Books for Cooks

We have a few new books on the shelves that might interest you if you enjoy spending time in the kitchen - or time at the table.

Steam Cuisine: over 100 quick, healthy and delicious recipes for your steamer by Marina Filippelli. Rice cookers, steamer baskets, parchment paper, even shallow dishes can be used to cook your food quickly without a lot of fat and grease. Everything stays moist and flavorful, and there are a wide variety of foods that can be cooked this way. The pictures are appealing, the recipes are simple, and everything sounds delicious.

Tassajara Cookbook: lunches, picnics & appetizers by Karla Oliveira. This book is packed with light vegetarian and vegan recipes from the famed Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California. Simple yet delicious, these recipes are perfect for anyone looking for healthy snack and lunch ideas.

A Love Affair With Southern Cooking: recipes and recollections by Jean Anderson. A history of Southern cuisine, this book covers a large region from the Texas plains to the Florida panhandle, the mountains of West Virginia to the Carolina coast. Each recipe comes with a sweet memory or backstory.

Cooking: 600 recipes, 1500 photographs, one kitchen education by James Peterson. With 20 years experience in teaching chefs, Peterson is well qualified to write this book. The recipes touch on a variety of cuisines and ingredients, he covers a wide range of cooking techniques, and the explanations and photographs are very informative. This is Cooking 101 for the ambitious, not the true novice, though.