California Gardens - Cookbook Reviews

Reviews of a Few of our Favorite Cookbooks

I am addicted to cookbooks. I keep them under my pillow so I can dream about future meals. I load my shelves with them, until the shelves literally fall off the wall (though that may say more about my dad's construction abilities...).

These are a few of my favorites, the books I cook from and drool on the most.

The Perfect Scoop
By David Lebovitz

I don't believe a day is complete without a scoop of ice cream for dessert. In this book David Lebovitz, formerly of Chez Panisse, explores ice cream flavors from Vanilla to Sweet Potato. There is also a great section on the basic ingredients so you can understand how ice creams work and what each component brings to the table.

Chez Panisse Fruit

By Alice Waters

This book is a great resource on seasonality. There are recipes for fruits ranging from the familiar apple, to the more unexpected loquat. There is also a description of seasonality and how to tell if each fruit is ripe.

Bittersweet

By Alice Medrich

You may think I'm crazy to review this cookbook on a gardening website since it is all about chocolate. For one thing, I am crazy about chocolate. This book lived under my pillow for several months as I dreamed about eating each recipe. But it is the section on "Chocolate for Dinner" that led me to review it here. Recipes such as Asparagus with Prosciutto and Cocoa Nibs and Roasted Squash Soup with Cocoa Bean Cream dare the home cook to use chocolate outside of dessert.