cookbooks

Tonight, the Genre Reading Group met to discuss cookbooks, food, eating, and other culinary delights! Next month is one of our biannual Reader’s Choice Salons, which means there is no assigned topic, bring whatever you’d like to share!

The Taste of Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World by Lizzie Collingham

(amazon.com) In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire's quest for food shaped the modern world. Told through twenty meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world. In The Taste of Empire, Collingham masterfully shows that only by examining the history of Great Britain's global food system, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to our present-day eating habits, can we fully understand our capitalist economy and its role in making our modern diets.

The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook by Paula Wolfert

(amazon.com) From one of the leading lights of contemporary gastronomy comes an irresistible collection of slow-cooked, flavor-drenched dishes from the cuisines of the Mediterranean
Who can resist the sensuous delights of a slow-simmered stew, salmon fillet slow-roasted until it is soft as silk, or leg of lamb braised until it is meltingly tender? Slow cooking is the hottest new trend in food, and no one better captures the art of sumptuous, unhurried cooking than renowned food writer Paula Wolfert. In The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, she returns to her favorite culinary regions and shares an enticing treasure trove of more than 150 authentic recipes that wend their way from North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean to Italy, Spain, and the South of France. With her trademark passion for detail and curiosity about cultural traditions and innovations, she offers loyal fans and new converts the secrets to simmering, slow roasting, braising, poaching, and marinating their way to flavor-drenched dishes that capture the enchanting tastes and aromas of the Mediterranean table. Perfect for anyone who loves to cook, this rich resource is a must-have for the bookshelf of everyone who is serious about food.

Paula Wolfert (Sonoma, CA) is widely acknowledged to be the premier food writer in America. Her writing has received many awards, including the Julia Child Award, the M.F.K. Fisher Award, and the James Beard Award. She has a regular column in Food & Wine magazine, and her articles have appeared in such major publications as the New York Times, Saveur, Bon Appetit, and Cook's Illustrated. She is the author of six other cookbooks, including Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, Mediterranean Cooking, and The Cooking of South-West France.

River Road Recipes: The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine by the Junior League of Baton Rouge

(amazon.com) River Road Recipes is the nation's #1 best-selling community cookbook series. This cookbook features classic creole and cajun cuisine. These 650 recipes include the basics like How to Make a Roux. This is the Textbook of Louisiana cooking.

More Gems from Many Kitchens 1891: Athens, Georgia America’s First Garden Club

(http://gardenclub.uga.edu/pdfs/history.pdf )Part of the proceeds from the sale of this cookbook and from Runa Ware's "All Those in Favor" were designated to air-condition the historic State Headquarters.

Tout de Suite a la Microwave: A Gourmet’s Cookbook of French, Acadian, and Creole Recipes by Jean Durkee

(amazon.com) Home economist and author Jean K Durkee has adapted for microwave cooking the best of the French, Acadian and Creole recipes for which the South Louisiana "Cajun Country" has become justly famous. Learn how to cook a Roux and Gumbo, Crabmeat Mornay, Bananas Foster and more.

Big Vegan: More than 350 Recipes, No Meat, No Dairy, All Delicious by Robin Asbell

(amazon.com) Veganism has been steadily moving toward the mainstream as more and more people become aware of its many benefits. Even burger-loving omnivores are realizing that adding more plant-based foods to their diet is good for their health and the environment. Big Vegan satisfies both the casual meat eater and the dedicated herbivore with more than 350 delicious, easy-to-prepare vegan recipes covering breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Highlighting the plentiful flavors that abound in natural foods, this comprehensive cookbook includes the fundamentals for adopting a meat-free, dairy-free lifestyle, plus a resource guide and glossary that readers can refer to time and again. Eat your veggies and go vegan!

Fannie Flagg’s Original Whistle Stop Café Cookbook:Featuring Fried Green Tomatoes, Southern Barbeque, Banana Split Cake, and Many Other Great Recipes by Fannie Flagg

After the tremendous success of her novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, and the beloved movie that followed, author Fannie Flagg received thousands of requests from all over the world asking for recipes from the little cafe of her Alabama childhood that was the model for the cafe in her novel. Now, she joyfully shares those recipes, in what may well be the first cookbook ever written by a satisfied customer rather than a cook! Inside you'll find wonderful recipes for:

* Skinless Fried Chicken * Pork Chops with Apples and Sweet Potatoes * Baked Ham and Pineapple Rings * Baked Turkey with Traditional Cornbread Dressing * Black-eyed Peas * Fried Okra * Creamed Onions * Broccoli Casserole * Southern Cream Gravy * Fried Catfish * Scalloped Oysters * Down Home Crab Cakes * Beaten Biscuits * Corn Pones * Lemon Ice Box Pie * Kentucky Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie * And much more!

The recipes in Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook are all for delicious hearty happy food that comes with all sorts of things, from gravies to hot sauces (very often the secret's in the sauce). But most of all this food, and this book, comes with love.

"If you liked her novel, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, and if you liked the movie they made from that novel, you'll like this cookbook....It's funny, just like Flagg."

Beloved Family Recipes: Family Recipes and Experiences from Travels Around the World by John Krontiras

(https://www.otmj.com/a-tale-of-two-cultures/) It’s filled with Greek and Italian recipes and with tips, such as the kind of feta cheese he prefers and how to tell when the oil is hot enough to cook fresh smelts or anchovies.

Frank Stitt’s Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill by Frank Stitt

(amazon.com) R. W. Apple, Jr., of The New York Times credits third-generation Alabamian Frank Stitt with turning Birmingham into a "sophisticated, easygoing showplace of enticing, southern-accented cooking." His southern peers think his cooking may have a more profound sense of place than any of theirs. His food is rustic and homey, but sophisticated in method.

Now, Alabama's favorite son has written a long-awaited cookbook that features his enticing Provençal-influenced southern food. More than 150 recipes range from the traditional--Spicy Green Tomato and Peach Relish, Spoonbread, and Pickled Shrimp--to the inspired--Slow-Roasted Black Grouper with Ham and Pumpkin Pirlau and Pork Loin with Corn Pudding and Grilled Eggplant. Desserts such as Bourbon Panna Cotta and Sweet Potato Tart with Coconut Crust and Pecan Streusel elevate the best of the South for cooks everywhere.

Treasured Alabama Recipes by Kathryn Tucker Windham

(vintagecookbook.com) Windham was a local history buff and an accomplished storyteller. Those skills helped her to make this cookbook much more than a cookbook. She features recipes from Alabama’s Coast, the Piney Woods, the Wiregrass, the Black Belt, the Tennessee Valley, the Appalachians, and the cities. Sprinkled through the recipes are bits of local history and funny stories from each region of Alabama, all with lovely sketches by Diane Hamilton Sampson.

Al Hasa Saudi Arabia Cookbook by Karen Stiltner

(amazon.com) Al-Hasa is the former geographical title of a portion of the present Eastern Province, the region along the Arabian Gulf of Saudi Arabia where the oil fields are located. Through the combined efforts of women's groups in the area, the best recipes are presented for all to enjoy. The book has some Middle-Eastern recipes, but most recipes are American in origin because the authors in many cases were wives of Americans in working in Saudi Arabia for oil the companies.