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I do read cookbooks for the stories and to daydream about when and why I might make the recipes some day in the future. But, I also do a lot of cooking from cookbooks. With the new book from Elisabeth Prueitt, her hope is that it will be used for both and more of the latter. It’s Tartine All Day: Modern Recipes for the Home Cook , and I received a review copy. Right away, this book felt like a familiar friend I’d be spending time with in the kitchen. The style of cooking is very workable into regular life. Prueitt’s previous book presented pastry recipes from famed Tartine and her husband Chad Robertson’s books are devoted to the breads from the bakery and cafe, but this one is just for cooking at home. Although Prueitt has spent years creating amazing pastries for Tartine, she happens to be gluten-intolerant. So, all of the baking recipes in this book are gluten-free. She is able to eat the naturally-fermented breads her husband makes due to the type of wheat and slow fermentation pro...

During strawberry season, I always think of shortcakes. And while I had some of the very freshest, best milk and cream on hand, strawberry shortcakes with vanilla ice cream quickly became a fantastic idea. I volunteer with Slow Food Austin, and we recently hosted a tour at Richardson Farms where they’re operating a newly-opened dairy. This is a small, family-run farm that sits about an hour’s drive outside of Austin. To give you a sense of the scale of this dairy, the milking operation is set up for four cows at a time.  We visited the pretty bovine gals as they waited their turn outside, and then we watched as they came in and the milking began. Richardson’s guarantees that all their cows are of the A2 genetic variety, and as they breed the next generation, they are also guaranteed to be A2. That designation refers to a type of beta-casein protein, and cows in the US can be A1 or A2. Larger farms could have some cows of both types and don’t typically check which is which. The A2 ...

Have you ever thought much about how you really cook? I mean when you’re cooking regular, daily meals not when you’re following a specific recipe to try something new or when you’re making something for a special occasion. For day-to-day cooking, do you always make your favorite meals the exact same way every time? Probably not. The new book from Deborah Madison, In My Kitchen: A Collection of New and Favorite Vegetarian Recipes , is a look at how she really cooks. These are recipes that may have appeared in a slightly different version in previous books, and they are ones that she turns to often. Here, she explains why they have stood the test of time for her and how she has modified them since they were first written or routinely changes them up depending on what’s in season. There’s a nice introduction to how her cooking has changed now that so many well-made food products can be easily found in markets. She also writes about her garden and the delight of planting and growing new an...

Baking with a mix of flours and various types of natural sweeteners has become my new standard. I love trying different types of grains and nuts in flour form for breads, pancakes, and cookies, and all kinds of treats. So, it was a delight to see the newest book from the Kitchens of Martha Stewart, A New Way to Bake: Classic Recipes Updated with Better-for-You Ingredients from the Modern Pantry , that focuses on just that kind of baking. I recently received a review copy. Not all of the recipes are gluten free, but some are. And, not all of the sweet recipes are free of refined sugar, but less-refined organic sugar is recommended when granulated sugar is used. It’s a collection of mostly traditional, comforting recipes that have been amped up a bit in the nutrition department with a reduced use of white flour. The accompanying photo with every recipe will make you want to taste each one. At the very beginning of the book, I couldn’t wait to try the Gluten-Free Quinoa Pancakes sweetened...