National Book Month, plus October plans.

Written by Diana - October 5, 2010 0 Comments

October is National Book Month – and I’m here to encourage you to take some time and peruse some reading material. A book doesn’t have to be a novel to be interesting, it can be non-fiction, or even a recipe book. One of my favorite things to do while relaxing in front of the tube is to browse cookbooks and think about what to plant next year in order to follow some of the great recipes in those books. Every person has their favorite reading material and it should all be encouraged; my niece learned to read with cookboooks and now she’s a chef – we’re proud of her. This month we’re going to get through my book review pile along with all of the other Cookerati stuff we’ve got planned.

This week we’ll start with some books that focus on how to put your garden harvest to good use. You may think that time is over, and I’m here to tell you it isn’t.I’ve had a few books to review relating to recipes using your own garden harvest, or even the goods you can find at a local farm market. It’s pretty fun to use fresh vegetables, and locally raised meat to create a very flavorful meal for the table. Farm to table is a movement that’s taking off more than ever before. Where do you get your best stuff? If you aren’t sure how to prepare your garden goods, I have a few suggestions. These books were given to me for a review and all were good, but they each have a different focus. It’s amazing how many cookbooks one person can use, they’re all so wonderful. A couple of these books deal with storage – either by canning, drying, etc, or by preparing whole meals to be used for dinner on a busy worknight. Other books are recipe books dealing with using fresh local produce. One book deals with recipes from a specific area of the country and another with just fall crops that keep well over the winter, ie those you would put in your root cellar. All of these books deal with getting the most out of your local harvest, but they all have different viewpoints. You may find more than one book to fit on your bookshelf.

I’ve got a couple of books to give away this month and I’m going to put together a cookbook giveaway round up. So stay tuned for that. I’m going to try and get caught up on Food News, because I’m behind on that. My husband and I went to the farm market this weekend and bought plenty of squash; I see squash recipes in the future. We have apples to can also. Get your apples ready, because it’s apple picking time.

Last week we languished, and though things look pretty darn busy for me right now, I’m going to try and keep up. I’m putting this question to your right now. What kind of things would you like to see? What do you like best?

Cookerati