The Journey

Cookbook Review: The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook

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Welcome back, Readers!

It’s time for another Cookbook Review post! And I am so excited to share this one with you. This is one my all-time favorite cookbooks!!

I discovered The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins a few years ago when I stumbled upon online articles discussing the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet. The book sounded wonderful and I had to rush out to a bookstore to get it! Luckily the Barnes & Noble near by college campus had one in stock.

This cookbook continues to be one of the best cookbooks I’ve ever read because, to me, it reads like a novel. Jenkins does a great job of creating an Eat, Pray, Love style narrative about her family’s time in Italy.

Whether romanticized or not, I fell for it and wanted to be her! (Okay, I’ll be honest: I re-read parts of it to write this review and I STILL want to be her!)

One of the other aspects of this book that I like is that it is not just a cookbook. It also explains what the Mediterranean Diet is and how you can “Make the Change” to the lifestyle. Only after around 40 pages do you see any recipes.

But when the recipes do come, let me tell you…YOU WILL LOVE THEM!!

We all experience headnotes in cookbooks. These are the little paragraphs that precede the recipe that sometimes tell how a chef created the recipe or how it can be served. Headnotes in this book are no exception, but Jenkins includes beautifully written paragraphs that also teach the reader how to cook the recipe’s main ingredient, for example. Other times the headnotes are filled with wonderful anecdotes about her time in the Mediterranean region.

One of the positives of this cookbook is in the vegetables section, Jenkins takes the time and space to break down commonly used vegetables in the Mediterranean Diet. Each vegetable has 1 to 3 recipes that feature it, ensuring the budding Mediterranean chef how to incorporate them into their new diet.

Believe it or not, the Mediterranean Diet is not a big fan of the dessert course. I know, right? But this book does include more than a dozen sweet treats to satisfy your sweet tooth. While many are fruit-based, they will almost surely satisfy any sweet-tooth.

Writing this review has made me fall in love with it all over again. I’ll have to make something out of it soon!

Cold Days Are For Soups

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Over the weekend, my house was filled with soups.

On Friday, I decided to make a recipe out of the cookbook I will be reviewing this week: The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook. The review comes out on Thursday, so stay tuned! Since the weather turned back to more seasonably cold temperatures, I figured a soup recipe was in the cards.

So, I decided to make Butternut Squash Soup, North Africa Style.

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What’s the Deal With Liver?

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For a while now this question has been spinning around in my mind: What’s the deal with liver?

It seems to be a pretty commonly featured dish in cookbooks, often in the appetizer section. Julia Child adored liver and Ina Garten touts its fame as well. Me, however? I don’t see the hype. I am a meat eater — for now — but the idea of eating an organ from an animal has always put me off. I’ve never tried liver pâté and I’m really in no rush to do so.

I will admit that when I decided to cook my way through Ina’s cookbooks, the liver recipes always made me a bit queasy. They weren’t the only ones, either. The mussels and clams on the half-shell also turned my face green.

While the focus of the blog has changed slightly to be more inclusive, that doesn’t mean that the cooking-through-Ina-thing is going away. So, I guess eventually, I’ll have to try liver pâté or any other dish Ina decided to include this gross ingredient. Maybe I’ll make it as an appetizer….

Photo credit: emerils.com

I tried to find the most appetizing photo for this. Was I successful?

What are your thoughts on liver? Have you tried it? Is it worth it? Let me know!

New Year, New Recipe

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For the first weekend of 2021, I decided to try something new on the blog! Post a recipe. It is below and I hope you find the muffins as tasty as I did!

This weekend I was rummaging around the fridge and discovered that we had some cranberries that were waiting to be turned into something tasty. I decided that muffins would be something nice to have around. It’s been a while since I baked muffins.

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How I’m Ringing In 2021

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This Friday begins a new chapter in our lives — 2021.

For many of us, the new year will bring hope and joy after a difficult 2020.

Normally on New Year’s Day, my family and I would be gathering at my aunt and uncle’s house to have Cornish game hens, stuffing, a plethora of side dishes, and amazingly tasty desserts made by my grandmother.

That isn’t going to happen this year.

Instead, I will be cooking for my immediate family.

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Cookbook Review: Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?

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If you are a long-time reader of this blog, then you know that it used to feature, almost exclusively, Ina Garten recipes and reviews. It was basically a lifestyle blog revolving around Ina Garten.

Even though I have decided to tweak things a bit (a move that I think will be much more enjoyable for me and my readers), I still want to pay homage to Ina Garten. So, the first Cookbook Review will be of one of her books.

This is not a new feature. I had previously reviewed the first six Barefoot Contessa cookbooks earlier this year. (Hint: on the homepage, click the Category “Cookbook Reviews” to view them.)

Okay, here it goes….

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