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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
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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
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