#MIDDLEBURY
By DONNA HINE
Editor’s Note: We are very grateful for the contributions Donna Hine has made to the newspaper over the years. We hope our readers will let her know how much they have appreciated her efforts. We also apologize for the incorrect headline on the print version of this article.
It has been 9 to 10 years since I wrote my very first Library Lines column for the Bee-Intelligencer – a column about cookbooks. After 20 years, I will be retiring from the Middlebury Public Library on Aug. 2 and so this will be my last column. Fittingly enough, it is about our newest cookbooks. It feels like this completes a circle and is just the right way to end a much-loved part of my job.
The first book that jumped to view was “Minimalist Baker’s Everyday Cooking: 101 Entirely Plant-Based, Mostly Gluten-Free, Easy and Delicious Recipes” (641.5 SHU) by Dana Shultz. Twenty years ago, we had never even heard of gluten-free cooking! This is a great basic starter book if you would like to try gluten-free and/or vegan foods. From Thai Quinoa meatballs to one-bowl jumbo chocolate chip cookies, every recipe will tempt your appetite.
How can we not look at a cookbook entitled “Pontifical Swiss Guard Presents The Vatican Cookbook” (641.5 GEI)? Written by David Geisser, Erwin Niederberger and Thomas Kelly, this unique collection celebrates Vatican life and art. Now I know how to make Dulce de Leche (look on page 39!). Some are familiar recipes (wiener schnitzel and pierogi) while others (Regensburg sausage salad for example) I know I would never make at home – but who knows? Maybe someone will ask for it some day!
I’ve already copied the recipe for “Farmer’s Market Tomato, Eggplant and Zucchini Casserole” on page 49 of “Weightwatchers Family Meals: 250 Recipes for Bringing Family, Friends and Food Together” (641.5 WEI). Sweet ‘n Spicy Drumettes also will appear soon on our table. This cookbook makes eating healthy easy and yummy, and cooking for family is always like giving a gift.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s third cookbook is “It’s All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes for the Super-Busy Home Cook” (641.5 PAL). These are simple, no-frills, healthy recipes that kids especially will love. Learn how to make Taquitos (anything finger-food is great!), chicken piccata, and my favorite – “zoodles” – zucchini noodles cut from a spiralizer and mixed with homemade pesto – yum. The more I looked through this book, the more recipes I had to copy! That is the problem with writing about cookbooks: the many recipes I find I just have to make!
Smart Macros “Low Carb Cookbook” (641.5 SMA) is a good, basic and simple way to start eating low carb. You will learn how to count carbs instead of calories and portion your servings by using the size of your fist (certain allowed veggies rate two fistfuls!). I wish the photos were in color, but use your imagination and give them a try. I’ve been eating low carb for quite a while now and find the foods to be filling and the variety of foods not too difficult to adhere to. These recipes are given with step-by-step instructions and calorie as well as carbohydrate counts – very helpful. Some seem a little high in carbs, but they can be adjusted.
Happy cooking!
