Curing & Smoking

The River Cottage Curing & Smoking Handbook by Steven Lamb

Everything you've ever wanted to know about curing and smoking is in this handbook.   Steven Lamb captures and relays the romance and excitement of curing and smoking.  It's all about taking control of the food that enters and nourishes your body.   It sounds like a lot of work, and it is a commitment, but Lamb offers many helpful tips and easy recipes to get you started.   Some of his recipes take 2-3 minutes (smoked oysters) and some take a minimum of 19 days (bresola).  There's something for every palate.

If you enjoy eating smoked and cured meats, you'll enjoy reading this book.   Never say never.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.

Yogurt -- It's not just for breakfast

Go to the yogurt section of any supermarket these days and you'll be overwhelmed by the selections and the varieties.  You could spend a lifetime there comparing labels.   I've done my fair share of sampling different yogurts so I was thrilled to review this book Yogurt by Janet Fletcher and expand my knowledge even further.

Now I don't know if I'll ever make my own yogurt -- never say never -- but Fletcher shows you how.

Yogurt is often a healthier substitution for sour cream, so I welcomed the recipes she offers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.    Grilled zucchini with yogurt sauce sounds wonderful especially when I have some zucchini growing in the garden.  I can picture it with grilled eggplant too.  The radish tzatziki sounds like a great way to use up the radishes sitting in my crisper, looking a little lonely.   Grated beet and yogurt salad with beet greens is a wonderful way to use the entire vegetable -- waste not, want not.  For folks with a sweet tooth, there's plenty of options including a golden yogurt cake, greek yogurt sorbet, greek yogurt panna cotta.  This book is full of good ideas.  Delicious and simple.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

Heart Your Body

Food tastes best when cooked with a lot of heart.  This book offers many easy recipes and easy techniques to foster a healthy heart.  We can't control all the risk factors for heart disease and stroke, but this cookbook shows you how you can control many of the most damaging risk factors.

The recipes in this book prove that food can be good for you and to you.  All the recipes sound delicious, flavorful and simple to make.  The ingredients are all easily found in the grocery store. Cook tips accompany most recipes.   The recipes are divided by 12 cooking methods -- grilling, braising, stir-frying, slow cooking, baking, et al -- and cover the globe.

Each recipe lists nutritional information per serving which is immensely helpful.  Calories, protein, cholesterol, fat, carbs, dietary exchanges.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to live a healthier, more mindful lifestyle.  When you cook at home, you are more in control of the amounts of saturated and trans fats, sodium, and added sugars you consume.  One drawback is the book could have used more photographs.

Bottom line:   Heart your body, it's the only one you have.

I received this book from Blogging for books for this review.