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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2000)
(Cta binò (Dhsevuer Focus In Print Artisan Baking Across America B\ M aggie G lezer A rtisan P vblishinc : 2000 Bread, such a simple word. It conjures up many vivid and com fortable taste memories, yet it often seems so daunting in its process that this soul satisfying substance remains out o f reach to many o f us. Until now. Enter, Maggie Glezer, a uniquely qualified, totally obsessed, certified baker who teaches and writes about bread. For her first book, “Artisan Bak ing Across America: The Breads, The Bakers, The Best Recipes.” Maggie set o ff across the country in pursuit o f the best breads and re turned with a collection o f wonder ful and unique recipes adapted for the home kitchen and all catego rized from “Breads for Beginners” and"Breads Completed In One Day” to t he expected categories o f ‘Sweet Breads, Rolls, and Small Breads” and “Good Breads to Send as Gifts.” M aggie’s thoughtfulness and vi sion make it easy for the accom plished baker and satisfyingly man ageable for the novice. Her introductory chapter, “Bak ing Basics” is a touchstone. She covers everything from ingredients and equipment to techniques. And. she encourages new bread bakers to reread her “Baking B asics” throughout the process o f follow ing a recipe. One ofher most encour aging lines is “Success is a poor teacher.” She talks about adjust ments to recipes, even seasonal changes. All the while, her confi dent voice encourages the reader to get into the kitchen and have a good time. With recipes such as Gem elli’s Pizza Margheriat, Dutch Regalle's Rum Stollen, Gray Grist M ill’s Thin Hot Sour Salty Sweet A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia A rtisan : 2000 Award-winning authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid followed the river south, as it flows through the mountain gorges o f southern China, to Burma and into Laos and Thailand. Fora while the right bank o f the river is in Thailand, but then it becomes solely Lao on its way to Cambodia. Only after three thou sand miles does it finally enter Viet nam and then the South China Sea. It was during their travels that Alford and Duguid - who ate tradi tional foods in villages and small towns and learned techniques and ingredients from cooks and market vendors - came to realize that the local cuisines, like those o f the Medi terranean, share a distinctive culi nary approach: Each cuisine bal ances, with grace and style, the re gional flavor quartet o f hot, sour salty, and sweet. This book, aptly titled, is the result o f their journeys. The book’s more than one hun dred seventy-five recipes for spicy Johnny Cakes, Craig Ponsford’s Ciabatta, B runo’s Pandora and A cm e’s Cinnamon Currant Bread with Walnuts, it’s no wonder that those with a passion for great bread will find the recipes in this book impeccably presented. ì November 22, 2000 - Page 7 Blackbird A Childhood Lost and Found Bv J ennifer L auck P ocket B ooks : 2000 The house on Mary Street was home to Jennifer; her older b ro th er B .J.; th eir hardworking father, who sm elled like aftershave and read her “ Snow W hite” ; and their mother, who called her little daugh ter Sunshine and em b raced Jack ie K ennedy’s sense of sty le . T hrough a child’s eyes, the skies of Carson City were forever blue, and life was perfect - a world o f B arb ies, “ B e witched,” and the Beatles. Even her mother’s pain from her mysterious illness could be p a tte d aw ay w ith hairspray, powder, and a kiss on the cheek...But soon, ev erything Jennifer has come to love and rely on begins to crumble, sending her on a roller coaster o f loss and loneliness. In a world un salsas, welcom ing soups, grilled meat salads, and ex otic desserts are accompa nied by evocative stories about places and people. The recipes and stories are gor geously illustrated through- ( out with more than one hun dred fifty full-color food and travel photographs j. T A hinged by tragedy, where beautiful mothers die and families are warped by more than they can bear, a young girl must transcend a land scape of pain and mistreat ment to discover her richest resource: her own unshak able will to survive. A T \OH Vs * * * * Delicious Pub Fare Weekly Specials Handcrafted Ales & Wines 8203 N Ivanhoe Street • Portland • (503) 283-8520 www.mcmenamins.com Food, ales a n d wines available to go.
