Dispatch From The Field: Joe Advises You To : "Buy this book, give it to a friend, make these recipes and watch your world get a little better."

When Jennifer Reese lost her job, she was overcome by an impulse common among the recently unemployed: to economize by doing for herself what she had previously paid for. She had never before considered making her own peanut butter and pita bread, let alone curing her own prosciutto or raising turkeys. And though it sounded logical that “doing it yourself” would cost less, she had her doubts. So Reese began a series of kitchen-related experiments, taking into account the competing demands of everyday contemporary American family life as she answers some timely questions: When is homemade better? Cheaper? Are backyard eggs a more ethical choice than store-bought? Will grinding and stuffing your own sausage ruin your week? Is it possible to make an edible maraschino cherry? Some of Reese’s discoveries will surprise you: Although you should make your hot dog buns, guacamole, and yogurt, you should probably buy your hamburger buns, potato chips, and rice pudding. Tired? Buy your mayonnaise. Inspired? Make it.

With its fresh voice and delightful humor, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter gives 120 recipes with eminently practical yet deliciously fun “Make or buy” recommendations. Reese is relentlessly entertaining as she relates her food and animal husbandry adventures, which amuse and perplex as well as nourish and sustain her family. Her tales include living with a backyard full of cheerful chickens, muttering ducks, and adorable baby goats; countertops laden with lacto-fermenting pickles; and closets full of mellowing cheeses. Here’s the full picture of what is involved in a truly homemade life—with the good news that you shouldn’t try to make everything yourself—and how to get the most out of your time in the kitchen.

 

Joe says:

"Just days before I received this book in the mail, a few friends and I were sitting around, over wine, making grand plans for all of the bounty this year's garden was about to bring. We were talking relishes, pickles, jellies
& jams, salsas and other goodies, picked at their peak of flavor, and stored on our pantry shelves until some point this winter, when we'd open them up, and recall these lovely late-summer days... As our talk progressed, it became clear that 1) our dreams might be a little unrealistic, and 2) is it really better, or cheaper to make these things on our own. If only we had a guide to definitively say whether homemade ketchup is better than store-bought (especially now that it's made without high-fructose corn syrup?) And along comes Make The Bread, Buy The Butter by Jennifer Reese.

Jennifer Reese is the Tipsy Baker, a blogger (check out the blog here) who regularly writes about her adventures in the kitchen. Here is a book that is going to take a treasured place in my kitchen bookrack. Part memoir, part Consumer-Reports-style testing, this book is chock-full of recipes and good advice in the kitchen.

There are a few things Jennifer Reese does in this book that make it particularly indispensable: before each recipe, she tells her story of why she wanted to tackle it. I mean, who has really thought of making their own pop tarts? Once she's done that, generally with the voice of a friend sitting in your kitchen over coffee, she then tells you whether you should make it or buy it, breaks down the cost difference between the homemade and the store bought, and lists whether this project is going to be easy or difficult (often one of the funniest parts of the recipe...) Her recipes are easy-to-follow, and often include diagrams and pictures to get through the more difficult parts.

I would highly recommend this book if you are thinking about embarking on the adventure that is backyard chicken raising. Here, Reese offers a humane and very funny look at what that project brought to her family. I would recommend this book if you, like me, spend a lot of time thinking about what goes into your body and wondering where did so many of these so-called "conveniences" come from, and are they really worth it? I've suspected making my own bread is the way to go for a long time, but in this book, Jennifer Reese cements it for me. Her recipes are tried-and-true, her reasoning makes sense to me, and her personality makes it believable. Buy this book, give it to a friend, make these recipes and watch your world get a little better..."

--Joe