Cooking at Home

by Gretchen Beilfuss Witt  Rowan Public Library

            I am a baker and enjoy trying new recipes and combinations of flavours.   Like many of us, I am addicted to the television show  "The Great British Bake Off."   The trouble with watching this show is it kindles the desire to bake, to try new techniques and different sweets.  Fortunately, for the budding bakers or for the re-inspired, the library has recently acquired "The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking."  This richly and beautifully illustrated book gives step-by-step instructions of some favorites from the show and even some additional recipes not part of the program.  The photographs are drool-worthy and the accompanying stories about contestants are short and entertaining.  The recipe book provides clear instructions as well as assigning difficulty levels to each entry; there are a few recipes rated with the three spoon "tricky" but nearly all are certainly possible for most folks. 

            Once the inclination strikes to explore new recipes or twists on old favorites, take a look "Our Sweet Basil Kitchen" by Cade and Carrian Cheney.  This couple, one from the Pacific Coast and one from the Southeast coast combine their love of food in "unique mashups" and family favorites.  Beginning with breakfasts full of pumpkins pancakes, berry crepes, ham frittatas and fruit pizza, they present foods that are family friendly and generally use fresh and healthier ingredients.  The Cheney's recipes include well-known side dishes - like green bean casserole with matchstick potatoes instead of fried onions on top - to internationally inspired dishes like coconut curry or Greek citrus chicken.  They offer meatless meals as well as decadent desserts like the brownie cookie or southern inspired deep-fried strawberry shortcake.  Mouth-watering pictures and understandable instructions make this an excellent book for a family to use to cook together.

            For the more adventurous cooks "My Two Souths" by Asha Gomez blends the spices of the southern India state of Kerala and the home-cooking of the Southern United States in an interesting collection.  Gomez spends some time explaining the more unusual (to the US cook) ingredients often used in Indian cuisine and where one might find some of these items.  Carrot cake with ground pepper icing, pickled catfish, and goat biryani are some of the offerings included in her attractively presented cookbook.

            For the food devotee who wants to go all out and investigate field-to-table living -  raising, preserving and processing all their own food - Andrea Chesman's "The Backyard Homestead kitchen Know-How" is the book to check-out.  Chesman explains how to organize a root cellar, dry food with solar or electric dehydration, create pickled and fermented foods like kraut and kimchi.  She discusses how to full out a "cut sheet" when having an animal butchered whether it is lamb, rabbit or beef.  Her book describes how to begin and use a sourdough starter, how to can or freeze produce, how to process raw milk and make cheese.  For anyone who is interested in making more of what is locally available or how to live from their own land this is a terrific resource.  

            From Britain to your own backyard, the library has the cookbook for you.