Unbiased reviews of new healthy cookbooks + preview recipes.
Unbiased reviews of new healthy cookbooks + preview recipes.
Upon entering a bookstore or cooking shop, do you make a beeline for the cookbook section? Does swooning over the beautiful food photography transport you to a utopia of perfectly stocked pantries, endless lines of see-through spice containers and open-air cupboards featuring shabby chic dinnerware and pinch bowls of coarse sea salt? Do you read the lists of recipe ingredients wondering about all the flavor combinations your tongue has yet to discover?
If you answered yes to any of the above, then you are a cookbook connoisseur, and this column is for you. Welcome to our Get Cookin' Cookbook Reviews, written by Delicious Living editor Jessie Shafer, where she’ll walk you through the newest cookbooks that cross her desk so we can all drool and discover together.
Starting with …
The cookbook: The Hands-On Home, A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping
The author: Erica Strauss of the blog Northwest Edible Life calls herself a professional chef turned gardening and urban homesteading fanatic—a secret hippie in the suburbs. She represents Seattle-hipster-natural-living-enthusiasts well, from raising her own backyard chickens to unique canning practices with built-in frugality. Her cookbook and her blog have a writing style that is refreshingly honest with a little bit sass and loads of you-can-do-it inspiration.
Initial impressions: The cover is everything. I'm in love with the scripty title font that appears a little bit hand drawn and includes perfect exchanges between cursive and print. And the cover photo draws me into (what I perceive to be) Erica’s home, where we can slather some of her freshly jarred Strawberry Preserves in Balsamic-Black Pepper Syrup over homemade Picnic Bread before we go outside and line dry a load of eucalyptus-scented laundry.
What’s cool: We're really digging the seasonal organization of this book. For each chapter, Erica provides a select group of seasonal recipes, preserving recipes, home care solutions and personal care recipes for Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall—as well as a Year-Round section. Her recipe intros and simple-yet-thorough instructions make it clear that she’s truly an expert in this subject matter, and she has a lot of insight to share.
Perfect for: People who love to make their own ingredients / Friends who are new to canning, preserving and homesteading / DIYers / Those passionate about nontoxic home and personal care, reducing consumerism and trying something new in the kitchen
When/Where to get it: Erica’s book goes on sale September 29th, 2015. You can preorder it now for $20.
Sneak-peek recipe: Click here for Erica’s recipe for Kamut Salad with Delicata Squash and Dried Cherries (reprinted with permission from the publisher).
