Allergy Cookbook

 by Amy Notarius  Rowan Public Library

Can you believe the holidays are just around the corner? Planning holiday meals can often be a challenge, but when family members or guests have food allergies, it becomes even more difficult. Cooking Allergy Free by Jenna Short contains a wonderful variety of recipes for those with the most common food allergies, such as nuts, milk, eggs, wheat/gluten, and soy.  It’s available from Rowan Public Library. 

Short begins the introduction with a helpful explanation of the difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity. She also examines the difference between celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.  Short includes a useful section on substitutions, such as using applesauce in place of an egg in a recipe when baking, and a basic recipe for gluten-free flour. 

Short herself developed an allergy to dairy while spending a semester abroad in Italy.  Her major then was graphic design, and her background is evident in the layout of the book.  She has developed fun color-coded icons representing each allergy type, so it’s easy to scan a recipe and see if it is appropriate for your particular need. Short also includes notes on how to adapt a recipe to further suit your needs.  

None of these are bland or boring creations either. From her herb pesto-stuffed mushrooms to striped bass with sage and red-wine butter, you’ll look forward to trying out every mouth-watering entry. Think you have to give up cheesecake because of a dairy allergy? Think again--Short has figured out how to make it possible!

Food is an important part of the holidays and of togetherness, so make sure everyone’s included at each special meal this holiday season. Check out Cooking Allergy Free at Rowan Public Library today. 

Library Notes

by Rebecca Hyde Rowan Public Library

Jonathan Franzen sounded the alarm in 1996 in a Harper’s magazine article “Perchance to Dream,” sharing his anger and despair over the future of the American novel.  In 2002, he included a revised version in the collection “How to be Alone,” and called it “Why Bother: the Harper’s Essay.”  Franzen finds fault with the banal ascendancy of television, America’s value-free culture, and the breakdown of communitarianism, where interaction is optional.  Technology has changed both the demand for fiction and the social context in which fiction is written.  As a writer of social novels, Franzen is discouraged.   So how did Franzen emerge from this depression and get back on track as a writer?  Ironically it was through science, and specifically with the help of the contemporary social scientist Shirley Brice Heath, a Stanford professor who was studying the audience for serious fiction in America.    

In working through his “time of trouble,” Franzen and Heath take an interesting look at writers and readers:  the importance of reading to writers and how individuals develop as readers.  It seems there is a relationship between how we learn to read, how we are able to immerse ourselves in or enjoy novels, and the solitary acts of writing and reading.

Heath’s research demolished the myth of the general audience.  As she told Franzen, for a person to sustain an interest in literature, two things must be in place.  First, the habit of reading “works of substance” must have been “heavily modeled” when the individual was very young.  And second, to become a lifelong dedicated reader, a child needs to find a person with whom they can share their interest.  And there is yet a second kind of reader, the “social-isolate,” whose parents were not really readers ( Franzen’s case).  This is a reader who is not anti-social but feels very different from everyone around them and has a sense of having an imaginary world.  At some point, he or she has a “gnawing need” to be alone to read and reconnect with that world.  According to Heath, readers of the social-isolate variety are more likely to become writers than those of the modeled-habit variety.

For Franzen, this was good news, exhilarating and confirming:  “Simply to be recognized for who I was, simply not to be misunderstood:  these had revealed themselves, suddenly, as reasons to write.”

It’s an interesting case of redemption.  Franzen feels he belongs to the world again.  In his acceptance speech at the 2001 National Book Awards, he thanked Oprah Winfrey for her “enthusiasm and advocacy on behalf of “The Corrections.”

Fresh Soup Recipes Perfect for Fall

   by Hope Loman Rowan Public Library       

            As we say goodbye to summer and the fall season approaches, there’s nothing better to warm you up on a cold night than a hearty soup or stew.  Food historians say that people have been eating soup for as long as there has been a recorded history of cooking (which goes back as far as 20,000 BC!); and why not, when it’s so healthy, filling, and easy to make?

The word soup is French in origin, and has roots from both the Latin phrase “bread soaked in broth” and the Germanic word “sop,” or a bread that soaks up soup or stew. Soups have long been used as sustenance for sick individuals, a tradition that stretches back to the 16th century when vendors would sell soup as an antidote to exhaustion in the streets.  Soups have only increased in popularity here in the United States as immigrants have shared recipes from their homeland with their new American neighbors, and Doctor John Dorrance of the Campbell Soup Company began canning his tomato, cream of mushroom, and chicken noodle soups in 1897.

            If I’ve whetted your appetite, then the Rowan Public Library is your one-stop soup recipe resource. Soup’s On! Sixty Hearty Soups You Can Stand Your Spoon In offers a wide range of soups to make, from a traditional tomato soup to a North Carolina-style fish chowder, with details on making soup stock instead of using canned versions. Lee Bailey’s Soup Meals is also a good starting point, as it promises 32 soup recipes, complete with complimentary appetizers, breads, and desserts to go along with each. If you entertain a vegetarian lifestyle, be sure to check out Love Soup by Anna Thomas, who gives recipes for meat-free soups (most of which are also vegan-friendly) that are still just as filling as their counterparts. Stop by the library any time this fall to get a copy of these and other great recipe books and get cooking!

Can’t get to the library before dinner time? No Fear!  The NC Digital Library has several great cookbooks devoted to soups--download them to your device before you make your meal, and you can have the recipe you need on hand without needing to flip or weigh down pages. New England Soup Factory Cookbook brings more than 100 recipes straight from Boston to your table, from standards like beef and barley and split pea to new innovations like butternut squash soup with Calvados (for the culinary ignorant like myself, that is a kind of French apple brandy). Both 50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker and The Slow Cooker Cookbook are also handy if you like your meal waiting for you at home at the end of the day. Even more are available to you online, so don’t be afraid to log on!

With these resources, you can now have effortlessly delicious soups for supper at home, lunch for work, or when fighting that inevitable nasty cold. Summer might be ending, but now you can look forward to the new, delicious season ahead!

Beating the Lunch and Dinner Food Rut Blues

by Jennifer Nicholson Rowan Public Library

The kids have now been in school for about five weeks now; and yes, moms and dads, I counted!  This is about the time in the school year when many kids start screaming, “No more pb and j!”  The food rut usually hits everyone, from parents packing school and work lunches, to those cooking dinner every night.  Yet, have no fear, the Rowan Public Library offers many great cookbooks to help with your foodie blues!

For lunch box ideas and helpful hints try J.M. Hirsch’s Beating the Lunch Box Blues.  Hirsch’s book offers helpful and colorful tips and recipes, in an easy to browse style.  Have leftover steak from dinner last night?  Thinly cut the steak and make fajitas to pack in the lunch box!  This is a great book to use when you are really running out of ideas for lunch and need fresh, healthy ideas for lunch menus.  Even simply flipping through the pages, will spark your lunch creativity or make your stomach growl! 

For children with food allergies, the Allergy-free Cooking for Kids by Sterling Epicure Press, features recipes for all meals of the day, for egg-free, dairy-free, or gluten-free diets.  Enticing colorful photos will tempt any cook to try a new recipe.  The pineapple and white chocolate jelly cake, sounds amazing by the way!

Have a picky eater?  Have them help you in the kitchen!  Cookbooks are not only for adults, the Rowan Public Library offers many great cookbooks for kids and teens!  The Cookbook for Teens by Mendocino Press, Teens Cook by Megan and Jill Carle with Judi Carle, and many more, teaches teens how to cook, from tips and techniques on cooking that perfect burger to Paprika Bliss Soup.  For younger children, try Mommy’s Little Helper Cookbook for children ages 3-7 by Karen Brown or The Toddler Cookbook by Annabel Karmel.  Both cookbooks offer recipes or helpful hints for parents on getting children to help in the kitchen that are age appropriate and fun!   Still worry about a picky eater, don’t worry, the Rowan Public Library also has The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook by Emily Ansara Baines, have a Hunger Games party!

Still worried about a fussy eater, you can always try the “sneaky” approach.  The Sneaky Chef cookbook, by Missy Chase Lapine, provides a “simple strategies for hiding healthy foods in kids’ favorite meals.”  Try sneaking in some carrots to spaghetti sauce or cauliflower to homemade mac ‘n’ cheese, this cookbook offers a covert strategy to getting kids to eat more vegetables and healthier meals.

Cooking can be creative and fun, but it can also be educational as well.  Take a moment to provide a little math lesson, the Math 24/7 Culinary Math by Helen Thompson, allows students to learn fractions for dividing recipes, and how to read nutrition labels.  Cooking is also a great way to learn about other countries and cultures, try a new recipe from Japan or India.  You might be surprise and find a new family night favorite!

Food ruts happen to us all; but the Rowan Public Library has many great cookbooks to help rediscover the love of cooking.  To browse or find additional titles, please visit us or our website at rowanpubliclibrary.org.

Books Listed:

Baines, Emily Ansara. The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2011.

Brown, Karen. Mommy's Little Helper Cookbook. New York, NY: Meadowbrook Press, 2000.

Carle, Megan, Jill Carle and Judi Carle. Teens Cook. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2004.

Hirsch, J.M. Beating the Lunch Box Blues. New York, NY: Atria, 2013.

Karmel, Annabel. The Toddler Cookbook. New York, NY: DK Publishing, 2008.

Lapine, Missy Chase. The Sneaky Chef. Philadelphia, PA: Running Press Book Publishers, 2007.

Mendocino Press. The Cookbook for Teens. Berkeley, CA: Mendocino Press, 2014.

Sterling Epicure. Allergy-free Cooking for Kids. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2014.

Thompson, Helen. Math 24/7 Culinary Math. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest, 2014.

Jennifer Nicholson

YA Coordinator/Librarian