Weekend Cooking: 4 New Cookbooks (Mini-Reviews)

Happy Saturday. Hope you're all doing well. Today I'm writing about four cookbooks that have crossed my desk this month. Before I get into my mini-reviews, note that yesterday I wrote about two food-related topics, so you might want to take a look.

The first book I'm featuring is How to Make Hard Seltzer by Chris Colby (Brewers Publications; Sept. 7). I am not a home brewer of anything, nor do I plan to become one, but hard seltzer is becoming more popular and I was curious about how it was made. This book is a detailed how-to, including information on ingredients, formulas for brewing, flavorings, and equipment. There's a section on government regulations and an appendix for first-time brewers. The only chapter I'll be using is the one on making cocktails using hard seltzer. If you're curious about the process or want to try fermenting on your own, this looks like a good resource.

Next up is The Intermittent Fasting Cookbook by Nicole Poirier (Fair Winds Press; Oct. 6). Intermittent fasting seems very trendy or faddy, but in fact many medical professionals recognize its benefits. Poirier, a chef with an eye toward nutritional healing and with clients from the upper echelons of the Silicon Valley, has years of experience helping others figure out what and and when to eat. This book describes intermittent fasting, providing medical evidence to back up the suggested programs. The recipes are specifically geared to replace and replenish nutrients needed by those who practice fasting, whether that's for a specific number of hours a day or on alternate days. Poirier provides charts, quizzes, and food lists to help you figure out what to eat to meet your goals and conditions, such as weight loss, controlling diabetes, and staving off inflammation. The recipes fit a variety of dietary preferences (omnivores, keto, gluten free, dairy free, etc.), are easy to make, and don't feel at all restrictive.

We made a tuna chickpea salad for lunches and chimichurria flank steak and a vegan eggplant and tomato dish that were super tasty for dinners. I learned new things about intermittent fasting and really liked the recipes we tried, but I suggest that your check this one out the library before buying.

If you've been around for my Weekend Cooking posts, then you know how much I have struggled with lunches in the past. Now that Mr. BFR has retired and I've started slowing down my workload, lunches have become kind of a thing. Sometimes we even eat lunch together! However, if we don't have leftovers from dinner, I have no clue what to eat for lunch, especially because we're not big on sandwiches. Enter the next two cookbooks.

Let's Fix Lunch by Kat Nouri (Chronicle; Sept. 15) is all about (according to the subtitle), fixing planet-friendly meals that can be eaten at school, work, or on the go. If you do, indeed, pack lunches, you'll find plenty of advice for containers and the process of packing. I appreciate the information on how to prep ahead and the chart explaining how to put together lunches from that prepped food. The salads, soups, grain, and pasta dishes look good, but weren't particularly unique. I may turn to this book if I need to pack lunches for hikes and adventures and travel (as soon as we feel safe), but I currently recommend this as a borrow instead of a buy.

I've always been fascinated by bento and wish I had the energy and creativity to make pretty boxes for our lunches. Alas, I'm a lazy cook and I rarely make the effort. Bento (Race Point Publishing; Sept. 1) is the second book I've taken for review by authors Yuko and Noriko. (See my review of their Simply Bento.) As with their earlier book, I was inspired by Yuko and Noriko. I love how pretty and well put together their bentos are. The noodle dishes are particularly appealing (maybe because they are all in one?). Mr. BFR was eyeing up the meatball bentos, and I think I'll give them a try as we get into fall. The 10-minute bentos looked doable as did many of the vegan versions. Still, I know myself, and despite how Instagram-worthy the photos and boxes are, I'm sure I'll ultimately fail to follow through. The recipes and information are solid, so if you're into bento or want to know more, this is a good resource.

As we head into October, I'll have a ton of terrific new cookbooks to share with you. I can't wait to get cooking, now that the temperatures have started to drop.

Shared with Weekend Cooking, hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker)

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Weekend Cooking: Visual Guide to Easy Meal Prep by Erin Romeo

Let's talk meal prep: Are you a fan? Have you tried it but failed? Is the concept new to you? No matter where you are on the meal prep spectrum, Erin Romeo's The Visual Guide to Easy Meal Prep (Race Point, Aug. 6) is here to help you.

Meal prep is great for busy people and busy families because it cuts down on your kitchen time, allows you to feed people who are on different schedules, saves your family from grabbing fast food, eases up the morning rush, and guarantees a nutritious lunch. Another bonus? The premeasured portions make it harder to overeat.

Romeo is a nutrition coach who helps clients jump on the meal prep bandwagon. She's written for a number of online sites (such as Shape.com and BuzzFeed) and has a fabulous Instagram gallery (@foodprepprincess).

In Easy Meal Prep, she details her five steps to becoming a meal prep pro. Step one is choosing the right containers and step five is portioning out the food and packing it. In between you'll shop, clean and cut the food, and cook. Romeo's tips help you pick the right kinds of containers and stock your kitchen with the proper tools. More important, she provides lists of prep-friendly foods.

The recipes are broken down into breakfast, mains (lunch and dinner), snacks and sides, and dressings/dips and sauces. Romeo gives you plenty of advice on how to put together a meal plan for the week, whether you prep all in one go or prefer two prep sessions. The recipes are really easy to put together and use ingredients most of us are familiar with. Each one comes with advice for storing and for reheating (or eating) the meal. No more guesswork on what do with all those meals you made.

Easy Meal Prep is all about cooking ahead for the week. This isn't a once-a-month plan or a stock-your-freezer plan. Everything is fresh and is meant to be eaten by week's end. To get you started with your own plan, Romeo offers four sample weeks, each with a different diet plan: low-carb, vegetarian, gluten free, and dairy free. These are meant to give you ideas of how to put together your own meal plan.

So what kinds of recipes will you find? Most will be familiar to you in a general sense (waffles, stuffed sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables), but Romeo takes your favorite foods and makes them meal prep doable. Egg sandwiches and overnight oats for breakfast; baked salmon, lentil bowls, and chicken wraps for mains; granolas and smoothies for snacks; and avocado aioli and fresh salsa to perk things up.

The food in Easy Meal Prep is very family friendly and office friendly. Better yet, all the dishes get high marks for nutritional value, and Romeo has not forgotten those of you on special diets. Many of you will appreciate the number of dishes that can be eaten cold, so if you don't always have access to a microwave at work, you're in luck. Of course there are plenty of heartier dishes that can be reheated for dinners and winter nights.

Recommendations: Erin Romeo's The Visual Guide to Easy Meal Prep is perfect for people who are too tired to cook after work but still want a homemade, healthful meal. It's also great for anyone who eats lunch at work or school and wants an alternative to the cafeteria or lunch cart. If I had kids, I'd be making breakfast meal preps every Sunday. Anything to bring some peace to the morning dash to school.

If I had to find a negative, it's that this kind of meal prep doesn't allow for a lot of variety during the week. If that matters to you, Romeo offers some advice for changing up flavors. On the other hand, the convenience may be just what you need for a stress-free life. Personally, I'm more interested in make-ahead lunches than the other meals because I look forward to cooking to dinner most nights.

Note: The scans from Easy Meal Prep and the recipe are used here in the context of a review. All rights and copyrights etc. remain with the original copyright holder. Thank you to Quarto Group for the digital galley of the cookbook.

Hummus
Yield: 6 portions
Prep time: 10 minutes

Once you have this simple recipe down, experiment with ingredients like roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, curry, or cumin. If you don’t have tahini, try substituting natural almond butter.

• 1 can (15 ounces, 425 g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 3-5 tablespoons (45-75 ml) fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (25 g) tahini
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt of choice
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

Place all the ingredients in a blender (in the order they are listed) and blend until smooth.

Equally divide the hummus into 6 small containers. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

NOTE: Mr. Linky sometimes is mean and will give you an error message. He's usually wrong and your link went through just fine the first time. Grrrr.
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Weekend Cooking: Simply Bento by Yuko and Noriko

If you've been reading Weekend Cooking for any length of time, then you're probably well aware of my struggle to find doable, healthful, make-ahead lunches.

I work from home, so heating up leftovers is no problem, but Mr. BFR is always on the run--sometimes on a job site, sometimes tracking down supplies and materials. He is motivated to pack a lunch and to eat nutritiously, but his lunches have to be eaten cold because he rarely has access to a microwave.

Enter Yuko and Noriko's Simple Bento (Race Point, October 16), with it's alluring subtitle of Delicious Box Lunch Ideas for Healthy Portions to Go. Could this cookbook be the one to offer me endless inspiration? I couldn't resist saying yes to a review e-copy from the publisher.

First, I should admit I had never heard of Yuko and Noriko or of their website, Japanese Cooking 101. I haven't spent a lot of time on their site, but I can see that it's worth exploring. Second, I should also admit that I'm unlikely to be a bento queen--I'm probably not going to cut vegetables into cute shapes, invest in colorful picks and silicone cups, and arrange the food artfully in a pretty divided box. Despite my lameness, I am into nutritious lunches (though, you'll laugh when you see which bento I made for my husband).

Simply Bento starts off with a history and definition of the bento box and then provides seven keys to success (such as food safety, nutritional balance, and planning). Yuko and Noriko next go into the bento essentials, including containers, accessories, pantry items, and techniques. Finally there's a section of basic recipes, like steamed rice, before the recipe chapters themselves begin.

The recipes range from traditional-ish Japanese dishes (sushi, noodles) to kids' food (pizza, hotdogs) to modern food trends (low-carb, vegan). Many of the ideas are quite appealing, like a soba noodle salad with chicken breast and quick-pickled veggies. Another bento box that caught my eye is based on sweet and sour meatballs, and I also marked one that includes homemade falafel.

For me, and perhaps for many of you, I think Simply Bento will be more of a source of inspiration rather than a step-by-step guide to a specific configuration of a lunch box. You'll laugh that the first bento I tried was inspired by the Antipasta Bento box and includes . . . Italian cured meats. So much for healthful. Ooops!

Here's what happened: I was shopping at Trader Joe's and looking over their cheeses when I spotted a container of Italian cured meats and remembered this bento box from Simply Bento. I bought it and some pitas, made the recipe's carprese salad, and I had a Mr. BFR-approved lunch (see the photo)! Our divided containers don't have enough compartments, so I used parchment paper to separate the food. You'll see a little section of mustard and another one of olives.

Recommendation: If you're looking for some good make-ahead, portable lunch ideas, I think you could be inspired by Yuko and Noriko's Simply Bento, like I was for the Italian meats lunch I made for Mr. BFR. If you're vegetarian or vegan, gluten-free, or low-carb, you'll definitely find some good ideas and good recipes, as the authors are well aware of modern food trends. Regardless, even with those recommendations, I strongly suggest you check this one out from the library or browse through it at the bookstore before buying. I like Simply Bento and found some tasty dishes in it, but I'm not sure how often I'll turn to it.

Here's the Quinoa Salad Bento from Simply Bento. In the photo (from the book), you'll see that the authors added rotisserie chicken to the bento box, but I think this would be good without the meat. The authors note that this salad will keep for a few days, so you could make it on Sunday for the work or school week to come.

Quinoa Salad Bento
2 servings

• 1/2 cup (85 g) dried quinoa
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) chicken broth
• 10 green beans
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons (23 g) pistachios, coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons (28 g) dried cranberries

Wash the quinoa in a large bowl changing the water 3 times.

Add the quinoa and broth to a medium saucepan, and heat until boiling. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, in a separate pot, blanch the green beans for 2 minutes and cut into 1/2-inch (13-mm) pieces.

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Combine the quinoa, green beans, pistachios, and cranberries with the vinaigrette.

NOTE: I just realized that this recipe will work for Deb of Kahakai Kitchen's Souper Sunday (for soup, salad, and sandwich recipes). Yay! So check out her link-up and join in.

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

NOTE: Mr. Linky sometimes is mean and will give you an error message. He's usually wrong and your link went through just fine the first time. Grrrr.
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Weekend Cooking: 2 New Cookbooks for Fall Cooking

As the farmer's markets wind down for the season, I've been turning once again to cookbooks for inspiration in the kitchen. I don't know about you, but in the summer, I tend to cook simple dishes based on whatever is fresh from the local growers.

With the return to grocery store shopping comes cooler temperatures, and I'm far less reliant on season products. That's when new cookbooks, magazines, and websites offer bountiful ideas.

Today I have two short reviews of cookbooks written by long-time food writers. They're geared to very different audiences, and each has pluses and minuses.

Basque Country: A Culinary Journey through a Food Lover's Paradise by Marti Buckley (Artisan; September 11): Marti Buckley writes about food and travel for a variety of venues, including her blog, Blank Palate. Her cookbook, Basque Country, sums up her love of the food, land, and people of this area in northern Spain. Buckley provides not only beautiful photographs of food (see the scan above) but informative and interesting descriptions of each subregion. We meet the farmers and fisherman, learn about festivals, visit a cider house, and gain a historical perspective.

The recipes are well written and easy to follow for the home cook, and most are accompanied by a photo of the finished dish. The recipes reflect what regular people really eat, as opposed to what may be served in upscale restaurants. I liked the sound of the chorizo potato stew, but when I cooked it, I added more fresh produce (green beans and tomatoes); it was delicious and easy. The book contains a number of vegetarian recipes and fish dishes as well as meats, sweets, and drinks.

Now here's the less glowing part: some of the recipes seem way too simple to take up a couple pages in a regional cookbook. For example, there is a dried bean recipe that simply tells the cook to simmer the beans in water for a couple of hours; another gives step-step-by instructions for boiling chorizo in beer. Yes, there are regional serving suggestions, but I don't need a Basque cookbook for these recipes. Other dishes require fresh seafood (turbot, eel, squid), which is hard to find in my land-locked town. Finally, for some reason (my mood?, the fact that I just came home from vacation?), I was not bowled over by any of the recipes and didn't flag any for my must-try list. Your reactions, of course, may be different.

Recommendation: Marti Buckley's Basque Country will appeal to anyone who is interested in regional cooking, food history, or travel to the region. The book is gorgeous and easy to read, and the recipes are doable in any American home kitchen. You may find tons of great recipes to try, but I was not hooked. (Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy; photos from the cookbook.)

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This Old Gal's Pressure Cooker Cookbook: 120 Easy and Delicious Recipes for Your Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker by Jill Selkowitz (Race Point, September 25): If you own an electric pressure cooker, you've probably heard of Selkowitz and her blog, This Old Gal. The online Instant Pot crowd loves her cheesecake recipes and rely on her recipes for everyday family dinners. I couldn't wait to see a copy of this cookbook, hoping to pick up some tried-and-true tips and tricks. In that regard, Selkowitz doesn't disappoint.

Even seasoned pros will benefit from reading the sections on tools, accessories, and techniques, but for newbies, the early chapters of the cookbook are a gold mine of information they will turn to again and again. The recipes include Internet favorites as well as plenty of new dishes. The directions are clear, the ingredients are easy to find, and Selkowitz includes ample tips and variations to guarantee success. You'll find a few breakfast dishes, but dinner and dessert make up the heart of the cookbook. The flavors are extremely family friendly (Polynesian chicken, sweet potato casserole, sloppy Joes), and the dishes require very little fussing.

Oddly enough, one of the weakness of This Old Gal's Pressure Cooker Cookbook is also one of its strengths. Many of the recipes seem too basic and Americanized for my tastes, but for a lot of families these are just the kind of dishes that satisfy the pickiest of eaters and will be a godsend for weeknight dining. That said, I love having a copy of Selkowitz's New York cheesecake recipe (see photo), and I'm dying to try the rum raisin rice pudding. I have an excellent short rib recipe, but hers looks pretty awesome and is done in so much less time and without heating up the kitchen.

Recommendation: Jill Selkowitz's This Old Gal's Pressure Cooker Cookbook is perfect for anyone who doesn't yet feel comfortable with her electric pressure cooker (of any brand) or is simply stumped for recipes to try. Old hands, like me, will find good tips and a ready resource when you forget the timing for brown rice (that would be me!). The basic recipes will appeal to a broad range of eaters and you should be able to easily tweak recipes to your own tastes (adding more spices or less meat). (Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy; the photos are from the cookbook.)

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

NOTE: Mr. Linky sometimes is mean and will give you an error message. He's usually wrong and your link went through just fine the first time. Grrrr.
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