Monday, December 19, 2011

Cathy's Really Cooking With This List of Recommends

Make the Bread, But the Butter
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.


The Family Meal
The Family Meal is the first home cooking cookbook by the world's greatest chef, Ferran Adria. It features nearly 100 delicious recipes by Ferran Adria that anyone can prepare, inspired by the dishes eaten every day by the staff at his legendary restaurant El Bulli, awarded World's Best Restaurant five times.

The recipes in The Family Meal are easy-to-prepare and meant for family dining at home. From Roast Chicken with Potato Straws, Sea Bass Baked in Salt and Mexican-style Slow-Cooked Pork to White Chocolate Cake and Baked Apples with Whipped Cream, there is a wide selection of everyday classics for every night of the week. The cookbook is also the first by such a renowned chef to ensure that the dishes are affordable and the ingredients are widely available at the local supermarket.

The Family Meal is organized into three-course menus, with appetizers, mains and desserts, so you can prepare a well-balanced meal at home without fuss. Each recipe is shown with numerous step-by-step full-color photographs, and conversions on how you can prepare a meal for a small or large group - for 2, 6, 20 or 75 people.


Home Cooking with Jean-Georges
Join one of the world’s greatest chefs in his most personal book yet, as Jean-Georges Vongerichten shares his favorite casual recipes in Home Cooking with Jean-Georges.

Though he helms a worldwide restaurant empire—with locations in New York, Las Vegas, London, Paris, and Shanghai—Jean-Georges counts his greatest joy in life as family first, then food. In Home Cooking with Jean-Georges, he brings readers into his weekend home, where he cooks simple, delicious dishes that leave him plenty of time to enjoy the company of friends and loved ones.

A few years ago, Jean-Georges decided to give himself a gift that most of us take for granted: two-day weekends. He and his wife, Marja, and their family retreat to their country home in Waccabuc, New York. There, the renowned chef produces the masterful, fresh flavors for which he is known—but with little effort and few dishes to clean at the end. These quick, seasonal, Vongerichten-family favorites include: Crab Toasts with Sriracha Mayonnaise, Watermelon and Blue Cheese Salad, Herbed Sea Bass and Potatoes in Broth, Lamb Chops with Smoked Chile Glaze and Warm Fava Beans, Parmesan-Crusted Chicken, Fresh Corn Pudding Cake, Tarte Tatin, and Buttermilk Pancakes with Warm Berry Syrup.


Plenty
Yotam Ottolenghi is one of the most exciting new talents in the cooking world, with four fabulous, eponymous London restaurants and a weekly newspaper column that's read by foodies all over the world. Plenty is a must-have collection of 120 vegetarian recipes featuring exciting flavors and fresh combinations that will delight readers and eaters looking for a sparkling new take on vegetables. Yotam's food inspiration comes from his Mediterranean background and his unapologetic love of ingredients. Not a vegetarian himself, his approach to vegetable dishes is wholly original and innovative, based on freshness and seasonality, and drawn from the diverse food cultures represented in London. A vibrant photo accompanies every recipe in this visually stunning book. Essential for meat-eaters and vegetarians alike!


Mourad New Moraccan
What Mourad Lahlou has developed over the last decade and a half at his Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant is nothing less than a new, modern Moroccan cuisine, inspired by memories, steeped in colorful stories, and informed by the tireless exploration of his curious mind. His book is anything but a dutifully “authentic” documentation of Moroccan home cooking. Yes, the great classics are all here—the basteeya, the couscous, the preserved lemons, and much more. But Mourad adapts them in stunningly creative ways that take a Moroccan idea to a whole new place. The 100-plus recipes, lavishly illustrated with food and location photography, and terrifically engaging text offer a rare blend of heat, heart, and palate.


Power Foods
Many of our favorite ingredients—such as berries, tomatoes, and nuts—are among the healthiest foods on earth, and by simply incorporating more of them into our everyday meals, we can all lead healthier lives. Here are 150 fantastic ways to help you do just that. Organized into chapters on breakfast, snacks, sandwiches, soups, salads, main dishes, side dishes, and desserts, the recipes are accompanied by simple instructions and beautiful photographs to keep you inspired to eat well at any time of the day.

Beyond the wonderful recipes, the editors of Whole Living magazine include research-backed information about the health benefits and disease-fighting properties of 38 power foods, along with nutritional data and helpful tips on storing, preparing, and cooking them. In this one-stop resource, you’ll learn all about stocking a healthy pantry, eating seasonally, understanding food labels, and when it’s best to splurge for organic ingredients.


Pie in the Sky
Do your cakes collapse, soufflés slump, cookies crumble, and fruit pies fail? For those living at high altitude, baking can be a challenge at best, or a total disaster. More than thirty-four of the fifty United States, plus many Canadian regions, have cities and towns at altitudes of more than 2,500 feet, yet there are hardly any cookbooks that address the special needs of these local bakers. Until now. Award-winning cookbook author Susan G. Purdy has finally written the first-ever foolproof guide to high-altitude baking.

Purdy has actually "gone there and done that," staying as long as it took to bake these recipes to perfection at five different locations -- and elevations -- across thecountry. In Pie in the Sky, Purdy leaves behind old conversion tables, disproves many oft-repeated calculations and adjustments, and presents reliable recipes in their entirety for each altitude. She takes out the tinkering and guarantees success at any height.

In addition, she explains the hows and whys, gives tips and hints for problems specific to every altitude, and generally demystifies the subject of atmospheric obstacles that cause favorite recipes to flop. Whether they live in the eastern mountains or the far west, in Boston, Massachusetts; Boone, North Carolina; or Santa Fe, New Mexico; home bakers as well as experienced chefs will love the wide range of easy-to-make treats including Mile-High Lemon Meringue Pie, Coconut Cake with Coconut Icing, Paradise Peak Chocolate Soufflé, Vail Lemon-Poppy Seed Loaf, Celestial Challah, and Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake.

Every recipe was tested at sea level (Connecticut), 3,000 feet (North Carolina and Virginia), 5,000 feet (Idaho and Colorado), 7,000 feet (New Mexico), and 10,000 feet (Colorado) and can be used at these elevations or any points in between.


Momofuku Milk Bar
The highly anticipated complement to the New York Times bestselling Momofuku cookbook, Momofuku Milk Bar reveals the recipes for the innovative, addictive cookies, pies, cakes, ice creams, and more from the wildly popular bakery.

A runaway success, the Momofuku cookbook suffered from just one criticism among reviewers and fans: where were Christina Tosi’s fantastic desserts? The compost cookie, a chunky chocolate-chip cookie studded with crunchy salty pretzels and coffee grounds; the crack pie, a sugary-buttery confection as craveable as the name implies; the cereal milk ice cream, made from everyone’s favorite part of a nutritious breakfast—the milk at the bottom of a bowl of cereal; the easy layer cakes that forgo fancy frosting in favor of unfinished edges that hint at the yumminess inside.

Momofuku Milk Bar finally shares the recipes for these now-legendary riffs on childhood flavors and down-home classics—all essentially derived from ten mother recipes—along with the compelling narrative of the unlikely beginnings of this quirky bakery’s success. It all started one day when Momofuku founder David Chang asked Christina to make a dessert for dinner that night. Just like that, the pastry program at Momofuku began, and Christina’s playful desserts helped the restaurants earn praise from the New York Times and the Michelin Guide and led to the opening of Milk Bar, which now draws fans from around the country and the world.

With all the recipes for the bakery’s most beloved desserts—along with ones for savory baked goods that take a page from Chang’s Asian-flavored cuisine, such as Kimchi Croissants with Blue Cheese—and 100 color photographs, Momofuku Milk Bar makes baking irresistible off-beat treats at home both foolproof and fun.

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