A successful book that makes reducing food waste seem fun and easy.
A home cook shares her thrifty, ecologically conscious tips for reducing kitchen waste.
Americans have been known to waste an astonishing amount of food, pitching usable food scraps, salvageable kitchen disasters, and other edible items into trash bins by the ton. MacLeod (The Kitchen Paraphernalia Handbook, 2017, etc.) aims to help change that with this easy-to-use reference book, which she describes as “a food first-aid kit.” In it, she catalogs alternative, creative ways to use a bevy of common food items, from dried-out almond paste to surplus zucchini. This isn’t a cookbook, however; instead, it’s a handy guide for amateur chefs who might wonder about how to salvage a watery tomato sauce, what to do with leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes, or whether limp lettuce can be revived. But although there are diverse suggestions here, readers will have to consult their favorite cookbooks or the internet for specific recipe instructions. Still, for a slim book, it’s remarkably comprehensive, and the author isn’t afraid to suggest uses for foods that many might ordinarily toss out. There’s guidance on what to do with fish heads, for instance (make fish stock or deep-fry the bones), the whey left after making homemade cheese or yogurt (use it as a substitute for whey powder in smoothies or as an alternative to buttermilk), and flat champagne (put it in waffle batter). Nor are the secondary uses limited to cooking: She notes that empty coffee pods can be used as seed starters; flat cola works as slug bait in a garden; and juiced lemon halves can clean copper pans. Even the vinegar used to descale a coffee pot, she asserts, can be used to freshen drains. After browsing through this book, readers will likely feel inspired—and perhaps even a bit guilty over all the food they’ve wasted in the past.
A successful book that makes reducing food waste seem fun and easy.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9974464-0-1
Page Count: 194
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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