No Recipe: Cooking as Spiritual Practice


Edward Espe Brown - 2018
      Reading Brown’s witty and engaging collection of essays is like learning to cook—and meditate—with your own personal chef and Zen teacher. Drawing from a lifetime of experience, he invites us into his home and kitchen to explore how cooking and eating can be paths to awakening. Baking, cutting, chopping, and tasting are not seen as rigid techniques, but as opportunities to find joy and satisfaction in the present moment. “Forget the rules and forget what you’ve been told,” teaches Brown. “Discover for yourself by tasting, testing, experimenting, and experiencing.”   From soil to seed and preparation to plate, No Recipe brings us a collection of timeless teachings on awakening in the sacred space of the kitchen.

In the World but Not of It: New Teachings from Jesus on Embodying the Divine


Gina Lake - 2016
    You can become Christ within this human life and learn to embody all that is good within you. I came to show you the beauty of your own soul and what is possible as a human. I came to show you that it is possible to be both human and divine, to be love incarnate. You are equally both. You walk with one foot in the world of form and another in the Formless. This mysterious duality within your being is what this book is about.” "The consciousness that is within me is also within you. You are the son as equally as I am. You are the ‘I am’ I spoke about. You and I are one. You and everyone else are one. Many are ready for the Christ within to come forward and manifest in the world more fully. The birthing of this Christ—of Christ Consciousness—is the true second coming. ‘Christ Consciousness,’ as I am using it, points to the divinity within everyone and the potential for that divinity to become a living reality, to become what lives you. I was an example of that possibility in my lifetime two thousand years ago.” This book was given to Gina Lake by Jesus. It is part of a series of books, including A Heroic Life and The Jesus Trilogy. You will learn: • How to embody the divine self in the world • How to tell when you are identified with the ego • How to spot the ego in your thoughts and conversations • What kind of thoughts are in the thought-stream • How to disidentify from the ego • How to be in your body and senses • How to move into Presence and stay there • How to be present while speaking and acting in the world • Spiritual practices that support Presence • What embodiment, enlightenment, self-realization, and awakening are • Pitfalls on the spiritual path • How to be with emotions • How to be with and heal energetic blocks in the body • How to overcome bad habits and addictions Review from David Fishman, teacher of A Course in Miracles: "I love this book! It's a perfect companion to all students and teachers of A Course in Miracles, for it encompasses the core themes and values of ACIM in a simple format that provides practical guidance for everyday use. The guidance our elder brother offers in the pages of this book is priceless. I highly recommend this book as the perfect complement to ACIM and the perfect first book to all you love and care for who may not appear to be ready now for opening A Course in Miracles."

Cook's Illustrated 1993 (Cook's Illustrated Annuals)


Cook's Illustrated - 1993
    Each elegantly hardbound volume in the Cook's Illustrated Collector's Edition Series includes an entire year's content from the magazine for each year since 1993. We include the often surprising results of countless hours of hands-on kitchen testing along with foolproof master recipes and numerous variations. They appear alongside hundreds of step-by-step, hand-drawn illustrations of useful cooking techniques. You will also find the winners and losers in blind tastings of popular food brands and unbiased tests of kitchen equipment. Build your own essential cooking reference with one or more volumes from the Cook's Illustrated Collector's Edition Series.

Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America


Yong Chen - 2014
    By 1980, it had become the country's most popular ethnic cuisine. Chop Suey, USA is the first comprehensive analysis of the forces that made Chinese food ubiquitous in the American gastronomic landscape and turned the country into an empire of consumption. Chinese food's transpacific migration and commercial success is both an epic story of global cultural exchange and a history of the socioeconomic, political, and cultural developments that shaped the American appetite for fast food and cheap labor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Americans fell in love with Chinese food not because of its gastronomic excellence. They chose quick and simple dishes like chop suey over China's haute cuisine, and the affordability of such Chinese food democratized the once-exclusive dining-out experience for underprivileged groups, such as marginalized Anglos, African Americans, and Jews.The mass production of food in Chinese restaurants also extended the role of Chinese Americans as a virtual service labor force and marked the racialized division of the American population into laborers and consumers. The rise of Chinese food was also a result of the ingenuity of Chinese American restaurant workers, who developed the concept of the open kitchen and popularized the practice of home delivery. They effectively streamlined certain Chinese dishes, turning them into nationally recognized brand names, including chop suey, the Big Mac of the pre-McDonald's era. Those who engineered the epic tale of Chinese food were a politically disfranchised, numerically small, and economically exploited group, embodying a classic American story of immigrant entrepreneurship and perseverance.

Pizza: A Global History


Carol Helstosky - 2008
    There are countless ways to create the dish called pizza, as well as a never-ending debate on the best way of cooking it. Now Carol Helstosky documents the fascinating history and cultural life of this chameleon-like food in Pizza.Originally a food for the poor in eighteenth-century Naples, the pizza is a source of national and regional pride as well as cultural identity in Italy, Helstosky reveals. In the twentieth century, the pizza followed Italian immigrants to America, where it became the nation’s most popular dish and fueled the rise of successful fast-food corporations such as Pizza Hut and Domino’s. Along the way, Helstosky explains, pizza has been adapted to local cuisines and has become a metaphor for cultural exchange. Pizza also features several recipes and a wealth of illustrations, including a photo of the world’s largest and most expensive pizza—sprinkled with edible 24-karat gold shavings and costing over $4000.   Whether you love sausage and onions on your pizza or unadorned cheese, Pizza has enough offerings to satiate even the pickiest of readers.

Taste and See: Discovering God among Butchers, Bakers, and Fresh Food Makers


Margaret Feinberg - 2019
    What you discover will forever change the way you read the Bible--and approach every meal. Also includes delicious recipes.One of America's most beloved teachers and writers, Margaret Feinberg, goes on a remarkable journey to unearth God's perspective on food.She writes that since the opening of creation, God, the Master Chef, seeds the world with pomegranates and passionfruit, beans and greens and tangerines. When the Israelites wander in the desert for forty years, God, the Pastry Chef, delivers the sweet bread of heaven. After arriving in the Promised Land, God reveals himself as Barbecue Master, delighting in meat sacrifices. Like his Foodie Father, Jesus throws the disciples an unforgettable two-course farewell supper to be repeated until his return.This groundbreaking book provides a culinary exploration of Scripture. You'll descend 400 feet below ground into the frosty white caverns of a salt mine, fish on the Sea of Galilee, bake fresh matzo at Yale University, ferry to a remote island in Croatia to harvest olives, spend time with a Texas butcher known as "the meat apostle," and wander a California farm with one of the world's premier fig farmers.With each visit, Margaret asks, "How do you read these Scriptures, not as theologians, but in light of what you do every day?" Their answers will forever change the way you read the Bible--and approach every meal.Taste and See is a delicious read that includes dozens of recipes for those who, like Margaret, believe some of life's richest moments are spent savoring a meal with those you love.Perhaps God's foodie focus is meant to do more than satisfy our bellies. It's meant to heal our souls, as we learn to taste and see the goodness of God together. After all, food is God's love made edible.See you around the table!

Come and Eat: A Celebration of Love and Grace Around the Everyday Table


Bri McKoy - 2017
    Maybe it's relationships that go beyond the surface or gatherings that allow for joy and pain. Bri McKoy tells us this is within reach! All we need is a table, open hearts, and a simple invitation: come and eat.McKoy invites us to discover how a common dining-room table can be transformed into a place where brokenness falls away to reveal peace and fellowship. Whether the table is laid with bounty or with meager offerings, whether it is surrounded by the Body of Christ or homeless, broken souls, she shows us that healing begins when we say, "Come in. I may not know you, but I know your maker. And so I offer you my heart."For all those who are hungry and craving more of God's kingdom in their homes, Come and Eat offers recipes, tips, and questions to jumpstart conversation, while reminding us that fellowship in God's love is always the most remembered, most cherished nourishment. Because when we make room for others, we make room for God, and our homes become a vibrant source of life, just as he means them to be.

The Everything Guide to the Low-FODMAP Diet: A Healthy Plan for Managing IBS and Other Digestive Disorders (Everything®)


Barbara Bolen - 2014
    Fortunately, researchers have come up with a new treatment plan to help you control symptoms: a low-FODMAP diet. FODMAPs are a collection of short-chain carbohydrates that are difficult to digest and found in many common foods, like wheat, milk, beans, and some vegetables, fruits, and sweeteners. The Everything Guide to the Low-FODMAP Diet walks you through the step-by-step process for identifying your individual sensitivities--and gives you options and substitutions so you can enjoy your favorite foods again. Learn how to: Understand food allergies and intolerance Identify high- and low-FODMAP foods Eliminate FODMAP sources from your diet Stock your pantry for success Create your own personalized diet based on your unique needs Re-create favorite recipes using low-FODMAP ingredients Dr. Barbara Bolen, an IBS specialist, provides advice and tips for developing a personalized and realistic healthy eating plan. And with 150 low-FODMAP and gluten-free recipes, you can reduce digestive distress and feel great while enjoying satisfying and nutritious meals!

Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs


Beth Ricanati - 2018
    This is the surprise that physician-mother Beth Ricanati learned when she started baking challah almost a decade ago: that simply stopping and baking bread was the best medicine she could prescribe for women in a fast-paced world. Braided chronicles a journey of a thousand challahs and one woman’s quest for wellness and peace.

The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue


David Sax - 2014
    Anyone with the power to make you eat quinoa.Kale. Spicy sriracha sauce. Honeycrisp apples. Cupcakes. These days, it seems we are constantly discovering a new food that will make us healthier, happier, or even somehow cooler. Chia seeds, after a brief life as a novelty houseplant and I Love the '80s punchline, are suddenly a superfood. Not long ago, that same distinction was held by pomegranate seeds, açai berries, and the fermented drink known as kombucha. So what happened? Did these foods suddenly cease to be healthy a few years ago? And by the way, what exactly is a “superfood” again?In this eye-opening, witty work of reportage, David Sax uncovers the world of food trends: Where they come from, how they grow, and where they end up. Traveling from the South Carolina rice plot of America's premier grain guru to Chicago's gluttonous Baconfest, Sax reveals a world of influence, money, and activism that helps decide what goes on your plate. On his journey, he meets entrepreneurs, chefs, and even data analysts who have made food trends a mission and a business. The Tastemakers is full of entertaining stories and surprising truths about what we eat, how we eat it, and why.

V Is for Vegetables: 125 Dazzling Recipes from the Executive Chef of Gramercy Tavern


Michael Anthony - 2015
    Gramercy Tavern's Executive Chef Michael Anthony believes a cook's job is to create delicious flavors and healthy meals. Written for the home cook, V IS FOR VEGETABLES celebrates the act of cooking vegetables he loves. Anthony shows how unlocking the secrets of vegetables can be as simple as roasting a beet, de-knobbing a Jerusalem artichoke, peeling a gnarly celery root, slicing a bright radish, washing a handful of just-picked greens. V IS FOR VEGETABLES is personal, accessible, and beautiful. Its charming A to Z format celebrates vegetables in richly detailed illustrations, glorious food photographs, and lots of helpful how to do it techniques. Recipes include crispy composed salads, fresh herb sauces, satisfying warm gratins, vibrant stews, simple sautéed greens over a bowl of grains, and veggies with meat and fish, too. V IS FOR VEGETABLES delivers the tools to transform and conquer the vegetables in a CSA basket, from the farmers market, and even the grocery store. It is an eye-opening book for vegetarians and omnivores alike.

Lucky Peach, Issue 9


David Chang - 2013
    Francis Lam pays a visit to the lauded but elusive Alex Lee; Peter Meehan talks life (and how it happens to a cook) with legendary pastry chef Claudia Fleming. Daniel Boulud and Michael Anthony school us in the art of omelet-making. Pulitzer-prize-winning writer Jonathan Gold and funny-as-hell artist Lisa Hanawalt hop on board as new columnists. And there’s a magazine inside the magazine, like a Russian nesting doll: with content culled from René Redzepi’s annual MAD food conference, which Lucky Peach had the honor of co-curating. The theme, this year, was GUTS, both literal and figurative. We heard from an array of speakers: chefs, of course, and activists, filmmakers, and a schoolgirl too. Their talks were inspiring for cooks, chefs, and eaters alike.

In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food


Stewart Lee Allen - 2002
    Among the foods thought to encourage Lust, the love apple (now known as the tomato) was thought to possess demonic spirits until the nineteenth century. The Gluttony “course” invites the reader to an ancient Roman dinner party where nearly every dish served—from poppy-crusted rodents to “Trojan Pork”—was considered a crime against the state. While the vice known as Sloth introduces the sad story of “The Lazy Root” (the potato), whose popularity in Ireland led British moralists to claim that the Great Famine was God’s way of punishing the Irish for eating a food that bred degeneracy and idleness.Filled with incredible food history and the author’s travels to many of these exotic locales, In the Devil’s Garden also features recipes like the matzo-ball stews outlawed by the Spanish Inquisition and the forbidden “chocolate champagnes” of the Aztecs. This is truly a delectable book that will be consumed by food lovers, culinary historians, amateur anthropologists, and armchair travelers alike. Bon appétit!

Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli


Ted Merwin - 2015
    As a social space it rivaled—and in some ways surpassed—the synagogue as the primary gathering place for the Jewish community. In popular culture it has been the setting for classics like When Harry Met Sally. And today, after a long period languishing in the trenches of the hopelessly old-fashioned, it is experiencing a nostalgic resurgence. Pastrami on Rye is the first full-length history of the New York Jewish deli. The deli, argues Ted Merwin, reached its full flowering not in the immigrant period, as some might assume, but in the interwar era, when the children of Jewish immigrants celebrated the first flush of their success in America by downing sandwiches and cheesecake in theater district delis. But it was the kosher deli that followed Jews as they settled in the outer boroughs of the city, and that became the most tangible symbol of their continuing desire to maintain a connection to their heritage. Ultimately, upwardly mobile American Jews discarded the deli as they transitioned from outsider to insider status in the middle of the century. Now contemporary Jews are returning the deli to cult status as they seek to reclaim their cultural identities. Richly researched and compellingly told, Pastrami on Rye gives us the surprising story of a quintessential New York institution.

My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family, and Big Sur


Romney Steele - 1905
    My Nepenthe serves a big, gorgeous slice of American culture that I loved visiting through words and memory." --Deborah Madison, author of What We Eat When We Eat Alone and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone "Romney Steele grew up in the lively bohemian milieu of Nepenthe on the Big Sur coast and knows all the stories worth telling. In My Nepenthe, an intimate, richly illustrated memoir with recipes culled from the restaurant's 60 years, she writes marvelously about her "crazy stew of a family" and especially her beloved grandmother, whose kindness and hospitality were legendary. --Caroline Bates, contributing editor, Gourmet magazineMy Nepenthe weaves together stories and tales about the famous California restaurant perched on the majestic cliffs of Big Sur. It celebrates the magic and history of place through food and the Fassett family who started Nepenthe.A lyrical feast written by the owners' granddaughter, Romney Steele, who grew up at the restaurant, My Nepenthe is as much about a family enterprise as it is about the Fassett family and their legacy. It recounts stories about the family's more than sixty-year history on the coast, the arts and architecture, and the colorful people who were the genesis of this legendary restaurant.My Nepenthe marks the restaurant's vibrant past as a gathering place and noted bohemian haunt, and its foray into the film industry during the shooting of The Sandpiper, featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It also explores the lively scene that played out into the '70s, and onward through the current decade where it showcases Nepenthe's unique relationship with Pisoni Vineyards, owned by the renowned winemaker family. My Nepenthe includes more than seventy-five special recipes from the Fassetts, the restaurant, and the cafe, along with spectacular photography that completes the tale.Ultimately, My Nepenthe is a story about food, family, and the culture of place, and how it all unfolds around the table and why that matters.About NepentheLocated on the Big Sur cliffs 808 feet above the Pacific Ocean, Nepenthe Restaurant boasts sweeping views of the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains and the wild south coast of Monterey County. Angular mountains plunge into the crashing surf below, and on a clear day there is no limit to the scenery, unspoiled and immense in nature. Opened in 1949 by the Fassett family, the restaurant is nestled among native oak trees and a historic log cabin (now faced by brick) that was once owned by Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth.