating parks, building public buildings, bridges, and airports, and, as the Federal Arts Project, Federal Writers' Project, and Federal Theater Project, entertaining. There was even an arm of the WPA responsible for finding part-time jobs for youth. Critics of the program called it " a device for creating a huge patronage army loyal to the Democratic Party," and that the work it created was unnecessary; Harry Hopkins, one of FDR's advisers, believed  “giv[ing] a man a [handout]… you save his body and destroy his spirit. [But by giving] him a job… you save both body and spirit.” The WPA only endured 8 years, ending in 1943 with some charges of mismanagement and with the employment boom of the wartime years.

For more about the WPA, the Farm Security Administration (also created in 1935, to fight rural poverty - many famous Depression-era photographers got their start in this branch of the New Deal), and how they affected New Mexico, consider checking out one of the items from the library catalog listed below.

Russell Lee's FSA Photographs of Chamisal and Peñasco, New Mexico  edited by William Wroth 

Pie Town Revisited by Arthur Drooker 

Gordon Parks  introduction by Paul Roth 

Bound For Glory: America in Color, 1939-43  introduction by Paul Hendrickson 

Official Images: New Deal Photography by Pete Daniel ... [et al.]  

Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon 

Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning [DVD]

The Food of a Younger Land: A Portrait of American Food - Before the National Highway System, Before Chain Restaurants, and Before Frozen Food, When the Nation's Food Was Seasonal, Regional, and Traditional - From the Lost WPA Files edited and illustrated by Mark Kurlansky 

America Eats!: On the Road With the WPA - The Fish Fries, Box Supper Socials, and Chitlin Feasts That Define Real American Food by Pat Willard 

Public Art and Architecture in New Mexico 1933-1943: A Guide to the New Deal Legacy compiled by Kathryn A. Flynn 

Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography by Errol Morris 

On the Ropes by James Vance and Dan E. Burr 

The Muralist: A Novel by B. A. Shapiro 

The New Deal: A Modern History by Michael Hiltzik  

A More Abundant Life: New Deal Artists and Public Art in New Mexico by Jacqueline Hoefer  

America 1933: The Great Depression, Lorena Hickok, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Shaping of the New Deal by Michael Golay  

Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time by Ira Katznelson 

A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression by Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe

  

 

Links

Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives [Library of Congress]

The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns: Photo Gallery [PBS]

America's Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal [Digital Public Library of America]

Sweet Dreams Are Made of Cheese, Who Am I To Diss a Brie?

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
~G. K. Chesterton

You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese.
~Anthony Bourdain, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?
~Charles De Gaulle

We've seen it said before that "the secret ingredient is always cheese." Apologies to the lactose intolerant, but we love cheese, whether it's an ingredient or the main event! We find the library catalog has several items to help us in our quest to enjoy the cheeses of the world, and we've taken a gander at a handful of titles to let you know which ones might be most helpful if you are seeking out new cheese experiences.Whether you want to cook with cheese, serve a cheese board at your next party, or figure out the best way to store some of the trickier cheese options, one of these handy guidebooks should do the trick! Or, even if you just want to look at the pictures - we've got you covered.

World Cheese Book edited by Juliet Harbutt
Encyclopedic presentation, 3 cheeses to a page, each with a small picture. Each cheese entry lists a brief history, a description that includes age and weight and shape, "tasting notes" ("[Lucullus] develops a soft white rind with a mushroomy aroma. It has a wickedly rich, luxurious feel in the mouth and a nutty flavor"), and 'how to enjoy."

The Cheese Board: Collective Works Bread, Pastry, Cheese, Pizza by Alice Waters [eBook]
A lot of history and bread recipes, but it does feature a cheese primer, describing cheeses and what makes good cheese plates and cheesy breads.

Laura Werlin's Cheese Essentials: An Insider's Guide to Buying and Serving Cheese - With 50 Recipes by Laura Werlin
Not as many pictures as some of the others, but chock full of handy hints such as "What to Look for When Buying Surface-Ripened Cheese" (visual, textural, and aroma cues), how to store cheese, and what cheeses are soft-ripened, hard, or semi-hard and what they are best used for (burgers, pasta, salads, etc.). Recipes are included, as well as a description of knives you might use.

The Murray's Cheese Handbook: More Than 300 of the World's Best by Rob Kaufelt with Liz Thorpe
A quick guide. Not sure if the unusual size (8 1/2 " x 3 1/2 ") is intended to make it easier to carry, but the presentation would be handy on-the-go. No pictures, but it begins with a helpful guide to using the book.

A Passion for Cheese: More Than 130 Innovative Ways to Cook With Cheese by Paul Gayler  
There are some cheese basics listed in the beginning of the book, but it's a pretty straightforward cookbook, primarily recipes. We're stuck on "Crisp, Flowering Zucchini with Mozzarella & Anchovy" and "Pear, Roquefort Blue & Rosemary Galettes."

It's Not You, It's Brie: Unwrapping America's Unique Culture of Cheese by Kirstin Jackson 
 Strictly a guide to cheeses from the United States, collected in groupings like "Leaf Wrapped: Flavored, Preserved, and Lord of the Rings Ready" and "Gouda Style and Inspirations: Sweeter with Time." No pictures, but there are a few recipes, and every cheese has a story. 

Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese: Wedges, Pairings, and Recipes from Philadelphia's House of Cheese by Tenaya Darlington    
Cheeses are described by "personality", and good food matches and alcohol pairings are listed. Some recipes, either featuring the cheese or to eat with the cheese. Beautiful full-page pictures - don't miss Humboldt Fog on page 75. 

Recently, we were in the City Different, and enjoyed the Cheesemongers of Santa Fe's version of a picnic - the Sticknic! A great idea for a quick snack on-the-go or a way to sample cheese. Sorry, no pictures of the actual Sticknic exist, because we ate it immediately, but here's the basic design:

The title of this article is cribbed from a popular internet meme. 

 

Eating Your Words: Adventures in Food Etymology and History

There are very few men and women, I suspect, who cooked and marketed their way through the past war without losing forever some of the nonchalant extravagance of the Twenties. They will feel, until their final days on earth, a kind of culinary caution: butter, no matter how unlimited, is a precious substance not lightly to be wasted; meats, too, and eggs, and all the far-brought spices of the world, take on a new significance, having once been so rare. And that is good, for there can be no more shameful carelessness than with the food we eat for life itself. When we exist without thought or thanksgiving we are not men, but beasts.
~M. F. K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Sometimes we feel like we need a dictionary to go to a restaurant. What's a reduction? Is pork belly the same thing as bacon? Why has the food been deconstructed? Or, we're eating something, and we think, who first thought up preserving food and how many people died before they got it right? When was yeast first used to make something rise, and how was that property of yeast discovered? We have been cooking for centuries, though ingredients and diets have changed over time, but who originally  thought up all these cooking techniques?

Well, some of these questions are now answerable, and you need look no farther than your library catalog for some of those answers. You could start with browsing the Larousse Gastronomique, but that's a big book, covering a lot of ground - you might be better served by something more specific, such as one of the following books featuring food etymology and/or history:


Words to Eat By: Five Foods and the Culinary History of the English Language by Ina Lipkowitz

Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat by John McQuaid

Eatymology: The Dictionary of Modern Gastronomy by Josh Friedland [eBook]

The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst

The Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson 

Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat by Marta Zaraska 

Sweet As Sin: The Unwrapped Story of How Candy Became America's Favorite Pleasure by Susan Benjamin 

100 Million Years of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why It Matters Today by Stephen Le

Rhapsody in Schmaltz: Yiddish Food and Why We Can't Stop Eating It by Michael Wex 

Chilled: How Refrigeration Changed the World and Might Do So Again by Tom Jackson 

Food in the Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies by Richard Foss 

Vitamania: Our Obsessive Quest for Nutritional Perfection by Catherine Price  

First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson 

The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes But Fed Up With Fondue (Plus Baconomics, Superfoods, and Other Secrets From the World of Food Trends) by David Sax

Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back by Ann Vileisis

Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry About What We Eat by Harvey Levenstein

In Meat We Trust: An Unexpected History of Carnivore America by Maureen Ogle 

The American Plate: A Culinary History in 100 Bites by Libby H. O'Connell

Do you have a burning culinary question that you don't think would be answered by one of the books on this list? Let us know in the comments, and we'll try to find you a match!
 

 

Foodie Fest: Food and Literature

Various cooking and baking utensils on shelf and hanging from rail. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 5 Sep 2015.

Are you a fan of culinary mysteries? Do you enjoy novels and memoirs with recipes, such as Like Water for Chocolate, A Homemade Life, Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, My Berlin Kitchen, and Julie & Julia? We'd like to recommend more delicious literary feasts to you! Whether it's taking inspiration from literature (and, occasionally, from television and art) or cooking one's way through great books and the history of world literature, these books should tickle your palate for reading, or eating, or both!


Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books by Cara Nicoletti

From Goldy's Kitchen: Recipes and Words on Writing, Culinary Adventures, and Life by Diane Mott Davidson

The Modern Art Cookbook by Mary Ann Caws

Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes written and illustrated by Mark Crick

The Bloomsbury Cookbook: Recipes for Life, Love and Art by Jans Ondaatje Rolls

My Prairie Cookbook: Memories and Frontier Food From My Little House to Yours by Melissa Gilbert 

Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: A Cookery Book With a Story by P.L. Travers [eBook]

Dinner With Mr. Darcy: Recipes Inspired By the Novels and Letters of Jane Austen by Pen Vogler 

Susan Mallery's Fool's Gold Cookbook: A Love Story Told Through 150 Recipes by Susan Mallery 

 

   

Healthy Eating = Bacon - Bread?

Believe it or not, one of the topics most discussed by your library professionals in the break room is food.  "What's for dinner?  Are you going to bring me some tomorrow?"  

One trend we've been noticing as people who work in an information environment and as people who love food is the "eating fat is good for you" movement.  Truth be told, this is delicious advice that we don't mind following!  The movement propounds that eating healthy fats (their definition including saturated fats) actually helps your body lose weight and absorb the nutrients in your food.  Recently (June 23 2014, to be exact) there was an article in Time Magazine* entitled "Eat Butter" which goes in to "why scientists were wrong to label fat the enemy."  This dietary viewpoint is reflected in the Paleo and Primal Blueprint approaches, both of which are generally based on what our ancestors probably ate (including, but not limited to, lots of bacon).  Therefore, these two diets eliminate or reduce sugars, processed foods and grains.  Which leads us to...

A related trend that has grabbed our attention: avoiding grains (kissing cousin to the Atkins diet, where phases of eating low carb are the golden ticket to weight loss).  Again, an idea that goes completely against the grain of wide-held opinion (yes, we intended the terrible pun).  This one is not as thrilling for most of us, especially when the grain in question is wheat and we must avoid it completely because of allergies.  But this dietary adjustment promises good for the body as well: weight loss, improved mobility, better brain function, etc.

The reasons that people choose no-grain diets are as varied as the people themselves.  Some folks avoid grains because of the negative way eating them affects their blood sugar and insulin levels, others because they want to manage their weight.  We spoke with somebody recently who said a big reason she no longer consumes wheat is because she was horrified by the research she did on the amount of pesticides that are used on wheat.  For many, avoiding wheat is less of a choice, and is done because of allergy or disease.

We think the hardest part about following these diets is determining the answer to this question:  "What can we eat instead?"  If we choose not to eat processed food, grain, and sugar, what's left?  (And how do we find it?!)  Which is where the related cookbooks come in, of which there are many.  We've compiled some here for you relating to these popular, yet unorthodox trends, but don't forget that we have plenty of books in the library about more conventional diets, as well as cookbooks of all kinds.

Catalog Searches

Paleo

Primal Blueprint

Gluten-Free

Fat

The Big Fat Surprise: Why Meat, Butter, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz

Eat Fat, Lose Fat: the Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon

Nourishing Traditions the Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon

Grain Free

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis

Wheat Belly Cookbook: 150 Recipes to Help You Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis

Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers by David Perlmutter MD and Kristin Loberg

The Grain Brain Cookbook: More Than 150 Life-Changing Gluten-Free Recipes to Transform Your Health by David Perlmutter, MD

No-Grain Diet: Conquer Carbohydrate Addiction and Stay Slim for Life by Joseph Mercola 

Related Links
Peruse these sites and articles for unconventional perspectives on food and surrounding issues.

The Weston A. Price Foundation - Consuming animal fats and nutrient dense foods
A Campaign for Real Milk - Drinking raw milk
The No Grain Diet - by Dr Joseph Mercola
The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat - On Mark's Daily Apple
Paleo Diet 101 - Paleo Magazine
Primal Blueprint 101 - About the Primal lifestyle, a la Mark Sisson

Have you heard of or tried any of these "diets" (we can hardly bring ourselves to call eating a bunch of fat a diet)?  Or, do you have any other interesting dietary habits?  Please share in the comments!

*Don't forget that all of the ABC Library branches have various magazines for checkout.  Search them in the catalog by title to see which branch has the most recent issues.  Usually, the most current issue of a magazine is available only to look at inside of the library, but some branches keep issues on hand for up to two years, and these are available to check out.  We also wanted to mention that with your library card you can access free digital magazines (as many as you want!) from Zinio, which you can check out, download to your device and keep for as long as you want.  Digital magazines are even more fun and addicting than physical copies because they can be interactive - for example they can link to sites as well as show video clips inside of an article.  Check them out and enjoy!

New and Novel: Food Books

Is it too soon? Have you gotten over all the big holiday meals, party food, and snacking yet?  Are you ready to think about food again?  Because it seems to us like there are always noteworthy books about food, cooking, and all things culinary in the library catalog.  Yum! Here some books for foodies that are a little off the beaten path - not just straight-up cookbooks.


Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: Recipes and Stories of Love From An American Midwest Family by Kathleen Flinn

Sweet Paul Eat & Make: Charming Recipes + Kitchen Crafts You Will Love by Paul Lowe et al.

Dog-Gone Good Cuisine: More Healthy, Fast, and Easy Recipes For You and Your Pooch by Gayle Pruitt

My Usual Table: A Life in Restaurants by Colman Andrews

The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community by Kimberly Wilmot Voss

A Mouthful of Stars: A Constellation of Favorite Recipes From My World Travels by Kim Sunée

Minding the Manor: The Memoir of a 1930s English Kitchen Maid by Mollie Moran

The Bloomsbury Cookbook: Recipes for Life, Love and Art by Jans Ondaatje Rolls

The Soda Fountain: Floats, Sundaes, Egg Creams & More -- Flavors and Traditions of an American Original by Gia Giasullo and Peter Freeman

Mallmann on Fire by Francis Mallmann with Peter Kaminsky and Donna Gelb  
       

Also, have you checked out The Mind of Chef series on DVD? This series explores the kitchen, world, and mind of renowned chefs. The catalog now features Seasons 1-3, with chefs such as Sean Brock [Heritage], Edward Lee [Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories From a New Southern Kitchen], and April Bloomfield.

 

Beyond Pumpkin Spice: Fall Produce

Green chile season is already at an end, so the smell of roasting is fading from the air.  But there is plenty more seasonal produce you can enjoy in the fall! Whether you are looking for specific cookbooks, vegetable recipes, or just guides to seasonal eating, the ABC Library catalog should have something for every taste.

Fall Produce

Halloween Sweets and Treats by Ruth Owen

Pumpkins & Squashes by Caroline Boisset

Winter Squash & Pumpkins by Mary Anna DuSablon [eBook]

Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History, From Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie by the Plimoth Plantation

Apples, From Harvest to Table: 50 Recipes Plus Lore, Crafts and More, Starring the Tried-and-True Favorite by Amy Pennington

Brassicas: Cooking the World's Healthiest Vegetables - Kale, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts and More by Laura B. Russell

A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes by David Tanis


Vegetable Recipes

River Cottage Veg : 200 Inspired Vegetable Recipes by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom, With Over 300 Deliciously Simple Recipes by Deborah Madison

Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi

Root-to-Stalk Cooking: The Art of Using the Whole Vegetable by Tara Duggan

Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch by Nigel Slater [eBook]


Seasonal
The One-Block Feast: An Adventure in Food From Yard to Table by Margo True & the staff of Sunset magazine [eBook]

The Farm: Rustic Recipes For a Year of Incredible Food by Ian Knauer

Saving the Season: A Cook's Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving by Kevin West
Eat Greens: Seasonal Recipes to Enjoy in Abundance by Barbara Scott-Goodman & Liz Trovato

Handmade Gatherings: Recipes & Crafts for Seasonal Celebrations and Potluck Parties by Ashley English

Seasonal Southwest Cooking: Contemporary Recipes & Menus for Every Occasion by Barbara Pool Fenzl
Preserving by the Pint: Quick Seasonal Canning for Small Spaces by Marisa McClellan

Real Food All Year: Eating Seasonal Whole Foods for Optimal Health & All-Day Energy by Nishanga Bliss


Links

Fall  Produce Guide [Cooking Light]

What's In Season? Fall [Fruits & Vegetables More Matters]

Fresh Fall Produce [Food & Wine]

Fall Fruits and Vegetables [About.com]

PickYourOwn.org - New Mexico

Gastronomic Delights: Food Histories in Fact & Fiction

Eating and reading just go hand in hand. We use the same words, to have a voracious appetite for food or for books.

~ Dinah Fried

Why do we eat what we eat?  Why have regional specialities evolved? How do we decide what tastes good to us?  Here are a few books that trace the history of food, in different locales in the United States and in literature.

San Francisco: A Food Biography by Erica J. Peters [eBook]

San Francisco is a relatively young city with a well-deserved reputation as a food destination, situated near lush farmland and a busy port. San Francisco's famous restaurant scene has been the subject of books but the full complexity of the city's culinary history is revealed here for the first time. This food biography presents the story of how food traveled from farms to markets, from markets to kitchens, and from kitchens to tables, focusing on how people experienced the bounty of the City by the Bay. 

New Orleans: A Food Biography by Elizabeth M. Williams [eBook]

Beignets, Po’ Boys, gumbo, jambalaya, Antoine’s. New Orleans’ celebrated status derives in large measure from its incredibly rich food culture, based mainly on Creole and Cajun traditions. At last, this world-class destination has its own food biography. Elizabeth M. Williams, a New Orleans native and founder of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum there, takes readers through the history of the city, showing how the natural environment and people have shaped the cooking we all love. The narrative starts with the indigenous population, resources and environment, then reveals the contributions of the immigrant populations, major industries, marketing networks, and retail and major food industries and finally discusses famous restaurants and signature dishes. This must-have book will inform and delight food aficionados and fans of the Big Easy itself. 

Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America edited by Andrew F. Smith

Covers a wide range of topics, such as ethnic food, regional foods, food advertising, the development of baby food, vegetarianism, special holiday food traditions, popular brands, microbreweries, the wine industry, snack food, fast food, and the Slow Food movement.
~from the back cover

Breakfast: A History by Heather Arndt Anderson

From corn flakes to pancakes, Breakfast: A History explores this "most important meal of the day" as a social and gastronomic phenomenon. It explains how and why the meal emerged, what is eaten commonly in this meal across the globe, why certain foods are considered indispensable, and how it has been depicted in art and media. Heather Arndt Anderson's detail-rich, culturally revealing, and entertaining narrative thoroughly satisfies. 

Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals by Dinah Fried

No recipes, but an assortment of photographic interpretations of culinary moments from contemporary and classic literature. Fried pairs each place setting with the text from that book that inspired its creation. She includes food facts and anecdotes about the authors, their work, and their culinary predilections. 

*all book descriptions are taken from the library catalog, unless otherwise noted 

Links

"Why Fire Makes Us Human" [Smithsonian]

"What It Takes To Cook Some of Literature's Most Famous Meals" [Smithsonian]

Ivan Ramen

My fervent hope is to get Americans to enjoy ramen as a dish, along with all the rituals that surround it. Ramen must be eaten quickly, while it's very hot... You have to eat it while the fat is still smoking hot and the noodles are still chewy. You take a big airy slurp so that all the flavors come together as they enter your mouth.
~Ivan Orkin

A good friend recently recommended Ivan Orkin's Ivan Ramen: Love, Obsession, and Recipes from Tokyo's Most Unlikely Noodle Joint to us, saying "That book made me want a hot bowl of fatty pork ramen."  We thought "Cool!" and added it to our list of cookbooks to check out at a later date.  That was a mistake.

Ivan Ramen is not just a cookbook! The first half is a memoir, explaining how a Jewish kid from Long Island ended up with his own restaurant in Tokyo, serving ramen to the likes of Ohsaki-san, "godfather of the ramen world" and Tokyo's most feared ramen critic, appearing on the TV show of Minoru Sano (Sano-san or "The Ramen Devil" - Japan's Gordon Ramsay), and starting his own line of instant ramen. As if the story of how Ivan got to Japan (it wasn't really because he loved the movie Tampopo, but you should watch it anyway) and his immersion in Japanese culture weren't enough of a treat, then come the recipes.

Shio ramen is "the gold standard" of Ivan Ramen restaurants, and it's the heart of the cookbook portion of this book. The first recipe is "The Complete Bowl", but actually you should only look at that recipe after you've prepared and assembled your "ramen components" - Fat, Shio Tare, Katsuobushi Salt, Double Soup, Toasted Rye Noodles, Pork Belly Chashu - and the recipes for these follow "The Complete Bowl". It's going to be more time-consuming than your supermarket Pot Noodle, for sure, but after reading about it you will be determined to produce it (we are!).

Many of the other recipes are suggestions for what to do with your "ramen component" leftovers - katsu (fried, breaded pork cutlets), teriyaki, ozoni (a New Year's specialty soup) - which seem very handy, and there are also some other ramen variations - even Four Cheese Mazemen (noodles served with just a little soup; the cheeses are Edam, Parmesan, Mozzarella, and Monterey Jack) and Breakfast Yakisoba - and recipes for a few sides and sweets.

We think that after you read this book, you, too, will want to try some ramen, if not make some yourself!  Look for a list of Albuquerque's ramen restaurants in the links below. Happy reading and happy eating!

Links

Ivan Ramen website

Ivan Ramen NYC Tumblr

"Ivan Orkin: Ramen Genius"

"A Life of Noodles Comes Full Circle"

Ramen Restaurants in Albuquerque on Yelp

"Oh yeah, O Ramen House is the real deal"

New and Novel: Cookbooks with Pictures to Make Your Mouth Water!

Here at abcreads, we know there are a lot of cookbooks out there - ones by celebrity chefs, ones about cooking with special tools or procedures (crockpots, canning, freezing), ones about specific kinds of food or serving up dishes from different cultures.  We find ourselves lately drawn to the cookbooks with the best pictures!  Frankly, we find it hard to concentrate on the recipes in cookbooks these days without a gorgeous, lush photograph next to it - a good photograph can really draw you in!  Here are some newer cookbooks you might enjoy, whether you are looking for some new recipes or just like to look at the pictures, as we do (in fact, the first two cookbooks are by authors who are photographers by trade):

What Katie Ate: Recipes and Other Bits & Pieces by Katie Quinn Davies

Food by Mary McCartney

Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi

Roots: The Definitive Compendium With More Than 225 Recipes by Diane Morgan

Very Fond of Food: A Year in Recipes by Sophie Dahl

Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch by Nigel Slater [eBook]

When Diets Don't Work Anymore







 

According to the Eating Disorders Coalition, approximately 11 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder. Food addictions are confounding and it may be something that has taken over your life. Sometimes when a compulsive eater goes on a diet, it is about as effective as an alcoholic trying a little controlled drinking. People who are not addicted to sugar and junk food might not understand the difference between phases of excessive indulgence and a full-blown, debilitating binge eating disorder. However, your library is here to help you research some long-term solutions.

Dr. Robert H. Lustig, author of Fat Chance Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease has written a sobering book detailing the forces beyond will power that eaters are up against these days, such as processed foods, biochemistry and politics tampering with the food industry, school cafeterias and our healthcare system. Robert Lustig’s 90-minute YouTube video “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”, has been viewed more than three million times. Now his completely scientific book can shed further light on what every eater needs to know about what lurks in the supermarket.

Dr. Mike Dow, co-host of the cringe-worthy TLC TV series Freaky Eaters, offers a four week plan to curtail a junk food addiction without the debilitating effects of withdrawal. The premise of his book: Diet Rehab : 28 Days to Finally Stop Craving the Foods That Make You Fat, establishes that the brain needs two neurotransmitters to regulate mood and functions: serotonin and dopamine. While consuming addictive foods, we get "high", but if we quit junk food and sugar abruptly, the serotonin and dopamine withdrawal will cause inevitable relapse and make even the most resolute dieter fall off the chuck wagon. Dr. Dow not only offers a physical solution to this vicious cycle, but reveals activities and strategies to establish emotional equilibrium for a new way of living.

Geneen Roth has been writing for decades about the psychological aspects of compulsive eating. Her latest book: Women, Food and God : An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything considers the spiritual underpinnings of compulsive eating and features tools needed to stop using food to blot out reality. Geneen Roth's backlog of helpful books is considerable and can also be found in ebook and Playaway formats.

• Take Back Your Life: Ending Your Obsession With Food
• Lost and Found : Unexpected Revelations About Food and Money
• Appetites : On the Search For True Nourishment

Additional titles for your consideration:

• The End of Overeating : Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David A. Kessler
• Overeaters Anonymous
• Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous
• The Overeaters Journal  The Overeater's Journal : Exercises For the Heart, Mind and Soul by Debbie Danowski
• The Hunger Fix : The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for Overeating and Food Addiction by Pamela Peeke with Mariska van Aalst
• The Food-Mood Solution : All-Natural Ways to Banish Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Stress, Overeating, and Alcohol and Drug Problems--and Feel Good Again by Jack Challem
• The Good Eater : the True Story of One Man's Struggle With Binge Eating Disorder by Ron Saxen
• Crave : Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop by Cynthia M. Bulik
• Psychological Responses to Eating Disorders and Obesity Recent and Innovative Work edited by Julia Buckroyd and Sharon Rother
• Binge No More: Your Guide to Overcoming Disordered Eating by Joyce D. Nash
• Food Addiction : The Body Knows by Kay Sheppard
• Obsessed : The Fight Against America's (and My Own) Food Addiction by Mika Brzezinski
• The Emotional Eater's Book of Inspiration 90 Truths You Need to Know to Overcome Your Food Addiction by Debbie Danowski
• Beating Sugar Addiction for Dummies by Dan DeFigio