A Biblical Feast

"A Biblical Feast" by Kitty Morse, though a smallish paperback cookbook, has much to offer inside the beautiful red themed cover. There are red grapes, red pomegranates and red wine on a red striped cloth for a very striking eye-appeal on the front cover. The photo just begs the cookbook to be opened to see what else might look so good within.

The taste appeal arrives when the book is opened to a nice collection of Mediterranean recipes, sprinkled throughout with mouthwatering photos of the food! In fact, the photos alone are so enticing and makes the reader want to try the recipes just to taste the goodness!

If you've ever wondered about the foods mentioned in the Bible, you'll be pleased to read a little history about them--how they may have been prepared back then. With Morse growing up in Casablanca, Morocco's commercial capital, she had the perfect opportunity to experience the same types of foods that Jesus and the disciples dined on.

Morse actually takes you into the upper room with her description of how it might have been at  that last Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first few pages of the book has a lot of history that is a must read before continuing on to the recipes.

Most of the recipes include a great photo of the food, which really gets the mouth watering.  The photos are of such high quality and the food looks so good that you just want to reach for a bite before turning the page. Every recipe has a Bible verse at the beginning and then a paragraph before the recipe with history of the food or occasion that was celebrated.

The recipes range from Bitter Herb Salad, Squash with Capers & Mint, Lamb & Fresh Fava Bean Soup, Barley with Lentils & Onions to Ezekiel's Bread and Abigail's Fig Cakes, plus many more to choose from. Anyone on a Mediterranean diet will find many recipes to try in "A Biblical Feast".

The cookbook is small enough that it won't take up a lot of space on your cookbook shelf but the recipes will definitely add a lot of color and flavor to your dinner table.

Go to www.KittyMorse.com or www.ABiblicalFeast.com to learn more about Kitty Morse, the other nine books she has written, and the gourmet tours she arranges.  

The Redneck Gourmet

It seems odd to use "Gourmet" (Gor-may) and "Redneck" in the same title to describe a good cookbook, but it really is the name of my newest cookbook from "L.A.", and that would be "Lower Alabama" -- not Los Angeles.

What started out as a joke recipe for John Paul Richardson turned into a cookbook of almost 500 recipes, some of which are real recipes and others that are not-so-serious (I hope!).  For instance, there is a recipe for Roasted Camel (recipe # 135) and another for Roasted 'Possum (recipe #123).  Some of the more serious recipes are for Mississippi Mud Cake; Rum Cake; and Granny Richardson's Peanut Brittle which I will make very soon!

Richardson got pretty creative with some of the recipes, renaming a pork and mushroom dish as "Psychedelic Pig".  I know that recipe will have some of the hippie types searching out THAT one.

This cookbook had my full attention right from the get-go!  How could it not with a 4-page introduction.  I started reading aloud to my hubby and we were both in giggles and tears within a minute. It is so different from all the other cookbooks in my collection, but this one is a one-of-a-kind that should be in every cookbook collector's library.

Two things that set it apart:  the paragraphs in the 4-page introduction are not separated by a space as they usually are in other cookbooks.  I felt compelled to continue reading to see what else was different.  I then noticed there is no index of recipes though there is a table of contents broken into sections that are familiar, such as "Barbeque", "Meats, Meat Dishes, and Chili" and "Beer, Wine, and Shine", just to name three of the 15 sections.

Most intriguing of all is that each recipe has a number in the title such as 208 Seafood Gumbo; 209 Alabama Gumbo; 210 Chicken Gumbo; 211 Mumbo Gumbo (no meat); 212 Cajun Gumbo, etc.  If you find a recipe you want to try or go back to later, you'll have to write down the number somewhere or page through until you find it again! I've never noticed this indexing method in any other cookbook.

As you can see in the photo, this cookbook has a coil binding so will easily lay flat while cooking from it.

If you're wondering if there is a recipe for snake, you are right -- there is!  But I won't be trying that one, or the one for Chitlins and Hog Maws, or Mexican Swamp Rabbit.  There are plenty of good-sounding recipes to try though and I will try them.

If you would like to order one for the Redneck Gourmet in your life, (this would make an excellent Father's Day gift) just go to www.paulrichardsonbooks.webs.com for the ordering info.

The New Portuguese Table

The New Portuguese Table

By David Leite, 2009

Anyone who has ever read any of David Leite’s food writings must have hoped he had a cookbook of his own doing a slow simmer on his foodie horizon.  This man has a way with words, as evidenced at his award winning web site, http://www.leitesculanaria.com and now he has revealed he also has a way with “slivers of whisker-thin kale” and “slices of sausage” as well.  It was just a matter of time before he served up  “The New Portuguese Table”, and that he has now done!

Born of Portuguese immigrants and raised in the US, it wasn’t until he lost his Grandmother that he begun to pay attention to the food being cooked in his Mother’s home.  He was concerned that when she passed on as well, so would all the Portuguese recipes he grew up enjoying.  He knew he did not want that to happen so went on a quest to watch her cook and documented her recipes. 

To get in touch with his ancestral culinary heritage, he visited Portugal on vacation several times through the years before deciding to live there for a year to experience the food and the country.  While becoming friends with local chefs and learning their secrets of improving old, traditional flavors with exciting new ones, he translated these techniques into how he could take his own recipes to culinary heights achievable by all cooks.

It was during that year in Portugal that his cookbook began to come together and he found that even though his mother’s recipes had the same names as those he experienced in Portugal, they didn’t taste quite the same.  There was a food revolution going on and he was in the middle of it -- in the right place, at the right time and Leite had the finesse to convey it to all of us in The New Portuguese Table.

The recipes he captured and preserved are excellent!  We’ve tried several of them and I know they will become family favorites that we will make over and over again.   Dishes such as his Lemon-Mint Chicken Soup, the Pumpkin Soup with Spicy Seeds, Smoked Paprika Oil, and my favorite - - Eggs Simmered in Tomato Sauce.  It is a simple dish, but so full of flavor that there is a risk of it replacing some old Southern favorites as my new comfort food.  The Azorean Kale, Sausage, and Bean Soup (sopa de couve) he included in the cookbook was his Mother’s recipe and that alone made me want to try it.  Like his Dad, we also tried it for breakfast one morning and found it to be just as flavorful, comforting and sustaining as it was at dinner the evening before.

The “to try” recipes waiting for me are Sweet Lemon and Black Olive Wafers and the Green Olive Dip.  The combination of those flavors in the wafers has to be as delicious as they sound and the photo alone is enough to whet the appetite.  The dip is made with milk and that intrigues me enough to try it with green olives.

Regarding the photos, The New Portuguese Table is full of engaging photos, a feature that is sure to appeal to those who like to see how the food looks when prepared.  The plus here is that there are many photos of the Portuguese countryside also – an open invitation to experience the Portuguese food heritage.

Beautiful food, charming countryside, delectable recipes, great cookbook!  What could be better?  Volume 2?  The New Portuguese Table will be as important to your cookbook collection as it is to mine!

Reviewed by Monita Olive for CookbooksEtCetera on September 3, 2009

Best of the Best Fast & Fabulous Party Foods and Appetizer

Quail Ridge Press has once again published a cookbook that will be dear to those who like to make party foods and appetizers for their family or friends who gather 'round them.

"Best of the Best Fast & Fabulous Party Foods and Appetizers" is 274 pages of recipes that are delicious, easy and quick to prepare and will have your guests asking for the recipe so they too can make it for their next party.

As they usually do, QRP has placed the title of this cookbook on the plastic comb spine so it will be easy to spot on the shelf. Being comb bound it is also easy to lay flat while cooking from -- a feature cooks love.

This cookbook is all about parties and there is an alphabetical listing of parties in the front, such as Bunko or Bridge Party, Father's Day Cookout, Mardi Gras Madness, Super Bowl Party, Wine-Tasting Party, just to name a few. Then there is another index of Monthly Parties with 2 menus for each month with listing of recipes and page numbers included. There is yet another index of Quick Fixes -- recipes that are super quick, as well as fast and fabulous.

Some of the chapters that catch my attention are:

"Wet Your Whistle"
includes shakes, floats, smoothies, slushes, teas, punches, coolers, wines, and wassails.....WOW!

"Crunchy Munchies" include recipes for crackers, chips, toasts, wafers, nuts, popcorn, and snack mixes.

"Some Like It Hot" include recipes for hot dips, chafing dishes, fondues, and hot bread bowls.

"Cheese, Please" includes recipes for cheese balls, squares, cubes, crisps, nachos, quesadillas and spreads. This is the section where I found a winner called "It's a Snowman Cheese Ball" and was a huge hit over the holidays when family gathered for Christmas dinner at my house. This held them over until I could get it all on the table and everyone was asking for the recipe (copied below for you).

This cookbook is filled with celebration recipes as well it should be since it was published to celebrate Quail Ridge Press's 30th anniversary (1978-2008). Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley have never let us down with their BoB cookbooks and they haven't this time either.

Congratulations to McKee, Moseley and Quail Ridge Press on their busy, but exciting 30 years of giving the cookbook reader what they want -- exciting, delicious, easy, quick, challenging, unusual, wonderful recipes in wonderful cookbooks.

I believe it's time to celebrate and have a party and I know where we can get some more recipes like the one below:

"It's A Snowman Cheese Ball"

2 cups shredded 4-cheese blend
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives or green onions
1 (2-ounce) package slivered almonds, toasted
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Peppercorns
1 baby carrot

Mix cheese, cream cheese, chives, almonds, and red pepper well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour. Divide mixture into 3 balls -- small, medium, and large. Roll in Parmesan cheese. Arrange on serving dish small to large, like a snowman lying down. Decorate with peppercorns for eyes, mouth, and buttons, and carrot for nose. A green onion skin strip around his neck makes a scarf. Surround with crackers or cut-up fresh vegetables. Serves 16-20.

Reviewed by Monita Olive for CookbooksEtCetera on January 4, 2009

Cinagro Farm Family Favorites

Cinagro Farm Family Favorites is a 20-years-in-the-making personal

cookbook compiled by Carol Engan Borrelli to honor her Norwegian,

Dutch, German, Czechoslovakian and Italian ancestors. With that kind

of lineage, there have to be some good recipes in it and there are.

Carol Borrelli's background in federal food inspection gives her an

appreciation for the organic lifestyle and her love of cooking and

gardening lets her practice it as well. You can view the beautiful

cookbook at her website at www.cinagrofarm.com

The first thing that catches my eye with this cookbook is the name of

it. Cinagro is "organic" spelled backwards. I love it! Borrelli's

philosophy is to use fresh, organic foods when possible. There are

about 500 recipes within the 250+ pages of the comb-bound book. We

love the comb binding which makes it easy to stay open when cooking

from it.

The recipes range from breakfast breads like Blueberry Orange Tea

Muffins (absolutely wonderful on a chilly Sunday morning like today),

and Homemade Yogurt that uses goat milk, Norwegian Breakfast Crepes

("Jeg elske disse crepes") to appetizers and beverages like

Angloasian Rum Punch and Tangy Orange Cheese (yum).

In the soup section I've marked Cream of Broccoli Soup to try

(probably will be dinner tonight) and I'm sure to try the Sausage &

Lentil Soup Borrelli also. There is also a great section on sauces

and salad dressings that I am pleased as punch to have to find new

favorites. They sound just delicious.

The miscellaneous and unusual section has recipes for seasoned salt,

Cinagro Farm Skin Cream, and Donna's Downeast Biscuits (for the dog),

just to name a few.

There are so many yummy sounding recipes that I can't name them all,

but I see very many I will be trying -- especially those blueberry ones!

The divider pages between the sections have artwork by Sharon

France. Her Americana style is quite attractive, Most of the old

barns in the paintings are set at a distance, showing big sky, green

fields, and an orange strip in the foreground that I believe depicts

a fall harvest. France's artwork can be viewed at http://

www.francegallery.net/ The cover art work chosen by Borrelli was

perfect for this cookbook!

Cinagro Farm Family Favorites is listed at www.amazon.com and also at

www.target.com, but is currently showing as out of stock on both

sites. Since this cookbook would make a nice gift at this time of

year, you may want to go straight to http://www.cinagrofarm.com to

place your order.

I will be watching for the sequel and I'm sure it will be just as

good as this one.

Mo

Cowboy Chow

You never know what little gems you'll find at used book stores!  

On a recent used bookshop hop, I came upon the cutest cookbook in the shape of a red cowboy boot called "Cowboy Chow" by Judy Barbour.  It was published way back in 1988 so it has been out a while and had found it's way onto the cookbook shelves at Half-Price Books on Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas.  Lucky for me!

It seems that Judy Barbour and her husband, Barry, are (were?) chef/owners of a western style restaurant in Texas  and some of the recipes in this cookbook were created for the restaurant. 

There is a tribute to the American Cowboy, as well as sections on Cowboy Equipment, Cowboy Slang, Saddle Snacks and others.  Some of the recipe titles are:  "Armadillo Eggs", "Texas Trash", "Jalapeno Jelly", "Mexican Albondigas", "King Ranch Chicken" (of course!), "Frito Pie", a 100+ year-old family recipe for "Heubner Ranch Muffins", "Navajo Fry Bread", "Pastel de Margarita" (Margarita Pie), and thirst quenchers such as "Firefly", "Cowboy Kiss", "Border Buttermilk", "El Vacquero Coffee", and biggest surprise of all for me - "Cerveza Roja" (Red Beer).  I've heard of beer and tomato juice before but thought it was someone's idea of a quirky combination but never expected to see a recipe for it!   There are lots of other delicious sounding recipes in this 77-page specialty cookbook.

There is also a section on entertaining cowboy-style with cute and interesting ideas for a truly cowboy chow experience.

I checked online to see how available it is and located a few copies at Amazon and one at ebay.  If you should run across a copy somewhere and have a special cookbook shelf reserved for cowboy style cookbooks, this one should be on it, so grab it!

If you are a cookbook collector and would like to join CookbooksEtCetera, click here.

Collecting Cookbooks

It seems everywhere I look in our home I see a pile of cookbooks waiting to be read for an interesting and new recipe to try.  I pull a few off the shelves and bring to the couch where I sit with my MacBook most nights.  In between emails to CookbooksEtCetera, a group of cookbook collecting friends at yahoogroups, I like to read a little of what makes a particular cookbook unique and different to all others and maybe find a recipe or two to try the next week while doing so.  

They pile so high on the couch beside me that I have to kind of wiggle backwards as I sit down, being careful not to topple any over.  They sit there for a few days and then I'll take them back to the cookbook shelves in the spare bedroom and bring out more.  Usually they are ones that have been mentioned by one of the other collectors and I'll want to reacquaint myself with those cookbooks and see what prompted someone to mention them.  It feels like they are new again to me or that it is Christmas time and I have new presents, even though I've had many of them for years.

One of my favorites is a similar copy of a cookbook my Mother used to cook from called, "Woman's Home Companion Cookbook".  Her cookbook was black and my oldest sister inherited it from her, but when I found eBay, I also found a few copies of it for me and my other sisters.  There were 7 of us girls (and 2 boys), so it was fun to shop and hunt for more of Mama's cookbook so that all of us could have one.  The copy below is a popular one in a cream colored front with bullteted words of the recipes inside it.

Some of the recipes I tried when I first started cooking were fudge, biscuits, and yellow cake. I used to make a jelly cake that was just too easy and everyone loved it!  Even though I don't have my Mama's copy, the one I found on eBay is probably my most special cookbook in my collection of 2000 cookbooks.

Do you have a favorite cookbook too?

Best of The Best 500 Fast & Fabulous Five Star 5-Ingredient Recipes

I am currently working on my collection of the Best of the Best state cookbooks by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley and am only about 1/4 of the way through the states, mainly collecting those where I have so far lived, or have received as gifts during cookbook swaps.  Not even being halfway through the list however finds me wishing for more states in the US besides just 50.  I love the concept of a grouping of cookbooks and then recipes from within cookbooks that these two ladies have found for us, but with only 50 states in the USA, there probably won't be many more of these unless we see some second volumes coming out and that would be o.k. with me!  

I should not worry with Gwen and Barbara in the kitchen as they will continue to find plenty more cookbooks and recipes  to edit and develop for us hungry cookbook collectors and recipe testers.   After researching, editing and cooking for more than thirty years, they were bound to come up with new ideas for new cookbooks and that one of them should be for easy and few ingredients was almost a no-brainer for them, I'm sure.

We were delighted just a few years ago when "Beyond Grits and Gravy" appeared and now I've received a copy of "500 Fast and Fabulous Five Star 5 Ingredient Recipes".   The good thing is that there are MORE than 500 recipes, the better thing is that they are easy, and the best thing is that each recipe requires only 5 ingredients.

There seems to be a "5" theme to this cookbook -- not only in the title but throughout the cookbook.  I didn't expect to read anything about the Pentagon in a cookbook, but it has five sides so there is a short description as well as photo of it on the page with recipes for "Classic Cheese Straws" and "Crisp Criss-Cross Cheese Wafers". On page 63 with recipes for "Enchilada Soup" is a definition of "High Five" -- a celebratory gesture made by two people, each raising one hand to slap the raised hand of the other.  What a fun and interesting theme they have chosen to include here.

The recipes are easy and delicious and I'm delighted to find one for "Peanut Butter Cornflake Candy" since it was a favorite of mine in my teen years.  Other favorites I'm happy to see included are "Lemon Jell-O Cake" and "Apricot Nectar Cake".  

What a fun cookbook this is turning out to be!  HIGH FIVE to Barbara Moseley and Gwen McKee on their latest "Best of the Best 500 Fast & Fabulous Five Star 5 Ingredient Recipes".  They do know how to pick winners! 

Hello and Welcome!

I've shared my cookbook collecting thoughts with hundreds of cyber friends for the past 8-1/2 years at a yahoogroup called CookbooksEtCetera.  We've had fabulous cookbook reviews, e-published several cookbooks of our own, and even met up occasionally at mini-conventions and regional gatherings.  

While we are currently meeting up with each other at smaller regional gatherings all over the US, there is a bigger event coming in October 2009 in Kansas City, MO.  The occasion will be the celebration of our 10th birthday as a cookbook collectors group and it will be a BIG Birthday Bash complete with birthday cake and ice cream!  More details to follow, but if you are a true collector of all things cookbook, you may want to join us and experience the fun of getting together over cookbooks!