Cookbooks

On cookbooks:  There are things I love about the first Well Fed.  Namely, her explanation of her weekly cookup (which I have yet to try), and a handful of recipes that we use regularly.  I've cooked probably 50% of the things in that book and we've loved some, not most.  Well Fed 2 has A LOT more variety and I've had more success with that one.  But it could be that I just had more of a feel for her style and was better able to pick out what I thought we might like.

One thing I absolutely love about the Well Fed books (1 and 2) is that at the end of each recipe she has a little text box that says something like "You know how you could do that?" and then follows with suggestions for different meat and spice combinations to change the overall flavor of the dish.  It's pretty cool for people who don't know much about how spices work together (like me).

My new books came Thursday.  Practical Paleo is the beautiful one that I bought based on attractiveness alone.  Lots of handy charts and neat visual displays.  If you are feeling overwhelmed, the charts help to take all that swirly info and tack it down.  She also includes pictures of cooking techniques that you may not be familiar with, like how to deglaze a pan.  Or the difference between chopping and dicing.  Also, she includes a really nice series on different dietary needs (blood sugar, autoimmune disorders, MS, thyroid support, etc.).  She talks about key nutrients to focus on, which foods you can find them in, and then puts together a 30 day (!) mealplan for each type of need.  Pretty cool.  

HOWEVER, the first half is a summary of WHY paleo... purely informational.  Once you've read it (or skip it because you already read It Starts With Food or GAPS or Grain Brain or The Body Ecology...), it's a lot of pages to lug around all the time as you sort through recipes.

I haven't had much time with The Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook.  Just enough to totally critique the family pictures she chose to include and to empathize with her very awkward teenage son who clearly DOES NOT feel comfortable with the whole photo shoot thing.

~Randi