With fall approaching, I always start thinking about the great recipes I can prepare for cooler weather and the upcoming holidays.
I have my own favorite cookbooks and books about food, but I recently asked the staff of the Sequim Library to share theirs. I hope you enjoy their recommendations, below.
What’s more, it’s obvious that food has been on my mind lately, because I’m planning a new series of programs beginning in the fall called “Food for Thought.”
Each month, starting in October, the Sequim Library presents a program highlighting different food topics, such as cake decorating, cheese making, beer brewing, gluten-free eating, sustainable living, and, just in time for spring … vegetable gardening!
In the meantime, here are some of the Sequim Library’s staff favorites.
We’d love to hear about yours!
• Amber recommends: “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual,” by Michael Pollan.
Want to start eating healthier but not sure where to start? This little book is full of quick, fun tips on when, how and what you should be putting into your body. Pollan covers a large assortment of things that are put into foods that should be avoided such as high fructose corn syrup and foods that are advertised to be “lite” or “low fat.”
Also included is information on what foods Pollan suggests you should be eating, with my favorite being “Eat your colors,” and by that he doesn’t mean red dye #5, but those delicious colorful, organic vegetables that you can get from local farmers.
• Ambur recommends: “The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle,” by Tom Douglas.
I recently ate at Dahlia Lounge in Seattle on Fourth Avenue during a weekend getaway and was so pleased with my breakfast’s beautiful presentation and amazing flavor that, after taking a peek at the bakery case, I decided this may be one of my new favorite places to eat while in the city. I was very excited to check out the new Dahlia Bakery Cookbook from the library and find that it is full of delicious recipes, from breakfast sandwiches on homemade English muffins, to cookies, homemade doughnuts and whole fruit jams. James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Tom Douglas has 10 different restaurants in the Seattle area and four different cookbooks at NOLS, I recommend checking out all of them.
• Annie recommends: “The Sweet Potato Queen’s Big-Ass Cookbook (and financial planner),” by Jill Conner Brown.
With such fabulous calorie-filled recipes such as Heaven on a Cracker, Fatten-you-right-up Rolls & That Pumpkin Stuff Dorothy Makes, your mouth will be watering from the first page. Part cookbook, part humorous stories, this book will have you doubled over in laughter. As a bonus you’ll find financial tips scattered throughout the book such as “To save money on coffee filters just use a pair of underwear.”
• Lindy recommends: “The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook,” by Elana Amsterdam.
Whether gluten-free by choice or by necessity, this cookbook is a jewel. The author provides information about where to find or order the few unusual ingredients (blanched almond flour, grape seed oil and agave nectar). Other than that, the recipes are simplicity itself – I pretty much hate cooking, so if I can do it, anyone can! The desserts on the cover are scrumptious, but there also are recipes for main dishes, appetizers, crackers and a range of baked goods.
• Sheri recommends: “Deceptively delicious: simple secrets to get your kids eating good foods,” by Jessica Seinfeld.
Getting children to eat their vegetables is a common parenting struggle. This clever cookbook offers tasty recipes with the addition of vegetable purees. Recipes are nutritionist-designed and kid-approved. Everyone wins!
Find help here
Find these titles in the library catalog at www.nols.org. Or you always can stop by the library, call 683-1161 or e-mail sequim@nols.org if you have any questions. The Sequim Library is at 630 N. Sequim Ave. Bon Appétit!
Lauren Dahlgren is Sequim Library manager for the North Olympic Library System.
