One of the food blogs that I read is 101 Cookbooks by San Francisco local Heidi Swanson. She also published a cookbook last year called "Super Natural Cooking", which I own, but until recently had not tried.
The inspiration behind 101 Cookbooks is near and dear to my heart:
The premise this site was built on is best summed up in two sentences: When you own over 100 cookbooks, it is time to stop buying, and start cooking. This site chronicles a cookbook collection, one recipe at a time.
101 Cookbooks started in early 2003 when I looked up at my huge cookbook collection one afternoon and realized that instead of exploring the different books in my collection - I was cooking the same recipes over and over. I seemed to buy a new cookbook every time I stepped out the front door - always with good intentions. I would regularly go through my collection of books and magazines and carefully tag each recipe that piqued my interest. I ended up with shelves full of books brimming with Post-it notes and drawers full of recipes clipped from my favorite magazines - neatly organized by course, flavor, region, or ingredient.
Those two paragraphs could have easily been written by me - I have at least that many cookbooks, but can never resist buying more. It really is no different than being addicted to porn - I pour over the glossy pictures of beautiful dishes in bed and sigh with pleasure over paragraphs describing the origin of food. And I need more, more, more!Turning to "Super Natural Cooking", I picked a few recipes and stocked up on groceries. I like that each one does not have too many ingredients, the prep time is reasonable, and the skill level required is minimal. She also loves walnuts as much as I do, so I can use them in multiple recipes. The photographs are gorgeous (Heidi is also a photographer), and the the text is very down to earth. Both the blog and the book feel like they could have been written by a friend, not by some celebrity chef who is out to prove himself. This is truly a book for the home cook who wants to explore the a more healthy lifestyle and incorporate whole grains and fresh produce into an everyday diet.
The following two posts are from the chapter entitled "Cooking by Color", which explores phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are basically plant nutrients which are meant to stave off disease and promote health, many of which are found in the vegetation with the richest and most vibrant color. (think of "beta-carotene" in carrots).
I'm looking forward to trying out many more recipes in this book - and, strangely enough, I feel like I have a new friend in the kitchen.
