Review: 125 Gluten-Free Vegetarian Recipes

125 Gluten-Free Vegetarian Recipes 
By Carol Fenster, PH.D.


I don't like to think the husband and I are superstitious, but we do have a habit of taking note of things in threes, good and bad. We simply know things haven't come full circle until we've faced three.

When we moved to our second nest, we arrived to find the hot water heater was busted, the fridge wasn't cooling and the water running into the washer was set up backward. (Luckily it only took a couple of washes to realize "cold" actually meant "hot.") Once we got those three discomforts straightened out we were good.

The husband has even tried - and disliked - meatloaf three times. (Yes, Momma, even your meatloaf.) So I've given the man the benefit of the doubt and promised him to never ever, ever, ever serve meatloaf again. I've resorted to ordering it restaurants, as strange as that sounds.


When I received Carol Fenster's 125 Gluten-Free Vegetarian Recipes cookbook in the mail I was quite excited. I'd never bought, or even been given, a vegetarian cookbook before, so I was excited to put Fenster's creations to use for Meatless Mondays. 

We started out with the Sherried Mushrooms on Crispy Polenta Rounds. Unfortunately, neither of us wanted to star this one in the cookbook. So we put the book aside for a couple of weeks. Once the husband got the taste of those sherried mushrooms well out of his mouth I decided to make Fenster's Creole Vegetables on Basmati Rice. The husband is all about Creole spices. I thought surely this one would win him over.

Review: Fire It Up

Fire It Up

By Andrew Schloss and David Joachim

When it comes to cooking in our household, I handle most of the inside jobs and the husband is mainly in charge of all that goes on outside. I like to think the husband is a pretty savvy griller. He's grilled pork loins, pork chops, hamburgers, chicken, steak, kebabs - even vegetables. So when I received a rather heavy package a couple of weeks ago and saw that it was Fire It Up, a huge book dedicated to grilling, I immediately thought I'd be passing this book off on the husband. 

I started flipping through this monster of a cookbook, imagining what the husband could grill up when I immediately fell in love. Alison Miksch's photos made my mouth water from the second I opened this book. (Can you honestly look at the full-page photo of a fire-braised pork shoulder sandwich on page 125 and not want to get your hands dirty with one of those?) Once I looked beyond the photos, though, I was drawn in even more and my eyes opened to a world of grilling I didn't even know - or think I wanted to know - existed.

However strange it may sound, I read magazines, and often cookbooks, backward. I always start in the back and flip to the front. But this is a book that you're going to want to read from the beginning. Flip to chapter one, titled "A Primer on Grilling Methods & Equipment," and master the basics. You'll probably even want to bookmark page 20, as the chart on that page lists all the temperatures you'll want to aim for when cooking everything from alligator to venison.

Once you've learned all you need to know about grills in chapter one and how to build flavor in your grilling endeavors in chapter two, the possibilities are just about endless. The husband and I, because we're pretty predictable, started with a grilled chicken breast and used the salsa-beer marinade. We love salsa. We love beer. We loved this marinade. 

Grilled Chicken With Cole Slaw and Toasted Bread

But this book goes so well beyond grilling meats. With chapters on grilling vegetables, fruit, desserts and breads, I have a good feeling we'll be busy with this book for a while. Already we've even chicken breasts and grilled cabbage for a creamy and flavorful cole slaw. I'd never thought to grill cabbage wedges, but, thanks to Schloss and Joachim, I'm now full of ideas. Cumin-crusted steak with a side of grilled corn on the cob? How about grilled banana satay for dessert? Sign me up.

Grilled Cole Slaw

With 15 chapters it's safe to say I haven't made my way through this entire book yet, but I know I will. And with all of the know-how boxes Schloss and Joachim have included throughout this book, instructing you on everything from how to tie a whole chicken for the grill to how to make orange supremes and care for cast iron, I could become a junior grillmaster in no time. I have a good feeling the husband will have to let me start the grill again in the near future. (That's right: I've only done it once before.) But there's really no reason the husband should get to have all the grilling fun - especially not now that I'm armed with more than 400 recipes that are just begging me to head to the back deck.


Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge to write this review. I received no monetary compensation; all thoughts are mine alone. 

Review: Heartland

Heartland: The Cookbook
By Judith Fertig


I've driven through Ohio, stopped off in Missouri to see the Gateway to the West once and, when I was about 5, traveled to Illinois with my momma. (For the record, we arrived in Illinois on the tail end of an ice storm, and I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life.) But I've never really experienced the Midwest nor have I ever thought I'd want to visit the Midwest - until now.


Judith Fertig's Heartland: The Cookbook has made the Midwest come alive in my mind. With her heartfelt, descriptive stories of farm life and big beautiful photos I can't help but want to make every single recipe in this book and drive straight to Kansas as soon as I'm done. Pantry staples welcome you in the beginning of the book, main dishes fill out the middle and sweet endings bring everything full circle. This book is filled with recipes that focus on wholesome ingredients (no box mixes here!). But this cookbook is filled with more than just great recipes.


"Midwesterners have a grounded sense of who they are because they're still close to the land," Fertig writes in her introduction. She describes the stories behind the recipes and even offers sidebars on where to find great Midwestern ingredients. (Looking for a good blue cheese? There's a farm in Newton, Iowa, that's been producing the stuff since 1941.) 


I haven't made my way through all of the recipes in this beautiful 265-page book yet, but I've spent plenty of nights thumbing through the pages, savoring the stories and drooling over the photos. And the only complaint I have about this book is that it doesn't include nutritional information for the recipes. I know, I know, I'm a bit compulsive when it comes to reading food labels; not everyone is interested in knowing these details. So I can't say the lack of this information is a reason not to add this book to your collection. Besides, when you can whip up a no-knead bread as good as this, do you really need to know how many calories are in every slice? Whether you make it in the Southeast or across the Atlantic Ocean, you can take pride knowing it was made with simple, good-for-you ingredients. And if you want to pretend you're in the Midwest when you pull the beautiful, honey-fragrant loaves out of the oven, that works, too.

No-Knead Clover Honey Bread

Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge to write this review. I received no monetary compensation; all thoughts are mine alone.