Young library assistant working at my old high school (yikes right?). This blog is for sharing ideas, inspirations, and whatever else I feel like. Self proclaimed nerd, book lover, and history buff.
"The Little House books are stories of long ago. The way we live and your schools are much different now, so many changes have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong."
Celebrate #nationaltoastday with these tasty reads.
It seems only natural that most of food columnist Slater’s (Real Last Food) childhood memories are somehow connected to food. Rice pudding, Sunday
roasts, mince pies, and, of course, toast all played different roles in
Slater’s life growing up in 1960s England, but not all of those
memories were happy ones. Slater’s mother, who suffered from asthma and
eventually succumbed to it, never really enjoyed cooking but did love
her food-fussy son. Slater’s relationship with his father, who could be
both kind and cruel, became even more complicated when his father
remarried, and Slater’s new stepmother, a gifted cook with an obsession
for cleanliness, took over the kitchen. Slater’s spare, brutally honest
style of writing might not appeal to readers who prefer a cozier
culinary memoir, but his emotionally powerful story is sure to please
anyone who enjoys superbly written, food-flavored biographies, e.g.,
Jacques Pepin’s The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen or Ruth Reichl’s
Tender at the Bone . Originally published in Great Britain in 2003 and
winner of the British Book Award for Best Biography, Toast is highly
recommended for all public libraries.–John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ (LJ 8/15/04)
Artisanal toast, a culinary trend that elicits both skepticism and intrigue, inspired a segment on NPR’s This American Life and graced the January cover of Bon Appétit magazine. Given the media frenzy surrounding the topic, this toast cookbook from writer and bottarga producer Donenfeld (The Bangala Table)
is sure to be one of several forthcoming titles on the subject. After
introducing eight toasting methods (e.g., herb oven toasting, Parmesan
pan toasting) and a lone gluten-free bread recipe, the author presents
70 bread-based creations that can be served as breakfasts, snacks, hors
d'oeuvres, or light meals. Her inventive toast toppings—including smoked
trout and grapefruit, harissa scramble, and spice-roasted radishes and
mint feta yogurt—are primarily variants of fish, egg, or cheese on
toast, and they showcase a wide range of techniques (e.g., curing
salmon, making homemade ricotta). VERDICT Donenfeld’s thoughtful treatment of this trendy subject will please readers who love toast and crave crostini. (LJ 3/15/15)
