1. In The Green Kitchen; Techniques to learn by heart by Alice Waters (2010).
Alice is a food queen, to me! I've briefly paged through this handy book and know I'm going to enjoy it. She highlights chefs known for their love of local food and each shares a cooking tip and a recipe. As I open the book at a random page, David Chang is the featured chef , and his tip is "Pickling Vegetables" (81) where he writes about using salt and sugar for quick pickling to serve watermelon, radishes, daikon radishes and cucumbers as appetizers. Right now this sounds like an excellent idea as it doesn't involve turning on the oven. I may have to request this for my birthday which is just around the corner (Aug. 3rd).
2. Mama Panya's Pancakes; A Village Tale from Kenya by Mary and Rich Chamberlain; ill. by Julia Cairns (2005).
This is a delightful book from one of my favorite publishing companies, Barefoot Books. Adika and his mother head to the market. As they travel Adika, always one step ahead of his mother, invites all the friends they meet to join them for his mother's delicious pancakes. He brags and she worries! Mama knows she only has two coins in her pocket to buy flour and a hot pepper. Adika keeps telling his mother it will all work out and as their friend's arrive for the pancake feast they each have something to share.
The watercolor illustrations are filled with the bold colors of Africa and the end pages have tons of related information including a map of Kenya! I love when a book about a country does that; it makes it so much easier to share that information quickly with students as you read the story. Great choice. Of course, the pancake recipe is included. According to the notes pancakes are eaten around the world and it shares the names-Scotland-bannocks, France-crepes, Mexico-tortillas, Indonesia-dadar gutung and China-bao bing. Now I'll know how to order one of my favorite foods.
Find other food-related posts at Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking post.
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (read yesterday's post and find out why I was happy to find this one on the shelf.
Where She Went by Gayle Forman-It was on the hold shelf for me and it will be my next read after I finish One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.
A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper-This one just practically jumped off the shelf at me as I perused the YA new shelves.
Now I'm grabbing my book and I'm off to the local water-
Have a blissful weekend whether you're cooking or not!
ps. I found this great blog, Sweet Mama Jane while perusing for a photo of Alice's book. Click there to read a full review of In The Green Kitchen.
4 comments:
I could lost (happily) in the library ;-)
Your post also evoked vivid memories of riding my bike to the library as a kid with my dad and siblings. The horrible heat of the day would disappear as soon as you entered the magic (and air conditioned) world of the library, and when you left ... it was like taking some of the magic with you.
I am totally with you on not turning on the oven. I have never pickled anything...maybe it is time to give it a try!
In the Green Kitchen sounds lovely. As does pickling instead of cooking. Happy birthday week!
That book with the pictures of Kenya looks good as does the Alice Waters book.
Biking?? Way too hot for me.
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