What's up with the sausages?
When the whole preserving-canning thing took hold in the cookbook world a few years ago, it seemed to me that it owed its resurgence to an essentially vegetarian source culture - you know, homesteaders and beekeepers…
Shelf Life With Susie
The rise of the blog book
At first, it was only Julie Powell, blogging her way to stardom as she chronicled her mastery of Julia Child's magnum opus. David Lebovitz and Pam Anderson were out there too. The books food bloggers used to write…
The year of the South
With Nov. 6th one day away, our family has entered the final stages of electoral obsession. Everyone in the family except the 6-year-old has their own electoral map, prompting dinner trash-talk like "Do you really think…
Cooking at home - storm edition
Here in western Mass., we escaped pretty much scot-free - a power flicker or two, and then it was over. The kids went to school this morning. Last year, after the Halloween snowstorm, it was a totally different story.…
How geeky is your kitchen?
Food science seems to have turned a corner for those of us who cook at home. Of course, practical advice has been around as long as there have been cooks - have all your ingredients at room temperature before baking!…
"New" vs. "All in One Place" cookbooks
Fall cookbooks have been streaming in over the threshold, and over the weekend I got the call for cookbook roundup. So, this morning I sat on the kitchen floor, where stacks of books have been piling up, and started…
Money is no object! (and neither is time.)
Ah, the restaurants of the 1%. I haven't been inside one since the 1% were more like the 20%, over a decade ago. And though I wasn't part of the 20% even then, I could once in a while visit their culinary haunts. The…
A Mideast revolution in cookbooks
I've said it before and I'll say it again--the most exciting subject area in cookbook publishing these days is the Middle East (followed perhaps by Southeast Asia). It seems like every week brings a gorgeous new book…
Grains...taken as a whole
Remember how it used to be with whole grains? You'd go to a natural-foods store asking for farro or spelt, and the assistant manager would say, "how do you spell that again?" And then, if you were lucky, you'd score…
Catching Downton Fever
It's 111 days until the premiere of Downton Abbey's third season--not that anyone's counting!--and cookbook publishers are doing their best to milk the nostalgic, Downton-deprived masses. Adams Media, which brought us…
Cakes from the Dark Side
The other day I got a serious problem in the mail. I was briskly opening up boxes and bags of new fall cookbooks when--blam!--there it was, staring up at me with an evil expression. Twisted Cakes, it read, and beneath…
Going back to bread
We've just rounded the corner on Labor Day, which means...it's bread season again! Time to make soup and swab the bowl with torn and crusty slices. Time to slice sandwich breads for school lunches. Time to rise early…