(Jean Dunn is on sabbatical and will return for the next
issue.)
This is the time of year I think a lot about food. I'm not sure why. It may have something to do with the
fact that I don't use my oven from April 1st through September 1st. As the days become cooler, I look
forward to baking potatoes and squash, breads and desserts. Our wild, disorganized summer schedule
settles into more of a routine. It
is easier to plan menus, and we are more often home to enjoy the comforting
smells of dinner in the oven.
This is the time of year I tend to read about food in many
different genres. Here are some of
my recommendations.
Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, With Recipes, Romances, and
Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel. Each chapter of this book begins with a
recipe. Much of the drama takes
place in the kitchen. The book is
passionate, quirky and magical.
Chocolat by
Joanne Harris is a bewitching, light-hearted must read for chocolate
lovers. As you turn the pages, you
will taste the confections and feel the warm comfort of the hot chocolate
drinks. Once the confectioner,
Vianne, opens her shop, this small French village will never be the same.
My Year of Meats
by Ruth L. Ozeki came highly recommended by Sandy (neighbor and owner of Room
of One's Own Feminist Book Store).
The plot is so unique, I found myself marveling that any author could
dream it up. I had such difficulty
explaining the plot, I will offer you a synopsis from a Library Journal review,
that appeared on the Amazon.com site:
"As a writer, Ozeki draws upon her knowledge in documentary
filmmaking cleverly to bring the worlds of two women together by utilizing the
U.S. meat industry as a central link.
Alternating between the voices of Jane (in the United States) and Akiko
Ueno, the wife of Jane's boss (in Japan), Ozeki draws parallels in the lives of
these two women through beef, love, television, and their desire to have
children. Not quite
convinced--read the first 30 pages.
Ruth Reichl is a New York Times restaurant critic. In her book Tender at the Bone, Reichl shares stories of how the "power of
cooking" helped her survive a tumultuous, chaotic childhood. You will find yourself
laughing as you cry in this heartfelt tale of "coming of age" with
food.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser. I read parts of this book aloud to my family on a recent
trip to the Florida Everglades. We
were driving past the tomato pickers as we read Schlosser's depiction of their
exploitation. It was a poignant
message indeed. To really hammer
the message home, I then picked up Greg Critser's Fat Land: How
Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. Read these two
books if you want to cure yourself of the fast food habit once and for all.
If you like cookbooks that read like novels, I recommend The
Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations from Two Great
American Cooks by Edna Lewis and Scott
Peacock. The book is filled with
photographs and the authors offer us the history of southern cooking one recipe
at a time.
Let's not forget Stone Soup: An Old Tale told and illustrated by Marcia Brown. For those of you old enough to
remember, this particular version of the French tale was read on Captain
Kangaroo. It is a story about
three hungry soldiers who trick some villagers into sharing their harvest by
making a marvelous soup from stones. Read it aloud to your family before dinner.
- Ann Rulseh
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Fall 2003 Table of Contents