Cookbook Countdown and a Fond Farewell...

Here's something I've been wanting to do for a while...a Top 10 countdown of my all-time favorite cookbooks.  These are the ones that if something happened to them I'd immediately re-order...the ones that if I were a pioneer, heading West in a covered wagon, and it was too heavy for the horses to pull, I'd make the family get out and walk...the ones that are utterly, completely, and undeniably the best of the best.  Now mind you, I have a cookbook collection that numbers about 70 books, and that's all I have space for, so when I get new books I go through and cull out any that are not being used--this list is the 10 that will never get culled.  Here we go:

#10  From Asparagus to Zucchini, a Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce 3rd Ed., by Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition.

This book is a real gem of a reference book.  I got it a few years back when we subscribed to a local CSA, and MAN, is it ever useful.  It's an alphabetical listing of every veggie you can imagine and how to cook them, and ways to use them.  Because sometimes unusual things like "garlic scapes" show up in your CSA box.  Each section has cooking tips, storing tips and recipes for each veggie.  Score!

#9  Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics, by Ina Garten.  Who better to give better instruction on all the basics of simple and fabulous food?  Gorgeous pictures and beautiful, real, simple food.  Enough said.

#8  Putting Food By, by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, and Beatrice Vaughan.  A classic.  The cover says it all: "The classic work on the best ways to can, freeze, pickle, dry, cure, and preserve."  Yup. That about sums it up.  When I come home from the farmers market with a box of some veggie treasure and need a quick run-down on how best to preserve it, this is a go-to reference.  Like when I'm wondering "do I need to blanch these before freezing, and if so how long?"  The answer is always here.

#7  Preserve it Naturally:  The complete Guide to Food Dehydration, by Excalibur.  For those who don't know, Excalibur is a brand of dehydrators.  I have two, and I absolutely love them.  This book is the classic companion to my beloved dehydrators.  It gives times and temps for anything in the world you might want to dehydrate, along with pictures and recipes for using those dehydrated foods, and also includes creative and fun snacks like fruit and yogurt leathers, and even dog treats, and crafts like dried flowers and salt dough ornaments for the Christmas tree.  LOVE IT!

#6  Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, and More Make it Fast Cook it Slow, by Stephanie O'Dea.  O.k. I know that's totally cheap, and may be considered cheating, but yes, I just slipped two books by the same author into one spot on the countdown!  (And I'm gonna do it again in a minute...).  All the recipes in these books are gluten free, and it's pretty much got every slow cooker recipe known to man in there.  Sometimes I gotta adjust the times, especially with chicken recipes, like HALF the time listed!  But that's the case with any slow cooker book.

#5  Miss Vickie's Big Book of Pressure Cooker Recipes, by Vickie Smith.  Of all my pressure cooker books, this one makes the cut because of all the charts which list time, and release method for any basic food you want to pressure cook:  chicken, whole or parts, any meat, veggie, bean, grain.  The charts are worth the cost of the book, for sure.

#4  Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, with Mary Enig, PhD.  This book almost crept into the #1 spot because it's just flat-out AWESOME reading.  This is an encyclopedic work of traditional food preparation techniques and the #1 best book I know of, anywhere, on nutrition.  This is how I learned how to soak and dehydrate nuts for maximum digestibility and fantastic crispy flavor.  Keeper.  This book will be with me all the days of my life, Lord willing.

#3  Spunky Coconut Cookbooks, by Kelly Brozyna.  (Grain-Free Baking, Dairy Free Ice Cream, and The Spunky Coconut Cookbook).  Kelly is super-innovative.  Her grain-free cakes (coffee cake, yellow cake, scones) are to die for, and guess what?  You'd never guess...they are made with beans and coconut flour!  No refined sugar in sight, woo hoo!

#2  The Dehydrator Bible, by Jennifer MacKenzie, Jay Nutt, and Don Mercer.  Along with the Excalibur book, this one is an absolute necessity as a dehydration reference. 

And...drumroll please...

#1  The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbooks:  The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook and Nourishing Meals, by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre.  These books are a MUST in any gluten-free home.  All recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, most are egg-free, and all are super, super NOURISHING whole foods.  They have a new edition of the Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook coming out in April...oh yeah. I've already pre-ordered it.

Well hey, this has been so fun...not just the cookbook countdown, but blogging and chatting with you dear devoted readers (all 5 of you, haha!)  I started this blog to explore how to get dinner done, allergy-free, using whole foods, without letting it rule my life, and here are the conclusions I've drawn:  cooking whole foods is a lifestyle.  It's just going to always claim a certain portion of my time, and that's a choice.  But breaks are important!  Sometimes ya gotta compromise--maybe use some convenience items life pre-made GF tortillas and pre-cooked beans, and that's ok.   Whatever keeps Mama sane and the food rolling along is a good thing.

Speaking of Mama's sanity...I'm about to make some changes to simplify my life a bit. Make some room for other things.  First and foremost, I'm getting off  Facebook.  I've only been on a month or two, but I'm not very good at multitasking and, to me, facebook feels like an extra task, rather burdensome to keep up with.  I'm not a huge fan of any additional "screen time" in my life, so facebook just isn't a good fit. 

And along those lines, I feel some great closure about this blog too.  I have LOVED writing it, but it feels done to me.  So, onward!  I'm about to free up a little time for some things like the afore mentioned dehydrating projects, home improvement projects, hiking and biking, and a long, long book list, as always!   Who knows, the mood may hit and I may just return to converse about food and life some more.  But for now, a fond farewell and blessings to you my friends.  Nourish on!