Books and Books
Sharon June 10th, 2009
A while back, I mentioned that I had a proposal in for a book on social issues – family, sex, marriage, population, etc…. and how they are likely to be affected by the coming shift in energy issues. Well, that book did not sell, unfortunately, and just as I was about to begin the work of actually finding an agent, and hunting around for another potential publisher (I’m both lazy and ignorant of the process, since instead of laboring in the garrett and sending out manuscripts, I actually had an editor approach me in a sort of a fairy-tale thing). But while I was getting around to that, my editor sorta asked “well, what else ya got?” (Ok, Ingrid, Goddess of the Red Pen, doesn’t actually say “ya” 
) And I mentioned that I’d been doing Adapting in Place classes, and in the back of my head, thinking that there was a book in there about how to make a future where you are.
Well, apparently that one hit the jackpot, and while all is not settled, it looks like yours truly and Aaron are back in the book saddle again, putting together an Adapting in Place book. The working title (which I am less fond of since my husband pointed out that it evokes a John Denver song…ooops) is “Back Home Again.” And it will cover how to make a life that is as integrated as possible – that is, one that responds both to our energy and ecological decline, but also to our need for beauty, to save money, to make our lives better now. Aaron is going to illustrate it, since I think that it is so important that we have a literal vision of what comes next.
I’ll probably call on y’all for many suggestions and critiques in the coming months (insanely enough, the due date for the manuscript is going to be March, so a crazy winter is anticipated), but one of the things that most needs doing is a good Bibliography. I included one in _Depletion and Abundance_ but in the couple of years since I wrote it, many more books have been published or come to my attention, and of course, I missed plenty of wonderful resources.
So I want your help with this – I’m going to pick a subject every week, and ask for recommendations of books I might not know on the subject. I’m also going to publish some more book reviews, as I read for this large project of telling people how to make a sustainable home where they are.
This week, I thought we’d start with one of my favorite subjects – cookbooks! I have a list of cookbooks, of course, but I want to update and expand it. So please, tell me what your favorite cookbooks are in helping you live a sustainable life, eat sustainably and enjoy your food. Please tell me the author, title and why you think these are the two or three cookbooks I really should look at!
Thanks so much,
Sharon
- books
- Comments(75)
ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/
This is a must read for anyone who does not have the time to bake their own bread.
As someone who is allergic to dairy and whose dd was allergic to eggs as a toddler, I have a LOT of vegan cookbooks, mainly for the baked goods. These are the ones I go to for main dishes too:
_Vegan with a Vengeance_ and _Veganomicon_ by Isa C. Moskowitz
_Nonna’s Italian Kitchen_ by Bryanna C. Grogan
_World Vegetarian_ and _World of the East Vegetarian Cooking_ by Madhur Jaffrey
_Cooking Free_ by Carol Fenster (dealing with multiple food allergies and food rotations)
_Vive Le Vegan_ by Dreena Burton, worth it for the Homestyle Chocolate Chip cookies alone, my kids devour these and love eating the raw (egg-free) cookie dough…
_Joy of Cooking_ both the old version and the new version
LisaH
And thank you Sharon, I had no idea that Anya von Bremzen had more cookbooks! Now I have something (more) to keep an eye out for.
I second Nourishing Traditions. It has great recipes for traditional foods; lots of very clear instructions for lacto fermented dishes; and very interesting beverages. I’ve made the Beet Kvass and the Ginger Ale many times.
Also, The Brilliant Bean, by Sally & Martin Stone. The name says it all.
another vote for Simply in Season: http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Season-World-Community-Cookbook/dp/0836192974/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244730796&sr=8-1
i love this cookbook and use it often…it is great for using with my csa membership and i end up using it many times a week. the author also includes small meditations on food sustainability and social justice, which i find very thought provoking.
Goats Produce Too! by Mary Jane Toth, has more than just cheese recipes and since goats are easier to keep than cows for most people this insures that the temperatures are correct.
Homestead Cooking, Eating What you Grow from the Homestead Heritage community in Texas. This is a book of wonderful recipes (everything – cheese, bread, duck, Middle Eastern, main dishes, pastries and desserts) put together by women who live the life of homesteading organically and teach it to others.
Woodstove Cookery by Jane Cooper
The Shaker Cook Book by Caroline Piercy
Good Meals and How to Prepare Them – Good Housekeeping Institute 1928
Stocking Up III
Cooking with Stored Foods
More Make Your Own Groceries
Breads of the La Brea Bakery (sourdough breads and starters)
Making the Best of the Basics
Better than Store-Bought
Freezing and Canning Cookbook
Preserving Food
Whole Grains
Keeping the Harvest
Beans by Green
Boutique Bean Pot
The Versatile Grains and Elegant Beans
Appalachian Cookery
Magic Beans
Joy of Gardening Cookbook
Cooking with Honey by Hazel Berto and Putting it Up with Honey – these recipes are hard to find!
For your other resources:
Everything by Elliot Coleman – garden
The Home and Farm Manual Classic Edition by Jonathan Periam
The Draft Horse Primer by Tellen
Everything by Nancy Bubel – garden
USDA Yearbook series before 1958 on plant diseases, insects, etc.
Everything by Pat Coleby on Herbal Animal Care
Everything by Lynn R Miller on Draft Horses (Yes some of us will be adapting in place in the country or on a lot large enough to have animal options – great when the neighbors all need their large gardens plowed)
Seed to Seed
Morrison’s Feed and Feeding
Storey Guides to Raising…(all animals)
The Field Guide to Edible and Wild Foods
Growing Fruits and Vegetables Organically – MY GARDEN BIBLE! (And I have hundreds of Garden Books)
Where there is No… (Doctor, Dentist, Vet, etc.)
Any farm and garden book put out by Acres USA
If there is one magazine that you could recommend it should be Country Side – cover to cover applicable articles!
Susan, my two faves of hers are _Please to the Table_ which was marketed as “a Russian cookbook” back before the fall of the Soviet Union, but is really a whole FSU regional cookbook, and superb, and _The Terrific Pacific_ cookbook, which covers most of the Pacific Rim – stupid name, lovely cookbook. She’s got others too, but those are the ones I own.
Sharon
Kate, one book that isn’t perfect, but I really like is Georgeanne Brennan’s _Down to Earth_ – its focus isn’t just on potatoes, but on root vegetables in general, which is good. It is perhaps a little too fancy for novice cooks, but lovely nontheless.
I don’t like the title _Adapting in Place_ – it will be part of the subtitle, of course, but my concern is that it isn’t evocative enough for the degree to which it isn’t self-explanatory – that is, good book titles seem to fall into two categories, either the kind that evoke a feeling and are explained by their subtitles, or the kind that explain themselves upfront. “Depletion and Abundance” is one of the former, “Simple Breads” is the other. I don’t think AIP is sufficiently clear to people who don’t read my blog and deal with this stuff to draw people in via way #2, and it isn’t evocative enough for #1. But lord knows, I’m not using anything associated with John Denver and Jim Nabors, so the search for a title goes on
.
Sharon
I don’t know whether anyone’s mentioned these yet, but two of my favorites are:
From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide To Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce by the Madison [WI] Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition
A book of recipes gleaned from farmers, local chefs, and a variety of other sources, arranged by vegetable. They also give you a short botanical history on each, and provide nutritional information and basic storage and preparation tips. Pretty much every veggie you can imagine is in here. There’s also a section in the back of recipes arranged by season. If I have an ingredient I’m not sure how to use, this is the book I go to first.
The Joy of Simple Cooking by Alice Waters. She’s serious when she says simple – this book is all about method, using very few, but very fresh and local, ingredients (which of course is her M.O.). While I like Deborah Madison, I find that a lot of her cookbooks call for ingredients that have to be trucked in from somewhere else. Not so with this book, at least in zone 5.
It single-handedly made enthusiastic and competent cooks out of my husband and me.
And since no meal is complete without beer
, a brewing book my husband really likes:
Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales and World-Altering Meditations in a Glass by Randy Mosher.
BTW – shoulda probably mentioned that Asparagus to Zucchini is available on Amazon, if it peaks anyone’s interest.
I third the suggestion of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. We’re vegan, and there are tons of recipes in there that do not rely on animal products. He’s also just really really good at giving you the basic skills to tackle it all: the hows and whys of bread – how to substitute flours, how to cook most any grains and beans, etc. Really good at giving you confidence to come up with things on your own, because his recipes are so simple – and I LOVE that he includes tons of variations on his recipes – it feels like a license to experiment (lots of cookbooks lack this).
I also like Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson as well as her Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. Crescent Dragonwagon’s The Passionate Vegetarian is also GIGANTIC, has lots of variations and vegan recipes (and cute stories/anecdotes). Mmm…I want her cornbread right now!
Does this mean you won’t be doing any more AIP classes? Because I was really hoping to take that one next.
I have bought several cookbooks lately and as yet have not actually cooked anything from them, but they hold great promise and I wish to share them here.
Cooking With Sunshine: The Complete Guide to Solar Cuisine with 150 Easy Sun-cooked Recipes by Lorraine Anderson and Rick Palkovic. This book includes not only recipes but directions for making and using solar cookers. Of especial interest to the rank beginner like myself is a chapter entitled “Warm-up: Easy recipes to show what your solar cooker can do.” The “What’s for Dinner?” chapter includes vegetarian fare as well as the usual meat and fish dishes, beans, grains and breads. “What’s for Dessert?” offers a variety from chocolate cake to butternut squash pie. “Menu Ideas” covers a wide range – easy, one-pot and last minute meals, meals for cloudy days, vegan and wheat free meals. Overall, it appears to be an excellent book!
From the Cook’s Garden: recipes for cooks who like to garden, gardeners who like to cook, and everyone who wishes they had a garden by Ellen Ecker Ogden. Okay, you’ve got a garden full of luscious vegetables, or your share from the CSA, or maybe you’ve just come back from a trip to the local farmer’s market. Now what do you do with it all? This book offers simple recipes for garden produce along with tips on the best tasting varieties to grow. The last chapter offers a few suggestions for “Preserving the Bounty,” but mostly this book is about eating what is fresh and in season.
While not strictly cookbooks, two books by Rosalind Creasy have found their way onto my bookshelf: The Edible Flower Garden and The Edible Herb Garden. Both books are lovely to look at and worth it for the pictures alone. These books cover the whole gamut – from garden design, cultivation, and preservation to an encyclopedia of plants and recipes for beautiful, eye-catching dishes.
I use the Tassajara Bread book all the time.
I also have a very worn copy of American Wholefoods Cuisine by Nikki and David Goldbeck, which was out of print for a while but can now be found on Amazon. It’s vegetarian and has lots of really good bean recipes. Good vegetable, main dish and soup recipes, too.
The best vegetarian cookbook I have is Horn of the Moon Cookbook by Ginny Callan. It has the best of all soup recipes, as well as salads, breads, etc. It can be found used, but it must be a collectors item now because Amazon’s used booksellers have some copies priced at around $30.
I found The Practical Produce Cookbook last summer at a local farmstand. It’s an A to Z cookbook of vegetables and fruit compiled by Ray and Elsie Hoover, to help their customers learn how to use and preserve the produce they sell at a Wisconsin farmer’s market. It can be ordered by calling the Hoovers at 715-687-4558.
Elise
Forgot the pickle recipes. Very good pickle book: Pickles and Relishes: From Apples to Zucchinis; 150 recipes for preserving the harvest by Andrea Chesman, available from Amazon.
Definitely include breads..the Artisan Bread in Five Mins book is good.
More with Less.
I also have a couple on Mediterranean style cooking that are good.
Include Cooking With Sunshine and the Dutch Oven Cookbook (there are others out there) as you discuss alternative fuel cooking sources.
Natural Meals in Minutes (Bingham) is vegetarian, basic, with breads, breakfast, soups, salads, sandwich fillings, etc; also includes sprouting, making yogurt, yogurt cheeses, powdered milk cheeses, etc.
The one I actually use most often, week-to-week: Campbell’s Great American Cookbook. OOP, unfortunately, but findable on ebay, etc. I favor simple, tried-and-true comfort food recipes, and there are plenty of those in here. The recipes work, I’ve not had a failure yet.
Two encyclopedic references that I count upon when I need them, even though I don’t necessarilly use them that often: Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer Cookbook.
For Food Preservation: Ball Blue Book, Putting Food By, and Food Preservation Without Freezing and Canning.
I’ve recently been using the America’s Test Kitchens Family Cookbook and Family Baking Book. Much of the material is a little too “gourmet” for my time and money. However, the recipes are based on very thorough research to find the best way to cook food, and they are very well illustrated. I like being able to see what something is supposed to look like before I try it, and I like being able to see step-by-step how to do something I haven’t done before.
I just came across another one on Amazon.com that looks really promising.
_Greens Glorious Greens: More than 140 Ways to Prepare All Those Great-Tasting, Super-Healthy, Beautiful Leafy Greens_ by Johnna Albi.
Greens are usually easy-to-grow, available nearly year round, and super nutritious so this looks like a good addition to the self-reliant cook’s bookshelf.
Index includes not only homegrown greens but wild ones as well (ie dandelion, chickweed). According to blurb, “The authors explain their subjects’ virtues and shortcomings (steamed broccoli rabe served solo can be unpleasant); how to choose them; how?and how long?to keep them; how to clean them; and, in more than 140 recipes, how to cook them. Greens need a little help, they say, and many of the recipes lean on a smattering of olive oil, garlic or raisins to bring out the flavor.”
“The Victory Garden Cookbook” by Marian Morash. Now out of print, and a bit pricey to get used on Amazon. It came about in 1982 as a companion to the PBS series. Arranged alphabetically by vegetable. Best thing is the introductory section for each vegetable, which summarizes growing techniques, preservation options, what to look for if buying fresh, along with lots of handy conversion factors. The recipes, from basic preparation to more involved dishes, all work out correctly, too. My copy is falling apart, it has been used so frequently. Highly recommended.
OK, no one has mentioned a home winemaking book yet. Here’s the one we’re using:
The Joy of Home Winemaking, by Terry Garey
You can use sugar or honey (a good reason to keep bees), and the recipes include ones for fruits you can grow at home, like elderberries. We made elderberry wine from our elderberries last fall, can’t wait to taste it!
Also, of course, The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. You’ll want some beer too …
Oooh, here’s MY suggestion for a great cookbook:
_Prairie Home Cooking: 400 Recipes that celebrate the bountiful harvest, creative cooks, and comforting foods of the American Heartland_ by Judith M. Fertig.
Not only is it a lot of great recipes (including a section on pickling and jam-making, which tends toward the short-term keeping, non-long-term-processed, but could easily be adapted by one used to preserving larger harvests for longer-term keeping), this book has a lot of great anecdotal information, stories, trivia, menu ideas….. A lovely book to read through, just for the reading. The ONE drawback is that there are no color pictures. But then again, as thick as this book is, as it is, it’d probably be TOO dang big, if color pictures were included.
Now I’m gonna go see what everybody else recommended. I’ll probably find this book mentioned previously, as well.
I third Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions.
This cookbook is packed with great info on proper nutrition, not what the USDA ( big ag ) leads many to believe.
Can’t believe no one has mentioned this one – The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. “Practical advice, invaluable information, and collected wisdom for folks and farmers in the country, city, and anywhere in between. Includes how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals , make sausage, can peaches, mild a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, catch a pig, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more.”
Mine is the ninth edition, and also, in addition to tons of recipes, includes info on sewing quilts, living self-sufficiently, gardening, foraging, grasses and grains, orchards, preserving, root cellaring, raising, doctoring and butchering animals, improving soils, making cheese, etc, etc.
The Boxing Clever Cookbook by Jacqueline Anne Jones and Joan Kathleen Wilmot is from what I’ve gleaned the best of the Veg Box/ CSA glut-minded books– really creative and delicious recipes. From Scotland. Can’t find my copy…. It should have had a larger print-run, perhaps its moment is more now than 2002….
And may I please put in a good word for the great classic European Peasant Cookery by Elisabeth Luard. Really rooted, local, historic recipes that are infinitely adaptable because they come from traditions of parsimony and seasonality. I love this book– it’s the one i would give as a gift to a dear (non-vegetarian) friend who really wanted to learn to cook.
I use a number of the cookbooks mentioned here but for the past year or so I have used another one very frequently that has stood me in good stead. “Eating Off the Grid – storing and cooking foods without electricity” by Denise Hansen, MS, RD. I personally do not use dried milk or eggs but those are easily substituted. Her recipes are practical, tasty, often historic and frugal. It was in this book that I read a few sentences on cook box cooking that revolutionized my kitchen! I got so excited about it that I wrote a 50 page e-book (which perhaps you might like to include on your cookbook list as well since cook box cooking is a marvelous skill, nutrition booster, and fuel saver) and we made a couple of videos on the subject. The first dish I made in our cook box came from “Eating Off the Grid.” She includes nutritional info for each recipe which I never pay the slightest attention to but other people must because I keep seeing it included in cookbooks these days! You can get “Eating Off the Grid” on Amazon but I found it cheaper on USA Emergency Supply.
Leslie