The Kitchen Reader - Season to Taste

This months Kitchen Reader selection is Season to Taste by Molly Birnbaum chosen my Katherine Martinelli

Season to Taste is the memoir of Molly Birnbaum who loses her sense of smell, amongst other traumas, after being hit by a car while running.  Now one may think, "Oh smell, I can live without smell!  "It's better then losing this, that or the other thing."  but for Molly it's a great loss.  Without smell, there is no taste, and Molly needs to taste (and smell) because her dream is to become a chef. 

The book takes you on a journey through her loss, and her quest to learn if there is any hope she will ever smell and taste again. 

I found Season to Taste to be more about the science behind our ability, or inability to smell than it is about food and/or cooking, and for that reason it was just OK for me.  I found myself skimming over the science looking to read more about how she coped without tasting food, when she did taste something, smelled something, etc.  I found myself rooting for her throughout the book, fingers crossed she'd be able to smell and taste again and eventually become a chef.   

No spoilers here.  You'll have to read it to find out what happens.


I give the book 3 out of 5 stars and would recommend it to those who like a good memoir.


Next months selection is:  Dinner Roles: American Women and Culinary Culture by Sherrie A Inness (chosen by Liz of enter with love into darkness)


P.S. I will not be participating with The Kitchen Reader every month (which you may have noticed), if you are interested in the book selections and the members reviews, you can visit the blog here.  However, I am going to try and participate when the book selection is one I haven't already read. 

Happy Reading!

Kitchen Reader - Blood, Bones and Butter

This months Kitchen reader pick is Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton chosen by Aileen from Pharmafoodie.

I'll start out by saying, I read this book quite some time ago and had to return it to the library so some of my review may not be completely accurate.  However, I do remember I enjoyed it.  One of my favorite types of books to read is a memoir and a memoir which includes food is a bonus (although this book has very little food in it compared to other memories such as Ruth Reichl's  Tender at the Bone)! 

Blood, Bones and Butter:

The story begins with Gabrielle's bohemian childhood, which includes parties full of delicious, homemade, and rustic food.  Spending nights outdoors under the stars and fetching beers and soda's for the guests from the stream in which they kept them to remain cold as ice.  I pictured myself living these scenes.  Although the author never really says why she choose food as a career I imagine it was from those experiences; watching her parent's cook, foraging mushrooms with her mom, eating foods many kids her age were not getting the opportunity to experience.  But I am only guessing.

Besides her childhood (before her parents divorce), my favorite scenes in her story were those she spends in Italy with her husbands family.  The landscapes, the foods, the gardens, love, love, love.  I longed to return there after reading her descriptions.  

However, this is not a book so much about food as it is about family, heartache, love, and relationships.  I wasn't inspired to cook or try a food I'v never had before because she describes it so deliciously, but it did make me feel as though I should value my family a little more.  Say I love you to my mom more often for not leaving me to fend for myself as a young girl and for being there each and everyday since.

If you enjoy memoirs, I recommend reading Blood, Bones, and Butter.

Kitchen Reader Review - My Life from Scratch

This months selection was My Life from Scratch by Gesine Bullock - Prado chosen by me.

My Life from Scratch is about a woman, Gesine Bullock - Prado who once worked in Hollywood and chose to leave the life that she felt was dragging her down to pursue her true love, baking.

I was so exited to read this book and was looking forward to getting a glimpse into the life of a baker, having not read one before.  Sadly, I was a bit disappointed.  I found Gesine self-absorbed and a bit standoffish.  I'm not sure how to describe what I felt each time she mentioned her sister is Sandra Bullock?  It did however make me wonder if she felt she needed her sisters fame to get her own?

Disappointment aside, I did laugh on occasion for some of her stories about her customers were quite funny!  I especially enjoyed the one about the little boy who wouldn't stop screaming his head off until he had a chocolate croissant!!!  (Maybe that's because I could feel her pain, ahem.)  Or the time she ate an entire bag of Oreos and the mayhem that ensued because of it!

I also loved reading about her time spent in Germany and the memories of her mother which were heartwarming and sincere.  Those are the words I crave when I read a memoir.  For me, there were not enough of them.

Gesine shares recipes at the end of each chapter and they are recipes that can not be missed!  I am a lover of sweets and am looking forward to making some if not all the recipes in this book.

First on my list is zuetschgendatschi.  Love, love, love plums . . . yummy!

image souce

Book selection for May:  Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, chosen by Stacy of Little Blue Hen. 

Kitchen Reader - My Life From Scratch

It's a very busy weekend for our family, A will have her first confession today and her First Holy Communion tomorrow.  We will busy celebrating most of the weekend so I will be back later tonight with my review of My Life from Scratch by Gesine Bullock - Prado.  Stay Tuned!

Kitchen Reader: Medium Raw

This months Kitchen Reader selection is Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain, chosen by Aileen of Pharma Foodie

Ah Anthony. . .   What can I say but that I love you.  As my good friends and husband know, Anthony, I like to call him Tony, is my #1 boyfriend.  Yes It's true I love him.  "We" fell in love in 2005 when I first laid eyes on him during an episode of No Reservations.  So that being said, there's no question I will probably love almost anything he writes.  

And Medium Raw was no exception.  

Once again he presents an insightful view of the culinary world. He writes about the changes that have taken place in the world of chefs and cooks, the restaurant business, and in his own life since writing Kitchen Confidential ten years ago.   

What I enjoyed reading the most were the little anecdotes about his daughter.   His love for her is truly touching and genuine.  I smiled the entire time he discusses how he and his wife have tricked their little girl into believing that Ronald McDonald has the cooties and it's best to never eat at his restaurants.  HA!  I wish I thought of that before I had kids!!

Oh and if you really, really like to eat meat you may not want to read chapter 9, page 97, paragraph 3 (it has scarred me for life).  I won't discuss it here for you may run screaming down the street and that will just ruin your night and I really don't want to be responsible for that.

Would I recommend this book to others?  Yes I would.  I love his writing style, his attitude, and his sense of humor.  Although if you are faint at heart this book may not be for you, for it is full of foul language and some raunchy sexual innuendos/content.  

Stay tuned for next months selection, My Life from Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting Over, One Cake at a Time by Gesine Bullock-Prado, chosen by me!

Sunday Sweets and The Kitchen Reader

Chocolate Crinkle - Top Cookies

This week I'm combining Sunday Sweets and The Kitchen Reader.

The cookies we made this week are my all time favorite cookie to make during the Christmas Holiday.  Many years ago while I was working with a group of toddlers, Nicholas's moms made me a batch of these cookies and they were so darn good I asked her for the recipe.  She wrote it down for me and I have made them every year since.  I believe it's going on 12 years now!  

I realized some years later that these cookies are in many cook books, but that first time I ate one I thought they were so different than anything I had before and they were unique to me.  Years later I saw them in two of the cook books I had collected.   

Anywho, I love them!

As for The Kitchen Reader, this months "assignment" was not to read a book but to post our favorite Holiday recipe.  When I read we were to post about our favorite holiday recipe, Chocolate Crinkle-Top Cookies were the first thing that came to my mind, not the roast beef or the mashed potatoes, no it was the delicious chocolate cookies.

I let the kids roll them into balls and then into the powdered sugar.  They mad them humongous!

As always - Delicious!

Finally!

I'm done!  I finished my assignments (not exams, I stand corrected) before they were due.  I sent them in and now I can relax for a bit.  I'm looking forward to reading my book for The Kitchen Reader, sewing a child's smock for my God Daughter for Christmas (we'll see how that goes, yikes!), and completing a few coffee cozies for the kids bus drivers and teachers for Holiday gifts.  I'll have time to show you pictures of the scrapbooks I made last weekend, and get back to my little surprise.  


For now, I'm going to shut down the computer, because I'm sure if it had feelings this is how it would feel....

and spend time with the kidlets, now that I have some time to pay attention to them!  It's a half day today so we'll have some extra time together.  

Have a splendid day and I'll back tomorrow, I hope!