The Sewing Book


Alison Smith - 2009
    Every tool and every technique you require for making your own home furnishings or clothing is closely and sharply photographed, carefully annotated, and clearly explained. The Tools section begins with the basic toolkit, opening up into everything you could possibly need every type of cutting tool and machine foot is shown. This section also includes information on patterns how to measure, how to use, and how to adjust them. Gallery spreads appear throughout the substantial Techniques section and showcase darts, zips, pleats etc, as well as showing key stitches. Plus, you can bring your acquired and refined skills to fruition as you make some of the 25 home decor and clothing projects at the back of the book. With "The Sewing Book" on your shelf, you've got every sewing question covered. Written by a passionate stitcher and teacher, with her own sewing school, eager to produce a one-stop sewing bible for her students, this book leaves no hem unturned. You can dip in at any level whether you're new to sewing or refining your art, whether you want to repair an old skirt or create a new one, whether you want to spruce up a curtain or design one from scratch. And with a Foreword by U.S. sewing teacher, Diana Rupp, this book has it all sewn up."

Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables


Joshua McFadden - 2017
    After years racking up culinary cred at New York City restaurants like Lupa, Momofuku, and Blue Hill, he managed the trailblazing Four Season Farm in coastal Maine, where he developed an appreciation for every part of the plant and learned to coax the best from vegetables at each stage of their lives.In Six Seasons, McFadden channels both farmer and chef, highlighting the evolving attributes of vegetables throughout their growing seasons—an arc from spring to early summer to midsummer to the bursting harvest of late summer, then ebbing into autumn and, finally, the earthy, mellow sweetness of winter. Each chapter begins with recipes featuring raw vegetables at the start of their season. As weeks progress, McFadden turns up the heat—grilling and steaming, then moving on to sautés, pan roasts, braises, and stews. His ingenuity is on display in 225 revelatory recipes that celebrate flavor at its peak.

How to Cook Everything: The Basics: Simple Recipes Anyone Can Cook


Mark Bittman - 2003
    Mark Bittman, the bestselling, award-winning author of How to Cook Everything , shows you how to make a good burger or delicious pasta for everyday meals as well as chicken soup on a cold day, lasagne because you love it, and prime rib for company. Not only will you make some of the best food you ve ever eaten, you ll save money and eat more healthfully, too.Anyone can cookSimple, satisfying recipes with easy-to-follow directionsTips to help you shop for, prepare, and cook the recipesRecipe variations and lists of ideas to adapt dishes to your tasteStep-by-step illustrations for tricky techniques like mincing garlicSimple. Straightforward.Just what you need to cook well."

The Hands-On Home: A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping


Erica Strauss - 2015
    A fresh take on modern homemaking, this is a practical (and sometimes sassy) guide to maximizing your time, effort, and energy in the kitchen and beyond. With a focus on less consumerism, it will teach you how to organize your kitchen and home to make the best use of your time. For those yearning to live a more ecologically minded, grounded lifestyle, this book is full of practical, no-nonsense advice, fabulous recipes, and time- and money-saving techniques.

The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables: All the know-how and encouragement you need to grow - and fall in love with! - your brand new food garden


Jessica Sowards - 2021
    Everyone has to start somewhere, after all. Not only will you learn how to prepare, plant, and tend your first vegetable garden, you’ll also learn:How to design an eco-friendly layoutHow to grow with the seasonsHow to maximize your harvest, even if you only grow in a small space Jessica wants your first food-growing experience to be a positive one, and she’s prepared to go the distance to make sure tending the earth becomes your new favorite hobby.A single growing season is all it takes to fall in love with growing your own healthy, organic, nutrient-dense food. With Jessica as your guide, you’ll soon discover all the satisfactions, challenges, and great joys of growing your own food garden.This book is part of The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series from Cool Springs Press, which also includes The First-Time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers. Each book in The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series is aimed at beginner gardeners and offers clear, fact-based information that’s presented in a friendly and accessible way, including step-by-step instructions and full-color illustrations throughout.

Gardening with Chickens: Plans and Plants for You and Your Hens


Lisa Steele - 2016
    Start by planning your garden and learning strategies and tips for keeping your plants safe while they grow. Plant with purpose, choosing from a dozen plans for theme gardens such as Orange Egg Yolks or Nesting Box Herbs. Or choose a design that's filled with edibles - sharing the bounty with your family and your feathered friends. Then comes the fun part: enjoy the harvest, even let the chickens graze!Lisa's friendly writing, together with inspirational photos and illustrations, will have you rolling up your sleeves and reaching for your gardening tools. Lisa also covers a range of topics just for chicken-keepers, including:- Chickens and composting- Using chickens to aerate and till- Coop window boxes- Plants to avoid when you have chickens- Lists of the most valuable crops and herbs- Advice on how to harvest and use many of the plants- And much more!Whether you're an experienced chicken keeper, master gardener, or just getting into these two wonderful hobbies, Gardening with Chickens is an indispensable guide for a harmonious homestead.

Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden


Sally Jean Cunningham - 1998
    Let master gardener Sally Jean Cunningham show you how to keep pests and diseases at bay with her unique companion-gardening system. By planting special combinations of vegetables, flowers, and herbs, you can minimize pest and disease problems and create a high-yielding, beautiful garden!

Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning, and Calm the Chaos


Cynthia Ewer - 2006
    Where there is hope, there is help. You can win the chore wars! Author, founder, and editor of the top-ranked website OrganizedHome.com Introduces easy-to-remember tips for organizing the home Step-by-step photographs throughout show how easy it is to reach your goal

The Pumpkin Cookbook: 139 Nutritious Recipes for Year-Round Enjoyment


DeeDee Stovel - 2005
    Some of DeeDee Stovel's creative spins on incorporating this highly nutritious, low-fat vegetable into delicious dishes include Caribbean Black Bean Pumpkin Soup; Pumpkin Sage Risotto; Spring Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Pepitas; White Bean, Chicken, and Pumpkin Chili; Pumpkin Pizza with Gorgonzola Cheese; Pork Tenderloin with Red Wine Pumpkin Sauce; Lemon-Pumpkin Strudel; Chocolate-Pumpkin Brownies with Apricot Surprise -- and seven kinds of pumpkin pie!

Garden Guide - A No Nonsense, No PhD, No Fuss Guide to Great Gardens with Hand-Holding How To's for Beginners and Straightforward Instruction for Advanced Gardeners


Sarah Olver - 2013
    But if we’re being honest, when it comes to gardening, most of us have no idea where to begin. Additionally, in these economic times, who can afford to hire an expert to come in and do the job for us? That said, regular folks all across North America and Europe are returning to the soil, shovels in hand. With the help of this book, there is absolutely no need to fly blind into the world of green thumbs, perennials, and herbs.The name—Garden Guide: A No Nonsense, No PhD Guide to Great Gardens with Hand-Holding How To’s for Beginners and Straightforward Instruction for Advanced Gardeners—truly says it all. Indeed, this book is the hand-holding garden guide that will walk even the most timid novice right through the gardening process from beginning to end. In addition to straight forward, practical advice in everyday language, you will love the stories and anecdotes Olver shares from her fifteen years of backyard, organic gardening adventures. Easy and entertaining, you‘ll probably read this book in one sitting, but you’ll reference it for years to come. The beauty of Garden Guide is that Olver divides her advice into two sections: Beginning Gardeners and Advanced Gardeners. No matter what your skill level, there are simple explanations, tips, and tricks that will walk you through every aspect of the garden process. Garden Guide features details such as:•Everything you need to know about location, from sunlight to drainage to selecting just the right spot•How to understand soil types, how to amend and condition them•pH levels and soil testing broken down in simple terms•Step by Step guide for planning your PERFECT garden no matter where the location•Fertilizing made manageable with explanations for all those numbers and organic alternatives •Composting broken down so you can start immediately•Pests obliterated with loads of organic suggestions•The basics of garden maintenance from deadheading to dividing perennials•Loads of helpful website suggestions for purchasing plants online, getting ideas, locating county extension offices, perennial databases and so much more.•Gardening terms are defined in language you will both understand and rememberIf you have time to read only one book on gardening, this is the book to choose. Short enough not to feel like an encyclopedia and just long enough to wet your gardening appetite, Olver has woven basic garden science and practical ideas for everyday people into each page. With her warm, inviting, no-nonsense instruction, you will be amazed how simple and doable gardening really is. Not only will it thoroughly educate you in basic gardening, Garden Guide will send you well on your way toward beautiful perennials gardens and leave you inspired and hungry to begin planting in your own patch of earth.

Everyone Is Italian on Sunday


Rachael Ray - 2015
    It represents decades of enjoying and working with food and the people I love most in this world.” —Rachael If you’re like Rachael Ray, you’ll agree that there is something comforting and heartwarming about a heaping plate of perfectly cooked spaghetti with moist and tender meatballs covered in a luscious, dark-red tomato sauce. Now, in Everyone Is Italian on Sunday, Rachael invites you into her home to share her family’s culinary history and the recipes that have shaped her life and career.For Rachael, Italian food—spinach gnocchi, linguine puttanesca, chicken saltimbocca, pizza capricciosa—has the power to summon cherished, happy memories. In this one indispensable book, she has brought together signature recipes for the traditional Italian staples that she grew up with and still cooks for her family and friends today. From arancini to saffron gnocchetti sardi, from small bites to hearty meals, from her sister’s favorite Italian desserts to her husband’s Italian ingredient-inspired cocktails, here is a treasury of delicious dishes to prepare with love and devour with gusto. Classic Italian cooking has always been the foundation of almost every meal that Rachael prepares, and she hopes that you and your family, friends, and neighbors will love savoring everything that Italian cooking has to offer. Italian Sundays are all about bringing people together and creating wonderful memories while enjoying the pleasures of great homemade food. So pull up a chair at Rachael’s kitchen table and experience the magic of an Italian Sunday!

Idiot's Guides: Succulents


Cassidy Tuttle - 2015
    They have captured the hearts of crafters, decorators, and plant lovers all over the world. Always popular as an outdoor plant in warm climates, succulents have found a new popularity as a try indoor plant that's easy to care for and fun to look at. Idiot's Guides: Succulents includes:+ Everything needed to select, pair, pot, and care for succulent plants. + Snapshots of 100 of the most popular varieties of succulent plants, including care, color, hardiness, pairing, and a full-color photo for each. + 16 beautiful craft projects with how-to steps and color photos, including picture frames, wreaths, terrariums, centerpieces, and bouquets. + Tips on successfully propagating new succulents from existing plants. + Extensive advice on choosing pots and unique planters, repotting succulents, and pairing varieties for maximum impact. + An index of succulents by color and height that gives readers another tool for selecting the succulents that will look.

The Feast Nearby: How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering, and eating locally (all on $40 a week)


Robin Mather - 2011
    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, Mather chronicles her year-long project: preparing and consuming three home-cooked, totally seasonal, and local meals a day--all on forty dollars a week.  With insight and humor, Mather explores the confusion and needful compromises in eating locally. She examines why local often trumps organic, and wonders why the USDA recommends white bread, powdered milk, and instant orange drinks as part of its “low-cost” food budget program.  Through local eating, Mather forges connections with the farmers, vendors, and growers who provide her with sustenance. She becomes more closely attuned to the nuances of each season, inhabiting her little corner of the world more fully, and building a life richer than she imagined it could be.  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 one hundred seasonal recipes that are inspiring, enticing, and economical--cooking goals that don’t always overlap--such as Pickled Asparagus with Lemon, Tarragon, and Garlic; 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.

Brew Chem 101: The Basics of Homebrewing Chemistry


Lee W. Janson - 1996
    This crash course in brewing chemistry makes it easy for every homebrewer to make better beer. Using simple language and helpful diagrams, Lee W. Janson guides you through every chemical reaction in the brewing process and explains how you can avoid potential problems. Steer away from common mistakes in taste, fermentation, and alcohol content, and use your newfound knowledge to successfully brew your most delicious beer yet.

Casa Marcela: Recipes and Food Stories of My Life in the Californias


Marcela Valladolid - 2017
    This book captures a culture centered around food, loved ones, and gatherings with mouthwatering recipes and in vibrant photography, all shot at Valladolid's home. Mexican food really is simple at its core, if you have some extra time for slow roasting meats or to prepare a few salsas, and the results are sure to impress. There are small bites like Cod Fritters with Chipotle Tartar Sauce and Grilled Steak and Cheese Tostadas; entrees such as Red Chile Lamb Stew and Roasted Tomatillo Salmon; and even drinks and desserts for special occasions, including Strawberry Layered Tres Leches Cake. With mouthwatering recipes and evocative photography, Casa Marcela presents Mexican food in a way never seen before.