Cooking With Ideas

Free Book

So, I get free books. If you are a regular reader, you know that. And, maybe, you ask yourself -- how can I get free books? I do not mean, of course, books that are not enslaved. Nor do I even mean books that have escaped the realities of commodity fetishism -- certainly contemporary foodie culture is just that: commodity fetishism. What I mean is: I paid nothing for them. In many cases, they just appear in my mail box screaming "Review me. Please review me."  And usually I do. In fact this particular book comes from one of my favorite publishers that sends me cookbooks: Andrews McMeel. And, in fact I am going to the city on which it focuses some time in 2010. But: I thought to myself when I saw it -- why not share the "wealth" -- the freedom -- the free book.

So: I am going to do so. I am going to give it away. I am not going to read it. I am going to just describe it briefly and then say how you can get the book -- FREE.

The book is "Mary Mac's Tea Room," subtitled "65 Years of recipes from Atlanta's Faborite Dining Room" by John Ferrell. Mary Mac's is the only one of Atlanta's "tea rooms," to remain from an original double digit set of places that did not serve tea, but a meat and 3. So, if you want to read about a restaurant that jas lasted 65 years, serving 1000 meals a day often, and get to know (or recognize what you already know) Southern food (or, more particularly Georgian food).

How can you get it? Better yet, how can you get it FREE? How can you get free recipes like Chicken and Southern Dumplings or Hopping John or, perhaps even better, Holiday Eggnog?

Write a reason in the comment section of this entry on Cooking with Ideas that explains why you and only you deserve the book. Bibliochef will choose the best tale -- and then send it along to you. Please -- just let me know your reason. . . and you never know. It's not hard -- look how many comments there are -- and calculate your chances!

Contest?

I am bemoaning a slight decline in readership and am calling on you for ideas - and help -- in generating more readers. Please circulate the blog address for Cooking with Ideas -- it is http://www.cookingwithideas.typepad.com -- to all your pals, leave notes places telling them to check it out, and help however you can. But, for a tiny bit of incentive, here's a contest: I will send a copy of Sur La Table's Tips Cooks Love to the person who gets me the most new readers! Never heard of the book? Check it out here. Don't want it? Help anyway!

How can I count up the new readers? Have your friends (or utter strangers) add a comment to this entry, using a name for you (it can be your real first name or a pseudonym as long as they are consistent). Once I see how many add comments and mention YOU , I will announce a winner!). Then, the winner will contact me and I will mail out the book. DEADLINE? YES, THERE IS ONE. AND IT IS JANUARY 20.

Easy, right? Helpful, I hope so. SPREAD THE WORD. 

And meanwhile, thanks to weblo.com for the picture!

A New Geneva Challenge and More

Ok, click here -- just go it -- you'll see why! It's a contest. Don;t care about Geneva, NY? Well, then do not click. BUt for those of you who do. . . . and ever go to the Farmer's Market, this one's for you. for a hint: think Slice, Dice and Spice New York!

For other local events, click here.

Do You Have a Child Who Wants to Cook?

I love free things in the mail. And I get some. I really do. Most recently, I received the cookbook pictured here, entitled Ready, Steady, Spaghetti. You guessed it, this rhyme-y title has a subtitle that involves the word "kids." This is a cookbook for those who cook with kids. The cover, as you can see, looks just like what I make for myself when no one is looking: a heap of pasta. Written by Lucy Broadhurst, this sizable pink tome has sections entitled "little food," "dinnertime," "eat your greens," "sticky treats," "cookies, cakes and sweets," and "let's party." Recipes include stuffed peppers, bubble and squeak, and more mysterious items like san choy bau and one of my faves, pavlova. I am tempted to keep this because some of the pictures are scrumptious-looking (yes, especially that pavlova). I am even tempted by the very very simply how-to-make-a-pavlova pictures. But the sun is shining and so I thought I would see what would happen if I suggested a random-ish act of sharing: if you want this book, enter a recipe in the comments section. If I get a few, I will pick one and send along the book to you. 

For a review of this cookbook, click here. Or here. Or here. 

Better yet, click comment and pass along your favorite recipe. Get others to, and maybe you will be the lucky recipient of this pink pleasure. 

Who Won? No One!

So, dear readers, maybe none of you like Italian food? Maybe none of you cook Italian food? Maybe you are busy? It is October 30, when I said I would announce the winner of the only contest ever (so far) on Cooking with Ideas. The winner was to have received a subscription to La Cucina Italiana. (Click here for information on the magazine.) Alas, no one even commented. So: no winner. Alas. 

But wait. If you still want a chance, click here and provide me with a reason to extend the deadline. If I am persuaded -- and you can get some folks to submit recipes -- well, then, it may be true that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but maybe there's a free magazine in your future? 

Spread the word --or don't! 

Italian Food Challenges: Win a Free Subscription

I find it challenging to eat Italian and Italian American food. Yes, I get stains on my clothes when I eat spaghetti sauce. I do it nearly every time. I also am not the greatest at twirling spaghetti on my fork -- even when I use a spoon to help it all along. (This explains why, when I make cappellini, I break it in half before I stick it in the boiling water.) Despite all this, I do love pasta -- both dry and fresh made, in almost all shapes and sizes. I love it with pesto. I love it with tomato sauce. And I love it once in a while with just butter and huge amounts of parmesan cheese. I love it when it has left the land of Italy and become macaroni and cheese. And at a place named Henry B's in Seneca Falls, I love the gnocchi with proscuitto and parmesan. (Upstate NY is, of course, the land of Italian American food. A veritable panoply of Italian American eateries ranging from the absolutely awful to the terrific, from the truly Italian American to the lets-renew-our acquaintance-with-real-Italian-food (or one of its many regional varieties).) Why so many Italian American eateries? According to Wikipedia (here), NY State has more Italian Americans than any other state. (Take that, New Jersey!) In fact, after African Americans. Italian Americans are the second largest "ancestry group" in the state as well (14.4% according to the same article.) And, of course, the history of Italian Americans includes experience of immigration and substantial prejudice; wikipedia (here) reminds us that Italian Americans were interns in WWII and mentions a history of lynching Italian Americans.

Why all this about Italian food? No, it is not an Italian holiday. It's actually one of those moments when my email leads to a post. Yes, all of which is a tangent, getting us to that very email -- one I received a while back asking me if I would like a free subscription to a magazine called La Cucina Italiana. Sure, I thought. Why not? I have looked at the magazine numerous times, but never spent a lot of time reading it. And then the emailer proposed another idea: a contest on Cooking with Ideas -- with a prize being a subscription to the magazine, provided by them.

So: here's the contest! I (yes Bibliochef herself) will choose among the many many posts we hope to get, proposing a recipe for Italian food. Assuming sufficient entries (and no, I don't quite know the answer to how many is enough -- so get everybody you know to propose something), the folks at La Cucina Italiana will give the winner a free subscription too. 

So: please enter your recipe below -- and I will, on October 30, announce the winner. 

Harvard and Michelin Guides: Finally Feminist

IWD has arrived. No. I do not mean WMD (hurrah). I mean IWD -- International Women's Day. Turns out we most definitely still need it. Yes, Harvard has a new president, Drew Gilpin Faust, Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, named on February 11. (For information click here or here.) Guess what? She's a woman. And all over the US (and one hopes internationally) women are celebrating. (Though at least one article mourns the "feminist takeover.")

Yes, Michelin Guide has given 3 stars (its highest rating) to its THIRD woman, Anne-Sophie Pic, since the advent of their rating system in the 1930s. She's the first in 50 years to receive it. And many of the articles begin with an emphasis on the "macho" world of cuisine. (I first saw the announcement in the Globe and Mail but here are a few other articles: here and here and here.)

We all know women chefs we love. Alice Waters. Judy Rodgers. Mollie Katzen. Julia Child. Marcella Hazan. Madhur Jaffrey. Deborah Madison. Name your favorite. Yet, even in 2007, chefdom seems a male world (though cooking is a woman's). To say we celebrate because Harvard finally names a woman president (or that Hilary is running for a different first) may signify how far we've come but it also signifies how little we have moved.

So, for International Women's Day, track down your favorite woman chef or woman president of Harvard. (You'll notice I did not put links here -- feminist vistory is worth a little work, right?) Once you find them, then what? Say thanks and work for a time when the adjective is less necessary and/or less noticeable. Work for change. Work for a feminist takeover. Make the ironic title of this little piece real.

Anne-Sophie Pic
Michelin
Harvard
Drew Gilpin Faust

Taking on the Challenge -- One Lunch at a Time

A comment from D.Moore on Power(less) Lunch, where I reviewed a few local lunch possibilities:

This is a great idea, reviewing Genevan establishments. You should post your findings to yelp.com, which is a great web 2.0 site for user submitted reviews.

You could have an ongoing series, the only problem being that you'd run out of places to go to lunch after two weeks.

The question: would I really run out of possibilities in 2 weeks? I think not. I can't go out to lunch every day, but I can certainly see what happens if we all take up the challenge. Will you take it up too?

So: send along your own reviews of lunch places. I will post them here. And, I will regularly update you on where I am eating my own lunches (besides my office). And, by the way, other reviews also appear here under restaurant reviews..