What a pretty sight! These are pasta made by food historian and food teacher Oretta Zanini De Vita. As you can see, making pasta has so secret for her. She owns vintage pasta tools including a wooden stamp that mints pasta like coins. It is splendid.

Encyclopedia of Pasta

Oretta Zanini De Vita wrote a 300-page encyclopedia about the history of Italian pasta. The english version of her book will hit the store in a few days. This is not a recipe book. It is a book that explores all shapes and types of pasta. You will learn about their origins, the primary ingredients, the different names that it is called, and how you typically served them. It is a good gift idea for a foodie who likes to know more about food history.

In the interview on The New York Times, Mona Talbott said that the range of pasta shapes shows that cooking “was a way of self-expression for women to show their creativity and imagination with little or no resources”. When you see how beautiful these pasta are, I agree with her.

If you wish to know about Oretta Zanini De Vita’s quest to discover the history of pasta or you wish to admire more delightful pasta pictures, head to The New York Times.

SOURCING:
+ For Americans: Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini De Vita $19.77 USD
+ For Canadians: Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini De Vita $21.74 CAD
+ top photo: Chris Warde-Jones for The New York Times

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Once the cold has arrived, I like to read a good book, browse my favorite magazines or explore the Web on the couch with a blanket on my legs. My everyday dark charcoal blanket from Caban is getting old. Therefore, I started to look for a replacement.

The black and off white Crux blanket by Pia Wallén is gorgeous. It is hand woven in Sweden and made of 100% wool.  If you are looking for more color options, head to Pia Wallén’s Web site. You will find there the Crux blanket in 4 colors: Redorange/offwhite, black/offwhite, potato/offwhite and green/offwhite. Sadly, this museum piece is over my budget for a blanket that I used while reading on the couch.

WHERE TO BUY:
+ Pia Wallén Crux Wool Blanket £379 at Cloudberry Living
+ Pia Wallén Crux Wool Blanket 4400 SEK (this is price shown on the cart)
+ Box in felt with handles 1250 SEK
+ The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown $16.17 USD

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Balancing salt and sweet is popular with chefs. Simply think of caramels with fleur de sel or molten chocolate cake served with olive oil. I am in the middle of organizing my husband’s birthday party. This year, I decided to try to make a dessert table à la Amy Atlas. Since there will be lot of sweets, I wish to balance it off with salty treats. The balancing act is more impressive when it happens in one dish.

On Salty Sweets you get the recipe for a peanut butter cupcake with chocolate frosting. For my husband’s birthday, I would prefer cupcakes with earl grey tea or ginger. Both flavors while complement better my theme. Do not worry, I will share details on the food and decor after his party.

In the meantime, if you are looking for recipes, check out this cookbook by Christie Matheson. Salty Sweets presents 75 delectable ways to play with sweet and savory flavors. Her book revolves around delectable desserts and tempting treats with a sublime kiss of salt. This trend does not stop at desserts. Lots of chefs experiment with this concept. I am sure that we will see more cookbooks on that food trend.

SOURCING:
+ USA: Salty Sweets by Christie Matheson $13.57 USD
+ Canada: Salty Sweets by Christie Matheson $17.48 CAD

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Good news for home cooks. You can enter a recipe contest every week with a cool winning prize. Harper Studio will publish the winning recipes in the Food52 cookbook.

+ Food52 cookbook project

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Old cooking traditions are hot again. According to an article on the Globe and Mail, the younger generations enrolled in canning workshops. I feel that it is simply a continuation of the grow your own vegetable garden movement and the desire to eat better.

My mother was running her own business when I was a kid so she did not have the time. Now that she works less, she takes the time to pickle fresh cucumbers and make her own ketchup. Since she lives 130 km from me, I do not think of asking her to show me the proper technique of canning.

What is stopping me is that I am afraid that my jars will not be sterile enough or that I would not sealed them well. Plus, I need good proven recipes.

For first timers look for canning workshops and books. A book that shows the basics, including which canning supplies we need, is Complete Book of Home Preserving. Depending on where you live it will be related to the Ball brand or the Bernardin brand.

Join the Canning Revolution

Canning Across America is a nationwide, ad hoc collective of cooks, gardeners and food lovers committed to the revival of the lost art of “putting up” food. The weekend of Aug. 29-30, 2009 they had a series of how-to classes, demos and home canning parties in cities around the country. The Canning Across America’s blog provides great information and recipes. For an overview of the process, watch this video by Seattle chef and veteran canner Diane LaVonne, of Diane’s Market Kitchen. You will see if it is for you or not.

SOURCING:
+ Top collage: photos by TheBittenWord on Flickr
+ For Americans: Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving by Judi Kingry $15.61 USD
+ For Canadians: Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving by Judi Kingry $17.61 CAD
+ Canning Across America

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Beside mastering cooking techniques, the best way to improve your cooking is by learning how to balance flavor. First, you need to know which ingredients complement each other. You also need to know how flavor develops. This book is filled with tips, guidelines and basic principles that you can use in your own kitchen. For The Flavor Bible, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg concentrated on what make food tastes great and how to maximize flavor.

Page and Dornenburg explored four tastes in our mouth: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. They talked about how heat, textures, aroma and look influence the taste of a dish or an ingredient. They also explored the cultural preferences and particularities.

After reading The Flavor Bible, you will be better equipped to adjust any recipe to fit what is inside your pantry and your fridge. Moreover, it will provide you a solid foundation for inventing your own recipe.  My girl friend Nathalie bought it and she is delighted with the book. Now that I researched this cookbook, I intent to grab my copy soon.

SOURCING:
+ Americans: The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg $23.10 USD
+ Canadians: The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg $24.26 CAD

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I was due for a book review. Instead of my usual cookbook or home decor book review, I went for a green living book. In fact, the book I selected completes today’s eco-friendly column. The bottle sling bag looks great. I am sure that many mothers who like to carry a similar bag for the baby bottles.

In her second book, Betz White created 25 projects made with repurposed and organic materials. Her leaf scarf is awesome. Her book contains several household projects. You can make your own

• water bottle sling bags – for one or two bottles
• produce bags
• trivet and coasters
• vintage napkins and napkin rings
• lunch tote
• reusable sandwich bag
• denim shopper bag
• picnic blanket
• apron.

If you enjoy sewing, you could craft your own hostess gifts for a while.

MORE:
+ For Americans: Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials by Betz White $16.47 USD
+ For Canadians: Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials by Betz White $17.33 CAD
+ Book photography by John Gruen, rights reserved – see more photos for the book on Melanie Falick Books
+ Via decor8

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My friend Jaime of It’s a Jaime Thing is hosting her first giveaway. She has 4 signed copies of Intimate Weddings by author Christina Friedrichsen to give away.

My wedding was an intimate wedding. We had 70 guests. The main appeal of a small wedding is that you really pass time with all my guests. Everybody wants to speak to you. Plus there are the pictures, the games, the dancing and the eating.

A Glance at My Own Wedding

Initially, I set the limit at 40 guests but my husband wants more guests to share our joy. And it was hard selecting the few. We settled for 70 guests.

You have to take tough decisions to stick to a small number of guests. We were lucky to have parents who let us have it our way. We split the guest list half and half between friends and family. It was important to us that our friends be present. The number of close aunts and uncles fit well. We invited the cousins with whom we always played as children.

On the plus side, we indulge in a luxurious venue, a fine cuisine meal and make sure that the celebrations were a lot of fun. Our wedding was extraordinary. I could have asked for more.

With the level of details that today’s brides want, planning a small wedding enables you to have it all. It is not just about money, all the time-consuming handmade projects can be a nightmare to manage with a huge wedding.

Intimate does not means to be crowded in a room. Try to select a venue with a room size slightly bigger than what you need. By spreading the extra space across the room, you can create an even more luxurious feeling.

Update: Christina Friedrichsen runs a Web site full on advices on how to host the perfect intimate weddings. She also has a blog.

It’s for You and Your Husband

Before you decide what kind of weddings you wish for, why not read Intimate Weddings. You have until March 4th, 2009 11:59pm EST to enter the It’s a Jaime Thing giveaway. Whatever you decide, my best advice is that at the end of the day, you and your husband had the wedding celebrations that please both of you. We sure did.

SOURCING:
+ Intimate Weddings by Christina Friedrichsen $10.19 USD
+ Intimate Weddings Web site

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New Year is associated with New Year’s resolution and wishes. The most important gift of all is to enjoy life to its fullness is being healthy. It is a fact that our eating habits can help us fight disease. They are a lot of myths and ideas that circulate about food. So I decided to read books with solid scientific facts.

The first book on my list is An Apple A Day, a national bestseller in Canada. This practical well-written book is from Joe Schwarcz, a PhD working at McGill University in Montreal.

bought the paperback edition that is currently available in Canada. The book is in re-edition as a hardcover with a January 13, 2009 release. You had to read it. The book is divided in 4 sections:

1. The role played by food’s natural components
2. The consequences of human intervention in our food supply
3. Deals with the substances produced by food processing
4. Discuss the dubious nutritional ideas

I wrote for Food Network Canada an article about the dilemma canned / frozen fruits and vegetables versus fresh produces during winter. I talked about the importance of adding variety to your diet.

Interesting Facts from An Apple a Day

So far I learned that eating apples everyday is truly beneficial. I used to do it and do not know why I stopped. I used to eat a green apple for dessert. I will restart. By giving up my cookies, I may lose over time the few extra pounds that we all wish to lose.

Most importantly is the fact that interaction of foods is what matter the most. For example, Italians are right when the pour olive oil on their tomato sauce. The lycopene found on tomatoes needs some fat to be absorbed by our body. Cooked tomatoes release in our body more lycopene. The tomato-broccoli combination is potentially more effective against prostate cancer.

Drinking a glass of tomato before boarding a plane reduces the chance that blood clots form in your legs. It is good to know.

What this book show me so far is to remind me of a fact: I do not eat enough fresh fruits. I eat lots of vegetables but I failed to put enough fruits in my diet. This will be my New Year’s resolution.

For Americans:
+ An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths About the Foods We Eat by Joe Schwarcz – hardcover $16.29 USD at Amazon.com

For Canadians:
+ An Apple A Day by Joe Schwarcz – paperback $12.05 CAD at Amazon.ca
+ An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions, and Truths About the Foods We Eat by Joe Schwarcz – hardcover $18.35 at Amazon.ca

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After the Food Network’s TV series that debuted in 2007 comes the cookbook. You can recreate 45 of Anthony’s best recipes at home. Like he does in the show, the 192-page cookbook provides useful tips on the art of cooking the main ingredients.

What I like about Anthony Sedlak’s cooking is that his dish looks elegant yet his recipes are simple to execute. It shows again that you do not need lots of time and kitchen helpers to impress your guests or your family.

I am trying to inspire all of us to cook at home by presenting exciting meals. We sometimes need to be recalled that cooking is supposed to be fun.  It does not matter if you did not prepare the recipe exactly like the Chef. As long as your dish tasted good, you should be happy.

If you are not familiar with the show, click here to read my review of The Main TV series. You will get the links to these 4 recipes.

SOURCING:
+ The Main: Recipes by Anthony Sedlak – $19.76 CAD at Indigo.ca

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In her latest cookbook published by Whitecap, Anna Olson updates the classic dishes. It feels good to revisit recipes that have stood the test of time.

In the Kitchen with Anna, you will discover new techniques, surprising flavor combinations, and special preparation methods adapted for home cooking. You learn new tricks about 125 tasty dishes in a 224-page cookbook. I am curious about this book; I will have to check it out.

If you are a regular of Food TV Canada, chances are that you already know who is Anna Olson. For the rest, Anna joined Food Network Canada in 2002 to host Sugar, a dessert cooking show.  Before that, she worked for seven years as a pastry chef at Inn on the Twenty in Jordan, Ontario. This is where she met her husband Michael Olson, who is also a Chef.

Her latest project on Food Network Canada is a 26-part half-hour cooking show called Fresh with Anna Olson about eating fresh, eating local.

For my fellow Canadians, I am glad to report that the book costs less in Canada. In the Kitchen with Anna is published by the same publisher of another Canadian cookbook I like, Whitewater Cooks.

SOURCING:
+ In the Kitchen with Anna: New Ways with the Classics – $22.76 USD at Amazon.com
+ In the Kitchen with Anna by Anna Olson – $18.87 CAD at Amazon.ca
+ Whitewater Cooks by Shelley Adams – price: $19.77 USD at Amazon

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I wish to thank you all for participating. Thank you to the publisher, Little, Brown and Company for giving these copies away. The random draw determines the 5 winners:

1. CHRISTINA – username: cwright04
2. ANNE MORELLO – username: annemorello
3. REEVA – username: reeva
4. JAIME – username itsajaimething
5. SUMAYA – username: everestwater

I hope the book gives you the desire to entertain more at home. I will try to contact the winners by email. Just in case, I am asking the 5 winners to send me your address via the Contact form so you can receive a copy of the book. Use KBC Book Giveaway as the subject.

And do not hesitate to praise in Places your favorite merchants, restaurants and local service providers. It is also about your taste.

+ Katie Brown Celebrates – $19.80 USD at Amazon

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