GIVEAWAY: Cookbooks That Inspire

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It is pretty hard to pin down how grateful I am right now. I am so grateful my book will be out in a few weeks! (You can preorder a signed copy here from the publisher. It should be available on Amazon in about 2 weeks.) SO grateful for my growing family. Words can’t even touch the dreams and feelings I have for our crew. SO grateful I can eat again!

And so, so grateful for YOU. My super steady and reliable food blog readers.  You guys are the best, and I want to show you my gratitude with a GIVEAWAY. 

I had been thinking about doing a round-up of the newest cookbooks that are lighting my creative fires in a big way now that I can eat again. People who can inspire others about food are the Magic Makers, and they make me dream big. Even if it is just about flavored crème fraîche (so simple – just add lemon or herbs or capers to it!) and horseradish gremolata. Then I thought, why not share the love? So for this giveaway, I am going to pick ONE reader randomly who leaves a comment here and I will send them the book of their choice from this list. 

Ok, here we go:

Small Victories – 

This book has been sitting in my Amazon Cart for months. I have stared at every page and couldn’t wait until I could cook again to try it, and I am happy to report it is on its way. But I mostly love it because of her attitude. I always think cooking is about small victories (I cooked the beef just right! I learned how to make gravy! I have mastered salad dressing!). Encouraging people to think of it in this way makes my heart sing, since it is all about baby steps and learning, no matter what level you are at in the kitchen.

Taste & Technique –

 

 

Ok, this book is for those of you who are looking for something new. You have dinner down pat, you have your family get together favorites. What you are looking for is basically a cooking class for yourself or your loved ones to elevate the nights you are cooking at home with some time, just for pleasure. Enter this book – the techniques are EASY. A sampling of the titles of her ‘sauces’ – Walnut-Parsley Pistou, Tomato Confiture (can’t WAIT to make this with fried polenta), Hazelnut Romanesco, Horseradish Gremolata (sounds fancy, but it has FIVE ingredients). Ok, I just scanned the book again and learned she is a James Beard Award Winning Chef as of 2014. So she knows her stuff. Lucky for us she translates it to the home cook. So inspired here.

French Country Cooking –

 

If you have been a long-time blog reader, you know about my total nerd fandom going on for Mimi Thorrisson. When her new cookbook came out, French Country Cooking, it was SO sad because I couldn’t even look at it, and couldn’t read her blog, Manger, because of food aversion for the last few months. So now it’s time, as spring is bringing new herbs and vegetables to be treasured, to check out her new cookbook. She has a dream life in the idyllic French countryside, with lots of children and dogs and wine, but I contend that this is all because she herself is a dreamer. Her writing style on her food blog has a dream-like quality, and her love of seasons and seasonal cooking shows in every photo, every bowl of onions that to her are as “beautiful as a bouquet of flowers” (I concur).  She inspires me to dream, and I hope you get inspired too.

Dinner A Love Story – 

If there was one book I wish I wrote it is this one. (Ditto for her follow up to this, How To Celebrate Everything). These two books sum up pretty much everything I feel about food, and a few people on Instagram have been raving about how her dinners are totally kid-friendly and doable. I am going back to her book to rediscover my love of cooking dinner ever night. It was sorely missed by all (except for my daughter that likes to eat pasta every night. She was pretty happy).

 

Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom –

As I was looking for other cookbooks that light my fire, I kept hitting against the reality that I don’t love having a ton of cookbooks, with 60 different recipes for specific types of pancakes or gratins or cobblers. I LOVE (and hope to steer other people to this) knowing a master recipe, or technique, or basic dough recipe (seriously, this book has a bread dough recipe you can turn into French Bread, Pizza Dough, a Loaf or Hard Rolls).  Once you have the basics at your fingertips, letting the flavors of the seasons – apples or asparagus or blackberries – sing in whatever master recipe you know. This eliminates the need for owning a million cookbooks, and it makes cooking a whole lot more fun and creative. Which led me back to this cookbook by Julia. I know I have mentioned this book before, but it really is the one I go to so often. It empowers me, is super simple (and short! It is one of my thinest cookbooks), and most importantly everything is delicious. Her quotes on the back of my copy says it all:

“Once you have mastered a technique, you hardly need look at a recipe again.”                                                                                       

Ok, leave your comment if you would like me to send you one of these beauties. And thanks again, from the bottom of my heart, for every kind word you’ve left on here or Facebook or IG, and for sharing the spark of friendship and the love of good food.

Happy Eating, xoxo Katie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts On Eating When You Can’t

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I knew it was coming. I ate my roasted beet salad and soy maple glazed salmon like a last supper, with friends and sister and husband surrounding me, on Fat Tuesday no less, relishing every bite, noting the vinegary bite of the salad dressing on the beets, the slight note of gouda in the mashed potatoes.

It settled in slowly, like a snowfall, blanketing my body and my mind.

It is the strangest type of fog. Maybe fog isn’t right – it is like a clenching of teeth or fist. Your mind tries to recede, but thanks to being married to your body, it has nowhere to go. Days are measured in hours until bedtime. Sleep brings the only relief.

I have been here before. With all of my pregnancies in varying degrees I have had debilitating nausea from 6-18+ weeks. Those that have nausea their whole pregnancy have a special place in my heart. And it goes without saying but I’ll say it: of course kissing baby cheeks makes up for it completely. Of course I am aware of people who would gladly take the nausea if it means healthy babies. They are in my heart too.

But I couldn’t help but think, this time around it seemed harder. I thought maybe I was just older. Maybe it was just winter.

Of course, I had no idea I was carrying twins.

Most days I think about food a lot – I make it, photograph it, write recipes, and daydream about food combinations. I am writing a food memoir, and I write this food blog. I am always aware of making it too important, inhibiting health or love or resources. I don’t love gluttony, I like ordered, healthy appetites. So when the ability to eat is taken away, there is a good sized hole. I know everyone who has nausea suffers, and that good healthy food generally brings comfort to everyone, whether or not they are ‘foodies’.  It’s the universal of this that made me want to pen this post. But I have lost more than 10 pounds in six weeks (while pregnant with twins). And what the last few months have highlighted for me is what a gift a healthy appetite is – and what a vacuum there is when it is gone. I want to remember not to take it for granted.

I miss making dinner. Stirring things in a pan. Looking forward to the evening – since that is when my nausea is the worst. I hate warming up processed food for my crew. I miss going out to dinner – the last thing I feel like doing – or ordering something for take out (why waste the money? I’ll just have soup or broth). I miss sharing a meal with my family. Lately it has been me trying to scarf food down, nodding and smiling, and intermittently running to the bathroom for a fun little rendezvous with the porcelain throne. I miss the idea of date night, or dinner with friends, since I can’t think of a single thing I could order and am curled up in bed by 8:30 most nights. It is amazing how much sharing a meal enriches our lives.

Things that have helped: Zofran. Sea Bands. Epsom salt baths. Backrubs from my husband. Want to see just how clenched your muscles can get? Feel your shoulders the next time you have stomach flu.
But I have found an amazing thing happening: with the joy from food gone, there is an invitation to find and deepen other joys. I am so aware right now of how much joy my children bring me – how they fill up my heart like a ballon with their laugh, their smile. They have been showing me so much love lately, and it is a gift. I am grateful for my husband, and am keenly aware of the life he works so hard to provide us all. I am thankful for the comforts of modern living. A warm house, cozy bed, comfy clothes, a car that runs, and a great community that has been SO supportive. A school that our kids love, and a rhythm to our days that is beautiful even when I don’t feel well. If I took these for granted before, I don’t now. They are all counted, all a part of my profound gratitude towards things that work when I am not feeling well.

Music has suddenly bubbled up to the tippy top of my list of joys. When I am driving a good song distracts me from nausea. When we are in the kitchen, the kids’ favorite soundtracks and songs make moments fun, even if the kitchen and I aren’t getting along. Suddenly, memorizing the lyrics to Lenard Cohen’s Hallelujah has a particular allure, because #distractions.

And reading has been my rock. My constant companion, my favorite escape. If I ever go blind, I will learn Braille at lightning speed because I need books.

So for the next month or so, the food blog will be a place where I will share whatever I can. If this twin pregnancy is anything like my singletons, a delight in food will start creeping back in soon, and find its height when I am halfway through my pregnancy, when I will be dying to share delicious recipes.

For now, I will celebrate the fact that my nausea is starting to have windows where it ebbs, like today when I made Greek Wedding Soup. This is the first thing I have cooked in weeks, and its lemony tang and saltiness from feta finally gave me a moment to celebrate food. I left out all the herbs though, because I am not 100% yet and herbs don’t like me right now.

So I will leave you with this recipe, and hope this reminds everyone to celebrate what is there for us to enjoy almost every day – our appetite. It is really, truly such a gift.

Happy Eating, Xoxo Katie

 

Greek Wedding Soup (printer version here on RachaelRay.com)

Ingredients

  • 8 cups chicken stock (64 ounces)
  • 3/4 pound ground lamb or beef
  • 2/3 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley (a couple of generous handfuls), divided
  • 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (a generous handful)
  • 1/4 cup feta cheese, chopped or crumbled
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
  • 2 sprigs fresh oregano, finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 cup orzo pasta
  • Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/3 cup mint leaves (a generous handful), chopped

Preparation

In a deep skillet or Dutch oven, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Lower the heat and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the lamb, half of the parsley, breadcrumbs, feta, egg, garlic and oregano; season with salt and pepper. Form into 1-inch balls. Add to the simmering broth along with the orzo and cook for 8 minutes. Stir in the lemon peel, lemon juice, remaining parsley and the mint.