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I do my best to make good choices about the food I buy. I don’t eat a lot of meat, and I don’t eat any red meat. But, I can always try to do better. The new book Living the Farm Sanctuary Life is full of inspiration for eating better, taking better care of the planet, and paying more attention to how animals are raised. I received a review copy. It’s doesn’t beat you up about how you choose to eat. It just tells the story of Farm Sanctuary and how they’ve rescued animals and inspired a lot of people to stop eating animal products. There are charming anecdotes about the animals that have been saved, nursed back to health, and gone on to delight everyone who gets to know them. There are reminders about the horrible conditions at factory farms and suggestions for making small changes that will add up. I started thinking about how my consumption of espresso drinks with milk has increased over recent years. In the past, I drank tea more often. I decided it’s time to switch back to more tea...

I like the idea of cutting back on sugar. I’ve been doing just that for a while now. I’ve been baking fewer sweet treats and looking for ways to incorporate natural sweeteners other than refined sugar. So, I was delighted to find out that Joanne Chang’s newest book is all about Baking With Less Sugar , and I received a review copy. She set out to recreate some of her favorites using much less or in some case no refined white sugar. There are no manufactured sugar substitutes here, just reductions in total sugar used or appearances of honey, maple syrup, molasses, or fruit for sweetness. And, something I love about Joanne Chang is that she always gives you the facts about how and why recipes work. There are a few pages at the front of the book with explanations about what sugar does in baked goods and how it affects browning, texture, coagulation of proteins, etc. It makes it clear that you can’t just eliminate sugar and expect to get the same results as when it’s used, and there are re...

I was immediately intrigued by the new book Steeped . I love tea. I drink tea often and have cooked and baked with tea as well, and now here was a book full of “Recipes Infused with Tea.” I received a review copy. What I quickly realized as I started reading the book is that not only is it full of clever uses of tea in all kinds of different dishes, it’s also full of just really delicious-sounding food. The Green Tea Noodles in Asparagus Sauce with Goat Cheese Pearls has a couple of genius things happening in the same recipe. The fresh pasta is made with matcha green tea powder mixed with the spelt and all-purpose flours. And, the dish is served with goat cheese pearls made by rolling little pieces of goat cheese between your palms. They make the prettiest garnish. The Iced Tea Sugar Cookies are made with five options for glazes, and each glaze is made with a different type of tea. For instance, the Mojito Glaze calls for Moroccan mint green tea and lime zest, and the Rooibos Carrot Gl...

I was delighted to learn about the newest book from Maria Del Mar Sacasa. Her last one was Winter Cocktails , and I’ve had so much fun trying different, boozy versions of hot chocolate and other warming cocktails for cold weather. This new book is the opposite. It’s Summer Cocktails , and I received a review copy. It’s full of refreshing, iced, chilled, and frozen cocktails to enjoy in the summer sun. I’m fascinated with the Shrub Cocktails made with homemade fruit vinegars combined with gin, sparkling wine, or vermouth. I can’t wait to try the recipes for the shrubs like blackberry-basil, rhubarb-plum, and strawberry-rosemary. There are also recipes for infused liquors like Black Pepper Gin or Vodka and Chiquila which is morita chile- or chipotle-steeped tequila. The Black Pepper Gin is used in a Moroccan Mint Iced Tea cocktail among others, and the Chiquila appears in several drinks including the Pulparindo with tamarind concentrate and grapefruit juice. There are Punches and Pitche...