THE VERSATILE GRAIN AND THE ELEGANT BEAN

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THE VERSATILE GRAIN AND THE ELEGANT BEAN

Name: THE VERSATILE GRAIN AND THE ELEGANT BEAN
Author: Sheryl London
ISBN: 0-671-76106-4

A CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD'S MOST HEALTHFUL FOODS

by Sheryl London & Mel London ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1992

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A decade after their Sheryl and Mel London's Creative Cooking with Grains and Pasta, a health-food-style compendium that had its share of bean complements and was already showcasing such grains as amaranth, sorghum, and triticale, the indefatigable Londons have pulled in some yet newer grains (quinoa; teff) and a separate alphabet of beans, and have contrived yet more of their generally palatable, though somewhat capricious, recipes. They're less doctrinaire this time around—their mashed (not fried) pintos ``refritos'' incorporate bacon, chorizo sausages, and sour cream- -and they draw from a slightly wider range of ethnic ingredients (tomatillos; radicchio), but the same sensibility is at work in this compendium of their own creations and variations. From their cornmeal-blueberry pancakes, their brown-basmati- rice salad, their triticale-carrot cake and their vanilla-barley pudding with tea-poached plums...to their poached monkfish with flageolets and tomato-based coulis and their Spanish cocido of boiled meats and chickpeas, what the Londons offer is variety and novelty in a neo-middlebrow taste range—and lots of it. (Line drawings—125—not seen.)

Pub Date: April 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-671-76106-4

Page Count: 488

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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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.