One of the best skills we can teach our kids is how to cook, and Kids’ Fun and Healthy Cookbook is one of the best kids’ cookbooks out there. The recipes are actually ones that you can easily make with your child and still satisfy everyone at the dinner table–kids and adults. Each of the 100 recipes is laid out in simple steps with accompanying photographs. I also like the opening section designed to help parents and educators teach kids about the keys to nutrition. Some of the tastiest recipes include: Banana Pancakes, Tuna Quesadillas and Carrot Salad, Salmon Parcels, Fruit and Nut Cookies.
Category: Cooking (Page 5 of 6)
The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook
edited by Sara Roahen and John T. Edge forward by Alton Brown
I can go home and look through my Mom’s cookbook collection and I see all kinds of grease splattered, gravy stained, broken spiral binding stored in a ziplock bag cookbooks that have come from various local community groups. The look of these cookbooks lets me know that those are the ones I want to look through and maybe cook something. The Southern Foodways Alliance has put together their version of the Community Cookbook and I think it might become a grease splattered, gravy stained cookbook in my collection!!
These recipes are divided into sections such as Garden Goods, Grist, Yardbird, The Hook, and Cane. This book of recipes really represents southern food and people no matter where you are living or where you were born. The contributors are “someone” you know — whether they are a catfish farmer, an attorney, an academic, a restaurant chef, or your next door neighbor’s cousin twice removed — and if you don’t know them you will definitely want to be introduced.
With hunting season about to start here is a recipe for Venison and Noodles by Gayle Brooks of Brooksville, Florida (pg 206)
2 lbs venison roast 1 stalk celery, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 3 medium onions, sliced (about 6 cups)
1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 cups chopped tomatoes
3 tablespoons bacon drippings Hot, cooked noodles, for serving
Cut the venison in to 2-inch pieces. Stir together the flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Lightly coat the venison in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess. Set aside in a single layer.
Heat the drippings in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the venison and brown it on all sides. Stir in the celery, onions, Worcestershire, and tomatoes. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the meat is very tender. 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Serve hot over the noodles.
There is a quote from Eudora Welty right when you open the book and having lived in Jackson, MS all my life I must say I agree with her….
“I daresay any fine recipe used in Jackson could be attributed to a local lady, or her mother — Mrs. Cabell’s Pecans, Mrs. Wright’s Cocoons, Mrs. Lyell’s Lemon Dessert. Recipes, in the first place, had to be imparted — there was something oracular in the transaction — and however often they were made after that by others, they kept their right names. I make Mrs. Mosal’s White Fruitcake every Christmas, having got it from my mother, who got it from Mrs. Mosal, and I often think to make a friend’s recipe is to celebrate her once more, and in that cheeriest, most aromatic of places to celebrate in, the home kitchen.”
…and I believe, Miss Welty, I have eaten a few of these recipes a time or two myself.
by Kelly Pickerill
Growing up, my family’s culinary experiences were limited. Whether it was a sign of the times — I feel like bologna, instant mashed potatoes, fish sticks, toaster pastries, and other “convenience foods” had their heyday in the nineties, and my family took advantage of their kid-friendliness — or because when feeding four kids you’re bound to have to sacrifice quality for quantity, I don’t remember many made from scratch meals. Cakes always came out of a box, and peanut butter and jelly could often be found in the same jar.
Now that I’m grown and have a palate for food with more than one ingredient (it can even touch other foods on the plate!), I’ve also found myself wanting to experiment with more and more complicated (and usually more delicious) recipes. When I get a new cookbook, I read it from cover to cover, daydreaming about the tasty possibilities and poring over each photograph. Emeril Lagasse, renowned New Orleans chef, has a new cookbook out this summer, Farm to Fork. The cookbook is organized by the type of focal ingredient, and showcases Emeril’s love for local ingredients and fresh flavor. One of the first recipes to catch my eye was for a quiche, a food I don’t think I knew existed until adolescence. An egg pie? How does that work? Wonderfully, it turns out. This is Emeril’s take, simple yet spiked with blue cheese.
“Herbed Quiche with Blue Cheese”
Savory pie crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water
1. Place the flour, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse to combine. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. While the machine is running, gradually drizzle in the water, processing until the dough comes together to form a ball.
2. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and shape it into a flat disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour or up to overnight. (The dough can be frozen for up to a month; thaw in the refrigerator before using.)
Pie filling:
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 ounces Maytag blue cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mixed herbs, such as parsley, thyme, tarragon, chives, and/or oregano
1. Preheat the oven to 400F
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie crust dough to 1/8-inch thickness to fit an 8-inch fluted tart pan. Fill the pan with the dough, easing the dough into the bottom and lightly pressing it against the sides. Trim off the excess dough.
3. Line the pastry shell with parchment paper, and fill it with ceramic pie weights or dried beans. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet, and bake for 9 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and set the tart pan on a wire rack to cool. Remove the parchment paper and the weights.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 375F.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, blue cheese, and butter. Whisk in the eggs until well blended. Stir in the cream, milk, salt, pepper, and herbs. Pour the filling into the partially baked pie shell. Return the tart pan to the baking sheet and bake, rotating the quiche halfway through, until it is puffed and golden brown, 25 minutes. The quiche is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Remove the tart pan from the baking sheet and set it on a wire rack to cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
6 to 8 servings
by Kelly Pickerill
It’s summertime and we live in Mississippi. Growing up in Florida, I always assumed it was the hottest state; I mean, it’s that part of the U.S. that sticks out at the very bottom — tourists pose for photos at the southernmost point of the country in Key West — so doesn’t that mean it’s the most sweltering? Then I went to college in Arkansas, and was introduced to the heat of the landlocked south. Oh man. The other day after work I got in my car and the temperature read 104 degrees.
It’s not all bad. Summer in Mississippi also means picnics at the reservoir, sitting on the porch in the evenings with a good book, and the smells of cut grass and watermelon and smoking grills. For those of us coping with the heat, we know there are a few tricks to stay cool. At my house, the one room that never cools off is the kitchen. If I use the stove at all, it will take several hours to cool back down. To keep the heat out, we’ve been grilling quite a bit lately, and I’ve been collecting grilling cookbooks.
My favorite so far is the Chronicle book Grill Every Day. We grilled chicken last night, and while I was at the store picking up salad stuff I saw that Mississippi corn was on sale, so I grabbed a bunch of ears and was excited to throw them on the grill too. I hadn’t ever grilled corn in the husk before, and my roommate was skeptical that it wouldn’t go well, so I looked it up in my cookbook. I’m glad I did, cause if I would have just thrown the husks on like I was originally going to do, I probably would have set the corn on fire. Not only were there instructions for how not to start a husk fire (soak the corn in water), but also there were great ideas for sauces to put on the corn.
We also have Robert St. John’s New South Grilling, a must-have for all Mississippians who like to grill. He has several pizza recipes that I’m excited to try this summer. In the winter, we make pizza from scratch and bake it, and the heat the oven generates is welcome. In the summer, we have to find new ways to make it, because it’s still the best food ever. We haven’t perfected the art of the pizza on the grill — in fact, we burnt one — but I think it’ll just take practice, mainly in figuring out the amount of coals to make it just the right temperature.
So stay cool this summer, enjoy your Cathead Vodka on the porch, and make Mississippi smell delicious.
i was reading Eat Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer around thanksgiving. i was quite tempted to go to kroger and start reading my favorite parts of the book out loud in the meat section. i really wanted to play the part of the batty traveling religious zealot that you see screaming at people in the middle of college campuses. don’t get the idea that i’m one of those paint throwing, non-leather-wearing vegetarian crazies but i almost became one while reading this book. i’ll spare you the truly gory bits that i so wanted to share with grocery shoppers but i do want to share a few little tid bits.
“Americans choose to eat less than .25% of the known edible food on the planet.”
“Modern industrial fishing lines can be as long as 75 miles-the same distance as from sea level to space.”
“Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change.”
“In the typical cage for egg-laying hens, each bird has 67 square inches of space…Nearly all cage-free birds have approximately the same amount of space.”
“On average, Americans eat the equivalent of 21,000 entire animals in a lifetime.”
“Nearly one-third of the land surface of the planet is dedicated to livestock.”
“Less than 1% of the animals killed for meat in America come from family farms.”
i’ve been a vegetarian since my sophomore year in college (about six years) and some of the stuff in this book made me gag from just knowing that i once ate animals. as much as i wanted to share some of the totally bizarre facts i learned, my boyfriend wouldn’t let me. he eats meat and i don’t blame him for not wanting to know the nasty stuff. if you’re not already a vegetarian, seriously considering vegetarianism or have a stomach made of steel and be very careful with this book.
by Zita
My New Orleans will change the way you look at New Orleans cooking and the way you see World-famous chef John Besh. It’s 16 chapters of culture, history, essay and insight, and pure goodness. Besh tells us the story of his New Orleans by the season and by the dish. Archival, four-color, location photography along with ingredient information make the Big Easy easy to tackle in home kitchens. Cooks will salivate over the 200 recipes that honor and celebrate everything New Orleans.
Bite by bite John Besh brings us New Orleans cooking like we’ve never tasted before. It’s the perfect blend of contemporary French techniques with indigenous Southern Louisiana products and know-how. His amazing new offering is exclusively brought to fans and foodies everywhere by Andrews McMeel.
From Mardi Gras, to the shrimp season, to the urban garden, to gumbo weather, boucherie (the season of the pig), and everything tasty in between, Besh gives a sampling of New Orleans that will have us all craving for more.
The boy from the Bayou isn’t just an acclaimed chef with an exceptional pallet. Besh is a chef with a heart. The ex-marine’s passion for the Crescent City, its people, and its livelihood are main courses making him a leader of the city’s culinary recovery and resilience after the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.
In case you’ve been living under a frying pan or hanging out at the pool for the past few months and are not familiar with “Julie and Julia,” it is the newest foodie movie coming out on August 7th. The movie tells the story of Julia Child and Julie Powell and how their lives intertwined 41 years apart from each other. It is a movie based on the book Appetite for Life, the biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch, and a food blog–turned book–Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. The film is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.
It all started with this simple blog entry by Julie Powell on Sunday, August 25, 2002:
The Book:
“Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. First edition, 1961. Louisette Berthole. Simone Beck. And, of course, Julia Child. The book that launched a thousand celebrity chefs. Julia Child taught America to cook, and to eat. It’s forty years later. Today we think we live in the world Alice Waters made, but beneath it all is Julia, 90 if she’s a day, and no one can touch her.
The Contender:
Government drone by day, renegade foodie by night. Too old for theatre, too young for children, and too bitter for anything else, Julie Powell was looking for a challenge. And in the Julie/Julia project she found it. Risking her marriage, her job, and her cats’ well-being, she has signed on for a deranged assignment.
365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen.
How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait…..
The Julie/Julia Project. Coming soon to a computer terminal near you.
Powell was living with her husband in New York. She was nearing 30 and miserable in a dead-end secretarial job, but instead of continuing her descent into despair, she resolved to reclaim her life by cooking, in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She loved this book as a child and often pulled her mother’s copy down from the bookcase and proceeded to sit for hours, engrossed by Child’s enthusiasm and descriptive way of writing. When Powell made her first blog entry in 2002, she had no idea that anyone would be at all interested in her experiment, but immediately she acquired a very active and enthusiastic following. Her book, Julie and Julia, chronicles her year-long cooking adventure.
I read Powell’s book a couple of years ago and it sparked my interest to learn more about Julia Child. I found Fitch’s biography and could not put it down! Julia Child’s life was truly remarkable. She was a wildly exuberant California girl who spent her college years at Smith College. Her zest for life and her easy going nature made her a favorite of anyone who came in contact with her. She volunteered with the OSS in India and China during WWII and there she met her future husband, the cosmopolitan Paul Child. It was he who introduced her to the glories of art, fine French cuisine, and love. Theirs was a deeply passionate romance and a modern marriage of equals. Their relationship is as fascinating as her account of learning to cook in Paris and the background information on how she came to write her bestselling book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as well as her PBS series, “The French Chef.” Her cooking show series would become such a classic that after Child’s death, her entire kitchen was torn out and moved to the Smithsonian!
I love what Powell wrote about Julia Child in her book’s introduction:
“Julia taught me what it takes to find your way in the world. It’s not what I thought it was. I thought it was all about . . . I don’t know, confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have, no question. But there’s something else, something that these things grow out of.”
“It’s joy . . . obnoxious word, isn’t it? And yet, it’s the best word I can think of for the heady, nearly violent satisfaction to be found in the text of Julia’s first book. I read her instructions for making béchamel sauce and what comes throbbing through is that here is a woman who has found her way.”
Julia Child brought French cooking into American homes and Julia Powell did an ingenious, modern twist on a classic. Don’t miss the books or the movie!
Bon Appetit!
-Norma
I wonder what most people think of when someone mentions New Orleans? 
The devastating images of the city ravaged by Katrina? Smelly, sweaty bodies pressed up against each other trying to grab a plastic necklace that will mean nothing to anyone only moments later if no one catches it? The smells of the quarter or the lingerie and sex stores that pop up next to restaurants that require a coat and tie? Fuzzy memories of a friends’ bachelor party or waking up with their hotel and room number tattooed on their arm in Sharpie… just in case?
I think of spring in the garden district and walkin’ down uptown’s narrow streets admiring the houses and the old trees littered with faded beads from Mardi Gras past and discovering a new restaurant for the first time. Whether you’re eating at a hole in the wall or the restaurant requires reservations, New Orleans food is unsurpassed.
Since meeting the famous New Orleans chef, Susan Spicer, at her book signing for her most recent cookbook, Crescent City Cooking, I have been dying to go to one of her restaurants. I’ve heard that both Herbsaint and Bayona are fantastic! Until I get back down there, however, I’ve just had to settle for her recipes.
When the book first came out, she suggested I start by cooking her Crispy Turkey Picatta (page 253) saying that it is fairly simple but delicious… I tried it and it was delicious but last night I tried the “Cajun Style” Chicken Breast with Chili Bean Maque Choux and it was easier and even better than the Turkey Picatta; plus it got a five star review from my fiance, Andy, who said, “it’s a keeper.”
All to say, for a little taste of Nawlins, check out Susan Spicer’s cookbook, Crescent City Cooking and don’t be surprised if it’s like finding a delicious new restaurant in the neighborhood! Still not convinced? Try a recipe… this one is delicious:
“Cajun Style” Chicken Breast with Chili Bean Maque Choux
Makes 4 servings
Prep Time: About 30 minutes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 6 ounces each)
1 tablespoon olive or other vegetable oil, plus 1-2 tablespoons veg. oil for sauteing
2 tablespoons Creole or whole-grain mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon each black and cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons chopped scallion
For the Chicken:
Rinse the chicken breasts and pat dry. Combine the olive oil, mustard, salt, and spices and smear it on the chicken.
Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, or up to several hours, until you’re ready to cook.
Grill the chicken (you can also saute or broil)
Maque Choux
2 ears sweet white or yellow corn, shucked and silk removed, or 1-1/2 cups frozen corn kernals, thawed
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup peeled, seeded, and diced fresh tomato, or canned tomato (with juices)
1 14 ounce can red beans, kidney beans, or chili beans (for a bit more heat), drained and liquid reserved
Salt
Hot Sauce
For the Maque Choux:
Cut the corn kernals from the cob, being careful not to cut too close to the cob (where the kernals become dry and starchy).
Heat the oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet to foaming. Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the tomato, beans, and 1/4 cup of water or reserved bean liquid and season to taste with salt and a little hot sauce. Stir and cook until heated through, then swirl in the remaining tablespoon of butter. Keep the vegetables warm while cooking the chicken.
To serve, place a scoop of maque choux on each plate, garnish with chopped scallions, and top with a chicken breast.
Congratulations from the Lemuria Bookstore Staff!!!!!
Martha Foose won the James Beard Award for Best Cookbook: American for Screen Doors and Sweet Tea! We are so excited for her and love her cookbook. Don’t miss getting a signed copy of this award winning cookbook!
John T. Edge, our favorite food writer, was inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America by the James Beard Foundation.
The Vegetables Dishes I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen is a great cookbook for anyone looking for fresh and healthy ways to jazz up vegetables on the dinner table.
Growing up my parents had a large garden and I enjoyed the flavor and texture of a variety of vegetables and fruits. My mom is a great cook and I learned a lot from her about canning and cooking vegetables. However, since our vegetables were so delicious and fresh, my mom rarely put a lot of seasoning on them.
Mollie Katzen’s new book fills the gap . . . giving me easy new ways to spice up veggies whether fresh or straight from the can.
Some yummy recipes I tried and loved:
Artichoke Heart and Spinach Gratin
Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage with Cranberries and Blueberries
Stir-Fried Carrots, Red Peppers, and Red Onions
The Vegetables DIshes I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen is a great cookbook for anyone looking for fresh and healthy ways to jazz up vegetables on the dinner table.
Growing up my parents had a large garden and I enjoyed the flavor and texture of a variety of vegetables and fruits. My mom is a great cook and I learned a lot from her about canning and cooking vegetables. However, since our vegetables were so delicious and fresh, my mom rarely put a lot of seasoning on them.
Mollie Katzen’s new book fills the gap . . . giving me easy new ways to spice up veggies whether fresh or straight from the can.
Mollie Katzen’s new book fills the gap . . . giving me easy new ways to spice up veggies whether fresh or straight from the can.
Some yummy recipes I tried and loved:Artichoke Heart and Spinach Gratin
Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage with Cranberries and Blueberries
Stir-Fried Carrots, Red Peppers, and Red Onions
Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage with Cranberries and Blueberries
Stir-Fried Carrots, Red Peppers, and Red Onions