Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken is a guilty pleasure enjoyed by everyone I know.   My Pleasure Palate Meet-up group just did a fried chicken crawl in hopes of discovering the best fried chicken in Los Angeles.  No one can agree.  Is it the Korean fried chicken with gochuchang?  Southern fried buttermilk chicken? West African?  Perhaps, the best fried chicken was served by your grandmother?

That's why this book by Rebecca Lang is fabulous.  There's no need to choose between them when variety is at your finger tips.  Sometimes the best fried chicken is the one made in your kitchen.   Lang offers tips on what oils to you, how best to drain the oil (rack over paper towels),  shares the pros and cons of skillet frying vs. deep frying, and stresses you must use the freshest high-quality chicken.  After reading this book, the act of making fried chicken seems less daunting.

Please save me the wings.  The whole wing.  Don't throw that tip/nubbin away!

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

Why I Mentor

Choosing Lucy Wang to mentor me turned out to be an excellent decision. I started working with her in December 2014 and since then, kept going back to her again and again. The reason why I keep going back to her is that I trust her deeply and fully: I trust her talent and capacity as a mentor and teacher. I trust her warmth and care as a human being. I trust her respect for the art of playwriting; that she understands what it is that drives us as writers; makes us want to write.

With Lucy, you don’t just get a mentor who guides you with structuring your play and helping you improve dialogue and create a compelling plot. She’s not just a mentor who helps you identify your strengths and work on your weaknesses. She adjusts herself to her students’ temperament. If you have a crisis of confidence as an artist, if you suffer from doubts; she’ll be there for you. Standing by you and encouraging you but without a hint of pushiness. You just feel her presence and feel reassured.

When you submit your writing, Lucy’s feedback is prompt even when she’s in the midst of working on her own show. Even when she’s in the middle of travelling; even when there is a family crisis in her own private life. She gets back to you and her feedback is consistently specific and detailed. She reads your work thoroughly and gives you constructive criticism. I trust her so much that I look forward to her criticism. The more critical she is, the more confident I feel that my writing is going to improve. And every time, my writing does improve. I learn something new, I discover that I have skills I have not been aware of before. Lucy is just wonderful.

I count myself lucky to have Lucy as my mentor. With her I’m in safe hands. With her I can walk on unchartered ground, knowing that if I stumble and fall, Lucy will be there to help me stand up again and walk. She’s the best you can get. Go for her.

Nushin. A.

Everyday Detox

Megan Gilmore's book Everyday Detox serves as a helpful guide for anyone struggling to lead a healthier life.

She shows us how we can improve our health on a daily basis, and often, very simply.  No gimmicks here.  No food substitutes.  She has tips on how to improve digestion, how to shop, what items to stock in your pantry so that soon it will be second nature.  The recipes are easy to follow, featuring a diverse array of soups, salads, entrees and liquid refreshments.

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

The Broad Fork

Having seen Hugh Acheson judge Top Chef, I was excited to review his cookbook The Broad Fork.   Even more so when I saw that inside the book cover is the question, What the hell do I do with kohrabi?"  For the past two questions, I grew kohlrabi -- green and purple -- and found myself facing the same question.  I usually sliced them thin and put them in salads.   A friend of mine in France eats them with mayonnaise.  When I gave them away, people inevitably asked me for more interesting ideas than just salad.  What about soup?  Hmm.  I knew I needed to add this cookbook to my collection.

The photos are gorgeous and inviting.  The book is divided into seasons.  Although the cover stresses vegetables and fruits, there are recipes are not exclusively vegetarian.  Many recipes do include protein.  Duck Breast with Indian Eggplant Pickle.  Roasted Lamb Loin with Celery Root Puree, Pomegranate and Celery Vinaigrette.  Sea Scallops with Buttered Kraut and Pecan Brown Butter. There are southern flourishes as Acheson pays homage to his roots.

Since I'm also an organic gardener, I appreciate recipes that push me to expand my boundaries and fully use my harvest.   For example, I never thought to turn my heirloom zucchini into squash pickles. Same with turnips, I never thought to pickle the stems.

The Broad Fork Broadens Your Horizons.

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

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.