February Doldrums

It's February and I can feel it.  We were without a furnace on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I really felt it then.  usually it's my husband who misses spring and the warmer weather.  Right now, it's me.  One of the things I look forward to is picking strawberries at a farm nearby in May.  There's nothing like fresh, homemade jam.

When I was a kid, my grandma always made jam and jellies.  My mom learned how, but I never did.  I wish I had.  I've honestly been very intimidated by canning.  So, I have been looking for a good cookbook to help me learn how.  Two years ago I reviewed a canning cookbook published by Storey Publishing.  The recipes were good and it had a ton of information, but many of the recipes used Pomona pectin--which happens to be quite expensive.  One of my prerequisites for a cookbook I'll use over and over is that the recipes use affordable ingredients.  That one didn't fit the bill.  So, I've continued to look for a solid canning cookbook that would fit easily on any cookbook shelf (since the cookbook space in my kitchen has filled up) that would help me feel like I can tackle canning jam and be successful at it.  

So, I was excited to discover that the publisher of Simply in Season, Herald Press, published a canning cookbook:  Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything.

This book is a nice size.  It's a thin volume, but it's just the right size for all the information that I found on the pages inside.  

I asked a friend of mine to look it over and give me her opinion of the cookbook.  She is an expert canner who is well known in my church for her jams, jellies, salsas, and condiments! She liked it.  She loved the pictures and was very interested to find out who the photographer was.  She was tempted to purchase the cookbook just for the photographs!  Her opinion is that is a great book for beginners - clear directions, good explanations,  The step by step pictorial directions are easy to follow.  The recipes are a good selection and are almost identical to the recipes she already uses--which have worked well for her for years.  She also thought there was a good selection of tomato based canning recipes.  The Farmer's Market Salsa recipe looked interesting to her.  She did try the marmalade recipe and it turned out just the recipe said it would.  

When I opened up this cookbook, I was immediately reminded of all the things I love about Simply in Season.  Both cookbooks are simply written and are easy to understand.  I did love the photographs.  The photographer did a wonderful job of capturing candids, portraits, and still lifes.  Saving the Seasons has the basic recipes that I want and more.  I don't have tons of time to look all over the internet for good directions and illustrations of how to can.  I need all the information in one place.  In the back of the cookbook, the author biographies reveal that Mary runs a CSA from her family's farm.  Susanna is her daughter.  Susanna is now involved in urban community farming in Pittsburgh, PA.  Mary has had lots of customers over the years ask for canning recipes.  This cookbook was the fruit of her effort to provide them with a good place to start.  I think the authors succeeded in doing just what they set out to do.  I am even inspired to seriously consider purchasing a dehydrator.  The information included answered one of my big questions--like the financial cost of using a dehydrator vs. an oven.  

This cookbook isn't as large as many canning cookbooks, but it's a lot more useable than many I've seen.  It will have a place in my kitchen for many years.  

If you're interested in canning and haven't done much before, I'd highly recommend this cookbook!  It is one that will be easy to use and follow.  And-- there's always the great pictures to look at!

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this cookbook for review from Herald Press.  

A New Guide for Healthy Family Eating

Partially hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, food coloring...  There are so many things that we have to watch out for in our food today.  Sometimes it's hard for me to keep all the information straight in my head.  My husband and I strive to feed our kids a healthy diet of fresh, prepared from scratch meals rather than frozen and prepackaged meals.  In our efforts, we have hit a snag.  Actually, it is a big snag.  We have one very picky eater.

Our first daughter was such a good eater--she even ate mushrooms when she was two years old!  Then, along came our second daughter who's refusal to eat most fruits and vegetables became more pronounced as she has grown older.  Did we do anything different?  No, not really.  Did I introduce the veggie baby foods first?  Yes!  Then our third child came along and thankfully he has turned out to be a good eater so far.

I thought maybe my picky eating daughter would grow out of her picky habits.  I have deep fears that she will become an adult who doesn't enjoy the wonderful world of food because she doesn't like the name of things.  In my quest for help, I began a search for helpful advice.  One of the books I discovered is a book titled The Cleaner Plate Club, by Beth Bader and Ali Benjamin. I read the description of the book and it sounded like it would be right up our alley...

When you open up this book, you'll find a large section with all the nutrition information you've been looking up on the internet and haven't been able to easily find--at least I haven't.  I love books because they save me so much time!  They have all the information I want in one place.  And that is definitely the case with this book.  I can't count how many times I've looked up the ratios for sugar substitutes and definitions of kind of fats--and how many times I've looked up the different types of cooking oils.  Among the chapters in this book, you'll find a list of all the types of oils and fats, a list (with descriptions) of the sugar substitutes...  But, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Beth Bader and Ali Benjamin wrote The Cleaner Plate Club out of a desire to share what they've learned as they've sought to feed their own families healthy meals and raise healthy children.  The first part of the book is about nutrition.  Included in this section is a discussion of how to cope when they don't eat and how to feel about it.  The authors are not psychologists and wisely don't try to deal with the nonfood aspects of this--they don't deal with the aspects of obedience and discipline.  Instead, they focus these two pages on the nutritional aspects and how to view it.  The next chapter is about shopping for food.  I thought their list of ingredients for a well-stocked pantry was really pretty good.  There's a few that I might substitute or say are optional, but for the most part, I think it's a very affordable, well rounded list.  The next section explains CSAs and farmer's markets.  If you've wondered how a CSA works or what the benefits are, the authors do a good job of explaining them.  The remainder (and bulk) of the cookbook is about vegetables with recipes for your family.  The recipes I've made have all come out except for one.  My husband (and two of my children) loved the chicken chili, the fig balsamic salad dressing (which is about as simple as you can get), and the kale salt and vinegar chips.  The kale chips were truly one of the most surprising recipes in the book.  I made them on a whim not thinking anyone in my family but my husband would eat them--and all but one of my family loved them!  I did also make the tomato and bread soup, which did not turn out to be a hit with my children because  they love their Trader Joe's tomato soup and couldn't quite get used to the new texture of this soup.

So, here's my very honest opinion, I do love this cookbook.  But, though these recipes are family friendly, they may not be eaten by your picky eaters.  I think children who normally eat vegetables will love the recipes in this cookbook.  I was pretty shocked when my oldest daughter, a non picky eater, gobbled up the kale chips.  I hadn't even tried to get her to eat kale.  And some picky eaters may grow to love these recipes.  At the very least, the recipes in this cookbook are a great place to start.  They aren't too spicy, but they are flavorful dishes (just go light on the salt the first time you make the kale chips).  I don't have especially high hopes for my middle daughter, but I hope that she will eventually grow to love other foods.  She has been more willing of late at least to take a few bites and has been able to swallow them--I know that sounds extreme, but I am sincere when I say that I really do have a picky eater.  I think it's a trap that we as parents can begin to fall into when we cater to our picky children and stop cooking dishes that we enjoy.  I've heard from several moms that they just can't do it anymore so they just start feeding their kids nuggets and mac and cheese every night.  I don't want to go down that road.  I love food.  I especially love good food!  If 2 of my 3 children will eat a dish, then I consider it a successful meal.  So, if majority rules, this cookbook is a winner in our house.  It doesn't have all the answers for your picky eaters, nor does it pretend to.  But, it will be a good guide to help you know what to feed your children, how to shop, and give you some yummy recipes to cook for your family.

As I was reading this book, I kept thinking of Simply in Season and I was so pleased to find that it is listed as one of the authors' favorite cookbooks at the back of the book.  Simply in Season is probably one of my most favorite cookbooks and I've written about it several times on this blog. Many of the recipes in Simply in Season are simpler than in this cookbook, but I think the two would compliment each other well if you are looking for cookbooks that will help you bring more vegetables and healthy dishes into your family's diet.

As I've reread this review, I've realized that I've really put this book in a box.  I have made it sound as if this is a cookbook that is best suited only to families.  I didn't mean to box it in that way.  So, who would I recommend this cookbook to?
1. Anyone who wants a cookbook with good, solid information about nutrition (but isn't ready to wade through a thick book devoted solely to nutrition).
2. Anyone who wants to cook more vegetables and eat healthier dishes at home, but isn't sure where to start and doesn't want to make any more casseroles.
3. And finally-- Anyone who loves yummy, healthy, food that doesn't include canned soup, ranch dressing, or another prepared food item as an ingredient!

Please note that I did receive a complimentary copy of The Cleaner Plate Club for review from Storey Publishing.  

Simply in Season: Pumpkin Sausage Pasta

Every week the recipe on this page changes, but the one this week is one I've tried--and really liked!  It's called Pumpkin Sausage Pasta.

http://www.worldcommunitycookbook.org/season/recipe.html

Stoplight Salad Recipe

I talk about Simply In Season alot.  There is a weekly newsletter that you can suscribe to and they will send you one recipe a week.  For some reason, most of the recipes they've sent are not the ones I'd first recommend to try.  But, this week, the recipe is for Stoplight Salad.  We really liked this salad.

The recipe is here:  http://www.worldcommunitycookbook.org/season/recipe.html

It's a great recipe to make and then serve with warm tortillas for a main dish.  We eat a lot of tortillas--it's one of the ways my roots in Southern California have never left me.  But, this is a great salad that's a cool salad for when you don't want to heat up the house.  Warm the tortillas on a cast iron pan on the stove or between a few paper towels in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Put 3 tortillas in the micro at a time probably.