Good Taste: Simple, Delicious Recipes for Family and Friends by Jane Green

I signed up to review Good Taste: Simple, Delicious Recipes for Family and Friends, today, but neglected to block off a quick jaunt taken this past weekend on my calendar. As a result, I won't be able to cook from the book until this coming weekend, since it's really my husband that does the bulk of the cooking and he has been gone for the better part of the last 5 weeks. When we cook together, I typically read the instructions aloud and he puts me to work chopping while he does most everything else. Having said that, I have to tell you that I want to cook absolutely everything in Good Taste, which is highly unusual because I'm kind of a picky person.

Here's what I love about Good Taste:

1. It's beautiful. The cover is, in my opinion, way too easy to walk past. But, open the book and flip through and you'll find at least one full-size photo for every dish, sometimes several smaller, decorative images, as well. I have learned my lesson about cookbooks that don't have photos of the finished product: we don't use them. So, the photos are not just great to look at, they're crucial.

2. The word "simple" is not an overstatement. While a few of the recipes have a longish list of ingredients, only one that I recall required the preparation of a second item to use in the recipe (and that ingredient is available at Trader Joe's, if you have one). Most ingredients are easily obtainable, even in our location, which is sadly lacking in options. So, the list of ingredients is almost always all you need. The curry shown above has one of the longer ingredient lists. Most fall closer to 8-10 ingredients.

3. My husband wants to cook just about everything, too. He'll eat just about anything once, but he very seldom finds a cookbook that he thinks is up to snuff, primarily because so many of them involve too many ingredients or complex preparation. After I gushed to him about Good Taste, he spent an hour or so flipping through the book and reading recipes. He was completely sold and is looking forward to cooking out of it, too. He's the chief cook in this house but I often foist recipes on him. If he's not interested, he won't budge. I also have let a couple other people flip through the book and they thought it looked appealing, too. We're at 100% approval, here, people. That's amazing.

4. The text is marvelous. If you've read Jane Green, that's probably not surprising. Jane Green is a novelist. She tells anecdotes about her family, her cooking history, her childhood, etc., in Good Taste, and they make the book just as fun to read as it is to flip through for the photographs and recipes. If you like a little extra material that goes beyond recipes, you'll enjoy the text.

Highly recommended with a side note - I've already mentioned this but it bears repeating that I have not yet cooked a recipe from Good Taste. However, the lists of ingredients are on the minimal side (always a plus) and I found the recipes easy to visualize preparing. Because I seldom cook, anymore, I often have a lot of questions about preparation -- I don't always "get" the instructions -- so that bodes well for less experienced cooks. I even want to try the meat recipes. Husband got a good belly laugh when I told him I even want to try the ribs because I'm one of those weird people you've heard about who don't like messy food -- you know, the ones who use a knife and fork on pizza? Yeah, I'm that weirdo. I don't like messes and I'm not a fan of meat. So, it's pretty weird that I want to try a rib recipe.

I may not do a full review of any recipes we cook this weekend, but I will definitely let you know the results in one of next week's posts.

UPDATE:  I talked about the 4 recipes from Good Taste that we cooked over the weekend in my Monday Malarkey post. Scroll down to "In other news" toward the bottom to read what we cooked and what we thought (in brief: we liked everything).


©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Momosas: Fun Alcohol-Free Drinks for Expecting Moms by Paul Knorr

I'll bet you guys thought I was gone for good, right? Not quite, although I'm just dropping in for about a week and then I'm going to take another week off. I still need to spend time away from the Internet for my sanity, but I feel like doing a bit of reviewing. Might as well go for it when the mood strikes.

I've mentioned Momosas: Fun Alcohol-Free Drinks for Expecting Moms by Paul Knorr in a few posts. It seemed like a fitting book to review because my daughter-in-law just happened to be expecting when the book was offered to me. I figured we'd try a few drinks and then haul the book up to New Jersey and mix up a few more. Best-laid plans and all that. We have managed to mix up one drink and it was fabulous but, first, a few thoughts and a comment.

I'm not a drinker, so that was the second reason I accepted Momosas. I figured it would be a fun way to add some variety to my life. There were a few things about the book that jumped out at me from a "just a non-drinker" persecutive, though:

1. Odd measurements - I'm not accustomed to recipes written as "one part this, one part that," and expected precise measurements. I had no idea what a "jigger" was, nor had I ever shaken a drink over ice and then poured it out. I had to have my husband explain a few things to me. That probably won't be a problem for people who typically drink.

2. The first section of the book consists of drinks in which vinegar is used to give the drinks the taste of alcohol -- but without tasting like vinegar, of course. It simply gives them the tangy zing of alcohol. Since I've never developed a taste for alcohol, I found that particular section unappealing. But, it's just one portion of the book and certainly not enough to recommend against it to those who don't normally drink. All two dozen of us. ;)

3. There are a lot of ingredients in many of the drinks. That's great if you're entertaining or you plan to mix large batches for yourself, but if you're just planning on the occasional drink for fun it will definitely narrow down the number of recipes that are of interest.

4. Most of the drinks are really, really heavy on sugar. This particular item might be of interest to some expectant mothers. My daughter-in-law, a doctor, said she cut out alcohol primarily to reduce her caloric intake so she wouldn't gain too much excess weight. It might be wise to substitute fresh fruit for some of the juices to avoid added sugar.

Those were my initial thoughts as I flipped through the book. When it came to the mixing of actual drinks, we got the ingredients for a fruity drink but didn't get around to mixing it up before we left town to meet the little one. Kiddo came home to watch out for the kitties and drank most of the juice we'd gathered for that, while we were away. So we'll try gathering ingredients again, later. We did make one drink, the "Trimester High":

Hmm, the upload quality looks bad, as I'm typing. The recipe is actually a rare one that uses specific measurements rather than parts but that didn't influence our choice. We chose it based on the ease with which we could acquire ingredients (and the fact that we already had some of them on hand). Plus, it sounded good. In case you can't see the image, it contains ice cream, milk, shredded coconut, chocolate syrup, chocolate chips or shavings (we used chips), and whipped cream. When we got to "blend with ice", we kind of stared at each other because the recipe didn't specify how much and then decided to just wing it and use a cup or so, adding more if necessary. It worked fine and the drink pretty much tasted like dessert in a cup. It was delicious.

As to leaving Momosas with the new mama, I opted to skip that. I'd hoped the new parents would flip through the book (which I took to their house) in my presence and let me know their opinions; but, they were super busy with baby. My son did briefly flip through when I was not around and said he saw a few recipes he'd like to try, so that's positive. If/when we try more of the drinks or pass it on and get feedback from Eldest, I'll let you know. I have quite a few marked with post-its and do plan to give them a go.

The bottom line: Recommended I'd particularly recommend Momosas for its target audience: expectant mothers who plan to make large batches of drinks for social gatherings. If you're looking for a book of non-alcoholic beverage recipes for other reasons, like not being a drinker and just desiring to insert a little variety in your world, I'm certain you can find at least a few drinks that will interest you, although most are heavy on sugar and it might be wise to substitute fresh fruit for some of the juices recommended. Husband and I both found the recipes intriguing and we're looking forward to trying more. We were pleased with the results of the drink we tried. It makes an excellent dessert drink.

My thanks to Sterling for the opportunity to review Momosas!

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

BOLD: A Cookbook of Big Flavors by Susanna Hoffman and Victoria Wise

BOLD: A Cookbook of Big Flavors by Susanna Hoffman and Victoria Wise is not a book I've sat down to read from cover to cover, although it has some very interesting historical articles interspersed (I've read "Maple Syrup: America's Own Sugar"and "Cuban Americans: Hail to the Cubans", among others ) as well as a paragraph of introductory material at the top of each recipe. However, my husband has been reading the book at night and is enjoying it immensely, I've read bits and we have taken turns flipping through to find recipes.  Since he's the cook and I'm an OCD freak, preparing meals from BOLD has become our couple time.  I sit at the bar and read the recipes to my husband while he prepares (primarily to keep him from drowning yet another cookbook or getting it filthy).  We've tried 5 recipes, so far, and all were fabulous:

Salmon with Watercress Cream, Smoked Salmon and Almonds (pp. 220-21) - We were unable to locate watercress so the cook substituted dill (he's an experienced cook and knew it would work). We'll use watercress when it becomes available. We're watching for it.

Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Tangerine (p. 274) - We used clementines rather than tangerines because we already had a bowl full of them.  We ate the salmon above with the brussels sprouts.  I honestly thought it was one of the best meals I've ever eaten and the leftovers were just as terrific, even cold.  Since then, we've had both those recipes a second time.  Sorry, husband just flung them on the plate and I made the mistake of tasting the fish so this was shot in a hurry.  I was hungry.

Wine-braised Pork Tenderloin in Any-jam-you-can-grab Sauce (p. 130): We used raspberry jam and didn't have any white wine so cider served as the substitute.  I don't love pork so I had to eat my words after I scowled and said, "Ugh, that sounds awful." Again, tremendous flavor. This is a pretty complex, lengthy recipe so I would recommend saving it for the weekend.  The pork is at upper left, below.  It doesn't look like much but, oh baby . . . the taste.

Duck Legs Braised with Red Wine and Belgian Endives (p. 203): Another fairly time-consuming recipe. No substitutions were necessary. Duck is another meat that I'm not fond of; it's kind of greasy and gross, if you ask me.  You would not have known it.  I stripped that sucker to the bone.

Cuban Whitefish Chowder with Black Beans and Sweet Potato (p. 67): Chunky, gorgeous, wonderful soup.  It looks less like a chowder (which I think of as milk-based) than a soup (broth-based) but who cares.  It's delicious and gorgeous, definitely a soup worth serving at a dinner party. The one thing we thought this soup needed was more black beans, which are easy enough to add.  Husband soaked dry beans and cooked them rather than warming up canned.

We're going to keep on trying new recipes from BOLD.  While I think the recipes tend to require a medium amount of experience (judging from observation - after discussion, husband agreed it's not a book for beginners) and some are quite time-consuming, they're not lying when they use the words "big flavors". We have been extremely impressed with the results -- 5 recipes, so far, and we loved every single one.  How often does that happen?  And they tend to be really healthy recipes made from fresh ingredients, another plus.

The biggest section appears to be the meat section and the only vegetable recipe we've tried so far was the brussels sprouts recipe, which contains an Italian meat.  If you're a vegetarian/vegan, this might not be the book for you. But, I'm a veggie lover so we'll be trying a lot of the vegetable recipes and if anyone wants me to report back later, just let me know.  I'll be glad to write more, further down the line.

Highly Recommended - A rare cookbook in which every single recipe we've tried has been not just good but fabulous,  BOLD is definitely a new favorite in our house.  The only downfall -- BOLD is a paperback book with no photographs.  If we were flipping through BOLD at a store, the lack of photos might have actually stopped us from buying (my copy came from Workman via Shelf Awareness) but don't let the lack of photos stop you!  Just don't!  I cannot rave about this cookbook enough.  It's fun to read, the recipes are amazingly flavorful and they don't tend to contain long lists of difficult-to-acquire ingredients.

Judging from the piece of paper the cook has tucked between pages 224-25, it looks like we'll be trying Grilled Salmon with Spinach, Pan Broth and Crisp Ginger Topping, next.  I drool upon my keyboard at the thought.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Food by Mary McCartney and a related Fiona Friday pic

Food: Vegetarian Home Cooking by Mary McCartney

Copyright 2013

Sterling Epicure - Cookbook/Vegetarian

256 pages

I'm going to abandon the standard format for this review.  You saw what happened when Food by Mary McCartney arrived at our house, right?  My husband immediately snatched up our new copy of Food and hogged it for days.  In fact, I'm surprised we've managed to take turns without any fights breaking out.  We love it that much.

We've tried at least 5 of the recipes.  To be honest, I've lost track of the number but I've liked everything except "Leek and Pea Risotto" and that was because the recipe is heavy on parmesan.  Parmesan cheese is one of those "less is more" ingredients for me so we're going to adapt the recipe a bit.  Husband loved it.  The recipes tend to be low on ingredients (very important to us) and have few ingredients that are difficult to obtain (also crucial) and most that are may easily be substituted.  They're simple dishes to put together, so Food would make a super purchase or gift for a novice and there's plenty of interesting variety.  

I got a copy of Food when I commented on a tweet by a publicist at Sterling who said it's good for picky eaters. I'm going to have to agree that, for the most part, that's true.  I'm a picky eater -- not as bad as I used to be but still pretty picky because I have too-sharp senses.  There was a time when I couldn't even sit across the table from someone who was eating bleu cheese and I meticulously removed onions from anything and everything.  When I flip through most cookbooks I'll find a handful of recipes that interest me, to this day.  Jamie Oliver (who wrote the cover quote for Food) is one of the rare exceptions. I'll eat anything by Jamie Oliver.  

Well, let me tell you . . . Food is so gorgeous and the recipes so appealing that I don't think there's anything (unless it has bleu cheese in it) that I wouldn't try. Kiddo's girlfriend is an extremely picky vegetarian so we're looking forward to cooking for her between semesters, when she'll no doubt be hanging out with us regularly. My personal favorite, so far, is the egg salad.  Basic, delicious, no strong  flavors to offend a sensitive palate -- definitely the kind of recipe I plan to try on Kiddo's girlfriend.

The best thing about Food, though is the photos.  It is the most freaking gorgeous book, with beautiful photo spreads interspersed between the recipes.  And almost every recipe contains a photo of the final result. 

In fact, my husband said I should make a special effort to let people know that the photos are so gorgeous you'll be tempted just to sit and admire them and never get around to cooking.  He's just being silly, though.  The truth is that the sheer beauty of the book inspired us both.  We've kept Food propped up in the cookbook holder (usually open to what we want to try next) when we're not reading it, since the book arrived on our doorstep.  

There's some nice text about the author's childhood and there are some photos from her youth. The author is Paul and Linda McCartney's daughter -- something I failed to notice about the book when I gushed about how perfect the book sounded for us on Twitter. The author talks about why she cooks the way she does, how she was convinced after years of friendly nudging that she should write a cookbook, how cooking goes hand-in-hand with friends and family for her and some extra cooking notes, but the text is minimal. Still, the opening bits will satisfy McCartney fans who, like me, have always admired the family's surprisingly simple, clean lifestyle.

Even Isabel likes Food.  Honestly, it's hard for me to imagine anyone not falling in love with Food, if only because it's lovely enough to set on a coffee table.  You don't even have to like the recipes.  But, we do and we're beating the heck out of our copy.  It's going to be one very well-loved book for a long time. 

Highly recommended - I can't praise Food enough.  A cookbook with simple, quick but tasty recipes that are especially great for a vegetarian with a sensitive palate and the most gorgeous photos in the history of ever.  I'd honestly recommend this book to everyone, if only for the photos, but it's too terrific to do that.  Food would be a great book to keep on-hand even if you've got no interest in a vegetarian lifestyle.  Say you occasionally need ideas for dishes everyone will find appealing so that when you entertain you have a delicious spread that won't leave out the friends who don't touch meat -- perfect.  The recipes are also great for picky little ones.  If you're not a picky eater and desire a bit more flavor, it's easy enough to adapt these recipes by tossing in a little paprika or pepper sauce here, some onion there, a bit of dry mustard . . . whatever.  Perfect for gift-giving because it's so beautiful.   

And, that's your Fiona Friday photo, above.  I wasn't expecting Isabel to walk into the frame when I was snapping interior photos and have some much better images to share but I'll save those for another time.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Jamie Oliver's Great Britain by Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver's Great Britain:  130 of My Favorite British Recipes, From Comfort Food to New Classics by Jamie Oliver
Copyright 2011/2012
Hyperion Books - Cookbook
407 pp.

Jamie Oliver is by far my favorite television cooking personality for two reasons: 1) Everything we've ever attempted from his cookbooks has been delicious -- everything!  2) I love his focus on eating healthy and buying local foods.  In fact, I wish he would fly down here and write a book on using local ingredients from my area.

When I found out Jamie Oliver's Great Britain was going to be available for tour with TLC Book Tours, I signed up as fast as my little fingers could type.  And, I was not disappointed.  The first recipe we tried (with husband doing the cooking) was "Heavenly Salmon Salad".

"Heavenly Salmon Salad" is so packed with flavor I couldn't shut up about it.  I talked about it on Facebook and I tweeted about it on Twitter.  The recipe is too long to copy or I would share it -- and here is where we get into a couple things I love about Jamie's cookbooks.  Instead of just writing the old-fashioned kind of recipe with limited instructions to fit on a recipe card, he goes into great detail about the entire cooking process, including how quickly your potatoes will cook depending upon their freshness, the exact order in which to cook the separate parts and how to put them together.  Here's a peek at the page spread for "Heavenly Salmon Salad".

We had no trouble locating any of the ingredients for "Heavenly Salmon Salad" although we have tried several recipes and one contained a "bottle of something-something that I'd never heard of" according to the spouse.  However, in most cases, the author does mention items that can be substituted and my husband is so crazy about this cookbook that when I asked him to tell me his thoughts about the book he said, "Don't say anything negative," not once but twice.  Given the number of recipes he's tried, the fact that I haven't yet been able to pull the book away long enough to read it, myself, and that repetitive remark about keeping my review positive, I'm pretty sure Jamie Oliver's Great Britain is his new favorite cookbook. If it's not in the cookbook holder, it's in his hands.

The photos and added text in Jamie Oliver's books are always a treat.  I can't wait to actually read the book from cover to cover.  I've flipped through and read some random bits.  "My Nan's St. Clement's Cake" begins with a paragraph about older folks coming into his parents' pub, the man always asking for a pint of bitter for himself and a St. Clement's ("a simple orange juice and lemonade combo") for the wife, how the name of the drink came from a nursery rhyme and then a bit about texture of the cake and the fact that it's great in cupcake form.  Then, he dives into the recipe.

The book is crammed full of photos; it is absolutely gorgeous! Even if you have no interest in British recipes, if you're an Anglophile you'll want to grab it to sit and read.  It's every bit as good as a travel memoir, perhaps even better because Jamie's Great Britain is written with affection about his own country and people.

Back to the recipes.  There are thirteen chapters: Breakfasts, Soups, Salads, Pub Grub, New British Classics, Afternoon Tea, Seaside, Pies and Puddings, Sunday Lunch, Wild Food, Vegetables, Puddings and Condiments.  Nice variety, beautifully laid-out with at least one photo of each finished item -- usually a full-page photo.

One of the other recipes we tried was "Pale Ale Fondue".  If you've ever made a Welsh rarebit (a beer cheese on toast), this is similar but the ingredients are a little more upscale than what we've used in the past and, again, the flavor was perfect.  There's a list of twelve suggested items to use for dipping, "but really the sky's the limit".

The bottom line:

Highly recommended.  My husband did the cooking and it's been nearly impossible to wrestle the book out of his hands, but it's so beautiful that I'm anxious to read the book from cover to cover.  Detailed recipes with excellent results, tons of gorgeous photos and lots of extra material about Great Britain (text and photos) make for a fantastic cookbook that is gorgeous enough to set out on a coffee table.

Cover thoughts:  Perfect, perfect.  You can't miss the Union Jack's statement, "Here is a British book", can you?

Giveaway:  

I don't usually do giveaways because they're a bit too much work but in this case I'll make an exception because my husband and I are so crazy about Jamie Oliver's Great Britain.

The rules (you must do *everything* on this list to qualify):

1.  Tell me the title and author of your favorite cookbook
2.  Leave a contact email address that works!!!
3.  US/Canada only, no P.O. boxes.

Giveaway closes at midnight on 11/14/12.  The winner will be contacted on 11/15.


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Amish Family Cookbook by Jerry & Tina Eicher

The Amish Family Cookbook by Jerry & Tina Eicher 
Copyright 2012 
Harvest House 
271 pp.

I requested The Amish Family Cookbook for tour because I have heard Amish cooking is good.  Not having ever been to Amish country, I've never actually eaten any but was expecting a pretty basic cookbook including a variety of simple foods with plenty of flavor.

We cooked two recipes from the cookbook.  The first recipe we cooked, Apple Streusel Muffins, didn't turn out right because we didn't have the right kind of flour, so I can't blame the recipe.  Muffins made with bread flour truly suck, I'll tell you that much.  The other recipe was Caramel Sweet Potatoes.  I was craving comfort food and it seemed like a good bet.  It was quite good but very sweet.  However, one could always leave out the brown sugar that lends this recipe its extra sweetness.  Marshmallows are more than enough for me, when it comes to the sugary aspect.

Husband and I have done quite a bit of flipping through The Amish Family Cookbook and I know we'll be trying a lot more of the recipes, even though we messed up one and thought the other was a touch too sweet.  The wonderful thing about The Amish Family Cookbook is that it is, indeed, a book with simple foods, simple recipes.  Some are a little different, as the Caramel Sweet Potatoes proved but all of the recipes have minimal ingredients, quick and easy instructions, and none of the ingredients appear to be so unusual that we could not possibly locate them in our area (less a problem than it used to be, but still troublesome enough that we've got to carefully flip through most cookbooks before purchase).

If you're looking for simple recipes that are easy to follow and haven't got too many ingredients, The Amish Family Cookbook is definitely worth looking into.  If you're interested, you can peek inside The Amish Family Cookbook by clicking on the link here, to my free chapter blog.  The images appear pretty tiny but you can click on them to enlarge.


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Daniel Fast Made Delicious by John & Ann Marie Cavazos - the book you want if you're in the mood to get healthy without a stomachache

The Daniel Fast Made Delicious: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, & Vegan Recipes That Are Healthy and Taste Great

By John and Ann Marie Cavazos

Copyright 2011

Siloam - Cooking/Health

200 pages

Let's get this out of the way, first . . . the title is weird. "Fast" and "diet" do not mean the same thing, in my mind. The free chapter of The Daniel Fast Made Delicious explains the reasoning behind the use of the word "fast" which, briefly, is simply a usage that a particular church came up with when its members sought out a way to set aside a time in which they weren't necessarily doing the regular starving-fast/prayer thing but were focused on God and eating in a way that would please Him. The idea came from Daniel's diet from the Bible (Daniel 1: 8-21) in which Daniel and his little gang said they'd stay with the king but only if they didn't have to eat the king's food, eating only vegetables and water, instead.

As that particular church made its "Daniel fast" a regular event, the authors of this book tried to find ways to make the food they were limited to more palatable. It took several years and a lot of trial and error (their family and church members were apparently the guinea pigs) but they eventually created enough recipes to make not only a temporary diet but a lifestyle change as they discovered that the general church population was losing weight and having fewer health issues (particularly stomach and intestinal), to boot.

There are two sections in The Daniel Fast. The first contains recipes that fit the diet strictly and the second has recipes that are healthy, gluten- and dairy-free, and vegan but not quite as strict in that they add a few things that are restricted in the "fast" portion of the book.

I haven't read the entire cookbook, cover to cover, but I read quite a few of the recipes and we tried two of them. When I say, "we", I'm saying it with a bit of a lopsided grin. My part was exhausting -- I wrote down the ingredients husband needed to purchase and then went to bed and moaned because I had a stomach virus while he bought, chopped and put together everything.

Before we got our spanking new Kroger, I'm pretty sure a good portion of the special ingredients like egg-free mayonnaise (we didn't have the brand mentioned in our store, but husband found something similar) would have been unobtainable and there are still plenty that can't be found in our area. If you don't have easy access to such things and aren't willing to order ingredients, drive out of your way or alter the recipes a bit, this book is probably not for you.

Things like gluten-free tortillas and rice cheeses (which, actually, we could make -- it's just cheese made from rice milk rather than cow milk) are among those we'd have to hunt down in the Big City -- that means a 50-60 mile drive, which isn't worth it for regular, everyday meals but at least it's within reach. And, there's a fruit salad recipe that contains about 15 different fruits. On the best of days, a lot of the berries mentioned go straight to mold when they get to us (because they travel so far) and are outrageously expensive, anyway, so that one's just not possible, period.

But, veggies are abundant in variety and readily available -- and they're the main ingredients comprising most of the recipes included in The Daniel Fast, so we were able to give a couple recipes a trial run and will make more in the future. The two we chose were "Annie's Pumpkin Lasagna" and "Brown Rice Tortilla Vegetable Wraps". There were no gluten-free tortillas to be found, so we just used the healthiest tortillas available (who knows whether they are what they claim) and there was some other minor tweaking but the end results were spectacular. I was shocked at how flavorful both recipes tasted.

Here's the really interesting part, though. On Sunday, I was still having some lingering after-effects from my stomach virus, so my husband offered to make me some rice. If you've got kids, you probably know why -- the B.R.A.T. diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is well-known as a gentle way to ease kids back into eating after intestinal illness. Well, guess what? Rice didn't go over well at all and I ended up napping with a heating pad on my sore belly. Later in the day, though, husband finished cooking the pumpkin lasagna and I was able to eat it with no problem, whatsoever. Wow, that was a surprise. Later that night, I was feeling a bit better and by then he'd thrown together the wrap recipe, so that was next. Again, no problem.

Then, I ate something typical on Monday morning and went into total relapse. Right now, I'm eating leftover pumpkin lasagna and veggie wraps -- and pretty much nothing else. I'll stick with what works, thank you very much.

The bottom line:

Stunningly flavorful recipes and tips for how to adapt after the initial diet make this gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan cookbook a winner but some ingredients may be hard to find. There are lots of explanatory notes and additions ("What's a quinoa?" "After-the-Fast" tips, and "Optional Mint Sauce" are a few examples) that I found really helpful. Not being much of a cook, I found that I had a lot of questions but 90% of the time they were answered before I moved to the next recipe.

There are some photographs -- not every recipe has a photo, but many of them do. Since they tend to be pretty basic, with fresh foods and lots of chopping, I don't think absolutely every recipe needs a photo. My husband agrees with me on that and was also pleased with the results. We have not yet talked Kiddo into trying either recipe, unfortunately. But, we'll keep working on him. He's been in a gummy worm mood, today. Um, yeah. Healthy.

So . . . speaking of rice . . . were we speaking of rice? It was mentioned, I guess, and that made me think of something totally cool that I think is worth sharing. You know the site where you can go click on various buttons to donate food and books, feed shelter animals, etc.? I go there daily to do my clicking and one day I gazed into the sidebar, where they have their little market, and saw a tote bag made with cloth from an old sari was advertised. They looked pretty and were reasonably priced (plus, your purchase buys 50 cups of rice for a hungry child) and I occasionally buy a new tote bag for my Bible-study toting, so I got one.

Ohmygosh, the embroidery is amazing. Here's a picture of it:

Isn't that gorgeous? The bag is mostly black satin with one side made up of reclaimed sari fabric. I'm so in love with mine that I ordered another one for a friend who has admired my current Bible study tote, which is sequined (we both love shiny things) and kind of funky. I just thought I'd share that with you. You might see books posed on that bag, in the future.

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