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Happy Earth Day!

April 22, 2010 in cookbook, environment by Claire | 6 comments

It IS Earth Day, right? Kind of snuck up on me.

I totally forgot to pose the family for our Earth Day cards.  Guess we won’t be sending them this year.

Actually, in all seriousness, one of the reasons I don’t send holiday cards is the wastefulness of the paper involved.  A lot of people I know are going paperless with their cards and the online options are getting fancier and classier.  There’s an Earth Day tip right there!

Kim thinks I’m relatively conscientious about this stuff because I compost.  It’s so easy to impress her.  (I will say that there’s a disgusting aspect to composting that does test your commitment).  I’m happy to report that our recycling waste now far outpaces our regular waste, and between that and the composting, we’ve definitely cut down on icky bags of goo going out to the trash can.

And of course I made a vow to be a vegetarian this year (and maybe on into the future) for strictly environmental reasons.  If you’re a faithful reader of this blog, you’ll remember that I “went” vegetarian on New Year’s Day, which makes it roughly four months now since I’ve eaten meat or fowl.

(Okay, confession time: I had a few mouthfuls of chicken at a literary festival where I had JUST spoken and was sitting back down, still shaking from having been up in front of hundreds of people, and found lunch waiting on the table in front of me.  Without thinking, I had devoured a bite or two of chicken salad before realizing what I was doing.  I cried out, “Oh, no!  I just ate chicken and I’m a vegetarian!” which raised some skeptical eyebrows among my tablemates, since most vegetarians know not to eat chicken. Also: once I nibbled on my daughter’s leftover pizza and she pointed out to me it was barbecue chicken pizza.)

Overall, though, I’ve found it surprisingly easy to stay the course, even when we were traveling all over the place for spring break.  Of course, I made it easy on myself: I’m not a vegan, so I eat eggs and dairy–can’t imagine doing this without cheese–and I also eat fish which pretty much solves the “what do I get at a nice restaurant” problem.  I try to focus on types of fish that are environmentally sound, like anchovies, sardines, and tilapia, but when I branch out from those, I can’t always remember which ones are best, so I may have made some mistakes in that area.  (I should carry one of those lists around–I know you can get them online–that tell you which fish you shouldn’t order because they’re being overfished or are toxic or are caught in ways that harm other species.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Best Gifts for Readers and Cooks

November 8, 2009 in book review, cookbook, gifts by Kim | 9 comments

Every Christmas morning, I ask my kids “what’s the best gift?” and they respond “A BOOK!”  Last week, my daughter asked which books I would like for Christmas.  My son, the teenager that he is, responded that he was just going to give me a note telling me to read the books he gave me last year.  My husband reminded him that I’m the one that buys the gifts, so my son may want to rethink his strategy. 

We’re hoping to help you with your holiday shopping.   We’re encouraging you to shop at an independent bookstore by rewarding one lucky shopper, our official Holiday Helper, with an ABA gift card.  Additionally, as we did last year, we’ve asked booksellers, experts, and opinionated people to recommend various genres of books (regardless of when they were published) as gifts for the holiday season.  This year we’re launching our Best Gifts for Readers lists with cookbooks.

Catherine Ettlinger started Unconfidential Cook, a unique food blog with scrumptious recipes contributed by her and her readers.   Catherine’s theory is that many of us are happy to share our cooking experience, hence the name ‘unconfidential cook’.  From the chatting on her blog, she’s right.  To complement her blog, Catherine hosts unconfidential cook dinners where the guests bring a dish and the recipe, then eat every thing in sight.   I’ve been to three of the dinners and they are a Los Angeles foodie treat.  The perfect pairing of great food and interesting conversation, each evening combines the necessary ingredients for a lovely meal.  I asked Catherine for her cookbook recommendations, and while she mentioned that much of the innovative recipes and culinary writing is online, these cookbooks were so terrific, every foodie should own one:

lost dessertsLost Desserts by Gail Monaghan:  If you think one of your all-time favorite desserts has vanished forever with the demise of a restaurant or the retirement of a chef, don’t despair. Monaghan has gathered dozens of legendary recipes and assembled them with mouth-watering photos by Eric Bowman. You’ll never make a dessert again without first referencing this beautiful book.  (Kim’s comments:  I’ve seen this cookbook at Catherine’s house and it is a work of art.  More importantly, I’ve tasted a few of the desserts and they are more than calorie worthy.)

 The Art of Simple Foodby Alice Waters, Clarkson Potter:  There are more than 250 recipes in this book by the champion of  the phrase “eat locally and Read the rest of this entry »

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Julie & Julia – The Way To Cook

August 22, 2009 in book review, cookbook, film by Kim | 4 comments

julia-child-the-way-to-cookKelsey and I spent a summer evening visually savoring the delights cooked up in Julie & Julia.  Meryl Streep’s portrayal of a determined but light-hearted Julia Child attending Le Cordon Bleu and then painstakingly writing Mastering the Art of French Cooking, intertwined with Amy Adams as Julie Powell, the lost secretary who changed her life by cooking all 524 recipes in a year, showed us the importance of practicing their passions.  We cheered when the aspic recipe fell on the floor because none of us wanted to watch anyone eat it.   The desserts were a hit all around (we’re game to try eating a whole chocolate cake with our hands), cooking a lobster may defeat us, and boning a duck we would probably throw our hands up at, but we’re all willing to cook something beyond hamburgers.  We’re thinking the beef bourguignon; a pivotal recipe is several scenes.  Julia describes herself as “fearless” in the kitchen and her example reignited my desire to cook.

Excited to dive into Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I leafed through it at the bookstore.  Every recipe had multiple steps and a long list of ingredients.  I cap out at 5, maybe 8, ingredients and a page of instructions made my head ache.  I put the book down.   Mastering the Art of French Cooking is not The Way to Cook, Julia’s book that first taught me how to cook. 

Prior to marrying Keith, I prepared one dinner for him.  It was a given that he would be the cook in the family and with 5 recipes under his belt, his knowledge surpassed mine.  One year later, I couldn’t bear to eat another bite of any of those recipes.  Keith’s parents came to the rescue by giving me The Way to Cook. Read the rest of this entry »

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Recommended Reading for Chanukah

December 19, 2008 in cookbook, recommended reading by Claire | No comments

Back in the early fall, I recommended a book for the high holidays, but that book was actually Kim’s pick.  I mention this only because the truth is that there is only one book for me when it comes to learning about or rejoicing in Jewish celebrations and holidays, and that’s G’DEE by Helen Fine.

To put it succinctly, G’DEE taught me everything I know about the Jewish holidays.  Really.  Everything. 

It’s a children’s book, with colorful illustrations, and it tells the story of twins, a brother and a sister, who get sent a goat by their relatives in Israel.  (I think “g’dee” means goat in Hebrew.)  The book then follows a year in the twins’ life, as marked out by the Jewish holidays.  Because G’dee is a very young goat, the siblings make a point of teaching him the meaning of the holidays and explaining the ways in which they observe and celebrate them, from a Purim puppet show to fasting on Yom Kippur.

G’dee is your typical goat (I assume), good-natured, eager to please, and extremely hungry at all times.  Fortunately for him, Jewish holidays–as described in this book–center largely on the special foods that are eaten for symbolic or joyous reasons.   So G’dee basically eats his way through the Jewish holidays.  The book always made my mouth water.   Read the rest of this entry »

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