Friday, February 16, 2018

Foodie titles, new and old



                                         “The Healthy Jewish Kitchen”
                                         A glamour shot of roasted carrots with little stems and grill marks, and a smear of green cream looks so appealing on the cover Paula Shoyer’s  new cookbook, the notion the tasteless carrot squares and peas we used to eat in the ‘70s never crossed my mind. These peas and carrots are her fresh take and a vision of how eating better can be an adventure.
                                         The very first recipe is a  salad for breakfast. Israeli herb and almond salad, with dill, parsley and cherry tomatoes has a lemon dressing and apparently appears in some version on every Israeli hotel breakfast buffet, goes with yogurt or eggs for breakfast and alongside any grilled fish, chicken or steak for lunch or dinner. To make your salad a meal, add chickpeas, feta or tuna.  Flip through for Japanese lamb chops with jalapeno, tamari soy and ginger. Grilled corn with cilantro pesto, chocolate quinoa cake and watermelon, peach and mint gazpacho  are some other flavors to make at home and feel like you’re dining at a trending restaurant.
                             This book’s subtitle is “Fresh, Contemporary Recipes for Every Occasion.” Shoyer writes that the opportunity to create this book came after a time of loss and grieving for her. I’d say she turned her outlook around by focusing on healthy flavors and how they can join people together at the table. It’s a long-lasting approach to wellness.


                             From the shelves
                             Have you been reading this column for 15 plus years? I still recall some lessons learned from some of the books on my shelves, but this Lent, I’m paring down and will share some joy from books I reviewed long, long ago. Here are two “wordy” tidbits from Webb Garrison:


                             Bring home the bacon
                             Biscuits as we southerners know them were once twice-cooked dry rounds of bread designed to not go moldy on a ship. To “make no bones” is a phrase stemming from the hesitant caution of choking on bones found in one’s food and bringing home the bacon was the prize in a 1445 newlywed game.
                             In England, a flitch of bacon was given to a couple, questioned by six bachelors and six maidens, determined to have the best first year of marriage living in the greatest harmony and fidelity. These tidbits are from the foodie section of “What’s in a Word?” Webb Garrison’s stories of 350 everyday words and phrases.
                              If you’ve lived high off the hog or jumped aboard the gravy train, you may wonder who did those things before you. In Garrison’s book “Why You Say It,” phrases such as this are explained. This may be a rehash, as we’re going over it again. This phrase evolved from English squires who couldn’t afford to waste meat. Landlords served a hash of shoulder meat after the best parts were removed. If boarders complained, they may find leftovers the next day, in some other form, according to the book.
                 
                  darraghcastillo@icloud.com



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