September 2015 Cookbooks

Well Fed, Flat Broke by Emily Wight

I wasn't familiar with Emily Wight's blog of the same name, but I did like this cookbook. She has created recipes that are healthy and yummy, but inexpensive to prepare. At the beginning of the book she goes over nutrition, cooking healthy, dealing with picky eaters, and stocking your pantry. Then at the beginning of each section of recipes (pasta, eggs, chicken, etc.) she gives information about how to source quality items on a budget. There were a few recipes I want to try and overall most of the recipes looked pretty easy to make.

Sunday Dinner by Bridgette A. Lacy

I love the Savor the South cookbook series! This one takes on the tradition of Southern Sunday Dinners. As the author writes in the introduction, "Sunday dinner, especially in the South, is more than a meal - it's a state of mind. It's about taking the time to be with the people who matter to you. During the week, we often are rushing - to get home, to get to a meeting, or to get to a child's after-school activity. On Sunday, we can slow down, relax, and savor the food and relationships that will nourish us for the rest of the week." (p. 3) The recipes featured are well-known Southern favorites - fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, etc. Most of the recipes are favorites that have been passed down in the author's family, but others are a twist on an old favorite. So many of the recipes sound delicious and there are definitely a few I want to try. But, I also like that the author gives tips at the end of the introduction on how to have a successful "sunday dinner" whether you grew up doing it or not. To me this cookbook embodies not only the food, but the spirit of the South where food is an expression of love.

Southern Made Fresh by Tasia Malakasis

This is a beautiful cookbook with tons of great photos and pictures of the food. I was a little disappointed because there weren't very many recipes that I wanted to try. The author is from Alabama and came back as a single mother because she wanted to raise her son in a better environment, but also because she decided that her true calling in life was to make goat cheese. She now owns Belle Chevre and makes all things goat cheese. Honestly I would be more interested in her personal story if she wrote a cooking/farming memoir. Overall, I thought the cookbook was just OK - nothing great, but if Malakasis writes a memoir I'll definitely check that out.

The Dehydrator Cookbook by Tammy and Steven Gangloff

This is a really unique cookbook. Every recipe in the book is made with dehydrated food. The first few chapters go over dehydrating basics and tips, then specifics about dehydrating various fruits and vegetables. Then the rest of the book are categories of recipes all using dehydrated foods. I was really impressed with the wide variety of recipes and according to the author her family couldn't tell when she used fresh food vs. dehydrated food! I own a dehydrator and have used it successfully, but not nearly as much as the author does. I want to try a few foods we eat a lot and try them in her recipes to see how successful they are before I go crazy dehydrating everything in sight. I do think dehydrating (if it's as successful with re-hydrating as she claims) would be less time consuming than canning and you can store more food in a smaller space. I'm not quite ready to go to the level of dehydrating that the author has, but definitely some interesting stuff to try and check out.