Here are a few titles that have landed on my desk recently: “Spectacular Restaurants of Texas”… a hefty atlas-size tome, “Green Tea: 50 Hot Drinks, Cool Quenchers and Sweet and Savory Treats”, the “Johnsonville Big Book of Sausage” and “Tomatoes and Mozzarella”…
The Culinary Institute of America has put out “Culinary Boot Camp”, basic training at the country’s most famous cooking school. Reminded me of the course I took there, with Toni Sakagucci… we made stocks and turned them into sauces and bouillbaisse and mole. We made bread and learned about the importance of getting your mise en place in order… gathering ingredients before starting on a recipe.
I’m also re-reading John Egerton’s classic on “Southern Food.”
What’s on your reading list this summer?
Read this
Responses to “Summer reading continued…”
June 21st, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Not a foodie comment, but… I’d sent my mother-in-law Craig Ferguson’s book, “Between the Bridge and the River” for Mother’s Day not realizing how much it is, let’s say, not for the faint of heart. I’m half way through it now myself and called her to apologize, but it turns out she’s a grown up and didn’t take any offense. If you are accepting of some fairly blue passages, it’s pretty fun and funny otherwise.
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:35 am
I’m looking for a cookbook published in 2001 that is already out of print. It is The Wonderful Soul Food Cookbook by Agnes Smith.
Some of the recipe’s that I have gooten from it are the closest I have found to my childhood “southern” favorite foods.
Is the Memphis Junior League coming out with a new or reprinted cookbook? That is another real good cookbook.
btw, Michigan State University has a “Feeding America” program researching and preserving historic cookbooks. If anyone is looking for that old old recipe, this collection might be the place to look. there is a link to it:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/browse.html
One of the more notable cookbooks is the earliest one the university has preserved: a 1798 edition of American Cookery. It is at this link:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_01.cfm
There is a recipie for Johnny Cake. I always heard my grandmother talk about them and making them, but I never knew the recipe for them.
Take a look at the old cookbooks onbline and look for that special recipie that you mightve heard told from the old-folks when you were growing up.
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:14 pm
No Sluggo Dave, it sounds like you have a super mother-in-law 
It is refreshing to hear about a senior citizen who keeps up with the times and is not offended by things that would scandalize others. An open mind is a good thing NOT to waste.
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