The show’s host, Lynn Rossetto Kasper, is coming to Michigan as part of the book tour for her new book, How to Eat Supper. Kasper will prepare recipes from the book, assisted by culinary students from Schoolcraft College. Attendees can sample the food and ask questions of the author.

The event takes place on Saturday, May 10th at Schoolcraft College's Vista Tech Center in Livonia. Get more information at the Michigan Radio website.

Can’t make it to the demonstration? Check out the book and try some recipes at home!

A Benedictine nun from The Abbey of Regina Laudis, Sister Noella, The Cheese Nun, is an expert on cheese. A real expert -- she got her PhD in cheese chemistry. For field work, she travelled all through the various cheese-making regions of France, investigating and tasting the special "terroir" of cheese. This is the story of how she discovered that the diverse fungi from each locale account for the tastes and unique culture of cheeses. Perhaps you would try making some of your own. A cave makes it especially tasty, but is not required! Try Cheesemaking Made Easy or, for those who want to simply appreciate what they are tasting, Cheese: A Connoisseur'sGuide. For a quick start making mozzarella here is a recipe from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.

Actor, Cook, Food Writer, Madhur Jaffrey has accomplished a lot during her life (and is still going strong). Her memoir Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India bridges it all, giving us a look into growing up in India and, of course, a few recipes to bring India into your own home. Although the book was published in 2006, it is still gaining fans, with a recent mention on Splendid Table. Audio of that interview and an older one from KCRW's Good Food is below with links to the full shows.

Here is the audio of her interview on March 8, 2008 on the Splendid Table. You can listen to the entire show on the Splendid Table archives:

Here is the older October 14, 2006 interview on Good Food:

There's also an excerpt from the book and more interviews on npr.org.

If all the talk is making you hungry, AADL has plenty of Madhur Jaffrey's books to keep you occupied. There are also some recipes on BBC Food. Here are just a few of the books we have:

• Madhur Jaffrey's quick & easy Indian cooking
• From curries to kebabs : recipes from the Indian spice trail
• Indian Cooking
• Madhur Jaffrey's step-by-step cooking : over 150 dishes from India and the Far East, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia
• Madhur Jaffrey's world vegetarian
• A taste of India

A word of warning: some of the older cookbooks were before many of the traditional spices were readily available, so they make substitutions.

Good fat? You've probably heard the benefits of eating things like some fish that are high in Omega-3s. However, a recent study is finding that the typical North American diet is deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids, which may affect child development:

"The researchers found that the women who ate lots of meat and little fish were deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, and their babies didn't do as well on eye tests as babies from mothers who weren't deficient. The results were noticeable as early as two months of age. The study is ongoing as the researchers intend to follow the children's development until four years of age."

So what can we do? A new book by author Susan Allport called "The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them" gives an account of how our diets became deficient and what we can do to change them. The author was recently interviewed on the March 22, 2008 edition of Splendid Table. You can listen to the segment below (about 6 minutes long):

You can also listen to the full show at the Splendid Table archives. If her audio explanation isn't enough she has also prepared a video of why Omega-3s are important:

If you plan to stay home for Valentine's day and want to bake a decadent chocolate dessert for your sweetheart, look no further. The Library has special cookbooks filled with luscious chocolate dessert recipes. And check out our new Ann Arbor Cooks database which includes a Victorian chocolate torte and other tried and true recipies from local cooks.

Michael Pollan, author of the popular The Omnivore's Dilemma has written another highly persuasive book on what he considers eating well, i.e., "...Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, examines the question of what to eat based on what is healthy, not to his mind any packaged product that makes extraordinary claims about its health benefits. People generally eat what the brilliant marketers tell them is good to eat, says Pollan, not seeing beyond the multi-million dollar "food" business. Pollan also debunks, having done his homework, popular notions including the idea that dietary fat causes chronic illness. Here, Pollan's plea is, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

This week, two recent cookbooks from both ends of the spectrum, Veganomicon: the Ultimate Vegan Cookbook and The Bacon Cookbook, are sharing more than just shelf space at the library.

NPR's The Splendid Table features interviews with each of the cookbook authors. Listen to the program and see sample recipes from the books on the show's website. Choose from a vegan Asparagus Quiche or Bacon and Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles (or make both, omnivores!).

The European Union's in trouble! And with the World Trade Organization, no less. A deadline is looming for the EU to lift its ban on genetically modified foods (GMOs), affectionately called "frankenfoods." The EU says that the foods are dangerous. The United States, among others, thinks that the ban is just convenient way to protect EU farmers from competition. Thus, as any good American would do, the US government sued, via the WTO.

Europeans are deeply skeptical of GMOs, claiming that there are adverse health effects and the risk of contaminating other crops. Many people beg to differ, claiming that there is no evidence that GMOs are unhealthy. Ultimately, then, the debate boils down to whether, in a world where free trade among countries is the norm, an individual country has the right to block genetically modified foods from their markets.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways of dealing with GMOs than outright bans. Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, for instance, thinks producers should say whether a food GMO ingredients. But the question is, what do you think? Should the EU be able to ban genetically-modified foods? Should the US do the same? Should we label foods, as Kucinich suggests? Other thoughts?

If you’re trying to plan a holiday meal, but find yourself short on time, Nigella Lawson, has 130 quick recipes to help you out.

Listen to her recent Talk of the Nation interview and then check out Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast.

For a sneak preview, find a few of Nigella’s recipes on the NPR site.

The New Oxford American Dictionary 2007 word of the year is Locavore, meaning someone who eats locally grown food. We’re sure this year’s choice was based on the success of Slow Food Huron Valley and the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market in bringing local food to local folks in Washtenaw County. There are plenty of local food links, heirloom recipes and more at Ann Arbor Cooks, your one-stop locavore site.

Ann Arbor's own Jan Longone, curator of the Longone Culinary Archive at the William L. Clements Library makes an appearance today in the New York Times with A 19th Century Gost Awakens to Redefine Soul, about Jan's quest to uncover more information about Malinda Russell, author of "the earliest cookbook by an African-American woman that had ever come to light." The Ann Arbor District Library is one of the lucky recipients of a limited-edition facsimile of the only known copy of Mrs. Russell’s cookbook from the Longone Center. The Ann Arbor Cooks website provides digital access to a growing collection of heirloom local cookbooks.

Well it's that time of year. Time to start planing what to eat during the upcoming Holiday season. Click here for a list of library holiday cookbooks. One specific new book to consider is Paula Deens latest Christmas with Paula Deen which is to be reviewed on the Diane Rehm show on 11-28-2007. The library also subscribes to the magazine "Cooking with Paula Deen" at the downtown branch.

AADL is proud to present Ann Arbor Cooks, a new online database of local historical cookbooks and heirloom recipes, created in partnership with the Washtenaw County Historical Society, the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor Hadassah. The Washtenaw County Historical Society provided the core collection of cookbooks from their archives at the Museum on Main Street and will play a continuing role in enhancing the online collection with more items from their archives. Ann Arbor Cooks also presents a complete set of digital copies of Repast, a publication of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor. So dig in! You can search or browse the entire collection of recipies; read the cookbooks cover to cover; or send us recipes of your own.

Join us Downtown at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 25, for the premiere of Ann Arbor Cooks, our new online database of local historical cookbooks and heirloom recipes. On hand to introduce this new service will be the nationally-known (and always enjoyable!) heirloom cooking experts from New England, Marilynn and Sheila Brass, authors of Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters. This delightful evening includes a demonstration of Ann Arbor Cooks, a discussion of heirloom baking by the Brass sisters, and refreshments made by the Washtenaw County Historical Society from heirloom recipes. The Brass sisters will also sign their book, for sale at the event courtesy of Nicola's Books.