The Kitchen Bookshelf

I thought I would share my cookbook stash control method. I have a small shelf in my kitchen where I keep my current favorite dozen (or so) cookbooks. Sometimes the current favorites get out of control, and they will be stacked on top of each other haphazardly. The other cookbooks go on a shelf down in the basement. Yes, the basement. The stairs are right next to the kitchen, so it isn't a huge ordeal to run down and grab a cookbook once in a while. Every year or so, I take a look at the garage shelf and ask "do I really want this(these) anymore?" The cookbooks most likely to disappear this year are the Time/Life Cooking series. OMG what was I thinking. I bought them one by one about 25 years ago. At the time I was smitten with technique, and man-oh-man, these books have technique. I don't think I could get $1 apiece for them at HPB at this point.

Anyway, while I'm writing, what if I tell you what's on my 'current favorite' shelf?

• Entertaining, by Martha Stewart (this one is ancient, and a little large for the kitchen shelf, but the recipes are HUGE, and helpful for potluck dishes or book group treats)
• The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, by Molly Katzen (I have loved this book since she published it, which was about the time I graduated from college. good grief)
• 4 Barefoot Contessa books (at home, family style, in paris & back to basics)
• Fields of Greens, by Annie Sommerfield
• The Greens, by Debbie Madison (both of these Greens books are from chefs at The Greens restaurant)
• Chez Panisse Fruits & Chez Panisse Vegetables, by Alice Waters
• Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer (have I told you I own three copies of this book? 1954, 1960, 1971, 1981. There is a reason for this: Donald received the 1981 one when he got married the first time, I got the 1971 one when I graduated from high school. and I picked up the 1954 one in about 1985 because the recipes have a different feel to them. They are just a little more hand-made)
• Little Meals, by Rozanne Gold (I don't remember where I picked this one up, but I wanted to try it out again)
• 3 Bowls, by Seppo Ed Farrey (Vegetarian Recipes from an American Zen Buddhist Monastery - everyone has three bowls, a large, a medium and a small, and the meals are designed to fit in the bowls. Weird, but it's a good source of vegetarian recipes)
• Tassajara Cooking, by Edward Espe Brown (he wrote a series of books from the Tassajara monasteries, and is another good source of vegetarian recipes)

In Defense of Food

In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan: what a book. It took me so long to get it from the library, I kept it after it was due so I could finish reading it and re-read favorite sections. It might even qualify for a purchase.

This book is much more accessible than The Omnivore's Dilemma, focusing on the Western diet, and why it leads to the Western diseases (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc). It includes summaries of recent research, with many resources at the end. Basically, the message that it's best to eat Real Food: Fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, meat fish. Real, unprocessed food.

To cut to the chase, the author recommends "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." How to escape the Western diet?? Here's some detail, but you really need to read the book.

EAT FOOD

• Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
• Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
• Avoid food products that make health claims
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible

MOSTLY PLANTS

• Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
• You are what what you eat eats too - what this means is that cows are supposed to eat grass. If the beef you eat is eating corn instead of grass, you're not getting the benefit of the leaves that the cow should be eating.
  
• If you have the space, buy a freezer
• Eat like an omnivore
• Eat well-grown food from healthy soils
• Eat wild foods when you can
• Be the kind of person who takes supplements - another explanation is in order: it's not that the supplements actually work, it's that the people who take supplements tend to be healthier in general because they are paying attention to what they eat
• Eat more like the French, or the Italians, or the Japanese, or the Indians, or the Greeks
• Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism
• Don't look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet - it's the sum of the diet that is healthful, not some specific item in the diet.
• Have a glass of wine with dinner

NOT TOO MUCH

• Pay more. Eat less
• Eat meals
• Do all your eating at a table
• Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does
• Try not to eat alone
• Consult your gut - Americans let external, visual cues determine how much we eat. Rather, stop eating when you are no longer hungry.
• Eat slowly
• Cook and, if you can, plant a garden

Science Fiction

My favorite genre is science fiction, but it is also the genre I despise the most. It's either really good or really bad. There is very little in the middle. It lends itself best to the short story format. Many science fiction authors can write fabulous short stories, but they can't carry the plot through to a full-length book.

This month I read two science fiction books by authors new to me.

• Rollback, by Robert J. Sawyer
• In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker

Kage Baker invented a future where the secret of immortality has been discovered, and soon thereafter, time travel was also invented. People travel back in time to find children who can be made immortal, who can act as stewards for stuff that they need in the future. Yes, it is a time travel book - one of my favorite science fiction plot devices. This book has a new time travel rule! You can change the past, as long as nothing has been recorded or remembered. So when the child of a poor family disappears, it is not noted historically, and that child can change other things in the past. For example. It's pretty amusing, an interesting premise. She wrote a series of these books apparently, and I think I will try another one.

But Rollback gives us something to think about. The plot is complex, well crafted, and basically boils down to this: in their 80's, a husband and wife are given the opportunity to biologically return to 25 years old. This is a procedure that maybe 60 or 70 people have gone through, is very expensive, but they have a benefactor who offers them the option. They take the treatment, and within a month, it is apparent that the husband is getting younger and younger: his hair has grown back, it isn't gray anymore, he can run up the stairs again... but the wife, for some unknown reason, does not regress. She stays 87 years old. This couple recently celebrated their 60th anniversary. So, after 60 years of marriage, suddenly she is 87 and he is 25. What happens next? Just imagine. And not only that, there is communication with aliens. The wife has spent her life working on the SETI project.

Great books! I have recommended them to everyone who would listen and I am hoping I will have someone to discuss these books with pretty soon

Vegie of the Day: Mizuna

Mizuna appeared in the coop vegetables this week, and it was a wonderful surprise. The leaves are tender and tasty, and make a delicious and different salad. I used olive oil and rice vinegar for a dressing.

I am not a huge fan of salads. It is almost heresy to say that in public in 2008, but it's the truth. I enjoy a salad every now and then, and if I'm eating salad, I would like different greens every day. Therefore, the mizuna was a welcome change. I searched the grocery store for mizuna, and didn't find a sprig of it, so it's probably one of those greens that you have to look for at the Farmer's Market.

Playing for Pizza: a Book Review

Those who know me know that I am not a John Grisham fan. However, I make an exception for Painted House, which was not a lawyer book and was well-written. I recommend The Painted House. So, I thought maybe Playing for Pizza might be another keeper of a book.

It's about a failed NFL player whose last chance to play football is with a team in Italy. In Parma. I think I missed the point of a lot of the book because, I must confess, I don't know anything about football. This guy was a quarterback. He talked a lot about what quarterbacks do and don't do. That was all meaningless to me.

However, I think John Grisham must have taken a trip to Italy and wrote this book so he could write it off for tax purposes. That's just a theory, but there was a lot of talk of Italy, and most of it rang true. Food, little cars, no parking, small apartments... This was what I enjoyed about this book. I want to go visit Parma now.

I would only recommend this book to my friends who are obsessing about Italy. Otherwise, it's a cute story, the character development reminds me of 'the lawyer books', the plot is moderately simplistic, and then there's the football. I just really didn't care about any of it.

Vegie of the Day: Cardoon

Cardoon looks like huge celery, but is related to artichokes. Prepare by stripping off leaves, pull off strings, and chop into small chunks. Drop into boiling water with lemon juice in it. Let it boil 5 to 20 minutes, until cooked through. It's OK if it's still crunchy.

At this point, you can cool it and make a salad or antipasto - add oil and vinegar, or saute with garlic and onions, maybe throw in another vegetable and serve with pasta, rice, or by itself as a side dish.

I tried my first tonight, cooked with pasta, and Mmmm-Mmmm. It was pretty good!

Afternoon Tea

When Nora is home from school, we try to go to the Camellia Tea Room at least once. We have tea sandwiches, little salads, maybe scones and a pot of tea for each. She likes the lavender blue tea best, which reeks of coconut in my opinion. I have been trying out all the green teas, since they are not so available here. Today I had the Gyokuro tea, described as "Japan's finest grade of tea".

I am beginning to think that I like the tea paraphernalia more than I actually like the tea. Teapots, tea cups, silver strainers, cute little spoons - this is the stuff that makes the tea. Slurping tea made from a teabag in a mug is not the same as sipping tea made from loose tea in a one-of-a-kind teapot.

When I cleaned out my parents house last year, I made a decision: I was taking every teapot and every tea cup. And, I did. I haven't unpacked them yet, but it is beginning to look like there is a collection beginning here. I can count 12 teapots sitting on the sideboard of the china cupboard.

You need the proper teapot for a specific tea. Japanese? Chinese? English teapot? Floral, geometric, or plain? 2 cup, 4 cup, 6 cup? These are all important factors to include in the final selection decision. Of course, the final decision is usually to use "the favorite".

Ribollita

During our stay in Florence, Italy, my husband discovered a new food: Ribollita, also known as "Tuscan Soup". It became his favorite meal at restaurants, along with gnocchi.

When we returned home, I decided to try to make ribollita. This is basically a combination of leftover minestrone soup and leftover bread. True peasant food.

I googled "Ribollita", and came up with quite a few recipes. They all involved chopping up vegetables, including lots of greens, white beans, and stale bread. The true Ribollita includes black cabbage, which I don't think is available around here at all.

I chose the one that seemed to have the most potential for authenticity, the most availability of ingredients, and the shortest cooking time. The winner was a recipe from 2003 posted by dmele.

(2021 - recipe location updated)

It calls for 3 cups of greens (chard, mustard greens, or spinach), shredded, and I chose KALE, because I thought its substantial leaf would stand up to the hours of cooking involved. In addition, with the use of vegetable broth it ends up being not only vegetarian, but vegan. (More obsession on vegan cooking later.)

Preparation took about 30 minutes, cooking about 2 hours. I used the immersible blender to whiz it up a bit.

I had some day-old bread, but it didn't seem to be, well, stale, so I cubed up some of the day-old bread and left it out on the bread board for a few hours to get good and stale. I added it to the soup, cooked the soup a while longer and was surprised to see that the bread puffed up like marshmallows!! It whisked right in, giving the soup a thick consistency.

They say that the true ribollita should be thick enough to eat with a fork.

The family review was that it was GREAT. Definitely passed the test. I caught the daughter sneaking a second bowl later in the evening, which is a very good sign.