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I’m always eager to read about cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients for healthy eating, and I want to tell you about another book that offers just that. It’s Real Food by Mike: Seasonal Wholefood Recipes for Wellbeing , and I received a review copy. Mike McEnearney operates two Sydney restaurants serving whole food cooking and believes that food is “natures’s medicine.” In this new book, each recipe comes with a note about the ingredients, their nutritional value, and how they support good health. I like those reminders about the benefits that come with eating what’s fresh from the farms each season. The recipes are organized by season and move from summer to spring. You’ll find everything from mains and sides to dessert and breakfast dishes and even preserves and drinks. There’s a Malaysian Spiced Pumpkin and Coconut Soup that sounds great for this transitional time of early fall. I also have my eye on the Mango, Avocado Lime, and Lentil Salad. The Roast Pumpkin with Chai Spice an...

The Austin Bakes group did it again. After coming together in 2011 for a hugely successful fundraising bake sale following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, additional sales have been held over the years to raise funds for recovery efforts from natural disasters and other crises. Immediately after Hurricane Harvey, this most recent bake sale was planned. Local food bloggers, food enthusiasts, and food businesses all volunteer their time and donate baked goods for multiple locations that are set up around Austin. And, once again, the local community was incredibly supportive of the event. The goal of raising $20,000 was achieved, and the online giving page is still active for additional donations. I love an opportunity to bake for a good cause, and right away I started pulling cookbooks off the shelves to decide what to make this time. I often reach for the Huckleberry book for baking, and the Muffins chapter is one I want to bake through page by page. For the bake sale, I made bo...

Do you believe that true beauty comes from within? That idea is taken very literally in a new cookbook that offers nutrient dense dishes that help balance gut health and thereby assist with keeping your complexion at its best. The Beauty Chef: Delicious Food for Radiant Skin, Gut Health and Wellbeing by Carla Oates, of which I received a review copy, is a guide to eating for a medicinal effect. Oates writes: “the food we eat provides the ecosystem that interacts with our immune system to maintain our health and skin and overall wellbeing.” Whether you choose to eat certain foods specifically for their positive effect on skin conditions or you just want to try these recipes packed with nutrition powerhouses, there are a lot of great options here. First, there’s a list of nutrients with an explanation of why each one is good for you along with the foods in which it’s found. Then, throughout the recipes, the head note information will have some reminders about those nutrients and which o...

In 2008, I visited Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix and have fond memories of the incredible pizza, the bread, and the vegetables on the antipasto platter. At some later date, I read an essay by Chris Bianco in How I Learned To Cook that made clear his appreciation for local, seasonal food. It was about a visit to Italy when he was 18, and a simple but perfect meal he was served consisting of farm fresh, just picked white asparagus and hard-boiled eggs drizzled with olive oil. It was then that he came to realize how good fresh food that’s particular to its place is. I haven’t had a chance to return to Phoenix since Pane Bianco and Tratto opened. But, now I can create his style of cooking at home since receiving a review copy of Bianco: Pizza, Pasta, and Other Food I Like . Throughout the book, he mentions the ingredients he uses, what’s special about them, and how using the fresh, local, heirloom foods makes his dishes the best they can be. And, he offers great advice like tasting y...