August 2015 Cookbooks

Mastering the Art of Southern Vegetables by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart

I love Southern food and I love vegetables, so I was excited to check out this cookbook. I won't say there were no good recipes in it, but there wasn't anything that caught by eye that I wanted to try. I did like that she organized the book by each vegetable with a few recipes for each one, but overall I was disappointed and wouldn't recommend this one.

Southern Holidays by Debbie Moose (Savor the South cookbook)

I love the Savor the South cookbooks, but I was a little disappointed with this one. Based on the cover (and I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover!) I thought it would be more about desserts, but it was a few recipes for a variety of holidays including 4th of July, Mardi Gras, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc. While I did like that they covered so many holidays there were only 2-3 recipes for most of them. There are probably a lot of other better Southern holiday cookbooks out there.

Buttermilk by Debbie Moose (Savor the South cookbook)

I love the Savor the South cookbooks and Buttermilk does not disappoint. I mainly started using buttermilk when I started trying to make homemade biscuits (also from the Savor the South Biscuits book!). I like that the author gives a few pages of history and tips for working and cooking with buttermilk. I really like that she reiterates the importance of sourcing your buttermilk (and regular milk) from good sources. Buttermilk is a very versatile ingredient and it can be used in a variety of ways. There were lots of recipes I want to try from this book. This might be one I end up buying.

Pickles & Preserves by Andrea Weigl

Since getting into gardening I have naturally fallen into pickling and canning to preserve much of my summer harvest. The author gives a good introduction to pickling and preserving and how important it was historically for families to preserve their crops and have enough food for the winter. She also gives a lot of good tips on problems or issues that might come up when making jams/preserves and how to correct them. The only downside to me was that she goes through how to can and I personally feel like that is not something that should be learned from a few pages in a book. I took an all day class through my local extension office and it was GREAT and really gave me the confidence to can at home. I did find a few pickle and preserve recipes I'd like to try, so overall I liked this book and it gives a good overview of pickling and preserving that can help you eat good, local food all year long.