Cloud

A new book from Martha Stewart always gets my attention and so do books focused on vegetables. I was delighted to receive a review copy of the latest, Martha Stewart's Vegetables . This brings together dishes for every season with all sorts of vegetables, but it’s not a vegetarian cookbook. The recipes highlight what’s great about the vegetables, and in some cases the star vegetable isn’t the only player in the dish. The chapters group types of vegetables like Bulbs, Roots, Greens, Pods, Fruits, etc. In this case, Fruits refers to tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and cucumber because they are technically fruits due to the seeds held within the flesh. Each chapter begins with an introduction to its type of vegetable with good information about how the plants are grown, their growing season, and some general tips for buying, storing, and preparing. This book is a little breezier about the vegetable information and doesn’t go quite as deep into the taxonomy of the plants as does Vegetabl...

It just happened again. You know when you pick up a new cookbook, start looking through it, and quickly realize you want to try everything you see? I do mean everything. Every page of A Modern Way to Cook: 150+ Vegetarian Recipes for Quick, Flavor-Packed Meals has something I want to try. This is the new book from Anna Jones, and I recently received a review copy. The recipes all offer fresh, pretty combinations that are plant-focused for eating well. The colors alone in the Bloody Mary Salad with Black Rice made with heirloom tomatoes, celery, and olives, drew me to it. And, the Avocado Fritters with a polenta crust just sound like a delicious idea. The convenient thing about this book is that the recipes are organized by how long they take to prepare. If you’re short on time, stick to the first couple of chapters, and when you’re planning a more elaborate meal look to the Forty-Minute Feasts. There’s also a chapter called Investment Cooking for things to make in advance like nut but...

It’s no secret that I love Italian food. And, I love learning more about the food from each and every region of the country. I was delighted to read a review copy of Florentine: The true cuisine of Florence by Emiko Davies. Of course the subject matter made me happy but so did the pretty color marbling with bright orange on the book cover and the full-page photos inside of both life and food in Florence. The recipes are grouped by where you would find these types of food in the city. The Pastry Shop, The Bakery, and The Trattoria are some of the chapter names. Right away, I wanted to bake Sfogliatine or Budini di Riso or Bomboloncini to go with a morning cappuccino. There are stories along the way about how different foods became traditional like the Pane Toscano, the bread made without salt because it was too expensive. I enjoyed reading about Pappa al Pomodoro and how it originally would have been a porridge-like soup made with bread and no tomatoes prior to tomatoes being introduce...