Friday, March 18, 2011

Review: Cooking from the Garden: Best Recipes from Kitchen Gardener







  • Author:  Ruth Lively
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Taunton Press (March 2, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 9781600852473
  • ISBN-13: 978-1600852473

Product Description

Rising food prices, the slow food movement, and the green movement have revived interest in finding delicious food close to home. The backyard vegetable garden is making a comeback even in urban areas. Why grow grass (that you have to mow) when you can pick the best tasting tomatoes right outside your door? Taunton’s Kitchen Gardener magazine was ahead of its time in trying to raise the bar on food prepared with home-grown food. The recipes collected here are innovative and tasty, and most are relatively simple to prepare. Not only do they help home gardeners find ways to make use of abundance, they show how to do it with style and expertise. The recipes apply equally to good seasonal buys in the supermarket or farmer’s market as to produce from a home garden.

Book Description

The vegetable garden is back – thanks to renewed interest in living green, rising food prices, and a desire to eat tasty, healthful food grown close to home. Eating fresh unprocessed food has universal appeal. Farmers’ markets, community gardens, and the availability of heirloom seeds and organic vegetable plants have more gardeners than ever digging up recipes for delicious, down-to-earth dishes. More than 200 recipes, culled from the pages of Taunton’s Kitchen Gardener magazine, will delight growers and home cooks everywhere. The dishes included here are innovative and easy to prepare. They range from starters, sauces, and snacks to main dishes and desserts. Even seasonal recipe menus have been included for good measure! Anyone who loves fresh produce will reap ideas on how to make use of abundant yields and take advantage of seasonal buys at the market.


About the Author

 Ruth Lively, a long-time garden writer, was trained at the LaVarenne culinary school in France. A former editor of Fine Gardening, Lively was also one of the founding editors of Fine Cooking and Kitchen Gardener.

My Review:

The recipes in this cookbook are all taken from the magazine: Kitchen Gardener.  One of my favorite things about cookbooks are the pictures of the recipes and this book does not have any!  There are some good recipes though particularly in Chapter 3:  Sauces, Salsas and Vinaigrettes.  There are recipes for Thyme Mayonnaise, Aoili, Red Wine Vinaigrette, and a delicious Tomato Sauce as well as a homemade Ketchup.  There are of course plenty of great salad recipes.  There is a section on preserving as well as section on using the recipes seasonally.  I am not the world's biggest fan of vegetables so probably not the best cookbook for me.  This would be a great resource for vegans!

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