Weed Em and Reap or Cooking from the Heart of Spain

Weed 'Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader

Author: Roger Welsch

There are lots of books out there about how to accurately and skillfully identify and cook wild foods, but not very many about first-rate, industrial-grade weed eating. And not many that are guaranteed to make the reader laugh -- until now.

This book is for those who admire the notion of being out on a camping trip and amazing everyone else around the campfire by serving up a salad, stew, vegetable, tea, or dessert that comes as a total surprise ... and is made out of something found within yelling distance of the tents. It will teach readers more about morels, cattails, and smut (the fungus kind), than they ever thought possible. There's also information on making wine, jams and jellies, and even gathering and enjoying acorns the Native American way.

The author is not a botanist or a chef, but rather an accomplished and widely acclaimed eater and writer. This walking billboard for gustatory endeavors is full of entertaining stories about identifying, preparing, and eating weeds. Readers will be left with a new eagerness to know more about plants, a desire for cooking them, and a new enthusiasm for wandering around the wilds.

See also: Macroéconomie

Cooking from the Heart of Spain: Food of La Mancha

Author: Janet Mendel

For forty years, American-born freelance journalist and award-winning cookbook author Janet Mendel has made her home in Spain. Becoming a "local" has provided Mendel with the unique opportunity to explore the authentic foods of her adopted country, and to bring the best recipes to American kitchens. Now, in Cooking from the Heart of Spain, she turns her attention to the region of La Mancha.

Mendel has taken part in the harvesting of saffron, wine grapes, and garlic. She has made marzipan in Toledo, joined in a partridge shoot, and prepared trout caught fresh from the streams in Cuenca. She tells stories of artisanal cheesemakers and wine producers. Her own home in an olive grove gives her special insight into world-class Spanish olive oil.

Cooking from the Heart of Spain features traditional foods from the country's heartland, a region of vineyards, olive groves, and wheat fields. From here come Spain's most famous products -- Manchego cheese, saffron, serrano ham, and olive oil. These ingredients, along with its rich and diverse Moorish and Sephardic heritages, give Manchegan cooking an air of refinement and delicate complexity beyond its sturdy simplicity.

The recipes in Cooking from the Heart of Spain include simple pisto, a medley of summer vegetables sautéed in olive oil; lamb stuffed with spinach and pine nuts; a robust peasant garlic soup; and a delightfully subtle saffron ice cream. Mendel also includes sophisticated dishes such as cheese and ham flan and partridge braised in wine sauce, as well as fun food, such as "fried milk," a sweet custard with a crisp-fried exterior. Oh, yes -- and Madrid tapas too.

Laced with quotes from Cervantes' Don Quixote -- which had lots to say about the food of La Mancha -- Janet Mendel´s cookbook provides recipes for delicious dishes, both traditional and modern.

Library Journal

Mendel, who has lived in Spain since the late 1960s, is the author of several other good books on Spanish cuisine, including My Kitchen in Spain. Although she lives in Andalusia, she thinks of the region of La Mancha, geographically the heart of the country, as the "real" Spain, notable for cooking that is "true to its roots and enticing in its future." Manchego cheese and the best-quality saffron come from La Mancha-as did Don Quixote, and Mendel punctuates her text with quotations from Cervantes's story, including many observations on food. Her almost 200 recipes include both traditional dishes and those from the country's talented young chefs, "the vanguardistas" of the new Spanish cuisine. Spanish food may be the latest culinary hot topic, but Mendel has been writing knowledgeably and engagingly about the cuisine of her adopted country for years; highly recommended. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.