Green Options

For days, the rain hasn’t stopped tumbling out of thick woolen clouds.  Slowly crawling across the monochromatic canopy, these persistent clouds wrap their heavy grey fingers tightly around the leafy crowns of the brilliant rain-soaked trees.  Even when I push back the patterned curtains as far as the window frame will allow, no light comes through the glass.  The sound of raindrops crashing against the rooftop is periodically punctuated by sharp jarring claps of thunder.

Outside, brave little seedlings are gasping for breath while new blossoms hold their eyes tightly closed against the rain.  Shoots of bright green grass struggle to keep their slim heads above water.  I see an orange cat dart across the street.  He struggles to maintain aloofness, but it is clear that the weather has taken a severe toll on his dignity.  The mail retrieved from the streetside box is soggy and lifeless, the adhesive on the envelopes succumbing to the humidity.  Even inside, newly washed clothes hang limply, moisture stubbornly clinging to the threads and fibers.

On a day like this, what better thing to do than to curl up with a book?  I just received a brand-new copy of Vegan Rustic Cooking Through the Seasons, authored by Diana White of the UK’s Vegan-Organic Network, an organization whose fascinating farming methods go a step beyond traditional organic farming.

Ecobrain, a green publishing company offers ebooks, the ideal green reading choice. Ebooks can be instantly downloaded to your desktop. Ecobrain has a series of ebooks that make ideal reading for Ecopreneurs.

EcoBrain.com offers thousands of other titles about or relating to the environment. Their genres include environment, sustainable living, cookbooks, biographies, kids’ books, how-to guides, green architecture titles, organic gardening, composting, fiction and more.

The irony of this post being put up on the same day as Stuart Stein’s Do Publishers Think We’re Stupid is not lost on me. But there are some of us who use our cookbooks regularly and do enjoy getting new ones. Or at least getting new-to-you ones.

I just got back from my county library used book sale, and there were two whole tables of used cookbooks with more boxes full of cookbooks under them. I promised to limit myself to only five cookbooks, and I anguished over my choices when there were so many to choose from. At $2 per hardback and $1 per softback, it would have been easy to buy every cookbook that caught my eye. But I restrained myself (plus I wasn’t buying just cookbooks).

If you’ve got a cookbook habit, or if you’re just tired of the same recipes you’ve been using for years and want to pick one or two new ones up, hitting a local library used book sale is a great idea for several reasons.

The people over at Slashfood turned me on to an article from the Wall Street Journal entitled Publishers Bet Big on Cookbooks. the gist of the article is that even though people maybe cutting back on luxuries like eating out, the tanking cookbook publishers are counting on all of us to buy their product - especially during the upcoming holiday shopping season. By the way, I hate to be the one to tell you this but there are only 69 shopping days left until Christmas.

My question is, Do publishers think we’re stupid?

Word on the street is that as the economy worsens, cookbook sales rise.  Isn’t that American?  Wouldn’t one think that cookbook check-outs at the library might go up instead?  Perhaps it has.  Chosen method of procurement aside, I’m not begrudging you the investment in a superior culinary tome–I spent too much time looking at one yesterday, although I was able to walk away without a purchase.  But I also already have a good library of cookbooks at my disposal that I’ve picked up over the years that allow me to cook great meals, from whole foods, in my own kitchen.  If you’re a fledgling home cook, or just someone looking to eat at home more to save a little money, here’s a list of comprehensive cookbooks, vegan, vegetarian, and meat-eater, that have proved themselves to me time and time again.

Ah, grassfed beef. Suddenly, it’s THE thing to eat. You’ve heard all about the complex flavor and the bonus of being able to find sustainable and filet mignon on the same plate. The moment has come. You carefully create your marinade or even just a salt and herb rub so you don’t hide the flavor. You’ve grilled a few steaks, you have your timing down. The perfectly seared finished filet hits your plate. You take that much anticipated bite. And …

It is bone dry. Overcooked. Gray.

Well, this whole grassfed beef thing is lousy, you say. I can’t eat that! What happened?

Shannon Hayes, author of The Farmer and the Grill, has your answer. Her latest book provides all the information you need to grill grassfed meats and poultry and avoid such disappointment when you transition to more sustainable meats.

Joel Salatin writes the book’s introduction:

As a quintessential devotee of pastured livestock, I am keenly aware that the most environmentally-progressive meat and poultry in the world will not sell unless the eater has a favorable dining experience. At the end of the day, taste and eating pleasure trump altruism every time. Healing the planet and keeping cancer at bay just don’t compare to the visceral bond connecting nose, palate, and pocketbook.

We’ve talked a lot about eating seasonally, for the taste, health, and environmental benefits. However, if you’re not a gardener or new to shopping the farmers’ markets, you might be unsure what’s available. For careful menu planners, this can be difficult. Wouldn’t it be easier if a cookbook was organized by season, offering recipes using produce commonly available during each of the four seasons?

Then my mom bought me Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert’s Simply in Season for Christmas this year. The concept seemed so logical, I couldn’t believe I didn’t already posses a cookbook organized by season. In fact, there are a few other seasonally-organized cookbooks, but my mom picked this up while they were on vacation this summer, knowing it would be right up my alley. She was right. This vegetarian/vegan-friendly tome is packed with recipes that are easy enough for most home cooks, even beginners, and look (and taste!) downright tasty. Right now, I’m planning both the Lemon Asparagus pasta and the Spring Quiche Trio for upcoming meals, and I’m positively salivating for June’s strawberries, so I can make the Strawberry Brunch Souffle

While I’m not a vegan, I’ve been a flexitarian for almost ten years. I do most of the cooking in our house, and we try to stay meat free as much as possible. Eating lower on the food chain is just better for our planet and our bodies, and I have a problem with the way industrial animal-based foods are produced. However, it’s easy to fall into a rut with what I cook in the house, particularly over the winter when local produce is virtually non-existent.

I’ve always been interested in vegan cooking, but I love cheese too much to give it any serious consideration. That is, until I found the Post Punk Kitchen online and subsequently received Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero’s Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook. Moskowitz and Romero are no strangers to cookbooks. Their Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World was a best-seller, and Moskowitz wrote the cult-fave Vegan With a Vengeance. Forget the brown rice/tofu vegan health food of the 70s: Moskowitz and Romero take vegan food, modernize it with a hipster edge, and make it appealing to any cook, not just vegan cooks, straight from their Brooklyn kitchens.