As you may have noticed over the better part of the last year that this site has become nearly dormant. Ever since I started a new job last summer, I just haven’t had that much time to bake and then write about it.
At first I thought that as I settled more into my new role, things would change. It would become easier to find a rhythm that worked. But eventually, I realized that I think I’d just rather be doing other things. So, the baking went to the back-burner. I even stopped collecting cookbooks in the same capacity as I had earlier.
While many of you come here for the recipe reviews and occasional anecdotes about other aspects of my life, sometimes I like to switch things up. One of the things I’ve only touched upon slightly is my affinity for the printed word. I’m lucky enough to work in a local public library where I get to be surrounded by books, this is especially true since I work in the cataloging department. It’s my job to get the books ready for the shelf and the public. So you may be confused by the title of this post. “If he works in a library, why does he want his own library of cookbook?” Well, honestly there are a few reasons. But the main one is simple: I enjoy having them.
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!
Garten’s fifth cookbook begins what I call “Quintessential Ina.” This was around the time I discovered and fell in love with her cooking show. And I think her best recipes stem from the next few books. The tagline “everyday recipes you’ll make over and over again” rings true for this book since Ina had finally settled into her target audience: untrained, home cooks.
