Cookbooks & Food Writing from the 2013 Summer Newsletter

Replicating french toast without animal products is extremely hard. I have been vegan for close to a decade and have yet to make anything I would call french toast. This is why I am so excited for the release of Makini Howell’s Plum Bistro cookbook. Sixty illustrated, animal-free recipes (including french toast!) offer vegans and nonvegans alike creative takes on old standbys.

Nothing says summer like eating a ripe peach (juice dripping down your chin), and perhaps no one loves peaches more than the Masumoto family, third- and fourth-generation heirloom peach farmers. Mas, who wrote the eloquent Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm, here shares his family’s recipes for sweet and savory peaches dishes—from classic cobblers to salsas, salads, pizzas, and granitas.

There’s something so charming about Van Boven’s books: They are filled with her beautiful and quirky illustrations, but more than that, they are filled with joy and a passion for food and for life. Home Made Summer is her showcase of sun-drenched recipes—inspired by summers spent in Provence—that are fresh, light, and simple. Plus there are refreshing cocktails, too!

Deborah Madison is a UCSC alum and the author of the beloved Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Her newest work focuses on edible plant families and how to use the entire plant in a variety of different, delicious ways. Publishers Weekly says: “Madison’s keen focus covers a variety of squashes, grains, legumes, and tubers, showcased in all their versatile goodness in dishes such as butternut squash soup with coconut milk, miso, and lime; chewy oat and maple pancakes; peas in butter lettuce; and sweet potato flan with maple yogurt and caramel pecans.” Yum!

Fearnley-Whittingstall has devoted previous River Cottage cookbooks entirely to meat and fish, but his newest is a love letter to vegetables. Although not trying to convince anyone to become a vegetarian, he is trying to persuade everyone to eat many more vegetables. After reading and cooking from this beautiful new tome, it’s easy to imagine River Cottage Veg doing the trick.

Every summer a slew of new barbecue and grilling books hit the shelves. This year is no exception, but Barbecue Crossroads rises above the rest. Award-winning writer Robb Walsh and acclaimed documentary photographer O. Rufus Lovett take us on a barbecue odyssey from East Texas to the Carolinas and back—because no one’s better at barbecue than
Southerners! More than a cookbook (even though wonderful recipes are included), it traces the history of Southern barbecue, reminding us of the myriad ways that race weaves in and out of the barbecue story. Fantastic to read and to cook from.