Domo Donabe

Donabe (doh-NAH-bay) is clay cooking vessel from Japan with a delicious and storied history.  It's very popular in the wintertime, great for sharing and making one-pot meals.  It reminds me of hot pot, popular in Chinese cuisine.

I've been looking to buy an attractive, authentic and affordable donabe for myself.  It hasn't been easy.

As Moore explains, typical donabe require little or not fat which is terrific news for your health.  The photographs are gorgeous, inspires you to cook -- a hallmark of a great cookbook.   She explains how you can care and use your donabe in a myriad of ways:  tagine, a steamer, a smoker.The recipes are divided by rice dishes, soups and stews, steamed and classic style.

You will spend many hours exploring and your body will thank you from head to toe.  If only cooler temperatures would pay a short visit Southern California.

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

52 Ways to Love Baking

What a joy this Food52 Baking Book is, especially for occasional bakers like me.   The recipes are inviting and look easy, accessible.   The photographs are the icing on the cake, the buttercream.   The recipes that immediately cried out Make me! include:

Strawberry-Yogurt Snack Cake 

Raspberry Clafoutis

Olive Oil Ricotta Cake with Plums

Balsamic Macaroons with Chocolate Chips

Nectarine Slump

What I find inspiring is that delicious doesn't have to mean complicated.  So often when I dine at a fine restaurant, the desserts require a million ingredients and steps.  

In addition to sweets and breakfast goods, there is a section on savory baked goods -- flatbreads and pizzas.

This book is great for experienced and inexperienced bakers alike.

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

Easy Vegan

The word "vegan" has been known to strike fear in many of us who consider ourselves adventurous eaters.   We want to rebel against the restrictions.   Our tastebuds think boring and bland.  Then, of course, the panic of comprising a full meal driven by vegetables that will satisfy and delight?  Gena Hamshaw takes the fear out and puts the pleasure in Vegan with her new cookbook.

The recipes are easy to follow, basic and most do not call for umpteen trips for esoteric ingredients. The subtitle says it all:  60 vegetable-driven recipes for any kitchen.  Any kitchen, folks, so let's here it for Vegan Democracy.

Gena gives you the basics in a section titled Vegan 101, putting you at ease from the beginning.  The photographs whet your appetite.

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

Homemade Kitchen: Real Food, Real People

You have a friend in Homemade Kitchen.
Alana Chernila's philosophy and approach to cooking is so warm and inviting.
Chernila comes across as someone you'd welcome in your kitchen AND as someone that would welcome you in hers.

Each chapter title nourishes you with confidence and conviction.
Start where you are.
Feed yourself.
Do your best and then let go.

At the outset, Chernila stresses that homemade food is the opposite of perfection, giving the cook freedom to experiment and explore, put his or her own stamp on the food.   This cookbook reminds you of the pleasure cooking can give.

The photographs are wonderful and the recipes are easy to follow.  Most of the recipes call for easily found ingredients.  Nothing too exotic, no cutting edge molecular gastronomy, no reinventing the wheel here.  Real food for real people.

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

Donning the Blue Apron

I usually enjoy grocery shopping and farmers markets, picking out my own produce and planning menus around what's in season, what looks best.   Now and then, I need a break from food shopping and menu planning to attend to rewrites and rehearsals, students, work.   So when a foodie friend offered me a free trial with Blue Apron, I couldn't wait to see what meals were coming in my basket.

To whet my appetite, my friend had been posting photos and sharing her experiences, comparing Blue Apron to Sun Basket.

The three meals I chose from Blue Apron were:

Pan-seared cod with pickled grapes & summer succotash 

I had to use my own tomatoes, as mine arrived heavily bruised, moldy, unusable

Pork Ramen w/fresh ramen noodles & summer vegetables

The pork was juicy

Blackened Chile-Dusted Chicken with zucchini rice & corn tomato saute

The Pros:

All the meals tasted delicious

Recipes are easy to follow

My husband willingly shared the chores and mise en place since there were clear directions

The calories are right

Fun to plate

Packaging is recyclable

The Cons:

Some of the garlic cloves on my bulb were dried out, brown 

My tomato was heavily bruised, moldy and unusable

My zucchini arrived w/pockmarks everywhere, too soft so I bought another one

No leftovers 

BOTTOM LINE:  Would I become a regular?  Semi-regular?  Well, it all depends on the menu.  Really.  Whet my appetite, Blue Apron, and up the quality control of ingredients.  We like protein and go easy on carbs.  Our diet is more paleo but not exclusively so which is why I chose the week that I did.   The menu options feature a lot of carbs -- rice, bread (sandwiches), pasta -- and less protein, which unfortunately doesn't appeal as much to us. 

Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice

I'm not a dessert person, and nine times out of ten, I would choose savory over sweet as my final course of the evening.  This makes tasting menus and idineLA menus less appealing to me as they frequently feature a sickly sweet, super fattening, highly caloric dessert.  Can't I have two appetizers instead?

That said, I am excited to experiment with the recipes in Sugar & Spice.  Seneviratne addresses the same questions in this wonderful new cookbook.  How do we make our desserts healthier and more delicious?  More satisfying?   Especially at a time where most of us are watching our weight and counting our steps?

Go back to our spices.  What explorers once risked their lives to find and collect.   The recipes are organized by spices, and the recipes vary in difficulty and length of time required.  This book gives you great incentive to keep your spice rack fresh, and to use them up before they lose all their flavor. Can't wait to make the gingerbread even though it serves twelve.  Anyone care for a slice?

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

Whet My Appetite: It's a Good Thing

Appetizers.  They are a good thing.  I'm sure Martha Stewart would agree.

Sounds so easy, unless most of your friends are foodies and will judge you.   Unless it's 100+ degrees and the thought of turning on the oven just kills any social desires.   Unless you find yourself too tired, or too bored with your usual repertoire.  Yes, I foresaw these obstacles long ago and purchased Martha Stewart's Hors D'Oeuvres as insurance.  Just in case I ran out of ideas, inspiration and appetite.

While Hors D'Oeuvres was voluminous and a little intimidating with its details in smaller fine print, appetizers is more casual and inviting.  The golden rules in the front are so useful for someone like me who tends to prepare way too much food and stress out.   Of course, to be fair, many of my friends are foodies with discriminating palates.   Stewart says her winning formula is 10 bite size hors d'oeuvres per guest, probably 12-14 per foodie?

Edamame with chile salt or with some heat (Garlic/soy blistered) is always a hit in my home. Roasted spiced chickpeas is another winner that doesn't require too much fuss.  I like the diversity of recipes so that you can choose a few really simple appetizers and a few that engage more of your culinary skills.   For example, I rarely deep-fry but Stewart's recipe for arancini looks quite tempting and do-able.   Signature cocktails have come back with a creative vengeance so her chapter entitled Sips is very handy.   The photos are spectacular and instill confidence that your spread will be visually stunning as well as nom nom delicious.

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