Protein, Carbs, and Fats: Where Do You Get Yours?

Tuesday July 11, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Taking A Raw Vegan Diet on the Road

Tuesday June 13, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Malletts Creek Branch: Program Room

New Cookbooks

Sat, 04/01/2017 - 3:39pm by ballybeg

A quick perusal of the new bookshelf always yields a variety of unique and tempting cookbooks. Here is a random selection from this morning which caught my eye, with amazing pictures, tantalizing recipes, and explorations of food cultures.

Cook’s Illustrated All-Time Best Appetizers by the editors at America’s Test Kitchen. The chapter headings give you a very good idea of the variety: “wrapped & stuffed”, “sliced & stacked”, “spread & dipped”, “passed & plattered”, “in a bowl”. It all starts with a chapter called “getting started” (hey), which offers great information about cheese, crudites, beer, wine, assembling a menu. Recipes to try for sure: baked brie with honeyed apricots; carmelized onion, pear and bacon tarts; cocktail crab cakes with chipotle mayonnaise. Very fun and trendy.

Dinner at the Long Table by Tarlow & Dunn. A very creative, very hard to describe, and super classy collection from a group of restaurants in Brooklyn. The pictures are colorful, friendly, and artsy, and display the food and gatherings to supreme appeal. A sample of chapter headings reveals the unusual assortment and classification of recipes: “Afternoon around the fire”, “The night before a new year” “Under the harvest moon.” I am defintiely making the cassoulet recipe, a dish I have long wished to attempt, and a simply, lovely-looking salad called, “beets roasted until the end of time”, with oranges, yogurt, dates and pistachios. Combining great flavors is one of the secrets to great cooking.

What Good Cooks Know: 20 Years of Test Kitchen Expertise in one Essential Handbook also by America’s Test Kitchen. Everything about cooking here: “Outfitting your kitchen”, “Stocking your fridge and pantry”, “In the kitchen & at the stove”, “Putting it all together”. This is encyclopedic in scope and, since they have already tested everything down to the measuring spoons, they don’t shy away from making very specific recommendations for which brand of everything to buy and use. A complete cooking course, and an amazing resource, in 400 pages.

Far Afield: Rare Food Encounters From Around the World by Mitchell and Fisher. A far-flung tour of 10 food cultures, from Iceland to Kenya, Peru to Japan, with stories, recipes, and the most amazing pictures of people and their food. As much a travel documentary and anthropology treatise as cookbook. Take away: there are still lots of cultures living close to their food supply, and very traditional and amazing food-ways being practiced all over the globe, with local, organic ingredients, which celebrate food and community! This book is a feast for the eye.

French Macarons 101

Friday May 5, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Grade 6 - Adult

The Well Dressed Salad with Keegan Rodgers

Thursday May 18, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Secret Lab
Grade 6 - Adult

Holy Crêpe! With Keegan Rodgers!

Thursday March 30, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Grade 6 - Adult

In the kitchen with Julia

Thu, 01/19/2017 - 12:40pm by Lucy S

The French chef in America : Julia Child's second act

Alex Prud’homme, Julia Child's grandnephew, was the co-author with Child of My Life in France. In his new book, The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act, he picks up where that story left off. Prud’homme takes us from the beginning of Julia Child's television career to the last days of her life, and succeeds in delivering many tales that highlight the essence and esprit of Child, strong in her convictions, yet always playful. Prud’homme chronicles Child's many successes but also reveals the books, shows and recipes that weren’t an immediate hit. We journey with her from France to Cambridge, Massachusetts and back again many times, and are given an intimate look at her long, loving marriage to and partnership with Paul Child. Paul was responsible for many of the photographs in her books, including all of the photographs in The French Chef in America. We also learn of Child's longtime partnership with her editor, Judith Jones, of her friendship and collaboration with Simca Beck, of her friends in the business, like Jacques Pepin and James Beard, and many celebrity chefs who got their start under her tutelage, such as Sara Moulton and Emeril Lagasse. Julia Child worked until the end of her life, and in a particularly poignant passage, Prud’homme shares the story of the 93rd birthday party that she planned, but never made it to. Yet there were all her biggest fans, colleagues, friends and family members now gathered together, thanks to her, to celebrate her life.
Julia Child created an enduring legacy and helped pave the way for women in the culinary field. Alex Prud'homme has given us a wonderful glimpse into her enthusiasm and vitality and the many lives she touched. She greatly informed the way we eat and celebrate food today.

Cooking 101: Cooking Terminology

Thursday March 16, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Secret Lab
Grade 6 - Adult

How to Be a Healthy Raw Vegan

Tuesday May 9, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room

Special Valentine's Day Event: Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate w/ Keegan Rodgers

Tuesday February 14, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Grade 6 - Adult