Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader
Author: Jan Karon
Millions of Mitford fans around the world will agree—it's easy to put on a poundor two reading a Mitford novel. Scene after scene of the bestselling series' colorful characters enjoying tantalizing dishes can immediately start a craving. Then, before you know it, you've read several pages by the glow of the refrigerator lightbulb.
Packed with more than 150 recipes from the Mitford novels and from the author's own recipe box, Jan Karon's Mitford Cook-book & Kitchen Reader is loaded with tips, hints, jokes, culinary quotes, and delightful side-dish sidebars guaranteed to start a stomach rumbling. From Miss Sadie's Apple Pie to Puny's Cornbread, from Emma's Pork Roast to Marge's Sweet Tea with Peppermint, beloved characters come alive through their own favorite recipes. Here, too, are Karon's reminiscences of her own family's food traditions and—as dessert—four stories never before published in her books.
Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader is a charming companion to the Mitford series that will have readers clamoring to bring into their own kitchens the aromas and flavors that swirl within the little town with the big heart.
Author Biography: Jan Karon writes "to give readers an extended family and to applaud the extraordinary beauty of ordinary lives."
Publishers Weekly
"Food is a great way of communicating," says Mitford series author Karon in her charming cookbook brimming with comforting recollections, quotations, homespun kitchen wisdom and more than 150 mouthwatering recipes for foods that have appeared in the author's books. Characters in Karon's close-knit Mitford, N.C., community often get into challenging situations, and foods rich with Southern-influenced flavors of hearth and home are always close by: Marge's Deep-Dish Apple Pie, Father Tim's Beef Tenderloin, Cynthia's Lemon Squares and Uncle Billy's Sweet Potato Pie. Karon includes full-flavored classics like Louella's Cinnamon Rolls, Lottie Greer's Fried Chicken and Country Biscuits, Cynthia's Lasagna, Puny's Macaroni and Cheese, and Lew Boyd's Chocolate Cake, all with nary a calorie counted. There's even a recipe for dog biscuits and one for creating a "Christmas Smell" right from the stovetop. What makes this cookbook distinctive is that fans are treated to the exact scenes in Karon's stories where each dish was enjoyed. There's also a bonus Mitford story and recipes inspired from Karon's upcoming novel, along with plenty of sage cooking advice from how to season an iron skillet and stock a spice cabinet to pointers on saying grace and a rumination on the meditative effects of washing dishes by hand. Uncomplicated ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions will afford cooks, guests and fans plenty of time to savor the generous novel excerpts from the author's inspirational work. Color photos. (On sale Oct. 25) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Table of Contents:
New interesting book: Coaching and Mentoring Skills or Fundamental Financial Accounting Concepts
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
Author: Mark Kurlansky
The codfish. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it, and the settlement of North America was driven by it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious than gold. Indeed, the codfish has played a fascinating and crucial role in world history.
Cod spans a thousand years and four continents. From the Vikings, who pursued the codfish across the Atlantic, and the enigmatic Basques, who first commercialized it in medieval times, to Bartholomew Gosnold, who named Cape Cod in 1602, and Clarence Birdseye, who founded an industry on frozen cod in the 1930s, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs, and of course the fishermen, whose lives have interwoven with this prolific fish. He chronicles the fifteenth-century politics of the Hanseatic League and the cod wars of the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. He embellishes his story with gastronomic detail, blending in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present.
And he brings to life the cod itself: its personality, habits, extended family, and ultimately the tragedy of how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.
From fishing ports in New England and Newfoundland to coastal skiffs, schooners, and factory ships across the Atlantic; from Iceland and Scandinavia to the coasts of England, Brazil, and West Africa, Mark Kurlansky tells a story that brings world history and human passions into captivating focus.
Publishers Weekly
No fish story, this is a sapient and vivid chronology of the immense impact and influence the cod fishing industry has had on the human race. The cod fish has played a major role in the economics, sustainability and diplomacy of many countries and societies throughout history, explains Kurlansky (A Continent of Islands). Kurlansky effectively weaves philosophical thought with facts and vignettes on the history of the various cod fishing enterprises that have emerged and faded through the ages. Wars over fishing territories and rights have plagued cod fishing ever since humans took to the sea, and Kurlansky traces these hostilities through short history lessons that are easily absorbed and understood. Personal quotes and cod recipes from slaves, kings, diplomats, fisherman and noted scholars such as Thoreau and Kipling cast a glistening view of the grasp this fishing industry had on society. The book's final section, A Cook's Tale: Six Centuries of Cod Recipes describes the use and preparation of cod from the days of the Vikings through the 1900s. Complete with a detailed bibliography, this remarkable and informative volume should net any number of happy readers.
Library Journal
In this New York Times best seller, Kurlansky gets us to look at the lowly cod in a whole new light. Search for the lucrative codfish played a key role in the development of the New World. Britain allowed the Colonies to trade with third parties-a milestone on the road to independence-due to a superabundance of cod. We also hear about the evolution of fishing technology that is so successful that cod have come close to extinction and the effect of the 200-mile limit. Moreover, the author relates marvelous Basque, French, British, and New England cod recipes from the last 500 years. Richard Davidson narrates this exceptionally informative and entertaining work.-James L. Dudley, Westhampton, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
In this engaging history of a "1000-year fishing spree," Kurlansky (A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny, LJ 1/92) traces the relationship of cod fishery to such historical eras and events as medieval Christianity and Christian observances; international conflicts between England and Germany over Icelandic cod; slavery, the molasses trade, and the dismantling of the British Empire; and, the evolution of a sophisticated fishing industry in New England. Kurlansky relates this information in an entertaining style while providing accurate scientific information. The story does not have a happy ending, however. The cod fishery is in trouble, deep trouble, as the Atlantic fish has been fished almost to extinction. Quoting a scientist from the Woods Hole Biological Laboratory, Massachusetts, Kurlansky notes that to forecast the recovery of the cod population is to gamble: "There is only one known calculation: `When you get to zero, it will produce zero.'" Highly recommended for all general collections.
--Mary J. Nickum
Los Angeles Times
An elegant brief history...related with brio and wit.
NY Public Library
One of the 25 best books of the year.
Kirkus Reviews
Cod—that whitest of the white-fleshed fish, prize of every fish-and-chips establishment—gets expert, loving, and encyclopedic handling from Food and Wine columnist Kurlansky (A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry, 1994, etc.). There was one very good reason that tenth-century Vikings made it to the New World: Norway to Iceland to Greenland to Canada, they followed the exact range of the Atlantic cod. When explorers pushed off European shores in search of Eldorado, others made straight for the cod fisheries of the North Atlantic; the codfishers got by far the better results. Writing with a bright, crisp, journalistic flair, Kurlansky situates the cod in all its historic glory: the mysteries of the early Basque fisheries, the role of Catholic lean days in generating a profitable market, and the rise of the codfish aristocrats. The fish ascended from a commodity to a fetish: on coins, newspaper mastheads, tax stamps, official crests and seals. The author explains how a cod run could determine an entire regional economy and how salt cod figured in slave trading. Then came the steam engine and frozen food, changing the face of a dory-and-schooner fishing practice that hadn't seen a makeover in eons. The revolution wreaked havoc on the marketplace and just plain wrecked the bank fisheries. Territorial boundaries; the complexities of marine ecology; old, annotated recipes for preparing cod; place portraits of Gloucester, Mass., and Newlyn, England; and the current moratorium on cod fishing—Kurlansky sketches them all in his effort to compose this smart biography of the famous groundfish. Will the cod come back? Kurlansky demurs; maybe itsplace will be usurped by the ratty Arctic cod: "Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us."
What People Are Saying
David McCullough
A book of pure delight.
Table of Contents:
Prologue: Sentry on the Headlands (So Close to Ireland)..............1PART ONE: A FISH TALE
PART TWO: LIMITS
PART THREE: THE LAST HUNTERS
A COOK'S TALE: SIX CENTURIES OF COD RECIPES........................235
Bibliography.......................................................277
Acknowledgments....................................................283
Index..............................................................284
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