– cooking goals that don’t always
overlap – such as Pickled Asparagus
with Lemon, Tarragon, and Garlic;
The Perfect Merchandising
Tool (continued from page 8)
Celebrate Nature
One of my favorite collections of
new cookbooks fills a niche in my
own world. Hundreds of Americans,
like me, are getting back to basics.
Here are some stories to lend a
hand:
Within a single week in 2009, food
journalist Robin Mather found herself on the threshold of a divorce
and laid off from her job at the
Chicago Tribune. Forced into a
radical life change, she returned
to her native rural Michigan. There
she learned to live on a limited
budget while remaining true to
her culinary principles of eating
well and as locally as possible. In
“The Feast Nearby” (May 2011,
Ten Speed Press, www.random
house.com/crown/tenspeed),
Mather chronicles her yearlong
project: preparing and consuming
three home-cooked, totally seasonal,
and local meals a day – all on 40
dollars a week.
“The Feast Nearby” celebrates small
pleasures: home-roasted coffee, a
pantry stocked with home-canned
green beans and homemade preserves, and the contented clucking
of laying hens in the backyard.
Mather also draws on her rich culinary knowledge to present nearly
100 seasonal recipes that are
inspiring, enticing and economical
9
100
perfect pairings
Silverman
Hough
main dishes
to enjoy with wines you love
Cider-Braised Pork Loin with Apples
and Onions; and Cardamom-Coffee
Toffee Bars.
Mather’s poignant, reflective narrative shares encouraging advice
for aspiring locavores everywhere,
and combines the virtues of kitchen
thrift with the pleasures of cooking
– and eating – well.
“Tender” by Nigel Slater (available
now, Ten Speed Press, www.
randomhouse.com/crown/
tenspeed) is just one of those
“must-have” books that is as stunningly beautiful as it is delicious.
Alice Waters illustrates Slater’s
writing by noting “he describes a
carrot with such attention, tender-
ness, and humor that it feels like
he is introducing a dear friend to
his readers. He understands the
perfection of a runner bean in
midsummer, and explores its flavor
in a way that is pure, honest, and
delicious.”
Slater speaks to my own sense and
sensibility when he writes, “The idea
of planting a seed, watching it grow,
then eating the result instantly does
away with much of the baggage
that goes hand in hand with our
modern food supply.”
A noteworthy tale is told in “Farm
Together Now” (available now,
Chronicle Books, www.chronicle
books.com), which explores the
current state of grassroots farming
in the United States. Over the
course of one year, the authors
visited 20 small farms across
America, talking to farmers about
their engagement in producing
sustainable food, challenging public
policy and developing community-
organizing efforts. Part travelogue,
part oral history, part treatise on
food politics, this fascinating proj-
ect is an introduction to the many
individuals working in agriculture
and sustainable food production
who are creating farm-fresh foods
for their local communities.
“Chicken and Egg” (available now,
Chronicle Books, www.chronicle
books.com) is the perfect book for
those who are crazy about eggs,
chickens or both, and for those
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