1: Divided By Month, Every Vegetable Under The Sun.
This cookbook is divided so that each month tells you what fruits and vegetables are in season. It's amazing. I had no idea there were even these vegetables in existence! LOL.
I guickly turned to the November/December chapter as I was headed to the grocery. And the vegetables mentioned were brussel sprouts, chard, kale, leeks, pomegranates, cranberries and winter root vegetables.
Brussle sprouts are not a vegetable I would choose to eat regularly but I thought for the purpose of this review I could...once. Unfortunately my Kroger store had a terrible selection of brussel sprouts. I picked the best I could and of the 3 recipes provided I chose the one that I actually had all the ingredients (I did not have creme fraiche, or a handful of chopped fresh herbs) so I made the saute of red brussel sprouts with almonds, page 391. hummmm....something went wrong because it did not taste as I would have liked. But like I said, my grocery had a pitiful selection of brussel sprouts and I live in the mid-west so truly fresh produce is limited.
I didn't find chard or kale in my grocery but then I see the author suggests growing your own. Well it's too late for that this year. The one recipe for kale seaweed did not seem appetizing to me. I, in honesty, did not try it. Perhaps November and December were not good months to start with. However while trying all these dishes I did discover the recipe for Cranberry Vodka which I did try and which I can say is wonderful! I then moved on to Cranberry Cocktail and it too was really good.
I made the orange and cranberry pie recipe but I also added granny smith apples to the mix. It was very good. All in all the cookbook delivers on what it says it does. There are some great pictures, all the recipes are easily readable. There is no nutritional information. The cooking and prep times are mixed throughout the recipe so you'd have to read the entire thing to know how long each dish will take.
If you're looking for a basic vegetable cookbook I would rather recommend "5-a-day Savor the Flavor" by Elizabeth Pivonka or even "What Color is Your Diet" by David Heber. I do not recommend "5-a-day" by Maggie Mayhew. However, if you want a complete something different, every vegetable under the sun then this cookbook is for you. Most Americans eat the same 7 vegetables anyway (corn, carrots, green beans, broccoli, lettuce, peas and cauliflower) so this cookbook would certainly expand your palette.
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