Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Canyon Ranch: Nourish. Book Review
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I had to pop in this post…because it’s just hard to resist. Even if my cookbook review skills are notoriously lacking…
I just wanted all you peaches to know how much I really, really like this cookbook, Nourish, Indulgently Healthy Cuisine, from Scott Uehlein at the luxurious and lovely Canyon Ranch Spa and that I urge you to get a copy for yourself.
There are a gazillion of books out there (and many just out in my living room too.) which speak to all sorts of cuisines and fads and fancies. Canyon Ranch: Nourish is not a book like that. It doesn’t pander or preach, or set it's self in some sort of limited category, it just sets forth food you will want to cook.
What sets this apart is that it is that rare thing…a book full of delicious, interesting but approachable recipes that cover a wide range of techniques and tastes without seeming like its oh-so-very-niche. (A good thing in my mind. I mean…I love my macrobiotic-Armenian-soups cookbook but how often do I pull such a thing out?) It’s for people who want dinner. Plain and simple.
While the recipes are all healthy, (having been written by the chef at a world famous health spa and all) it’s all logical healthy. Things people want to eat that happily are good for you too. (How about Chili-Rubbed Tequila Shrimp or Baked Lasagna with Meat Sauce. Italian Vegetable Soup with Cannellini Beans? See.) Pretty fab, right?
There are beautiful (approachable!) photos and calorie counts and explanations too. A few nods to green living and sustainable choices, and voila…a perfect cookbook for the ages. Real, healthy food. (Without any gimmicks. No weird fillers or strange concoctions. Just honest food.)
If you are the type of home cook who wants to open a book for inspiration, information and a bit of hunger-inducing photography…check this one out. It has all that, in spades.
Now if someone would just invite me to the Canyon Ranch Spa to check out the food in person…
© 2009 Fresh Approach Cooking
______________________________________
© 2009 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" http://www.freshcatering.blogspot.com If you are not reading this at the aforementioned URL or in your RSS feed, the site you are looking at are violating my copyright. And that's rude.
"Founded in 1979, Canyon Ranch in Tucson resides in the foothills of Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains. "
Nourish - To feed and cause to grow; to supply with matter, promote health; to furnish with nutriment. To supply the means of support and increase to; to encourage; to foster; as, to nourish rebellion; to nourish the virtues.
Heart of palm, also called palm heart, burglar's thigh, palmito, chonta or swamp cabbage, is a vegetable harvested from the inner core of certain palm trees. - Wiki
I had to pop in this post…because it’s just hard to resist. Even if my cookbook review skills are notoriously lacking…I just wanted all you peaches to know how much I really, really like this cookbook, Nourish, Indulgently Healthy Cuisine, from Scott Uehlein at the luxurious and lovely Canyon Ranch Spa and that I urge you to get a copy for yourself.
There are a gazillion of books out there (and many just out in my living room too.) which speak to all sorts of cuisines and fads and fancies. Canyon Ranch: Nourish is not a book like that. It doesn’t pander or preach, or set it's self in some sort of limited category, it just sets forth food you will want to cook.
What sets this apart is that it is that rare thing…a book full of delicious, interesting but approachable recipes that cover a wide range of techniques and tastes without seeming like its oh-so-very-niche. (A good thing in my mind. I mean…I love my macrobiotic-Armenian-soups cookbook but how often do I pull such a thing out?) It’s for people who want dinner. Plain and simple.
While the recipes are all healthy, (having been written by the chef at a world famous health spa and all) it’s all logical healthy. Things people want to eat that happily are good for you too. (How about Chili-Rubbed Tequila Shrimp or Baked Lasagna with Meat Sauce. Italian Vegetable Soup with Cannellini Beans? See.) Pretty fab, right?
There are beautiful (approachable!) photos and calorie counts and explanations too. A few nods to green living and sustainable choices, and voila…a perfect cookbook for the ages. Real, healthy food. (Without any gimmicks. No weird fillers or strange concoctions. Just honest food.)
If you are the type of home cook who wants to open a book for inspiration, information and a bit of hunger-inducing photography…check this one out. It has all that, in spades.
Now if someone would just invite me to the Canyon Ranch Spa to check out the food in person…
© 2009 Fresh Approach Cooking
______________________________________
© 2009 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" http://www.freshcatering.blogspot.com If you are not reading this at the aforementioned URL or in your RSS feed, the site you are looking at are violating my copyright. And that's rude.
"Founded in 1979, Canyon Ranch in Tucson resides in the foothills of Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains. "
Nourish - To feed and cause to grow; to supply with matter, promote health; to furnish with nutriment. To supply the means of support and increase to; to encourage; to foster; as, to nourish rebellion; to nourish the virtues.
Heart of palm, also called palm heart, burglar's thigh, palmito, chonta or swamp cabbage, is a vegetable harvested from the inner core of certain palm trees. - Wiki
Labels: Books, Something Else
Monday, February 25, 2008
The 99 Cent Only Store Cookbook
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So while everyone else at The Rock Goddess' ultra lux Oscars viewing party/feast for all senses, was actually watching the spectacle, I was chatting in a corner with the chic and fab Christiane.
I swear, I love this woman!
Christiane, for those of you not quite in the know yet, is the genius authoress of The 99 Cent Only Store Cookbook! She is the perfect blend of brilliant and daring, darling and delectible, (the best sort of friends to have I say!) and I hope you will all check out her book the minute it hits the stores.
________________________
Find a 99 Cent Only store near you
The Hormel Company of Austin, Minnesota sold the first canned ham in 1926.
Carbonated soft drink canning began in 1940.Aluminum was introduced in metal can making in 1957. - Food Reference.com
So while everyone else at The Rock Goddess' ultra lux Oscars viewing party/feast for all senses, was actually watching the spectacle, I was chatting in a corner with the chic and fab Christiane.
I swear, I love this woman!
Christiane, for those of you not quite in the know yet, is the genius authoress of The 99 Cent Only Store Cookbook! She is the perfect blend of brilliant and daring, darling and delectible, (the best sort of friends to have I say!) and I hope you will all check out her book the minute it hits the stores.
________________________
Find a 99 Cent Only store near you
The Hormel Company of Austin, Minnesota sold the first canned ham in 1926.
Carbonated soft drink canning began in 1940.Aluminum was introduced in metal can making in 1957. - Food Reference.com
Labels: Books, Something Else
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Books: Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant
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The lovely people who published, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, by editor Jenni Ferrari-Adler, sent me a copy for review ages ago, and I have have been remiss in blogging about it. (Mostly because I savored it for so very, very long.)
Bad Rachael, no donut.
So to them, I offer my apologies, and to you my readers, I offer the opportunity to read a fantastic book.
The basic query Ms. Ferrari-Adler posed is, "What do you eat when you are alone?" And the answers are a collection of often touching, terribly hilarious, essays of beans-or-pasta-eating-over-the-sink-in-a-tiny-apartment brilliance. I loved it. It's like taking a peek into the secret lives of people, and learning we are all more alike than we think...
With some of my favorite authors contributing, and some reprinted classic food writing...it runs the gamut of emotions and is always charming and readable.
So next time you sit down to a meal alone (or daydream you may have the chance to do so), don't just stare at your plate, open this book, and devour it too.
The lovely people who published, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, by editor Jenni Ferrari-Adler, sent me a copy for review ages ago, and I have have been remiss in blogging about it. (Mostly because I savored it for so very, very long.)Bad Rachael, no donut.
So to them, I offer my apologies, and to you my readers, I offer the opportunity to read a fantastic book.
The basic query Ms. Ferrari-Adler posed is, "What do you eat when you are alone?" And the answers are a collection of often touching, terribly hilarious, essays of beans-or-pasta-eating-over-the-sink-in-a-tiny-apartment brilliance. I loved it. It's like taking a peek into the secret lives of people, and learning we are all more alike than we think...
With some of my favorite authors contributing, and some reprinted classic food writing...it runs the gamut of emotions and is always charming and readable.
So next time you sit down to a meal alone (or daydream you may have the chance to do so), don't just stare at your plate, open this book, and devour it too.
_______________________________
Interested in other blogger reviews of this book? Check out this, this and this!
Want to read an excellent book review in The East Hampton Star, written (the review that is) by Ms. Va-Voom herself? (Nothing about that is food related, I just am proud of my girl!)
According to a study, eggplant absorbs more fat in cooking than any other vegetable. When researchers deep-fried a serving of eggplant, they found that it absorbed 83 grams of fat in just 70 seconds—four times as much as an equal portion of potatoes—adding more than 700 calories. - Wellness Encyclopedia
Labels: Books
Monday, October 15, 2007
Books: Gluten Free Girl & a Recipe for Brussel Sprouts with Mustard
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Shauna; home cook, blogger, wife, possibly-obsessed but-who-am-I-to-judge-Beatles fan, friend, author...had her people send me a copy of her recently published book, aptly titled Gluten Free Girl. Boo-ya! I felt so special, lemme tell ya!
My very own copy was on the doorstep Friday morning and I pounced, tearing open the package and flipping immediately to the acknowledgement page, where I already knew I was mentioned. (It's just all about me, isn't it! Ha ha ha) Oh kids, I was so giddy.
And I am giddy because a woman I just simply adore wrote such a beautiful tome.
I really hope you will buy a copy. It's both informative, lovely, funny and loving. A good read all around I would say...
Now, as part of her "Virtual Book Tour." She asked me to write an essay (I guess its true! You can take the teacher out of the school, but you can't take the teacher out of the -gluten free- girl! Ha!) about my life as a Covergirl...wait, no, about my life as a Gluten Free Girl! (So much more food-centric!) I think the idea is to have different prospectives on how her book can affect different people...as shown by the bloggers she is having participate. Pretty cool, right?
Well, as you can all tell, I'm not Gluten Free...but I am a huge fan of her site, and incredibly sympathetic to restrictive diets. Oh man, am I ever. Vegan? Kosher? Peanut Allergies? Macrobiotic? Halal? Low Carb? Just plain not in to something? I get it. Why? Because that is your body. You choose what goes in it, and only you know what makes you tick, so who am I to tell you what to, or not to, eat? Nope, I'd just rather, (Much like Shauna) you get maximum pleasure out of what you DO eat, and not focus on what you don't. (Phew! Heavy!) All that and I will say this...please...less packaged food, more cooking, ya? Ya!
(Me, I can't eat bananas. Happily, they are rarely the secret ingredient in anything...except at Jamba Juice...those peeps love them some 'nanas...stick um in everything...wassup with dat?)
So in the spirit of Mrs. Ahern, I will post today an entirely gluten free recipe...because as she says, its not what isn't in it that makes it good...it's what is...and this recipe was created with love.
Try it, and enjoy!
Shauna; home cook, blogger, wife, possibly-obsessed but-who-am-I-to-judge-Beatles fan, friend, author...had her people send me a copy of her recently published book, aptly titled Gluten Free Girl. Boo-ya! I felt so special, lemme tell ya!My very own copy was on the doorstep Friday morning and I pounced, tearing open the package and flipping immediately to the acknowledgement page, where I already knew I was mentioned. (It's just all about me, isn't it! Ha ha ha) Oh kids, I was so giddy.
And I am giddy because a woman I just simply adore wrote such a beautiful tome.
I really hope you will buy a copy. It's both informative, lovely, funny and loving. A good read all around I would say...
Now, as part of her "Virtual Book Tour." She asked me to write an essay (I guess its true! You can take the teacher out of the school, but you can't take the teacher out of the -gluten free- girl! Ha!) about my life as a Covergirl...wait, no, about my life as a Gluten Free Girl! (So much more food-centric!) I think the idea is to have different prospectives on how her book can affect different people...as shown by the bloggers she is having participate. Pretty cool, right?
Well, as you can all tell, I'm not Gluten Free...but I am a huge fan of her site, and incredibly sympathetic to restrictive diets. Oh man, am I ever. Vegan? Kosher? Peanut Allergies? Macrobiotic? Halal? Low Carb? Just plain not in to something? I get it. Why? Because that is your body. You choose what goes in it, and only you know what makes you tick, so who am I to tell you what to, or not to, eat? Nope, I'd just rather, (Much like Shauna) you get maximum pleasure out of what you DO eat, and not focus on what you don't. (Phew! Heavy!) All that and I will say this...please...less packaged food, more cooking, ya? Ya!
(Me, I can't eat bananas. Happily, they are rarely the secret ingredient in anything...except at Jamba Juice...those peeps love them some 'nanas...stick um in everything...wassup with dat?)
So in the spirit of Mrs. Ahern, I will post today an entirely gluten free recipe...because as she says, its not what isn't in it that makes it good...it's what is...and this recipe was created with love.Try it, and enjoy!
2 pounds Brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved
pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 T. Dijon style mustard
2 t. brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
coarse black pepper
In a large pot, boil the Brussel sprouts, with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar until just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Drain immediately.
In a blender combine the rest of the ingredients, and blend to emulsify. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Toss the b-sprouts with the dressing and serve at room temp or cold.
Makes 6-8 servings.
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Many of the recipes on this site are gluten free...just click the labels to see!Info on Celiac.
Info on CVS. (I have that. Miserable business...)
Labels: Books, Gluten Free, Side-Dish, Vegan, Vegetarian
