Saturday, January 26, 2008

Good Reads: Kitchen History and Southern Cooking














I know I haven't posted anything since the end of 2007, but I really haven't done much creative cooking. Just resting from the holidays!

I have posted reviews of two books dealing with food.

Kitchen History

The first is The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home by Steven Gdula looks like a great read and it is on my order list right now at Amazon. This book focuses purely on the 20th century and includes segments on faddish appliances (from fondue pots, to slow cookers, to microwaves) as well as sections that document the rise of Julia Child, television cooking shows and more.

Southern Cooking

The second is Being Dead Is No Excuse - The Official Southern Ladies Guide To Hosting the Perfect Funeral. Besides the humor, which causes me to easily waste an hour when I am trying to look up a recipe, the recipes are authentic and as my friend's aunt used to say "propah." If you need to know what a perlow is or want to make something in aspic, this is your book. I can't recommend it enough!