Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin'
by Paula Deen
from Simon & Schuster
Do you know the real Paula Deen? You may think you know the butter-loving, finger-licking, joke-cracking queen of melt-in-your-mouth Southern cuisine. You may have even visited The Lady & Sons to taste for yourself the down-home delicacies that made her famous and even heard some version of her Cinderella story (a single mom with two teenage sons started a brown-bag lunch business with $200 and wound up with a thriving restaurant, a fairy-tale second marriage, and wildly popular television shows), but you have never heard the intimate details of her often bumpy road to fame and fortune.
Courageously honest, downright inspiring, and just a little bit saucy, Paula shares the highs and lows of her life in the inimitable charming and irreverent style that you know from her television shows and personal appearances. She talks about long childhood summers spent in a bathing suit and roller skates and hard years living in the back of her father's gas station; a buzzing high school social life of sleepovers, parties, cheerleading, and boys; and a difficult marriage. The death of her beloved parents precipitated a debilitating agoraphobia that crippled her for years. But even when the going got tough, Paula never lost the good grace and sense of humor that would eventually help carry her to success and stardom. Of course, you can't get by on charm alone: as Paula has learned, you need plenty of willpower, hard work, and, above all, the love and support of family and friends to finance, sustain, and run a successful restaurant.
In each chapter, Paula shares new recipes: there's serious comfort food like her momma's Chocolate-Dippy Doughnuts, Courage Chili for when you know life's going to get tough, Sexy Oxtails for seducing that special someone, and the recipe for her new mother-in-law's Banana Nut Delight Cake that Paula finally got just right. And you'll love the never-before-seen photos of her family.
In this memoir, Paula Deen speaks as frankly and intimately as few women in the public eye have ever dared. Whether she's telling tales of good times or bad, her story is proof that the old-fashioned American dream is alive and kicking, and there still is such a thing as a real-life happy ending.
Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook
by Martha Hall Foose
from Clarkson Potter
Gifted chef and storyteller Martha Hall Foose invites you into her kitchen to share recipes that bring alive the landscape, people, and traditions that make Southern cuisine an American favorite.
Born and raised in Mississippi, Foose cooks Southern food with a contemporary flair: Sweet Potato Soup is enhanced with coconut milk and curry powder; Blackberry Limeade gets a lift from a secret ingredient–cardamom; and her much-ballyhooed Sweet Tea Pie combines two great Southern staples–sweet tea and pie, of course–to make one phenomenal signature dessert. The more than 150 original recipes are not only full of flavor, but also rich with local color and characters.
As the executive chef of the Viking Cooking School, teaching thousands of home cooks each year, Foose crafts recipes that are the perfect combination of delicious, creative, and accessible. Filled with humorous and touching tales as well as useful information on ingredients, techniques, storage, shortcuts, variations, and substitutions, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea is a must-have for the American home cook–and a must-read for anyone who craves a return to what cooking is all about: comfort, company, and good eating.
Entertaining with Bluegrass Winners Cookbook: New Recipes and Menus from Kentucky's Legendary Horse Farms
by Edward L Bowen
from Eclipse Press
Kentucky hospitality is showcased in this updated edition of the beloved cookbook that has had 20 printings and sales of more than 100,000 copies. From a formal winter dinner to a post Kentucky Derby brunch, Bluegrass hostesses share their recipes and family traditions for every season and occasion. Includes farm histories written by racing historian Edward L. Bowen and more than 100 color photos.
Smokestack Lightning: Adventures In The Heart Of Barbecue Country
by Lolis Eric Elie
from Ten Speed Press
Through vivid descriptions of restaurants and barbecue joints around the country, stirred together with legends and bits and pieces of barbecue history, Lolis Eric Elie profiles the largely American pastime of barbecuing. Traveling from Texas to the Carolinas, the author chronicles the lore and traditions of the barbecue belt and collects recipes, descriptions and photographs of everything from barbecued cows' faces to pigs' snouts, on his quest to determine barbecue's role in American culture.
It was while eating a big ol' plate of steaming ribs that journalist Lolis Eric Elie and photographer Frank Stewart decided to traverse the country to investigate America's obsession with smoked meat. Their quest took them from all-night barbecue binges on Chicago's south side to barbecue competition circuit events like Memphis in May and Big Pig Jig in Vienna, Georgia, where people drop thousands of dollars to spend a sleepless night smoking meat. In SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING, Elie and Stewart profile the down-home devotees of the barbecue world, painting an anthropological portrait of one of our nation's favorite pastimes. Featuring 50 mouthwatering recipes for such meats, sauces, and side dishes as Oklahoma Joe's Brew-B-Q Ribs, Moonlight Mutton Dip, and Lady Causey's Overnight Cabbage Slaw, SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING is a unique culinary chronicle that'll make your stomach rumble.
The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 7: Foodways (New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture)
by James G Thomas Jr
from The University of North Carolina Press
This 7th volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture marks the first encyclopedia on the food cultures of the South. Articles explore not only what southerners eat but also why they eat it. The volume contains 149 articles, almost all of them new to this edition of the Encyclopedia. Longer essays address the historical development of southern cuisine and ethnic contributions to the region's foodways. Topical essays explore iconic southern foods such as MoonPies and fried catfish, prominent restaurants and personalities, and the food cultures of subregions and individual cities.
West Coast Seafood: The Complete Cookbook
by Jay Harlow
from Sasquatch Books
Picture yourself standing before the fish monger's display case with the day's catch all nicely laid out on gleaming shaved ice, the price tags and labels in place, the fishmonger's retail smile intact. He's waiting, patiently, for you to make up your mind. Trouble is, you're shopping for a specific fish, and it's not for sale. So what do you do, fall back on old tried-and-true recipes for the seafood you recognize in the case? You can hear your family yawning, can't you?
Fear not, lover of seafood. Jay Harlow has written West Coast Seafood: The Complete Cookbook. Tuck this sucker under your arm next time you head out the door and you will never again suffer seafood angst. Nor will you have to stand in front of the fish counter thumbing through a book like a damned fool. Harlow, you see, has organized West Coast Seafood by type of seafood, not according to where in a meal the dish will be served.
And if that doesn't tell you that this guy knows what he's doing, then just dig in. Complete Cookbook falls short of the mark; Final Word comes closer. Because everything is here: all the information you need to select the best-quality seafood; instructions to clean and prep the seafood you bring home; and then a wide flavor range and cooking-style range to keep new and exciting dishes coming to the dinner table.
The finned fish of fresh and salt water, both wild and farmed, are all here. Can't stand the idea of another grilled salmon steak? Try Kurt's Salmon with Oyster Stuffing. And if there are any leftovers, go straight to Salmon Cakes. How does Grilled Halibut with Roasted Garlic Marinade sound? Or Halibut Cooked with Poblano Chiles and Cream? Yes, there are Dungeness Crab Cakes in West Coast Seafood, but you will also find Stir-Fried Crab with Chiles and Ginger.
There are no desserts. But Harlow does end his book with a selection of appropriate sauces as well as two essays on the future of fishing, and the place of aquaculture. Like the entire book, well worth reading. --Schuyler Ingle
This is the new definitive seafood cookbook from writer and chef Jay Harlow. West Coast Seafood addresses the finfish and shellfish, ocean and fresh water catch available fresh from California to Alaska, with over 250 recipes, both basic and lavish.
This important new cookbook introduces the up-to-the-minute selection of fresh fish and shellfish available on the West Coast and furnishes 250 wonderful recipes that bring out the most in albacore, spot prawns, black cod, salmon, rainbow trout, petrale sole, skate, oysters, and more. It includes color photographs.
Olive in California: History of an Immigrant Tree
by Judith Taylor MD
from Ten Speed Press
La Comida del Barrio: Latin-American Cooking in the U.S.A.
by Aaron Sanchez
from Clarkson Potter
The Latin-American population is the fastest growing in the United States--over 30 million people. Just look at the starting lineup of Major League Baseball if you need deeper proof. It's a population rich in cultural diversity, roots reaching back all over the place--Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Peru, Argentina. And the nice thing that happens in this country, as Aaron Sanchez so eloquently points out in his first cookbook, La Comida del Barrio, is that this multilayerd diversity melts all over itself and becomes something new while suggesting something old and stable.
"This book is not about 'authentic' regional dishes," Sanchez writes in his introduction. Rather, it's about the real food of the real barrio, the Latin neighborhood, wherever that may be these days in the US. You'll find a small soup stand, la fonda, in the marketplace and that's his first chapter--black bean soup, shrimp chowder, plantain soup, menudo. Then there's the home kitchen restaurant, el paladar, open to the lucky ones who can find it. Stews are typical, and that's the next chapter--Brazilian cassoulet, roasted rabbit. The chapters march right up the Latin dining scale: la taquerÃa for street snacks, la rosticcerÃa for roasted meats, el comedor (the restaurant) for salads and entrees, el Mercado for vegetables and side dishes, la panderÃa for baked goods and sweets, la jugerÃa for drinks, and a final chapter on essential recipes.
The entire Latin culinary landscape as it's found throughout the US is captured between the covers of La Comida del Barrio. Sanchez has done a wonderful job. You can take this food into your own home. But what's especially nice, with this book tucked under your wing, you can explore the barrio nearest you and taste it all for real. --Schuyler Ingle
In this groundbreaking cookbook, chef Aarón Sanchez explores the delicious food and exciting culture of the barrios—the vibrant Latin-American neighborhoods from Miami’s Little Havana and New York’s Spanish Harlem to San Francisco’s Mission, and the entire United States in between. These rich neighborhoods have spawned a new cuisine, melding tradition with experimentation, and taking advantage of locally available ingredients and modern cooking methods. This book is a celebration of that cuisine: not the painstakingly authentic dishes of the homeland, or the hypercreative chef-y inventions of fusion cuisine, but the comforting, delicious food that’s enjoyed in home kitchens and mom-and-pop restaurants across the country, accessible to all cooks.
Since a defining aspect of Latin-American culture is the variety in eating establishments—from casual street vendors to upscale sit-down restaurants, the meal is defined as much by the place as by the dish—La Comida del Barrio is organized by types of eatery:
•Fondas, market stands, for soups such as Pozole Verde and Black Bean Soup
•Paladares, home-kitchen restaurants, for hearty entrées like Chicken Fricassée and Carne Mechada (Shredded Beef)
•TaquerÃas, street stands, for quick snacks that include tacos, tamales, gorditas, sopes, tortas, and other portable foods
•RotiserÃas, cafés, for roast meats such as Steak in Red Chile Sauce and Cuban Pot Roast
•Comedores, restaurants, for sit-down meals with starters like Cactus Salad with Shrimp and main courses like Arroz con Pollo
•El Mercado, the market, for sides such as Refried Black Beans, Roasted Corn with Chile-Lime Butter, and Stuffed Plantains
•PanaderÃas, bakeries, for desserts that include Flan de Coco, Dulce de Leche, and Rice Pudding
•JugoerÃas, juice stands, for drinks like Batidos (tropical shakes) and SangrÃa
Grandma's Wartime Baking Book: World War II and the Way We Baked
by Joanne Lamb Hayes
from St. Martin's Press
Joanne Lamb Hayes offers a sentimental collection of recipes for baked goods created during World War II in Grandma's Wartime Baking Book, her follow-up to Grandma's Wartime Kitchen. Because butter and refined sugar were hard to come by and rationed, and the thousands of married women who joined the work force were still expected to continue running their households like tight ships, these recipes for cookies, tarts, cakes, and breads are low in fat and refined sugar, very quick to throw together, and couldn't be any easier to make.
Expected to work all day, serve fresh, hot, nutritious meals on beautifully set tables, keep lush victory gardens bursting with nutritious fruits and vegetables for eating and canning, and always present themselves impeccably dressed and coiffed, there were not very many free moments in the day. So just a few minutes is all it took to get an Apple Coffee Cake into the oven, and the result is a remarkably tender, upside-down apple cake, dripping with a warm brown sugar and spiced apple syrup. Other desserts such as rich Peanut Butter-Chocolate Cupcakes and Butterscotch Squares thrilled families back then as much as they do today. Even the most old-fashioned of these recipes fit nicely into today's lifestyles. The ingredient lists are short and inexpensive--you probably already have most of the ingredients in the house. The results are comfort food at its best, and none of them take any time at all to put together. Taking a stroll down Memory Lane with Hayes is surprisingly delicious. --Leora Y. Bloom
Faced with rationing of sugar and butter (as well as canned and frozen goods, coffee, and more), calls for better nutrition, and waning morale, home bakers found clever ways to make quick and delicious desserts, for their families at home as well as their loved ones on the frontlines. Many of these recipes are collected in this volume, along with quotes, anecdotes, and baking tips from magazines and home bakers from the period, and illustrations and advertisements that capture the spirit and concerns of the era.
Recipes include:
* Sweet Potato Victory Cake - originally made with sweet potatoes from the backyard Victory Garden
* Apple Coffee Cake - a World War II favorite, with a twist
* Strawberry "Long" Cake - making the most of a quart of precious berries
* Apricot Peach Pie - with flavor and sweetness from dried apricots and heavy syrup
* Tea Party Tarts - easy to make, and morale-lifting after a sparse wartime meal
* Peanut Butter Cookies - Nutritious, butter- and sugar-free, and great for shipping to the troops overseas
* Mrs. Nesbitt's Whole Wheat Bread - a favorite recipe from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's White House cook
These delicious, quick, and easy recipes are perfect for today's busy bakers, and they offer a long-overdue salute to the resourceful, inventive, and patriotic women who created them.
Chinatown New York: Portraits, Recipes, and Memories
by Ann Volkwein
from Collins Design
A lush, vibrant tour of the people, places, and food that make New York City's Chinatown one of the world's most celebrated neighborhoods
In the mid-nineteenth century, Chinatown became the destination for a small influx of Chinese immigrants. Today, this area boasts the largest concentration of Chinese in the Western Hemisphere, abundant fruit and fish markets, restaurants, and sundry retail shops. Chinatown New York provides a cultural snapshot of this captivating place through its immigration history, temples, associations, the stories of people who have lived there for generations—and the recipes that make its food scene buzz.
Ann Volkwein invites readers to explore Chinatown's hundreds of restaurants, which stretch to the outer reaches of the neighborhood. Readers can enjoy fresh seafood cooked Hong Kong-style at Fuleen Seafood, see a colorful array of dumplings at Dim Sum GoGo, or stop by Hop Kee Restaurant, a subterranean space on Mott Street and a neighborhood classic. And the book is peppered with mouthwatering recipes from neighborhood chefs—including Longevity Noodles, Shredded Duck Dumplings, and Shanghainese Pork Shoulder.
Next, Volkwein encourages the reader to celebrate the Chinese New Year with neighborhood residents by attending the parade down East Broadway and preparing a symbolic feast. From there, she takes readers to Ten Ren Tea, where owners Mark and Ellen Lii brew the perfect cup of tea in a traditional ceremony. Of course, no visit to Chinatown would be complete without a walk through its food markets and herbal medicine stores, and the book demystifies some of the more unusual finds, from dried bird's nest to opo squash.
Filled with vibrant photography that captures the vitality of this fascinating place, Chinatown New York offers readers an intimate look at one of New York's most beloved neighborhoods.
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