Cookbook Review: Simply in Season
Review by Meghan Mast
Eating locally and cooking from scratch are beautiful ideas, but when it comes to doing both of these things, some instruction is helpful. Simply in Season, the third in a trilogy of World Community Cookbooks is just the solution for successful from-scratch, local eating.
The book itself is a genuine community effort with a collaboration of more than 450 contributors from around the world sending in 1, 600 recipes. Each recipe was tested by individuals at small groups and church potlucks. Others provided anecdotes, tips and interesting facts to accompany the recipes.
In a refreshingly simple approach, Editors Lind and Hockman-Wert begin the book with a guide to fruits, veggies and herbs that for each includes a picture, description, nutrient information, serving suggestions and instructions on selection, storage and preparation.
After covering the basics, the book delves into tantalizing recipes for spring, summer, fall winter and all seasons. These palate-pleasing dishes advertise through catchy names like the Golden Glow Melon Freeze, Velvety Vegetable Soup, Secret Chocolate Cake and Poultry Pasta Primavera.
To encourage healthy eating, the recipes make no mention of processed food, but instead feature real foods such as fruits, vegetables and herbs with some meat and carbohydrates.
Along with promoting healthy eating, Simply in Season aims to connect consumers with the farmers who produce the food. Commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee, an organization committed to justice, the cookbook sends a message that the choices we make about what we eat have a local as well as a global impact.
This dynamic cookbook with a conscience will wake up yawning palates and get bored chefs off of the couch and into the kitchen!
