Baking power

I am an avid reader of cookbooks.  I am not a good cook.  It is rare that I even turn on my stove.  It is my oven that I think about while sitting at the customer services desk checking material in and out.  There is a stillness and clarity of mind that goes along with the measuring out of flour and the blending of egg and butter. 

I am a fan of simple recipes.  It is important that the majority of ingredients are things you already have in your kitchen.  Here are some of my favorites.

• Last night I baked Macaroon Angel Cakes (page 267) from the book Best of the Bake-Off Collection: Pillsbury’s Best 1000 Recipes.  This is a large textbook-like cookbook.  The Angel Cakes could more accurately be described as coconut angel food cake in cupcake form.  They are delicious.
• Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is the most useful book I have ever come across.  His recipe for Brownies (page 717) put any store bought brownies to shame.  The recipe is ridiculously simple and totally worth the possible store trip for the unsweetened chocolate.  Make these, trust me.
• Martha Stewart’s book Cupcakes is filled with simple and inventive crowd-pleasing recipes.  I especially enjoyed the recipe for Snickerdoodle cupcakes.  They call for some sort of fancy frosting that I can’t get involved with (Martha and her piping and fondant sculpting).  I find that any cupcake can be enhanced with a simple cream cheese frosting.
• In the winter I like to bake bread.  It is not as scary as it may seem to create a good loaf at home.  Bernard Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads is a great start.  The first recipe in the book is called “Your First Loaf.”  Your roommates and/or family members will not let you make this just once.

The beautiful thing is that all of these cookbooks may be taken out of your local library for free.  I love the idea that there is a world full of recipes out there that is always available. 

–Abby

I Sense a Theme Here…

“In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” –Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

Well, that may very well be, but it isn’t spring yet.  We are still in the throes of winter around here and in the winter, my thoughts turn to food.  So lately, I’ve been spending time eating at some fabulous restaurants, making hearty meals when snowed in at home,  and perusing the cookbook collection here at the Library.  As I was scanning the shelves, I began to detect a not-so-subtle theme emerging from the titles of some of the cookbooks.  Let’s see if you can figure out what I noticed . . . 

Image courtesy of http://www.101cookbooks.com

A Culinary Love Story 

Anne and Beau met in culinary school.   “Have you ever been Seduced by Bacon?” Beau asked her one day, as they worked side by side in a dessert lesson.  “No, but I have been Tempted. You don’t think I’m Cheap & Easy, do you?” Anne replied.  Beau had been Ready and Waiting for Anne since they first met in a basic sauce cookery class, but she had seemed out of his reach.  Anne was used to the big city, Small Bites, Big Nights, and bright lights.
“Do you always do it like that – Slow & Easy?” Anne asked with a quick bat of her lashes while observing the way he handled his whisk.  “You know that Nobody Does it Better than the French,” she said.  Beau was left with his Mouth Wide Open at Anne’s suggestive tone and, more importantly, the way she was able to create such stiff peaks on her meringue. 
“I’m thinking of inventing a new dessert creation,” Anne announced. “It will be called the Dessert Fourplay, featuring a quartet of Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.”  “That sounds delicious.  What a pleasure it would be to get a taste of that,” Beau said.  “Oh trust me, The Pleasure is All Mine,” stated Anne.  “Faster! I’m Starving!” was all that he could muster in reply, as the Sparks in the Kitchen flew. 
And with that exchange of flirtations, Anne and Beau knew that cooking up something Hot & Spicy wouldn’t be limited to the kitchen! 

Now you tell me, are all of those books really about food?
-Melissa

What America Ate

Tonight I will be facilitating Dish! A Foodie Book Club. We will discuss The Food of a Younger Land, edited by Mark Kurlansky. 

This book is a compilation of previously unpublished essays about how Americans cooked, ate, and interacted with food in the period just prior to World War II. This is significant because it’s when refrigeration, transportation, and the manufacture of processed foods became widespread.  These three innovations completely changed the way Americans ate and thought about food.  They were no longer limited to what was local and/or in season.

These essays were the product of the Federal Writers’ Project, which was in turn part of the Works Progress Administration. The federal government created the WPA to provide jobs to the millions of unemployed workers during the Great Depression. I was familiar with various WPA projects: buildings and improvements made to state and national parks, bridges and overpasses here in Pittsburgh, as well as art projects and installations throughout the country. But I was not aware of the Federal Writers’ Project, which employed artists and writers. The FWP had only one significant project prior to the unpublished America Eats project. It was the American Guide Series for each of the United States, modeled on Baedekers guides popular for European travelers. If you are interested in a snapshot of America from that time period, the Library has a collection available in the Reference Department at Main.

But back to tonight’s book . . . For this project, the country is divided into five sections, each containing stories, essays, descriptions, recipes, and even poems, all about local food and customs. In the Northeast section, I enjoyed the description of an “Italian Feed in Vermont” and a list of “New York Soda-Luncheonette Slang and Jargon.”  From the South, I loved reading about the contributions of Eudora Welty and Zora Neale Hurston. In the Middle West section, I was amused by a paragraph on the drinking habits of Kansans. A list of Colorado Superstitions about food from the Far West was fascinating. In the Southwest section, I loved learning that tacos needed an introduction in an article entitled “A Los Angeles Sandwich Called a Taco.”

I found most interesting not how much people from these areas were different, but how much they had in common. They made do with what they had, used every part of every animal, and enjoyed gathering for large feasts and celebrations that revolved around food. Kentucky Oysters, Lamb or Pig Fries, or Oklahoma Prairie Oysters, anyone?

If you are available this evening between 6 – 7 PM, please join us in the Director’s Conference Room on the First Floor.  We’d love to see you there.

-Melissa

A Taste of India

On Saturday, December 12, from 2:00-3:15 PM, the Library will “Celebrate India” with a program featuring information and entertainment about the food and culture of this diverse country. In preparation for this event, library staff from various departments have been preparing booklists (and video and music lists) to showcase Indian materials owned by the library. What follows is one of those lists, Indian cookbook recommendations prepared for the occasion.

The Bollywood Cookbook by Bulbul Mankani
The hottest stars from the Bollywood scene share their favorites dishes. Each chapter includes a short biographical sketch of the actor. An essentials section covers recipes for basic ingredients such as ginger paste, ghee, roti, and garam masala.
  
The Calcutta Kitchen by Simon Parkes
This exquisite book covers the subject of Bengali cuisine, which is rarely found unless you are invited to dine at a private home. Chapters cover cosmopolitan Calcutta, sweets, vegetarian dishes, as well as rituals and celebrations.
  
Complete Book of Indian Cooking: 350 Recipes from the Regions of India by Suneeta Vaswani
If you are looking to truly understand and cook Indian cuisine, this book will prove to be indispensible.  It begins with common ingredients, spices & herbs (including spice blends), basic techniques, hints and tips. Each chapter covers one area of food—appetizers, fish, salads, meats, and sweets—and then is further broken down into regions—north, south, east, and west.
  
India’s Vegetarian Cookery by Monisha Bharadwaj
Vegetarianism is a way of life for most of those who live in India.  The variety and depth of vegetarian cuisine in each region of India is covered in this comprehensive book which shows that eating without meat is healthy, interesting, and exciting.
  

Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick & Easy Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey
You can’t have a booklist on Indian food without including Madhur Jaffrey. For many, she was the first to introduce the home cook to the idea of making Indian fare. This is one of her latest and includes over 70 recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or less.  This book also contains a suggested list for a well-stocked pantry as well as menus for both family meals and entertaining.
  
Meena Pathak Celebrates Indian Cooking by Meena Pathak
No long, drawn out, hard to prepare recipes in this book. Ms. Pathak covers traditional Indian recipes along with more innovative fusion dishes to introduce readers to the wonders of her native cuisine.
  

My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking by Niloufer Ichaporia King
Part recipes and part memoir, this cookbook is as much fun to read as it is to use for food preparation and contains over 165 recipes. Also the first book on Parsi cooking published in the United States written by a Parsi.

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Six Spices: A Simple Concept of Indian Cooking by Neeta Saluja
One of the most daunting aspects of making Indian food for the first time is working with the spices and other unfamiliar ingredients that form the basics of the cuisine.  This book attempts to break through that barrier by presenting several of these techniques and devoting a chapter to each, such as cooking with powdered spices, seasoning with ghee, and cooking with curry paste. Each chapter includes at least a dozen recipes so you can try out and hone your newfound skills.

Please check the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh web site in the next week or so for more information about this upcoming celebration of India.

-Melissa

I Left My Heart in Piaggine

If you’ve read my blurb on this blog’s About Us page, you know that I went to Italy on vacation in August 2007. It was one of the highlights of my life. I travelled with my Aunt. She was actually the one who had the idea in the first place. Through her genealogical research about the family of my Italian grandmother, she located distant relatives currently living in the small village from which my great grandfather emigrated. Through the exchange of a few letters and then emails with another family member, it was decided that we should go and visit our ancestral village, Piaggine, for the Festival of St. Philomena. This is a weeklong celebration during the vacation month of August, when many who have moved from the village come back to visit. This would give us the best opportunity to meet the most people, relatives or not. And surprisingly, I actually met 3 other people during that week who were also visiting from Pittsburgh. It seems that when one person emigrates, they send word back to others who then move to the same area.

This trip, as you might be able to tell, was not about the usual tourist destinations. We stayed with our family in their home. We lived their lifestyle and did the things they would have done during the festival, even if we weren’t there. We ate food prepared in their kitchen, went grocery shopping with them, picked figs from their trees. We had our large meal in the middle of the day and then rested until evening. We ate dinner at 9:30 pm and then stayed up until 1 am watching a local piano or dance recital on the stages set up in the piazzas. It was glorious. By the third day, my face hurt from smiling so much. The place and the people became part of my heart and I still miss Piaggine almost daily. I hope to go back in a few years and take my son with me. I know that he will appreciate the experience as much as I did.

Upon my return to reality and the United States, I needed to find a way to cope with my longing for a place where I could not be. So, I turned to books. I read everything I could find about people who have made the grand move to Italy, carving a life and home for themselves in a small village, and also about those searching for their Italian heritage. Here are a few of the books I read and others I hope to read soon.

The Hills of Tuscany by Ferenc Máté – Only in Italy do you know you’ve found the right house due to abundance of porcini mushrooms in the surrounding woods. Funghi, anyone?

 

 

A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena DeBlasi – I especially loved the description of the vendemmiamo (the grape harvest), and the celebratory meal that followed.

 

 

Dances with Luigi by Paul Paolicelli – The story of a fellow Pittsburgher searching for his Italian roots.

 

 

La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind by Beppe Severgnini – I enjoyed this amusing look at the thoughts and actions of the Italian people. But I am kind of glad I did not read it before I went or I may have gone with some preconceived notions.

 

Piano, Piano, Pieno by Susan McKenna Grant – We ate one midday meal at a local agriturismo (think of a combined farm and B&B), so I can appreciate the spirit of this lovely cookbook by a former Canadian who now runs one of these charming establishments.

 

The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples by Shirley Hazzard – We spent one day in Naples upon our arrival in Italy. It was lovely and slightly frightening at the same time. Plus, it is the birthplace of pizza.  Need I say more?

 

The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian by Phil Doran – I, of course, can’t imagine why anyone would be reluctant to be in Italy and I highly recommend that everyone find their inner Italian!

Even if your heritage is not Italian, keep in mind there are stories and cookbooks like this for every country of the world. Ask a librarian, who will be happy to help you discover your passion for your heritage.

-Melissa

Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Picky Eaters*

 

I had to laugh when I came across Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton, because for no explicable reason, I sometimes say to myself “I’m a hungry monkey.” Usually when I’m hungry. I also connected to the book because I consider myself a recovering picky eater. It wasn’t until I was in my early thirties before I willingly began eating beets, greens, squash, peppers, and eggplant, and developed an interest in trying new foods. I spent several years as a vegetarian somehow, surviving mostly on grilled cheese and salad (made up of lettuce and carrots). Truth be told, it was a new boyfriend who essentially shamed me into exploring vegetables, and for that I will be forever grateful. “Why do you say you don’t like mushrooms,” he asked me, “when you eat them all the time?”

I also have to give some credit to my mother, who was of the “I cooked it, you’ll eat it” philosophy of dinner. She had no pity as I held my nose to swallow zucchini, or repeated “tastes like sugar, tastes like sugar, tastes like sugar” while chewing asparagus. In my defense, she did go through a rather extreme tofu-making phase from which it is a miracle that I recovered. “Deep fried” was the magical cure for that one. Truthfully, though, I believe the tough love approach worked on me in the end, and now I am a complete farmers’ market junkie.

Ideas about parenting may have changed since I was a kid, and certainly there is a plethora of information to help if you see your children heading down the picky path. Give one of these a try:

• My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children Who Love to Eat Everything, by Nancy Tringali Piho. (coming soon!)
• Just Two More Bites! Helping Picky Eaters Say Yes to Food, by Linda Piette.
• Eating: 99 Tips to Bring You Back from the End of Your Rope, by Michelle Kennedy.
• Take the Fight Out of Food: How to Prevent and Solve Your Child’s Eating Problems, by Donna Fish.
• Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed with Insight, Humor and a Bottle of Ketchup, by Laura A. Jana and Jennifer Shu.

-Kaarin

*With apologies to Waylon & Willie.

Magical Fruit

If ever a food were magical, it would be the beloved bean.  I grew up eating refried beans almost every day and have never gotten sick of them.   

Did you know that beans are actually seeds?  According to the gorgeous, fun-fact-filled book 100 Health-Boosting Foods: Facts and Recipes for Super Health, not only are beans low-fat and filling, but also are a great source of natural plant protein. It also states that if eaten four times a week beans may reduce the risk of heart disease by 22 percent.  Do you eat enough beans?  Check these books for tips, ideas and information about this magical fruit.  Err–seed.

The Bean Bible: A Legumaniac’s Guide to Lentils, Peas, and Every Edible Bean on the Planet! by Green, Aliza.

A comprehensive guide to the history of beans from around the globe.  With recipes.

The Bean Book by Roy F. Guste, Jr.  

This book is filled with fun facts about beans.  Did you know that in some early civilizations, beans were used as currency?  Or that in some countries, people eat the leaves from the bean plant?  

 The Instant Bean by Sally and Martin Stone. 

Now you can no longer use the excuse that beans take too long to cook to be a staple in your kitchen.  This mouth-watering collection of recipes (Black bean chocolate mousse pie, anyone?) has time saving tips like quick-soak methods, using a pressure cooker and freezing portions of cooked beans to use later.  

Check out this musical tribute to beans (Warning: You might need to be eleven to appreciate this video):  –Bonnie

Serendipity

There are lots of things that I love about working in a library, but one of my favorite things has to be the serendipity factor– finding books that you didn’t even know that you were looking for.  Whenever I’m not quite sure what to read next I know that if I spend 15 minutes walking around the library I’m sure to find something that’s perfect.  In the past couple of days alone I’ve discovered:

• If the Buddha Came to Dinner: How to Nourish Your Body to Awaken Your Spirit, by Halé Sofia Schatz: The author advocates getting away from refined and processed foods, and looks at how Eastern philosophies relate to nutrition. The combination of spirituality and nutrition looks intriguing, and this just got added to my to-read list! 
• Happy Kitty Bunny Pony: A Saccharine Mouthful of Super Cute, by the Charles Anderson Design Company and Michael J. Nelson: Bunnies!  Puppies!  Squirrels!  Ponies!  A disgusting show of cuteness with commentary by Mike Nelson that’s proven to be just what I needed to shake off my end-of-winter blues. 
• Dishing Up Vermont: 145 Authentic Recipes from the Green Mountain State, by Tracey Medeiros: It was the cover photo of this book that caught my attention (mmm, the “Awesome Pear or Apple Pancake”!), and a quick flip through revealed some amazing looking recipes like “Grilled Maple-marinated Portabello Mushrooms,” and “Harvest Stuffed Squash with Apples and Cranberries.” 
• Fashionable Clothing From the Sears Catalog: I happened upon two of these books featuring clothes from the 1970s, with lots of Earth Shoes, ruffles, big collars, mustaches, and polyester.  I definitely have a soft spot for 1970s fashion, so these books were right up my alley.  If a different decade is more your thing, the books in this series cover the 1930s to the 1980s. 

Every day I find more amazing books.  Have you come across anything that you weren’t looking for, but turned out to be exactly what you wanted to read? 

–Irene

peace, love, and food, of course

While the wind whipped through Pittsburgh last week, I got to watch and listen to it from a beautiful retreat center out in the middle of nowhere.  It was a lovely few days, filled with meditation, contemplation and prayer.  Now I’m back, rejuvenated and inspired…  to revisit my vegetarian past.  I’m telling you, the food at this place was great!  All vegetarian, healthy and delicious; even the meat-lovers were full and happy.  If I were to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t say the food was the best part, but it was darn close!  And I am ready to pull out the vegetarian cookbooks, my old favorites, the ones I’ve always wanted to try, and some new ones we’ve gotten in that have piqued my interest.

Old favorites:

Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day: While I love the original Moosewood Cookbook, too, the “fast and easy” aspect of this cookbook by the Moosewood Collective pushes it to the top of my list. Try the Peanut Dip or the Carrot and Parsley Salad.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison: This is a bible for me; it’s both a cookbook and reference book. For any vegetable or grain I don’t know what to do with, this book has a recipe, my particular favorites are the Tomatillo Salsa and the Couscous with Pine Nuts and Dried Fruit.

I have been wanting to try the following books for a long time:

Yamuna’s Table: Healthful Vegetarian Cuisine Inspired by the Flavors of India, by Yamuna Devi: This cookbook won a James Beard Award in 1992, as did her 1987 Lord Krishna’s Cuisine, and I love Indian food, so it’s time to take this off my must-try list and give it a go. The Broccoli-Spinach Spread sounds particularly intriguing, as does Shredded Beets with Fresh Coconut.

Passionate Vegetarian, by Crescent Dragonwagon: The author’s name alone makes me want to borrow this cookbook, but it also has over 1000 pages of creative recipes and writing.  How often do you find the word “pulchritudinous” in the table of contents of a cookbook?  I could go for the Mockamole or the Fresh Artichoke-Eggplant Lasagna with Lemon Sauce.  Mmmm.

These relatively recent additions to our collection have also caught my eye:

Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy: Great Food You Can Make in Minutes, by the editors of Vegetarian Times: What I really need is ‘great food you can make in seconds,’ but until that cookbook comes out, this looks like a good one. I really want to try the Clementine Salsa, and apparently it’s possible to make Black-Bottom Pineapple Tofu with Cashew Coconut Rice in 30 minutes.

Rose Elliot’s Sumptuous Suppers: Veggie Food with Style: With several bestsellers and a long backlist of vegetarian cookbooks, Rose Elliot’s latest looks pretty appealing. In fact, I’ll probably just look at the pictures.

Now that my mouth is watering, how about you? Any favorites you’d recommend?

-Kaarin

Being broke ain’t no joke

In these fickle times it seems far-fetched to feel fine about finances and one’s fiscal future. Gas prices are high. The stock market is tanking. Economists on the news sound more hysterical every day. It might be time to begin thinking about making lifestyle changes. Now unless you are dense (and I doubt you are, or else you wouldn’t be reading a library blog), you have noticed that a great deal of what we are doing here is promoting the incredible and vast free resources we have here at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. We can help you. We are your personal librarians after all.

Matters of Managing Mulah

We have myriad books on personal finance. Whether you are interested in how to diversify your funds, get out of debt, or get rich quick, we have it all.

Finding Free and/or Cheap Entertainment

We already told you about the free 2008 RADical Days events all over the city. There are also some free and low-cost options on the Pittsburgh 250 official website. But you, Loyal Reader, know by now that not only do we offer you music, DVDs, books, and various other diversions in fun formats, we also have a monthly calendar chock full of wonderful things to do. And you are invited. You’ll enjoy yourself. Bring your friends!

Changing Your Lifestyle

There are all kinds of ways to make life less expensive. One way is to use recipes from collections like The Ninety-nine Cents Only Stores Cookbook. If that sounds gross, we have many other cookbooks devoted to eating on a shoe-string budget and plenty with ideas for growing your own food. America’s Cheapest Family has written a book on living life cheaply, with topics including menu planning, reducing debt, saving money and cutting back on utilities. It also has tips for garbage picking and mooching, if you’re into that sort of thing.

So don’t despair dear doves!

-Bonnie