Sara Grajek
Library Notes

The falling leaves and crisp air we’ve been experiencing in the evening makes me want to get out my largest soup pot and start throwing in ingredients until I have a steaming bowl of soup, fit for a meal all on its own. Add a crunchy slice of toasted bread with a dollop of butter or a fresh-tossed salad of leafy greens and you have a perfect fall meal. Rowan Public Library has a wonderful collection of cookbooks, and among them you’ll find several focused on soups, stews and one-pot meals.

Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special is brought to you by the famous vegetarian restaurant of the same name in Ithaca, NY. For twenty-five years, the Moosewood Collective has been serving an ever-changing menu of natural, whole food selections. In fact, the only thing on the menu that is constant is the daily selection of a cup or bowl of soup, a salad, and a thick slice of bread. Pulled together in this book you’ll find traditional soup recipes such as potato, tomato, and minestrone. You’ll also find Butternut Squash with Sizzled Sage Soup, Cauliflower, Cheese and Tomato Soup, and Tomato Flowers Salad.

For a heartier meal, turn to Real Stew by Clifford A. Wright. More about stews than soup, the recipes in this cookbook will stick to your ribs. They are divided into the type of meat they feature and include a wide variety and ethnicity in their selection. Fish and lobster dishes from New England, Hungarian Smoked Sausage, West African Beef and Peanut Stew, and good old fashioned Beef Stroganoff are represented along with hundreds more.

Love Soup, by Anna Thomas, is a collection of vegetarian soup recipes. Many of the soups are showcased in a menu, paired with complimentary recipes. For example, Great Pumpkin Soup is paired with Simple Chipotle Sauce, Fresh Corn and Cheddar Cheese Cornbread, and Baked Apples. You can find the recipes for all these within the pages of Thomas’ cookbook. Thomas didn’t start cooking until she was on her own and in college, but discovered that her friends liked what she made and that soon developed into a cookbook.

If you’d like to try your hand at bread baking (to go along with your soup), Peter Reinhart teaches at Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI, the largest culinary school in the world so he’s a good reference. His book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, can seem intimidating at first, but that’s because Reinhart is the real thing. He walks you step-by-step through the bread making process, which he learned in France. He explains his theories about the best way to let the dough rise, how to get the most flavor, and a beautiful loaf of bread. His book contains recipes for classic white bread as well as cheesy bread, fruit breads, pizza and more.

For more inspiration try Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette, The Wooden Spoon Book of Home-Style Soups, Stews, Chowders, Chilis & Gumbos by Marilyn M. Moore, or The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Stop by Rowan Public Library and browse 641.5 for many more cookbooks. There are simply too many for me to list them all here and chances are, you will find some new favorite recipes to keep you warm and toasty throughout fall and winter.