Its a Non-Fiction Saturday!

Its back! I had to take a short break from Non-fiction Saturday due to moving. I am settled now and hope to start this feature back up. I have always gotten a lot of response from the posts.


A Taste of Upstate New York 
The People and the Stories behind 40 Food Favorites
Chuck D'Imperio

5+ Stars!!!!!

ABOUT THE BOOK -
Upstate New York is the birthplace of many of America’s favorite foods. The chicken wing was born in a bar in Buffalo, the potato chip originated in the kitchen of a glitzy Saratoga Springs hotel, the salt potato got its start along the marshy shores of a Syracuse lake, and Thousand Island dressing was created in a hotel along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

In this book, D’Imperio travels across the region to discover the stories and people behind forty iconic foods of Upstate New York. He introduces readers to the black dirt farmers of Orange County who give America its best-tasting onions, to the Catskill’s Candy Cane King, and to "Charlie the Butcher," purveyor of the best beef on weck in the state. Filled with color photographs, the book includes a map of the various regions around Upstate New York, allowing readers to create their own cultural and historic food tour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Chuck D'Imperio is an award-winning radio broadcaster, a newspaper columnist and author of several books about Upstate New York. His most recent book, Unknown Museums of Upstate New York: A Guide to 50 Treasures, was published by Syracuse University Press in 2013.

MY THOUGHTS -
This book was fascinating! It made me proud to say I am from Upstate NY. 
I started out intending on only skimming through just to get an idea what the book was like and ended up reading the whole thing almost all the way through! I could not stop reading. I am from NY and lived there most of my life and I didn't know most of the stuff in the book, sadly. 

This book was so interesting to me as a NYer but also for the history and really for anyone interested in foods and their origins. If you are from NY, have ever live there, visited there, or are just interested in learning about the state and its great foods - this would be a great book to read! I had a hard time putting it down. I ended up reading a lot of it our loud to my husband.

I am seriously thinking about buying a few copies as Christmas gifts for next year (or I guess I should say this year). This would make a great gift for those who have lived in NY and have moved away. And I do know a few of those.

I highly recommend this book and can't say enough good things about it. I thoroughly enjoyed it! 
Visit the website - HERE

Thanks to NetGalley for this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Get tour copy from Amazon - HERE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gennaro: Slow Cook Italian
Gennaro Contaldo
 3 Stars 
(but only based on the very small sample from Netgalley)

ABOUT THE BOOK -
Slow Cooking is one of Gennaro’s favourite ways to cook: it’s simple, stress-free and allows you to get on with other things safe in the knowledge that slowly, slowly the stove-top or oven is doing its job. Stews and sauces bubble on the hob, a roast cooks in the oven with herbs gently infusing the meat, breads and cakes bake, all filling the house with mouth-watering smells and creating that special warmth which nothing else can.

A classic Italian cookbook and kitchen essential, Gennaro: Slow Cook Italian brings together more than 100 recipes for rich soups and stews, slow-cooked pasta sauces, braised meats, tender roasts, soft breads and sticky desserts and sweets. Unfussy, effortless and often inexpensive, the gutsy and sumptuous dishes are mostly quick to prepare, and let the oven or slow-cooker do the work – so that you don’t have to.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
Gennaro Contaldo was born in Minori in Amalfi. He came to Britain in the late 1960s and worked in several restaurants around the country and in London, where he eventually opened the award-winning Passione. He came to public attention as the chef who inspired Jamie Oliver when they worked together at Antonio Carluccio's Neal Street restaurant. In Spring 2011 he co-presented Two Greedy Italians on BBC2 with Antonio Carluccio and in spring 2012 a second series, Two Greedy Italians Still Hungry, was broadcast. He is the author of several cookbooks, including Let's Cook Italian, also published by Pavilion, Gennaro's Italian Year and Passione.

MY THOUGHTS -
I was very excited to get this from Netgalley - I am totally in love with my crock pot/slow cooker and was really looking forward to getting some new original recipes.
But sadly (no fault to the author) the version I received from Netgally was only a VERY small sample of the book and did not really give me enough of an idea about the book to review it properly. The ones they did give me were  not ones that I would really use.

I am going to try to contact the publisher to see if I can get a real copy to review it the way it should. It looks like a promising book! The table of contents looks great and there are a lot of recipes in her that I would probably love. And... There are great pictures! A must for me in a cookbook.

Get your copy from Amazon - HERE

Comments

Popular Posts