Untangling the Envelope, and the Winner Is……

Here’s what our fabulous featured author, Victoria Abbott Riccardi has to say about our last Cook the Books roundup.

“First, I am honored and delighted that you chose my book for your group. I was so glad to read from your various members that Untangling My Chopsticks either brought back fond memories of their time in Japan or sparked the desire to go there. Japan is, indeed, a magical (and very tasty!) place.

Choosing a Cook the Book winner was very hard! Everyone had a fascinating story to accompany the recipe they made and it was obvious that people put significant time and energy into creating something pretty and tasty. I know that it’s not always easy to find Japanese ingredients, so substitutions are often necessary.

Since you left the criteria up to me, I decided I would choose a winner based on who best managed to get into the spirit Japanese cooking, both in terms of the recipe they submitted and their story. As I said, this wasn’t easy. In the end, however, I chose Glennis of Can’t Believe We Ate. Glennis ran the culinary marathon, so to speak, by preparing her four-course feast. She really seemed eager to create an authentic Japanese meal, beginning with her dashi soup and ending with the very impressive shabu-shabu! I also loved her genuine enthusiasm as she described the various dishes she made.

For example, for her miso soup, she writes, “I was so tickled to actually find light miso paste!  I’ve looked before, and not been able to find anything but red, so this was delightful!”

Then, she writes, “Next up was Chicken Yakitori.oh my!  Simply oh my!”

Finally, in talking about enjoying the rich broth left over from cooking all the veggies and meat for the shabu-shaby she writes, “At the end of the meal, the noodles would be added to the pot, and finished in the steaming soup.  This was fascinating and warrants trying again!”

Congratulations, Glennis. I am so glad you enjoyed my book and preparing your various dishes. What a lovely way to ring in the New Year, which, for all of you I hope brings many memorable moments around the table.

All best,
Victoria”

Congratulations Glennis!  Johanna will be sending you your Cook the Books Winner blog badge and I’ll get you listed in our pantheon of CTB winners in the righthand sidebar toute de suite.  And thanks for our wonderful author and guest judge for taking us on an armchair visit to Kyoto and for taking the time to check out our blog posts.

(Exciting Update to:) Sailing Away for a Caribbean Interlude with “An Embarrassment of Mangoes”

“The market ladies sell spice necklaces–garlands of cloves, cinnamon bark, bay leaves, cocoa beans, mace, and nutmeg–that are irresistible. I now have them hanging all over the boat, making it smell spicy and delicious. Mangoes are in season, and literally falling off the trees–an embarrassment of mangoes, to someone from the north. We feel duty bound to try as many varieties as we can.”
–Journal Entry, July 1998, “An Embarrassment of Mangoes“

Winter weather got you down? It’s time to crank up the steel drum music, pour a tall rum cocktail, put up your feet and escape on an island adventure with “An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude” by Ann Vanderhoof. This foodie travel book follows Vanderhoof, a former book editor and her husband as they give up their regular lives and set sail on their 42-foot sail boat from Toronto to tour the crystal blue waters and sun-drenched islands.  A lively adventure and a glimpse of the colorful food, people, history and culture of  the Caribbean. If you ever have dreamed of packing it all up for your own island adventure, or you just want to live vicariously through Vanderhoof’s descriptive verse, this book is sure to warm you up.

Once you’re done reading, cook up an island-inspired dish or meal that represents the book for you and post it by Friday, March 25th. Link back to this page and leave a comment here and/or email me at debinhawaii@gmail.com so I can be sure to add you to the round up. New to Cook the Books? We would love to have you join us–you can find all the details here.

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Exciting Update!

In my haste to get a post up about our current selection, I didn’t quite have all my ducks, (or maybe it’s mangoes?)  in a row yet, so I wanted to add some late-breaking exciting news. Although she and her husband are back living, traveling, and cooking on the Receta and  are currently anchored off the island of Carriacou in the Eastern Caribbean, author Ann Vanderhoof has graciously agreed to be our judge for this round of CTB and is very much looking forward to seeing your posts at the end of March.

It seems you all are enjoying the book and I also wanted to mention that in other Ann Vanderhoof news, her second book “The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating and Island Life” is out in paperback this month and in case you want to see some great travel photos, see life on the boat and explore more delicious recipes, you can visit Ann’s website and blog here.

Happy reading & cooking!

Untangling my Chopsticks Book Club Roundup

I think all of us really sunk our teeth into our current Cook the Books selection, “Untangling my Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto” and found this to be an illuminating and interesting book.  The author, Victoria Abbott Riccardi, has graciously agreed to look over our posts and pick a winner for us so that the coveted Cook the Books badge will given out once more.  Japanese food and culture was new to some of our readers and old hat to others, and it was certainly intriguing to read what people thought about the book and were inspired to cook up from its pages.

First up is Andreas from Delta Kitchen, who is no stranger to Japanese food or culinary exploration.  His chopsticks were not tangled, but locked and loaded, and he ready to cook up some serious eats based on our fabulous featured book.  He “immensely enjoyed” his reading and was inspired to cook up some Okonomiyaki with brussels sprouts and feta.



Yours truly over at The Crispy Cook found that making up a stock pot of dashi, which I used to make Shrimp and Egg Donburi was the perfect comfort food to ward off the heaps of snow and cold winds outside my upstate New York kitchen.  Donburi is an easy to make one-dish meal in which a mound of rice is covered with an eggy, sweet and salty broth, studded with shrimp in my rendition.


Glennis of Can’t Believe We Ate was terrifically inspired by our current book selection and prepared an incredible four-course Japanese Feast for her New Year’s meal.  She made everything from miso soup to sashimi to chicken yakitori.  And don’t miss her photograph of her tangled chopsticks!


Natashya the hard-working Canadian blogger diva at Living in Kitchen with Puppies tried her hand at the difficult, but delicious-looking Temaki-Zushi. A culinary success!



Ever the culinary adventuress, Foodycat enjoyed rereading this book, especially the passages in which our author prepared to greet The New Year with special ceremonies and foods.  It was then as now The Year of the Rabbit, as Foodycat cleverly notes, and to greet 2011 she made her lucky husband a terrific Japanese meal that included ika geso age (crispy squid), beef and spring onion negamaki rolls, nasu dengaku (broiled eggplant), and a green tea tiramisu.

Claudia, of Honey From Rock, enjoyed our book and shared some memories of two visits she has made to Japan, one to study Japanese pottery and another where she partook in a traditional tea ceremony.  Claudia tackled Okonomiyaki, which she describes as a cross between an omelet and a pancake.



My wonderful Cook the Books co-host, Deb of Kahakai Kitchen, enjoyed re-reading this “well-written memoir for foodies and those with an interest in International travel and culture”.  Her post, like Claudia’s, includes fond  remembrances of her own travels in Japan.  Deb’s post has lovely photos and detailed instructions for making Kinoko no Chawan Mushi, or Steamed Egg Custards with Mushrooms.

While Italian food is at the core of Simona’s blog Briciole, her lovely food essay about “Untangling My Chopsticks” showed her culinary versatility in tackling the making of green tea or matcha, and using it to make a beautiful green tea ice cream, which she later used to fashion some elegant little daifuku mochi (stuffed mochi balls).

Heather the Girlichef was inspired by the tea kaiseki descriptions in our featured book and wanted to make something subtle and starkly beautiful and she captured these things in her dish, Tofu Poke, using the gift of some dried ogo seaweed.

Finally, my other Cook the Books hostess, Johanna of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food, based in Athens, Greece, loved the book and loves the minimalist aesthetics of Japanese culture. She made up a gorgeous pot of Wagamama Style Noodle Soup.

Our guest judge and author, Victoria Abbott Riccardi, has agreed to look over our posts and select a winner so stay tuned to see who will win the coveted Cook the Books winners badge this go round. In the meantime, you can get started on tracking down a copy of our next Cook the Books selection, An Embarrassment of Mangoes: A Caribbean Interlude” which the lovely Deb of Kahakai Kitchen will be presiding over.

Are You Ready to Untangle Your Chopsticks and Get Started on Some Japanese Cooking?

I wanted to officially announce the start of our next round here at Cook the Books.  I will be hosting this round and have selected Victoria Abbott Riccardi’s book “Untangling my Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto“, about her time in Japan, where she scratched the surface of learning about the art of tea kaiseki.  Kaiseki is the highly stylized cooking that accompanies the Japanese green tea ceremony and there is much to learn about presentation, garnishing, ingredients and the aesthetics of this ethereal cooking style and about traditional and modern Japanese culture in Riccardi’s wonderful book.

Ms. Riccardi has also agreed to serve as our guest judge of our upcoming posts about her book, so I am delighted to announce that as well.  If you have any questions for our esteemed author about her book please either leave a comment below or contact me by email at oldsaratogabooks (at) gmail (dot) com and I will be happy to relay them to her.

In the meantime, please find some time during this hectic holiday and end-of-the-year season to put your feet up and curl up with this great foodie memoir.  Remember, the deadline to post your Cook the Books post is Friday,  January 28, 2011.  We love to have new members come join us.  No registration or anything fancy is required other than buying (you can buy a signed copy of the book at the author’s website) or borrowing a copy of our featured book, and then blogging up your thoughts and culinary inspirations, with a link back to this Cook the Books blog.

Announcing the winner of CTB “Heat”

Hello everyone,

It is snowing really hard outside my window (Athens, Greece). We went from 20 degrees to -5  in one day and it just feels really strange. It is the prefect weather to read and write though, so no complaints. Anyway, I think the voting went really well and I was glad to see that people really had their favourites. Below are the three posts that got your attention:

Winner

Kelly from It’s a Food Life with her basic Tomato sauce

Second  place

Claudia of Honey from Rock with braised short ribs, gremolata and polenta.

Third place

Natashya from Living in the kitchen with puppies with home made orechiette

Congratulations to the girls and thank you all so much for participating. Our next host will be Rachel from  The Crispy Cook who has chosen a really sensational book for us to read, “Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojurn in Kyoto“ by Victoria Abbot Riccardi.

Deadline to read and post your entry for this selection is Friday, January 28th

In the meantime:

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Jo.