1 comments about A History of Wine in America, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to Prohibition.

1. I went into The History of Wine in America volumes 1 and 2 with some trepidation. I read 99% non-fiction and, in this case, I happen to know the author and his lovely wife and decided to buy the books just for that reason. The print is small, the paragraphs are long but the sentences flow and before I knew it I was drawn in. When an author gets hold of me like that, I find myself reading at the breakfast table and instead of taking a nap in the afternoon. There was history in these books, not just about wine, but about America and Americans, history that Coach never taught us in high school and we didn't learn in all the history courses we took at college. An amazing feat! Congratulations, Tom!

2 comments about Savor A Taste Of The California Desert Signature Restaurant Recipes.

1. Savor A Taste Of The California Desert Proves That People Really Do Eat With Their Eyes! A Unique Blend of Signature Dishes from Some of the Best Coachella Valley Restaurants When it comes to memorable food ... the senses of taste and smell come to mind immediately, however ...great chefs know that people in the truest sense "eat with their eyes." Over time, every successful restaurant becomes appreciated and well known for their distinctive approach to dining. Almost always ... a few unique or signature dishes become representative of the restaurant itself. 'Savor a Taste of the California Desert Signature Restaurant Recipes' is a feast for your eyes, and your palette, where every signature dish is portrayed with a spectacular full page photograph, inside information about the featured restaurant, quotes from the chef's themselves, a recipe ... and the personal signature of the owner or chef. Savor A Taste of the California Desert is more than a cookbook ... and speaks volumes in terms of visual appeal and appreciation for local Coachella Valley chefs.



2. This is a lovely, useful guide to dining in the Coachella Valley of California. Excellent restaurants chosen. A great guide for the "snow bird" and the permanent desert resident.

3 comments about Notes on a Cellar-Book.

1. If you're a wine geek, and perhaps even if you're not, you've heard of Saintsbury's Notes on a Cellar-Book. Prof. Saintsbury (1845-1933) was a journalist and later a professor of English Literature at Edinburgh. Notes on a Cellar-Book is his only book on wine and spirits, published in 1920 towards the end of his career, during the dark days of Prohibition in the United States and a noisy temperance movement in the UK.
   
   Cellar-Book is one of those works that everyone knows about but few people have actually read, and five minutes with an original edition of the book will reveal why. It is so chock full of obscure literary allusions, puns, references to once-current events and other arcane matters that it is almost impossible to follow. I've tried to plough through my own 1920 edition of it unassisted many times over the past couple of decades, and to be perfectly honest, I never really made any headway on the road to comprehension.
   
   Thomas Pinney's new edition includes detailed annotations that finally make the Cellar-Book comprehensible and enjoyable.
   
   So is it all worth it? Yes, if you are seeking an insight into Saintsbury's realm -- the aesthetics of wine and food in a scholarly world that existed before anyone dreamed up the Wine Spectator, Gourmet Magazine, Robert Parker, and the Food Channel. Before celebrity chefs. When an English professor of modest means could enjoy Richebourg and Montrachet, before hedge fund zillionaires who dump ten thousand bucks on a bottle of Burgundy, or a couple million to remodel the corner office.
   
   It's a memoir and a collection of personal observations, not a comprehensive review of any particular wine or wine region, chock full of Saintsbury's remembrances of great meals and bottles he'd enjoyed over a long career of eating and drinking very well, thank you very much, with his college brethren. The Professor also takes every opportunity to toss barbs at prohibitionism and prohibitionists everywhere.
   
   In an appendix, Pinney includes a number of Saintsbury's short articles and essays on wine, not included in the original Cellar-Book. One describes the wine cellar in an elaborate (and elaborately expensive) doll's house that was presented as a gift to Queen Mary in 1924. Yes, just one generous lifespan removed from our own times, but it was definitely another world.
   
   Hats off to Thomas Pinney for bringing that world and this hoary chestnut back to life for modern readers.



2. Did not enjoy this book at all. Could not get past the first chapter.



3. "Notes on a Cellar Book", originally published in 1920, was one of the first books on wine in the English language. It kicked off a generation of English wine criticism style that remains to this day. The authur George Saintsbury recalls a life time of imbibing and dining, giving us a glimpse of an era from over a century ago. It is opinionated but that makes it fun. Most of the wines and other drinks mentioned are still the standard of what a serious wine drinker/collector would have today, albeit of the more current vintages. It is not an easy read for someone who does not know a lot about wine. Saintbury's comments would not make much sense to such a person nor would there be much relevance. For a wine neophite whose wine experience is limited to current American and other New World wines, this book will most likely be a disappointment. When Saintsburgy wrote this book, the American wine industry was still in its infancy. American wines were almost completely unavailable in England. Saintbury would not easily have the chance to try them. Most of what he did write about are widely available to us and are the standards of a good wine cellar today. This was "the" book for those interested in wine in the twenties and thirties. Judging by the number of editions and printings since 1920, it has been a reasonably popular book. If one is short in wine knowledge but wanting to read this book, Thomas Pinney the American wine historian, has done an annotated version of this book. Pinney has provided a lot of the background to make this book more accessable to a wine neophite. However, for those who are not able to follow Saintbury on their own and needing Pinney's help, they would probably not find this book interesting enough even with the annotation. You really have to be one interested in European wines to have any reason to read this book. It is a classic, It is a book of a great deal of significance in the history of wine criticism. An older edition is a great gift for any serious wine collector. Many have heard of it but probably have not read it and do not own it.

5 comments about The Expanding Light Cookbook : Vegetarian Favorites from California's Premier Yoga Retreat.

1. We've been vegetarians for many years and have all the popular vegetarian cookbooks--but this is something different. The recipes are healthy and yet very tasty. I would say these recipes satisfy. I especially liked the menu ideas in the back of the book, which offer very creative and thoughtful combinations. It's also very interesting to learn how this yoga retreat makes their food "better"--I found the tips very helpful and inspiring.



2. I recently stayed at the Expanding Light Yoga Retreat and was awe-struck at the wonderful, flavorful foods created by Blanche. Eating was truly a spiritual experience that left everyone with satisfied bellies, calm minds, and smiling faces. As a vegetarian who loves to cook, there was no question that I would leave this place without this book. I have been nothing but delighted to read and create beautiful meals that are easy to make, maximizing the yield of flavors from just a few ingredients which I almost always have in my kitchen already, and well explained. The interview with the author at the beginning of the book, having spent time with her at the retreat, truly exemplifies the spirit in which she approaches her meal-planning and cooking-creating healthy food with a loving heart warms the spirits of all who share in eating it. The meal plan suggestions are truly thoughtful and outlined according to the season of the year. I cannot say enough good things about this book, and I have given it as a gift to a vegan already (almost all the recipes are vegan!). I highly recommend it to anyone.



3. This book by Blanche McCord has the most fantastic, easy to follow recipes. Everyone absolutely loves the food I make when I cook from this cook book. Example: While camping last weekend one of our friends sampled a little of the red pesto pasta salad. The next day before we left he asked if I had any left. I said yes, that he should help himself to it. Later when I returned to our RV I spotted the empty container that had held the salad. He couldn't help himself. He finished it. Aside from the food being out of this world, you get insight as to why the food that comes out of Ananda is so outstanding.



4. I was excited to happen across this book and was hoping the recipes would offer simplicity and they do. Not only that, but most every ingredient can be found in your local grocery mart. No need to shop exclusively at organic / natural food stores for many of the ingredients contained within. The recipes are simple and short.
   
   I spent a few days at The Expanding Light a number of years ago and recall my hesitancy over the menu. Not being a vegetarian at that time and not totally understanding what I was going to be eating left me a little wary. I have to say that I walked away from the retreat with a new found love.
   
   If you're looking for good, wholesome and simple, this book is one of the best. Furthermore, if you're a new vegetarian, making this book part of your kitchen will get you off to an excellent start.



5. This is by far my favorite vegetarian cookbook. I've owned the book for almost 6 years now and given it as a gift to friends atleast 3 times :) Nothing at all needs to be done to these scrumptous recipes to "doctor" them up. My wife and I are vegetarians, but really require a lot of flavor in our dishes, and in our experience many recipes in the vegetarian cookbooks lack the flavor...we are often times needing to add a little of our own spices or salt to make them taste they way we would like them. These recipes are good as they are and oh so tasty!!!! My favorite recipe is the Indian Garbanzo Bean Curry (it's not the actual name given the recipe in the book) but it is oh so good. I have made it atleast a dozen times and have never had left overs. My favorite story is, I once made this recipe for a friend in order to deliver some as a gift, and by accident got my gift sack containing my tupperware of curry mixed up with an East Indian family's Indian dish that they were bringing for their Indian friend :) To make a long story short, their friend got my dish by mistake...or... divine providence, and loved every spoonful and thought it had been cooked by an Indian, which I am not. Two THUMBS UP!!! It's really a nice collection of Recipes.

2 comments about 72 Market St.: Dishes It Out! : A Collection of Recipes and Portraits from a Classic Venice Restaurant.

1. As a professional photographer, I can appreciate the creative portraits that were chosen for this lushly produced photo driven cook book. The restaurant is fabulous and I am excited to be able to now create the dishes at home. Although, it will be hard pressed to re create the simple elegance of the restaurant, I will save a bit of money by cooking these great recipes in my own kitchen.



2. THE CHEFF ROLAND IS ////THE BEST CHEFF >>>>>GOOD LUCK<<<<<
   
   

1 comments about Friday Is Fish and Shrimp and Scallops and Crab and More (Everyday Cookbooks).

1. This is a great cookbook. I've tried several of the dishes, and they have all been good. I just made the swordfish piccata, and it was really yummy! There's a good variety, and even people who aren't big fish fans can find something they will like. The directions are clear and simple to follow, and the receipes are all easy to prepare.

1 comments about Feast Your Eyes: The Unexpected Beauty of Vegetable Gardens.

1. I was a little disappointed in this book. It is primarily a history of some famous gardens which have been covered more completely elsewhere. The photos are for the most part very old and not as clear as they should be, and there were not enough of them. There are a couple of interesting topics such as an outline of the use of victory gardens during WWI & II, and a small section on Aztec gardens created in a marsh. Otherwise not worth it. I was looking for something more like 'Creative Vegetable Gardening' by Joy Larkom - but this was not it.

5 comments about Jeremiah Tower Cooks: 250 Recipes from an American Master.

1. there are good chefs and good writers. rarely are the two combined in one person. jeremiah towers' recipes are accessible and have the personal touch that distinguishes a culinary artist. the writing has the charm and self awareness of one who knows that food is to be enjoyed, in the preparing, the eating, and the combination of daydreaming and appetite that gives birth to new recipes.



2. I have many cookbooks which are award-winners and this one beats them all by a mile. One can almost be moved by his genius and versatility with food when eating these dishes.



3. If you love to cook or read about cooking, skip to the end of this review, click on the button, which says you were influenced by it, and order a copy of this book. Now??

   For those of you who are not swayed by emotional arguments, here goes the real review.

   Jeremiah Tower has packed more useful, controversial, and scholarly material into this book than any three other celebrity chef cookbooks combined. There is much here with which many respected chefs would take issue, but that just adds to the pleasure of reading the book.

   One issue on which I disagree with chef Tower is in replacing some French terms for common cooking items or practices with ?American? translations. As a cook, I will never have a thousandth of the credentials of Monsieur Tower, but I am something of an expert on language, and Tower is simply wrong on this point. For example, he substitutes the phrase ?aromatic vegetable mix? for the French term ?Mirepoix? meaning, 1 part chopped onion, 1 part chopped celery, and one part chopped carrot. Tower adds a bay leaf to the standard definition, with which I have no argument. The mistake is twofold. First, he is substituting his new usage for all vegetable mixes, including soffrito, sofregit, and picada. Well, each of these terms means something different from mirepoix, yet he is subsuming these different meanings under a new word. Second, this new term is unknown to his audience, while mirepoix is learned upon first opening one?s first book on French cooking. On more than one occasion while reading Tower?s recipes I had to scratch my head and think twice when he said ?aromatic vegetable mix?. If he would have used the word, mirepoix, I would have sailed right through that text with no confusion whatsoever. The same argument can be made for the terms ?Au Jus?, ?Bouquet Garni?, Mesclun?, and ?Duxelles?. Tower?s claim has some merit when it comes to using ?blue? in place of ?bleu? and ?cream? in place of ?Cr?me?, depending on context. So Tower is not a linguist, but he is a cook. His following section on the meaning of conventional English cooking terms is entertaining and dead on accurate.

   Tower?s recommendations on standard techniques are impeccable, and there are a lot of them. His descriptions of brining, sweating, toasting, parboiling, and pureeing are fussy enough to make Alton Brown turn green with envy. The little essay on brining brings out another rich dimension to this book in that it identifies the source of current enthusiasm for brining to be Jane Grigson?s book ?The Art of Making Sausages, Pates, and other Charcuterie?. Scholarly references like this may not mean much to some, but to me they are positively titillating. The book is packed with references to works going back to the seventeenth century, with a heavy concentration on the French classics by Careme, Escoffier, and Curnonsky. Unlike most other writers, it reminds the reader that there is not a whole lot in cookery which is really that new. My great regret on this theme is that Tower neglects to add a bibliography to this book so that one does not have to page back through the text to find the exact name of a fondly remembered reference. See his book ?California Eats? for an excellent bibliography.

   Tower?s great hero among contemporary writers is Richard Olney, famous primarily as the editor of the Time-Life ?Good Cook? series and as the author on some of the most influential books on French cooking in English. Tower praises Olney for his search of quality, simplicity, and proper scholarship. It is clear that Tower has acquired the same values. However, some people, myself included, may be very puzzled by what the author calls simple. I will forego any long discussion of this until I read Olney?s famous interpretation of ?simple? in French cuisine but I will say that cooking is hard work and what is simple to Jeremiah Tower is just not so simple to amateurs like me. This does not, however, lessen the value of this book, it enhances it. Great results require exacting procedures and great respect for ingredients.

   Tower?s attitudes about techniques and materials fits exactly into one of my favorite Mario Batali doctrines. If you make small improvements in the quality of your ingredients and your techniques, you will surely end up with dishes superior to those done without attention to these little details. While Mario and Tower have an enormous respect for one another, I am sure they have a lot of differences. One which stands out is Tower?s preference for fresh tomatoes in making tomato sauces. I?m afraid I have to side with Mario on this one and be happy with canned San Marzano tomatoes.

   One of the most instructive of Tower?s obsessions is his recommending the mortar and pestle and the food mill over the blender and the food processor. I am certain he is right on these points.

   Tower?s selection of recipes is largely from the French. All recipes show the same attention to detail. Some recipes and sidebar discussions give more than usual attention to ingredients like lobster, lettuce, and truffles, among others. Some recipes are truly simple and the novice should not dispair that the book has nothing for them. The instructions on stocks are dead on accurate. This man knows what he is doing. An interesting twist to this is that in more than one place, Tower prefers water to stock in order to bring out the tastes of the primary ingredients of the dish.

   The book has no photographs of completed dishes, and I did not miss them. The impressionistic paintings by Donald Sultan add an ample visual quality to the work. The index is flawed. There are two references to Julia Child and I found at least three different references.

   This book is a must for people with any interest in cooking.




4. This is a beautiful book. Unfortunately, it took 3 weeks to arrive. It was shipped in a regular manila envelope with no protective wrapping, which was totally torn open on one end upon arrival.
   
   Although this damage was no doubt done in transit, it may not have happened at all if it had been packed more securely.



5. A little disappointed in this......you may like some recipes, but most are compicated and call for very esoteric ingredients. Not for family cooking, maybe for a special ocassion when you have unlimited time, but then, there are a lot of better books out there for that.

1 comments about California Mosaic.

1. A true mecca of recipes from around the world are compiled in this book. Photography highlights landmarks and food from many cultures represented in Southern California. Personal favorites include Spicy Cilantro Flank Steak, Stir-Fry Sesame Asparagus and Scallops, Ham & Cheese crisps (so easy!), and Tuscan Bread Salad. A true delight of a cookbook for everyday and entertaining.

1 comments about Dear SOS : Favorite Restaurant Recipes.

1. Although most of the recipes are home versions from restaurants, Santa Barbara to San Diego, CA, there are a dozen or so from other states, as far away as Vermont. The recipes are universally simple and yield very good results. Some of the restaurants are no longer in existence so this book gives you a chance to recreate a favorite. There are also popular recipes from TGIFriday's, Olive Garden, Clifton's Cafeteria, Chili's, El Torito (those great corncakes), Knott's Berry Farm, Lawry's as well as restaurants such as El Cholo, the Border Grill and the like. There is a recipe from the now gone Twin Tower restaurant in NY. The soup section and the salad section are my favorites, although being able to make at home both Ranger Cookies from LAUSD and the Potatoes Romano from the Original Enterprise Fish Co. in Santa Barbara, CA is worth the price of the book! You'll enjoy the selection whether you have eaten at any of these eateries or not.

   Because these recipes are reader requested, over time they have endured and, just like on the Millionaire (Who Wants to Be), the Ask The Audience lifeline is almost always right on target. So is this book.