I'm reading and working from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. As Matt put it, it's like a first semester chef's school curriculum in a book. It's incredible. I made chicken stock from it today and it's the single best thing I've ever cooked. Everything is locally- and seasonally-focused.

In late winter/early spring I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Opened my eyes wider about factory farms and corn. I really didn't realize the extent to which everything we eat is made of corn.

In summer I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Took Pollan's book and made it personal, showing her and her family's journey through a year of local eating and raising a dam@ lot of their own food.

Now I have The Art of Simple Food. Takes the local, whole foods, vegetable-heavy, traditional menu and teaches you how to cook it and why. Simply incredible.

Waters also focuses on farm to school initiatives. In my spare time after advocating for J's needs, I have been working on this at my kids' school. This is the second year I've written an application for the farm to school grant offered by the state. I hope we get it this year and then we'll really have a chance to get more local farm foods into the school. The school is really receptive to this idea. They've already made a bunch of changes to the menu including removing sugary cereals.

I've read the other two, and also found them defining in my life. I need to read the Waters book still--thanks for the review.

I've read the other two, and also found them defining in my life. I need to read the Waters book still--thanks for the review.

You'll love it. I got it on ILL but probably have to buy it. It's like - okay so how do I cook all this gorgeous, delectable, fresh, local food? She tells you. :) It's full of French and Italian cooking tradition mixed with a hefty dose of Slow Food/Berkeley culture.

For me, dh has made most of our food. It's been great - he is a rockin' chef. But he has some sort of complex about vegetable dishes and baking, so those have always been my roles. Since I'm home, I also figured making things like soups and stews during the week should become my realm (because coming home at 4 and starting soup means the kids are asleep before it's ready!). One of the benefits of working from home.

Speaking of which...I'm back to work. Anyway it's a good book to get on ILL in case you already know how to make all the stuff in it (but dh has been cooking for 15 years and still learned a few things from it already) or if it's not to your family's preferences. For us, it's become a staple right alongside Feeding The Whole Family by Cynthia Lair (much more vegetarian-friendly and -focused).

The three together work really well. I haven't gotten very far into The Art of Simple Food, but we've made a few things. I find that her philosophy is so like mine already that what I am gaining is a way to make simple food even more delicious.

The three books together are like a journey, and I would add in Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, which I read before A, V, M. I thought it was a fantastic read on eating locally and the challenges faced by a couple who didn't have a farm.

I can't forget to add it Nina Planck's Real Food: What to Eat and Why. Because of her I tossed canola oil. I read her book at a time when I was pretty sure I already knew what to eat; her writing helped refine it.

There were other books as well, however the three you mentioned, plus the other two I wrote about, completely changed how we eat at this house. We were a whole foods family, and yet we are even more intensely so now.

The only food book I think I need now are the two by Shannon Hayes: The Farmer and the Grill and Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook. The first isn't released yet on Amazon, but the second is on my holiday wish list, and the other releases in the new edition in time to be a birthday gift.

I was pleased that Alice Water's uses grassfed beef in her recipes, but having a freezer full of grassfed beef I consider a couple of books specifically about cooking pasture-raised meat to be a good bet to help us not waste or ruin what we have.

Lauren, are you supposed to be writing?

I read Planck's Real Food and while I liked it it doesn't wholly work for us because of milk allergies. She also comes off a bit... I dunno... really, I don't know. Just irritating a bit.

I've read AVM and TOD and liked both, AVM more. I've read a lot of Plenty while sitting in B&N and I'd love to finish it but our library doesn't plan to get it. (So if someone wants to loan it to me I'd be happy to pay shipping both ways... still cheaper than buying it).

As far as "how to cook" books I find that I don't really get into them. I prefer to figure things out myself or to learn via the recipe cards at the co-op or through friends. I don't find myself trying new things in cookbooks. I think it's because I've been cooking since I was nine :drop: plus I have allergies to watch out for, so there's not a lot I haven't done or that I would do if I hadn't because of dairy and eggs.

For 2007, baby and homeschool defined it for me. BUT... I am reading the Omnivores Delimma right now, and I am just loving it. I have both the others Lauren mentioned on hold from my library, but I may ask for one for Christmas from my dad as well... he and his girlfriend are both big book nuts. I just reserved Plenty from the library. I want to go to B&N today and see if I can read some of it while chasing Logan and Cyan around. lol... So these books may very likely define 2008 and change the way we eat. I know I have been looking to make this switch for a while... doing things slowly and more locally, but when things got rough, becuase I didn't have system in place for shopping local, I stopped doing it 80% of the time. (When it wasn't easy... lol) So that is my goal for this next year. Trying to turn that around and make 80% of what I eat local instead of the other way around. I know what to do, I just need the convincing.

I think this will go along with the new money contract my dh and I are verbally working out. I need to start getting crazy with the budget...... but I need a few weeks off for that. Perhaps Christmas break.

Val

As far as "how to cook" books I find that I don't really get into them. I prefer to figure things out myself or to learn via the recipe cards at the co-op or through friends. I don't find myself trying new things in cookbooks. I think it's because I've been cooking since I was nine :drop: plus I have allergies to watch out for, so there's not a lot I haven't done or that I would do if I hadn't because of dairy and eggs.

I hear you. You sound like my dh. :lol: However he grudgingly admitted that he could learn a thing or two from Alice Waters. ;)

This is sort of like Nourishing Traditions...don't know if you've read/used that. It's not just how to cook, but why, and lots of narrative embedded within. I am just starting to get into it - it's a big, thick hardcover - so I can't rave about it except to say that I loved her recipe for chicken soup. There were a few nuances different from how Matt's done it before, and they made a difference.