Taste of Greece or Jewish Cooking Jewish Cooks

Taste of Greece

Author: Rena Salaman

A fascinating guide to the food and cooking of Greece, with an introduction to the regional classics, the ingredients, preparation techniques and seasonal guidance, and over 75 delicious and inspiring recipes shown in 450 colour photographs.

New interesting textbook: Le Dix-neuvième siècle :l'Europe 1789-1914

Jewish Cooking Jewish Cooks

Author: Ramona Kovel

It's a lot more than just chicken soup and matzo balls! Jewish life and tradition revolve around food—so this collection of delicious, tried-and-true recipes from around the world comes accompanied by stories and superb photos that capture the warmth and atmosphere of Jewish kitchens. From the simplest to the most celebratory dishes, all are founded on ancient laws that stretch beyond countries and continents and belong to a thriving, contemporary food culture. Here are the potato pancakes that make up the Chanukah meal, good old-fashioned chopped liver, gefilte fish (always a part of the Passover seder), roast brisket with sauerkraut, Hungarian goulash, schnitzels of veal or chicken, cholent with potato kugel (the Sabbath stew), and lots of cakes and strudels to top it off. Feast yourself on the authentic food and the fascinating facts. 8 X 9 3/4. All in Color

Making of a Chef or Summertime Treats

Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America

Author: Michael Ruhlman

"Well reported and heartfelt, Ruhlman communicates the passion that draws the acolyte to this precise and frantic profession."—The New York Times Book Review

Just over a decade ago, journalist Michael Ruhlman donned a chef’s jacket and houndstooth-check pants to join the students at the Culinary Institute of America, the country’s oldest and most influential cooking school. But The Making of a Chef is not just about holding a knife or slicing an onion; it’s also about the nature and spirit of being a professional cook and the people who enter the profession. As Ruhlman—now an expert on the fundamentals of cooking—recounts his growing mastery of the skills of his adopted profession, he propels himself and his readers through a score of kitchens and classrooms in search of the elusive, unnameable elements of great food.

Incisively reported, with an insider’s passion and attention to detail, The Making of a Chef remains the most vivid and compelling memoir of a professional culinary education on record.

Library Journal

Beginning with Skills One, where Chef Pardus guides his charges through the complexities of creating a perfect stock, journalist Ruhlman provides an insider's view of the exacting program that many consider to be the best formal training a chef can partake of in this country. In his condensed tour of duty at the attractive, suberbly equipped upstate New York campus of the CIA, Ruhlman spends six months sampling the arduous 81-week regimen the institute employs to both educate and toughen students for the competitive, frantic environment of cooking in fine restaurants. Discerning character sketches introduce the diverse group as the author explores the passion for fine food that makes them pursue this difficult calling. An examination of the curriculum and its philosophical framework is provided along with profiles of the master chefs who deliver this demanding training. The program ends in the institute's restaurants, where recently acquired skills and knowledge are put to the test as students perform everything from menu planning to serving actual customers. Although Jeff Riggenbach's reading is too pedestrian for the occasional comic moments, this audio is recommended for larger cooking collections.--Linda Bredengerd, Hanley Lib., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Bradford, PA

School Library Journal

YA The Culinary Institute of America is known as "the Harvard of cooking schools" and many of this country's best-known chefs are graduates. Ruhlman enrolled as a student with the intention of writing this book, which begins as a chronicle of the intense, high-pressure grind of classes and cooking. However, it turns into an engrossing personal account as, his every effort critiqued, the author determines to become a student and not just impersonate one. YAs will enjoy Ruhlman's anecdotes about his instructors and his classmatessome of whom are still in their teens. The appendix offers a chart showing the course work for associate degrees. This will appeal to anyone aspiring to a career as a chef as well as to those interested in food preparation, presentation, and the restaurant industry in America.Patricia Noonan, Prince William Public Library, VA

Interesting book: Pro Excel 2007 VBA or Windows XP Pocket Reference

Summertime Treats: Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family

Author: Sara Perry

It's summer and the kids are home...for three whole months! What better time to relax together, whipping up delicious treats in the kitchen or dabbling in fun crafts indoors and out. Parents will find plenty of ideas and inspiration for magical summer days in Summertime Treats, the handbook to keeping families cool and creative during the best months of the year. From an afternoon with the kids making Shake-Rattle-and-Roll Ice Cream and Big Bug Bungalows to a fabulous Fourth of July Star-Spangled Celebration and a Memorial Day Tailgate Picnic, author Sara Perry suggests wonderful ways to please every member of the family including parents and other grown-ups. Fully illustrated with photographs throughout and chock-full of tempting snacks, summer drinks, fun projects, and clever ideas, this antidote to the allure of the television lets parents and kids of all ages have a great time cooking and making things together. Summertime Treats is second in a series that began with Halloween Treats (0-8118-2197-8), books that blend whimsy and elegance in ways both adults and children will appreciate.

R Rhodes

I remember so many things about my childhood summers. I would get into my uniform — a bathing suit — early in the morning and stay in it until the late hours of the evening. My days revolved around swimming pool activities: swimming, diving, Marco Polo games, and water volleyball. Even when I wasn't waterlogged, I often found myself playing by the pool deck — backgammon, four-square, and rummy.

Occasionally, however, my mother would throw my summer routine for a loop by saying, "Today we are not going to the pool," referring to the club we belonged to. "We are going to have activity day." Usually I balked at the idea, but once we started our activities, I was immediately at ease, having a good time partaking in making homemade lemonade and fun crafts.

Sara Perry must understand the need for summer projects to break up the sameness of July and August days. Her book, Summertime Treats , is filled with recipes and ideas that will cool you and your family down on the hottest afternoon and keep you occupied on the rainiest morning.

The crafts in this book are easy to do, and even the most unartistic and uncreative parent can help her child complete a project to perfection with the help of the detailed directions and inspirational photographs. One of my favorites in the book is the Ants-in-the-Grass Citronella Candle. You begin with a citronella candle (you know, the kind that keeps the bugs away when you burn it outdoors), about 30 blades of grass, and some plastic ants that can be purchased in any toy or craft store. Using a double boiler, you melt paraffin wax and then dip the grass into the wax, which you then secure on to the candle. After the grass is positioned vertically, looking as though it's growing, you secure the ants in various positions atop the grass with hot glue.

Other fun — and equally easy — projects in Summertime Treats are Sponge-Painted Patio Pots, Cookie-Cutter Soaps, and Vacation Place Mats. The beauty of these activities is that they can be divided over a few days: On a warm day, some of the materials that need to be obtained from the outdoors can be collected, while on an indoor day, the project can be undertaken.

But there is more to summer than sitting around making crafts. After all, if your kids wanted to do crafts all day long, you would probably send them to a summer day camp. The next section of the book is devoted to thirst quenchers that kids of all ages — including 73-year-old kids — will love. Consider the lime fizz recipe that combines lime juice, syrup, and sparkling water. Yum. The perfect companion drink for the backyard barbecue.

If summertime means entertaining to you, then you will love the great recipes in Summertime Treats , which occupy the last two sections of the book. As a child, I remember standing next to my mom as she prepared salads and snacks for guests in the warmer seasons, helping her in whatever ways I could. Kids love doing that, and with Perry's ideas, your gang certainly will be able to help out in the kitchen, too. Recipes for Black Bean and Corn Salsa Salad; Iceberg Wedges with Blue Cheese Dressing; and Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Salad are fine ways to start off a tailgate picnic party. Continue the meal with the Super Sub Sandwich, Grilled Flank Steak, or the Mixed Summer Grill (a marinade that's perfect for anything that you are throwing on the grill). Finally, no meal is complete without some summer desserts. Chocolate Spanish Peanut Cookies, Fresh Fruit Cookie Pie, and Silver S'Mores are just a sampling from Summertime Treats .

If these projects and recipes don't make you want to speed up the clock and fast-forward to Memorial Day weekend — the unofficial first day of summer — then I don't know what will. This summer take a break from your beach reading and call your kids in from the pool. The quality time spent making frames or mixing iced tea are the days you and your children are certain to remember for years to come.

— Soozan Baxter

Ex Boyfriend Cookbook or The New York Times Passover Cookbook

Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook: They Came, They Cooked, They Left (But We Ended up with Some Great Recipes)

Author: Thisbe Nissen

Every time we tell someone about this book we get puzzled grins, raised eyebrows, and hilarious guesses as to what on earth The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook might possibly be. Every time we tell a guy about it, he becomes instantly intent on doing pretty much anything if it'll get him into the book. One boy (who swears he only went out with Thisbe in order to get a recipe named after him) found out he'd missed the print deadline by a hair but that the cover wasn't done yet and quickly e-mailed with a list of potential subtitles for the front jacket: Men Are from Marzipan, Women Are from Bean Dip; Dear John, I'm Leaving You and Taking the Cuisinart; He Would Eat His Grandmother's Pie All Night While Mine Just Sat There and Got Cold, Love in the Time of Colander... We don't have anyone exactly clamoring to be our boyfriends, yet they're practically lining up to get to be our exes!

We swear we didn't conceive of this book as a way to pick up guys. At least it didn't start out that way. Really: One day we were planning a barbecue at the Iowa farmhouse where we lived and Erin said, "Oh, I'll make Davis's spicy BBQ rub!" And we kind of looked at each other and said, "We should write a cookbook of all the recipes we've gotten from ex-boyfriends over the years!" And an idea was born.

It was the perfect project for us, too. We're both pack rats, collectors who hold on to every scrap of paper anyone's ever handed us. While all our friends grilled burgers that night and played volleyball on the lawn, the two of us took our beers upstairs and hauled out all of our aging boxes and envelopes full of tear-stained letters, ticket stubs, withered flowers, valentines....Wetold each other the stories behind every one of those scribbled scraps. "And, god," we'd find ourselves saying, "he made the most incredible vinaigrette...." We never made it outside to our own barbecue. We've pretty much been in our rooms since then, pecking away at this book like crazy people, the floors littered with old letters, our hands covered in rubber cement. We were driven, obsessed, compulsively determined to bring you The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook. And voila! Here it is!

Now that the book is out, we're starting to let our imaginations take hold of us again. We've got all sorts of ideas. Like maybe we could spend a year letting a different man cook us dinner every night. We'd bring along cameras, collect artifacts from the evening like budding archaeologists, and select the best dishes for a sequel! But maybe we're getting a little ahead of ourselves....

Book about: Rogues Rebels and Rubber Stamps or Gods Profits

The New York Times Passover Cookbook: More than 200 Holiday Recipes from Top Chefs and Writers

Author: Linda Amster

More Than 200 Holiday Recipes from Top Chefs and Writers

At last, from the paper of culinary record, comes a treasure trove of more than 200 recipes that celebrate the delicious festivity of the Passover table. Compiled from Times articles spanning almost fifty years, The New York Times Passover Cookbook represents Jewish cuisine from all over the world.

It contains family recipes that have been passed down for generations as well as innovative kosher cuisine from such celebrated chefs as Wolfgang Puck and Alice Waters. Acclaimed Times writers Molly O'Neill, Ruth Reichl, and Mimi Sheraton have all contributed essays on the different ways that the Passover experience has enriched their lives.

Recipes from Craig Claiborne, Mimi Sheraton, Molly O'Neill, Marian Burros, and Florence Fabricant are also included, allowing the reader to see -- and taste! -- how the experts at The New York Times cook for Passover.

With dozens of fantastic main-course dishes for both meat and dairy meals, you'll have a tough time deciding between the Shad with Pineapple-Rhubarb Salsa and the Braised Moroccan-Style Lamb with Almonds, Prunes and Dried Apricots. Maybe this year your guests will savor a traditional dish like Chicken with Fresh Herbs and 40 Cloves of Garlic -- or perhaps something different, like Southwestern Blackened and Braised Brisket of Beef or Paul Prudhomme's Veal Roast with Mango Sauce. The chapter on Vegetables and Salads contains an ample selection of memorable side dishes: Carrot and Apple Tsimmes, Butternut Squash Ratatouille, the Union Square Cafis Matzoh Meal Polenta, and Beet Crisps are just a few of the flavorful recipes you'll want to enjoyall year round.

Publishers Weekly

Passover is celebrated at the table with ritual words and food; this serious new collection does justice to both. And as Amster, a regular contributor to the New York Times food pages, points out, there's another tradition associated with Passover. Every year, home cooks eagerly await recipes, conforming with the holiday's dietary restrictions, published in the Times. The 175 recipes reprinted from cookbooks by the paper's well-known food writers, as well as by celebrated chefs, range from the traditional to the innovative and are drawn from European, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern traditions. Anne Rosenzwieg offers a haroseth recipe that uses rhubarb. The section on gefilte fish includes Wolfgang Puck's variation, served in cabbage leaves, and Barbara Kafka's version, prepared in the microwave. In addition, Amster imparts seven ways to roast a chicken, including Chicken Breasts with Green Olives and Tomatoes. Paul Prudhomme serves up his Veal Roast with Mango Sauce, a dish he prepared in Jerusalem in honor of the city's 3000th anniversary. Nathan's knowledgeable foreword describes dietary restrictions and offers definitions and explanations of the symbolism behind the food. Taken together, Amster has produced what may be the definitive word in Passover cookbooks, from recipes to the feelings evoked by sitting at a beautifully set, bountifully laden table.

Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA - Library Journal

With more than eight recipes for haroseth alone, The New York Times Passover Cookbook will be invaluable for anyone who hosts a Passover seder — or even takes a dish to one. Amster has put together an impressive and delicious collection of recipes from the Times food section and from cookbooks by three of its well-known writers: Craig Claiborne, Mimi Sheraton, and Molly O'Neill. Chapters are organized by course or special dish, and there are moving reminiscences of special Passover seders, as well as a good general introduction by Joan Nathan, an authority on Jewish cooking. Recipes range from the traditional to the contemporary, with dishes from chefs such as Wolfgang Puck alongside family recipes passed down for generations. Highly recommended. Cooking teacher and author Zeidler offers an appealing collection of simple but sophisticated kosher recipes, with a few more complicated holiday dishes she couldn't bear to leave out. Some are adaptations of top chefs' recipes, such as Alain Ducasse's Fennel "Caviar"; others were inspired by Zeidler's yearly sojourns in Italy. There's no reason that the audience for Zeidler's latest book should be limited to kosher cooks; her Gourmet Jewish Cook (LJ 9/15/88) has been a staple for years. For most collections.
— Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA
— Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA
— Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA
— Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA
— Jodi L. Israel, Jamaica Plain, MA

The Mystery Of Herbs And Spices or Massimos Italian Kitchen

The Mystery Of Herbs And Spices

Author: James Moseley

The Mystery of Herbs and Spices offers 53 tell-all biographies of celebrated spices and herbs. Tales of war, sex, greed, hedonism, cunning, exploration and adventure reveal how mankind turned the mere need for nourishment into the exaltation of culinary arts. Is it a spice or herb? Where does it come from and what causes its taste? What legends or scandals embellish it? To what curious uses has it been put? How can you use it today? Neither a cookbook nor dry scholarship, the book employs anecdotes and humor to demystify the use and character of every spice or herb.

Sample chapters from The Mystery of Herbs and Spices follow.
INTRODUCTION
"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred."
- Proverbs 15:17

Herbs and spices. They impart glory to food, and variety to life. They are what separate the mere cook from the gourmet.
But they can be confusing. What is the difference between a herb and a spice? What foods do they go with? And don't you feel silly, not knowing if you are supposed to say "herb" or "erb"?
You might think a gourmet, who understands such things, is a sort of wizard - that's what people thought in the Middle Ages, when users of herbal medicines were accused of witchcraft and burnt!
But to people who grow up in India or Thailand, exotic spices are common. They use a wealth of seasonings as casually as we scatter ketchup and pepper.
Cooking with cardamom or cumin might seem a mystery of subtle kitchens, but did you know that ordinary pepper was once precious and rare? If you lived in Europe seven hundred years ago, you could pay your rent or taxes in peppercorns, counting them out like coins. You couldhave bought a horse for a pound of saffron; a pound of ginger would get you a cow; and a pound of nutmeg was worth seven fat oxen. If you were an exceptionally lucky bride, your father might give you peppercorns as a dowry. Now consider how casually we dash a bit of pepper over a fried egg today!
Like anything else, herbs and spices are easy to use when you are familiar with them. But, like nothing else, the story of spices is laced with adventure.
Ferdinand Magellan launched the first voyage around our planet. By the time he reached the Pacific Ocean, he had been out of touch with civilization for a year. Sailing from the west coast of South America, he headed out onto a briny desert of burning glass. He had no maps. He had no radio. He had ridiculously small and leaky ships. He was going where no one had ever gone before. The hissing swells of the Pacific would take him four frightening months to cross, without laying eyes once on land.
There would be nothing like this adventure for another five hundred years - not until our exploration of space.
Magellan died out there in the unknown. Only eighteen of his 237 sailors straggled back to Spain.
What did they have to show for it?
Silver?
Gold?
Scientific discoveries?
No.nutmegs and cloves! Twenty-six tons of them - enough to pay for the entire cost of the voyage and make a profit of 500 gold ducats for every shareholder.
No one doubted for one second that the whole adventure had been worth it!
Spices. They enhance our food. That's all.
But, since the human race began to dream, the story of spices has enchanted our fantasy as well.
Where do they come from? Why are they so enticing? In what new ways can we use them?
This is a book of discovery. Unfurl your sails, like Magellan, and follow the fragrance of spices and herbs to their source, gather their lore, and let them not only season your cooking, but enrich your enjoyment of life.

PETER PIPER If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

It might seem funny now, but it wasn't funny at the time.
Pierre Poivre of Lyons, France, otherwise known as Peter Pepper or Peter Piper, was a real person. Born in 1719, he started his career as a Christian missionary, and founded a bank in Vietnam.

Book about: The Real Jimmy Carter or Just Jackie

Massimo's Italian Kitchen: Authentic One-Dish Meals from a Seasoned Chef

Author: Massimo Capra

The ease of one dish meals meets the brio of Italian cuisine in a match made in food lover's heaven. Chef Massimo Capra brings the joyful appetite of his native Italy to the tempting, one-pot collection of simple and delicious recipes from his celebrated restaurants Mistura and Sopra.

The book features:

• One-pot Italian recipes for soups, salads, pasta, fish, poultry, meat, vegetables, and desserts.
• Authentic Italian one-dish recipes for every appetite and occasion
• Includes 75+ photographs