Low-Carb Gourmet


Karen Barnaby - 2003
    Eat well. That's always been my philosophy, Karen Barnaby says. I've just translated it into low-carbing. Anyone who is currently on-or contemplating embarking upon-one of the many low-carb diets will find The Low-Carb Gourmet to be a goldmine of recipes, tips, and inspiration.The first sophisticated low-carb cookbook on the market from acclaimed chef Karen Barnaby, who has lost 70 pounds through low-carb eating.Over the past few years, low-carb high-protein diets have changed the way America eats. But how much steak, bacon, and cheese can a person eat? Low-carbers have been looking for a cookbook that will give them the variety, sophistication, and sublime taste sensations that the true food lover craves-and yet will allow them to reap the weight-loss and health benefits of low-carb eating.In The Low-Carb Gourmet, award-winning Canadian cookbook author Karen Barnaby, executive chef of the famed Fish House in Vancouver, applies her carb-cutting techniques to sophisticated dishes, including soups, snacks, sauces, main dishes, and even spectacular sweets. The 250 recipes range from Prawns with Peppery Garlic Vinaigrette, Guacamole, and Pancetta Wrapped Salmon with Red Wine Butter to Beef Salad with Creamy Horseradish Dressing, Daikon Radish, Chinese Cabbage and Tofu Soup, Pumpkin Cheesecake, and Tiramisu. The author reveals some secrets to low-carb shopping and offers expertadvice on meal planning for special occasions.

The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making


Alana Chernila - 2012
    Come on in, but be prepared—it might not be quite what you expect. There is flour on the counter, oats that overflowed onto the floor, chocolate-encrusted spoons in the sink. There is Joey, the husband, exhausted by the thirty-five preschoolers who were hanging on him all day, and he is stuffing granola into his mouth to ease his five o’clock starvation. There are two little girls trying to show me cartwheels in that miniscule space between the refrigerator and the counter where I really need to be.” In her debut cookbook, Alana Chernila inspires you to step inside your kitchen, take a look around, and change the way you relate to food. The Homemade Pantry was born of a tight budget, Alana’s love for sharing recipes with her farmers’ market customers, and a desire to enjoy a happy cooking and eating life with her young family. On a mission to kick their packaged-food habit, she learned that with a little determination, anything she could buy at the store could be made in her kitchen, and her homemade versions were more satisfying, easier to make than she expected, and tastier.              Here are her very approachable recipes for 101 everyday staples, organized by supermarket aisle—from crackers to cheese, pesto to sauerkraut, and mayonnaise to toaster pastries. The Homemade Pantry is a celebration of food made by hand—warm mozzarella that is stretched, thick lasagna noodles rolled from flour and egg, fresh tomato sauce that bubbles on the stove. Whether you are trying a recipe for butter, potato chips, spice mixes, or ketchup, you will discover the magic and thrill that comes with the homemade pantry.            Alana captures the humor and messiness of everyday family life, too. A true friend to the home cook, she shares her “tense moments” to help you get through your own. With stories offering patient, humble advice, tips for storing the homemade foods, and rich four-color photography throughout, The Homemade Pantry will quickly become the go-to source for how to make delicious staples in your home kitchen.

Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family


Art Smith - 2001
    Throughout history, humans have sat down together at the table to break bread. The simple ritual of the shared meal reunites us with our families and brings balance to our lives. There are many types of families--in using the word family, Art means to include anyone whom we have sought or chosen to be an important part of our lives. Unfortunately, in today's fast-paced world, the symbolic role of the table has been threatened. In many households, family members all eat separately, according to their own schedules, on the run, or in front of the TV. With this important cookbook, Art Smith wants to bring us back to the table--and back to each other. Art provides readers with mouth-watering recipes that represent the very best of home cooking, including Roasted Tomato and Cheddar Cornbread, to-die-for Sweet Potato-Pecan Waffles, hearty Seafood Gumbo, Grilled Shrimp on Arugula with Lemon Vinaigrette, and Spiced Pork Loin with Vidalia Onion Sauce, to name just a few. There is also a rich assortment of vegetable main courses--like Art's fabulous Italian Vegetable Casserole. Traditional dishes include the best-ever Buttermilk Fried Chicken and a Roast Turkey with Pan Gravy that's not just for Thanksgiving! And then there are the celebration cakes, perfect pies, and little sweets. From French Chocolate Almond Pie to Pear and Cranberry Cobbler, from Coconut Cake with Fluffy Icing to Triple-Layer German Chocolate Cake, from Pecan Divinity to Gumdrop Cookies, Back to the Table is filled with delicious treats for any occasion. Art's life's work has involved cooking for families all over the world. These experiences have taught him that families are essentially the same, regardless of international boundaries or cultural differences. We all want the best for each other and want to take care of the ones we love. And what better way is there to care for our loved ones than at the table? Illustrated throughout with stunning photographs of food and of people sharing their tables and their lives, Back to the Table is a book to use daily and to treasure for a lifetime.

Miss Ella of Commander's Palace


Ella Brennan - 2016
    From childhood in the Great Depression to opening esteemed eateries, it’s quite a story to tell. When she and her family launched Commander’s Palace, it became the city’s most popular restaurant, where famous chefs such as Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse, and James Beard Award winner Troy McPhail got their start.Miss Ella of Commander’s Palace describes the drama, the disasters, and the abundance of love, sweat, and grit it takes to become the matriarch of New Orleans’ finest restaurant empire.

Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean


Ana Sortun - 2006
    Inspired beyond measure, Sortun opened her own restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the award-winning Oleana, where she creates her own interpretations of dishes incorporating the incredible array of delicious spices and herbs used in eastern regions of the Mediterranean.In this gorgeously photographed book, Sortun shows readers how to use this philosophy of spice to create wonderful dishes in their own homes. She reveals how the artful use of spices and herbs rather than fat and cream is key to the full, rich flavors of Mediterranean cuisine -- and the way it leaves you feeling satisfied afterward. The book is organized by spice, detailing the ways certain spices complement one another and how they flavor other foods and creating in home cooks a kind of sense-memory that allows for a more intuitive use of spice in their own dishes. The more than one hundred tantalizing spice categories and recipes include:Beef Shish Kabobs with Sumac Onions and Parsley Butter Chickpea and Potato Terrine Stuffed with Pine Nuts, Spinach, Onion, and Tahini Crispy Lemon Chicken with Za’atar Golden Gazpacho with Condiments Fried Haloumi Cheese with Pear and Spiced DatesAbsolutely alive with spices and herbs, Ana Sortun’s recipes will intrigue and inspire readers everywhere.

Out of the Wild: Seven Years in the Wilderness


Charlie Paterson
    Away from all the modern conveniences and comforts most take for granted, his tale is one of adversity, building a dream with dogged determination. Battling against considerable and powerful opposition, bureaucracy, severe lack of money, unforgiving nature, loneliness and ultimately his own ill health; only to find the dream fulfilled will almost destroy him. A sometimes spiritual and critical tale of self-discovery where ultimately his growing faith in God literally saves him from a very sorry end in the mountainous wilderness of New Zealand. A story that exposes wilderness living as it truly is, not for the faint hearted. However, Out of the Wild is more than just a candid wilderness survival tale, but includes some very interesting snippets of New Zealand's early pioneer history associated to the Fiordland National Park, the Hollyford Valley, Martins Bay, the beautiful deserted ghost town of Jamestown Bay and even the fabled "lost ruby mine" in the inaccessible Red Hills. For the outdoor and "back to basics" enthusiasts Charlie details his accounts of hunting red deer in the thick Fiordland rainforest around his wilderness home to using the old traditional methods to store his kills, through to trapping introduced predators destroying the special rainforest ecosystems of Fiordland. "Out of the Wild" is a very unique New Zealand wilderness tale which will appeal to the outdoor conservative types.

Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia


Jeffrey Alford - 2000
    Here, along the world's tenth largest river, which rises in Tibet and joins the sea in Vietnam, traditions mingle and exquisite food prevails. Award-winning authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid followed the river south, as it flows through the mountain gorges of southern China, to Burma and into Laos and Thailand. For a while the right bank of the river is in Thailand, but then it becomes solely Lao on its way to Cambodia. Only after three thousand miles does it finally enter Vietnam and then the South China Sea.It was during their travels that Alford and Duguid—who ate traditional foods in villages and small towns and learned techniques and ingredients from cooks and market vendors—came to realize that the local cuisines, like those of the Mediterranean, share a distinctive culinary approach: Each cuisine balances, with grace and style, the regional flavor quartet of hot, sour, salty, and sweet. This book, aptly titled, is the result of their journeys.Like Alford and Duguid's two previous works, Flatbreads and Flavors ("a certifiable publishing event" —Vogue) and Seductions of Rice ("simply stunning"—The New York Times), this book is a glorious combination of travel and taste, presenting enticing recipes in "an odyssey rich in travel anecdote" (National Geographic Traveler).The book's more than 175 recipes for spicy salsas, welcoming soups, grilled meat salads, and exotic desserts are accompanied by evocative stories about places and people. The recipes and stories are gorgeously illustrated throughout with more than 150 full-color food and travel photographs.In each chapter, from Salsas to Street Foods, Noodles to Desserts, dishes from different cuisines within the region appear side by side: A hearty Lao chicken soup is next to a Vietnamese ginger-chicken soup; a Thai vegetable stir-fry comes after spicy stir-fried potatoes from southwest China.The book invites a flexible approach to cooking and eating, for dishes from different places can be happily served and eaten together: Thai Grilled Chicken with Hot and Sweet Dipping Sauce pairs beautifully with Vietnamese Green Papaya Salad and Lao sticky rice.North Americans have come to love Southeast Asian food for its bright, fresh flavors. But beyond the dishes themselves, one of the most attractive aspects of Southeast Asian food is the life that surrounds it. In Southeast Asia, people eat for joy. The palate is wildly eclectic, proudly unrestrained. In Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, at last this great culinary region is celebrated with all the passion, color, and life that it deserves.

The Aztec Treasure House


Evan S. Connell - 2001
    This text features essays on the advances made in anthropology, archaeology, astronomy and linguistics, stories of the Anasazi, the old ones of the southwestern desert and tales of the great explorers, eccentrics, dreamers, scientists, cranks and geniuses.

Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape: 100 Of My Favourite Indian Recipes


Gordon Ramsay - 2010
    His new cookbook is packed with the best recipes from his travels, showing you how to cook authentic dishes that are bursting with flavour. As you'd expect from a Michelin-starred chef, Gordon brings his eye for perfection and ability to judge flavours perfectly to his exploration of Indian food and shows us how to cook authentic, mouth-watering dishes from all over this huge and varied country. He visits Kerala deep in the South of India to bring us spicy, coconut-based curries and travels to colourful Rajasthan to learn about the creamy, flavourful dishes of the North. Along the way Gordon experiences the hugely different flavours and spices from the different regions and absorbs local cooking styles and traditions. Throughout his culinary journey, Gordon selects the best of the vast array of Indian spices, now readily available in British supermarkets. He shows us how to use these authentically to produce a beautifully flavoured Indian dish. Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape includes over 100 recipes in the following sections: Everyday, Entertaining, Quick Lunches and Healthy Dishes. Once Gordon shows you how easy it is to put together authentic Indian dishes, you'll never look back.

Simple Green Meals: 100+ Plant-Powered Recipes to Thrive from the Inside Out


Jen Hansard - 2018
    No more drive-thru fast food runs. And no more Friday night pizza from a cardboard box. Real food rocks, and Simple Green Meals is here to prove it!Jen Hansard, co-author of Simple Green Smoothies, is on a mission to change the way you eat. She sees a world where you and your family "eat the rainbow" by cooking quick, tasty meals that are nourishing, delicious, and easy to make. Filled with 150 vegetarian recipes, tips to rethink the foods you put in your grocery cart, strategies to eating well with a family on-the-go, and advice from people who have changed their lives for the better by making healthy food choices, this book is an essential guide to living a cleaner, fuller, more energetic life!

The Best American Travel Writing 2018


Cheryl Strayed - 2018
    Each year, the best of those stories are collected in The Best American Travel Writing, curated by one of the top writers in the field, and each year they “open a window onto the strange, seedy, and beautiful world, offering readers glimpses into places that many will never see or experience except through the eyes and words of these writers” (Kirkus). This far-ranging collection of top notch travel writing is, quite simply, the genre’s gold standard.

Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way: Healthy Menus, Recipes, and the Shopping Lists That Will Keep the Whole Family at the Dinner Table


Leanne Ely - 2004
    It just feels that way.Certified nutritionist Leanne Ely loves delicious food and is dedicated to enticing today’s busy families back to the dinner table with home cooking that cannot be beat. In Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way, she integrates low-carb requirements into her mélange of dining pleasures for every season–providing easy-to-follow menus and highlighting per-serving measurements of calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates, cholesterol, and sodium for each dish.Itemizing ingredients by product in convenient lists, Ely makes your grocery shopping quick and effortless. She also gives you a helping hand in the kitchen with shortcuts that take the stress out of cooking, and suggests menu variations for children and family members who choose not to go the low-carb route.The result? These dinners are not only balanced and healthy but truly varied and delectably good to eat. Main dishes like Low-Carb Beef Stroganoff, Crustless Quiche Lorraine, Crock-Pot Pork Jambalaya, Skillet Salmon with Horseradish Cream, and nearly 150 other entrees (plus recommendations for great side dishes) make dinnertime special in more ways than one.

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris


John Baxter - 2011
    Baxter highlights hidden treasures along theSeine, treasured markets at Place d’Aligre, the favorite ambles of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Sylvia Beach, and more, in a series of intimate vignettes that evoke the best parts of Paris’s many charms. Baxter’s unforgettable chronicle reveals how walking is the best way to experience romance, history, and pleasures off the beaten path . . . not only of La Ville-Lumière but also, perhaps, of life itself.

East: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian recipes from Bangalore to Beijing


Meera Sodha - 2019
    East is a must-have whether you're vegan, vegetarian, or simply want to eat more delicious meat-free food.Drawing from her 'New Vegan' Guardian column, Meera Sodha's stunning new collection also features plenty of brand-new recipes inspired by a wide range of Asian cuisines. There are warming noodles, curries, rice dishes, tofu, salads, sides and sweets, all surprisingly easy to make and bursting with exciting flavours. Taking you from India to Indonesia, Singapore to Japan, by way of China, Thailand, and Vietnam, East will show you how to whip up a sprout nasi goreng and a swede laksa; how to make Kimchi pancakes, delicious dairy free black dal, and chilli tofu. There are sweet potato momos for snacks and unexpected desserts like stem ginger chocolate truffles and matcha roll cake.

Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine


Sarah Lohman - 2016
    But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table. Eight Flavors introduces the explorers, merchants, botanists, farmers, writers, and chefs whose choices came to define the American palate.