Cooking
Well, hey! I'm only slightly late this time. Go me.
Despite my current blogging malaise, I was happy to hear from Cath (Ok, I'm always happy to hear from her) about the prospect of a new Cookbook Spotlight.
A caveat: I'm not a fan of cooked fruit. I want it as nature intended, or with as little doctoring as possible (a little mint, spice, etc). Matt isn't much of a fruit-eater at all.
Alex...will eat just about anything. Fortunately, so will the in-laws.
I found the recipes to be simple, which is always a plus. Not a lot of two-day operations or heavy on the 'meanwhile' steps.
And while I can appreciate the recipes in terms of 'I know so-and-so would enjoy this', I did find the recipes to be a bit...privileged, I suppose.
Each ingredient section would call for organic flour, organic sugar, organic cornstarch. You get the idea. Now, I fully support the organic movement. I'd fill my refrigerator & cupboards with nothing but if I could. Of course, I'd need to find a sugar daddy first, so I could afford it.
And that was my issue with the book. The almost...elitist attitude. Yes, organic is great. But to assume every person who purchases the book has stocked their shelves with only organic baking supplies is kind of presumptuous. I respect Madison, mostly for her vegetarian offerings in the past, but I don't like feeling I'm somehow not living up to my culinary potential because I buy the Target-brand sugar.
Ingredient branding issues aside, the recipes would make any fruit-desert fan happy. Interesting varieties & pairings.
I made the Berry Galette for my in-laws, using a mixture of blueberries & blackberries. They finished it off in two days! And in an interesting twist of fate, that very day they received a copy of Seasonal Fruit Desserts from one of Matt's brothers!
So, to sum up: simple but tasty recipes, if you like fruit. Can't shake the feeling it was written with an agenda. It's a good agenda, but the casual cook may find him/her/itself being taken along for a ride he/she/it didn't sign up for.
- Vegetarian Cookbooks For Omnivores
The reason cookbooks continue to sell when you can find plenty of recipes online is beautiful photos, illustrations and inventive recipes. The Forest Feast has it all. The pretty and very visual format of recipes with tons of photos as well...
- Washington Apples
Do apples taste better today than they used to? I was just in Washington where 65% of the fresh apples eaten in the US are grown and I learned that the varieties and growing techniques are constantly evolving. The apple trees I imagined I'd see were...
- Anthony Boutard On What Makes Fruit Great?
One of the best presentations I got to attend at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference in Portland last month was a conversation between chef and cookbook author Deborah Madison and farmer Anthony Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm....
- Fizzy Fruit Responds
You may remember my concerns about a product called Fizzy Fruit, where fruits are juiced up with carbon dioxide to make them fizzier and—according to the article—somewhat sweeter. Adam Lindemann, an investor and strategist/executive for the...
- The Organic Food Movement In Black And White
I'm a little late to the "dogpile on Julie Powell" party. She wrote an ill-informed op-ed piece for the New York Times condemning the elitist snobbery of the organic food movement (which she, like many, erroneously conflates with seasonal produce),...
Cooking
Cookbook Spotlight: Deborah Madison's Seasonal Fruit Desserts
Well, hey! I'm only slightly late this time. Go me.
Despite my current blogging malaise, I was happy to hear from Cath (Ok, I'm always happy to hear from her) about the prospect of a new Cookbook Spotlight.
A caveat: I'm not a fan of cooked fruit. I want it as nature intended, or with as little doctoring as possible (a little mint, spice, etc). Matt isn't much of a fruit-eater at all.
Alex...will eat just about anything. Fortunately, so will the in-laws.
I found the recipes to be simple, which is always a plus. Not a lot of two-day operations or heavy on the 'meanwhile' steps.
And while I can appreciate the recipes in terms of 'I know so-and-so would enjoy this', I did find the recipes to be a bit...privileged, I suppose.
Each ingredient section would call for organic flour, organic sugar, organic cornstarch. You get the idea. Now, I fully support the organic movement. I'd fill my refrigerator & cupboards with nothing but if I could. Of course, I'd need to find a sugar daddy first, so I could afford it.
And that was my issue with the book. The almost...elitist attitude. Yes, organic is great. But to assume every person who purchases the book has stocked their shelves with only organic baking supplies is kind of presumptuous. I respect Madison, mostly for her vegetarian offerings in the past, but I don't like feeling I'm somehow not living up to my culinary potential because I buy the Target-brand sugar.
Ingredient branding issues aside, the recipes would make any fruit-desert fan happy. Interesting varieties & pairings.
I made the Berry Galette for my in-laws, using a mixture of blueberries & blackberries. They finished it off in two days! And in an interesting twist of fate, that very day they received a copy of Seasonal Fruit Desserts from one of Matt's brothers!
So, to sum up: simple but tasty recipes, if you like fruit. Can't shake the feeling it was written with an agenda. It's a good agenda, but the casual cook may find him/her/itself being taken along for a ride he/she/it didn't sign up for.
- Vegetarian Cookbooks For Omnivores
The reason cookbooks continue to sell when you can find plenty of recipes online is beautiful photos, illustrations and inventive recipes. The Forest Feast has it all. The pretty and very visual format of recipes with tons of photos as well...
- Washington Apples
Do apples taste better today than they used to? I was just in Washington where 65% of the fresh apples eaten in the US are grown and I learned that the varieties and growing techniques are constantly evolving. The apple trees I imagined I'd see were...
- Anthony Boutard On What Makes Fruit Great?
One of the best presentations I got to attend at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference in Portland last month was a conversation between chef and cookbook author Deborah Madison and farmer Anthony Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm....
- Fizzy Fruit Responds
You may remember my concerns about a product called Fizzy Fruit, where fruits are juiced up with carbon dioxide to make them fizzier and—according to the article—somewhat sweeter. Adam Lindemann, an investor and strategist/executive for the...
- The Organic Food Movement In Black And White
I'm a little late to the "dogpile on Julie Powell" party. She wrote an ill-informed op-ed piece for the New York Times condemning the elitist snobbery of the organic food movement (which she, like many, erroneously conflates with seasonal produce),...