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Book Review: Canning goes Back to Basics for beginners

This time of year always seems to turn in to a game of pass the produce. Your neighbor has too many tomatoes. Your friend gets extra cucumbers in her CSA. And every week, your co-worker tries to pawn off a basket of his peppers. There are worse problems to have. This year, instead of saying no — or continuing to pass the goods down the line to other friends — pick up a new skill for this plethora of produce, and learn to can. Canning is the next natural extension of our increasing national awareness of eating fresh, healthy and local. Grandma knew canning could feed her family healthy meals all year long, and what’s old usually becomes new again. Canning — much like knitting (can you believe it?) — is back on the scene. But between tools, temperatures and safety measures, the age-old practice can leave first-timers at a loss (and wishing Grandma was still…

“How to Taste” handbook is a game changer for home cooks

Perhaps the best handbooks are the ones we didn’t know we needed. If you’ve ever wondered why your dinner turned into a disaster, or you think salt is the savior of all your culinary problems, Here to Taste ($17.99, 240 pages) is here to help. Everyday, home cooks fiddle in the kitchen without really understanding why we do the things we do — some spices here, hotter temperatures there. But are these decisions really making our food the best it can be? There’s a lot that goes into the underlying principles of flavorful food, and certainly most of us wouldn’t have time to research it all (I mean, that sounds fun and all…). But you’ll be thankful that author Becky Selengut made this her mission as well as the focus of her latest book, How to Taste. Her approach to writing includes just the right about of geeky food science, laugh-out-loud humor, and aha moments on every page to keep your attention and make you…

‘Fresh Tastes’ makes everyday cooking, entertaining uncomplicated

Here’s one way to spot a cookbook you’ll actually use: Short lists of ingredients. And if you can get all of those ingredients at any well-stocked supermarket, chances are good you have yourself a keeper. But don’t be fooled. Easy, common ingredients aren’t an advertisement for simple flavors. They’re just an author doing her due diligence to make sure her recipes actually get used by home cooks. At least, that’s what cookbook author Lee Clayton Roper says of her second cookbook Fresh Tastes. I spoke to Roper about her motivation behind the cookbook — a follow up to her first, A Well-Seasoned Kitchen. But talking about one cookbook inevitably leads to talking about the other, as well. “She couldn’t remember who the president was or what day of the week it was, but she could remember her recipes,” said Roper of her mother, the inspiration for her entry into the world of cookbook writing. “The…