Locavore Limelight: Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal Vegetable Miracle"

Just finished "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver. This food/memoir/local eating guide follows Kingsolver, her husband, Steven Hopp, and two daughters, Camille and Lily, on their quest to eat local for a full calendar year-- producing much of their food from their own garden and animals. Their venture is very successful and Kingsolver's literary voice is a pleasure to hear from about this hot topic. 

In 2005, when Kingsolver and her clan were moving from their Arizona home back to their farm in Virginia to begin a life of locavore eating this way of life had yet to become popular yet. By the end of their year of food locavore was a buzz word and trying to eat closer and closer to home was trending. They are largely successful and this books give great insights into the trials and tribulations of feeding oneself off one's own land. 

Culinary Destination: Portland, Maine

During my vacation in Albany I was fortunate enough to be able to accompany my dad on an overnight business trip to Portland, ME. I went to Maine as a child with my parents but they are not times I really remember. Recently my friend The Creative Culinarian moved from NYC to Portland so I also was able to see her briefly which was a real treat. 

                                           
 My day in downtown started at the Standard Baking Company, 75 Commercial Street. As per recommendation from Tiffany I enjoyed a ham & cheese croissant. Here they top these delightful French treats with sesame seeds adding a level of crunchy texture that pairs nicely with the pillowy texture of the croissant. The ham inside is meaty and hardly fatty as some sliced ham can be; the cheese is melted down to a sauce-like nature-- not hardened as some cheese croissants can get after sitting. All of this made for a warm delicious breakfast I paired with a fresh iced tea sweetened                                                                              with simple syrup.

Notes on my Favorite Food Magazines

In light of some awesome June and July issues that are out on the stands now and this digital revival of Gourmet magazine it seems a good time to share with you my favorite magazines and why I love them.

Here are the food magazines I subscribe to and suggest that you should, too! 

If you like magazines but hesitate to make a commitment, remember it is always saves to subscribe!:

Saveur

Okay I'm going to come right out there and declare Saveur my *favorite* food magazine! 

I didn't really know about it before I started watching Top Chef masters last year (Hi, James Oseland!) and I had not noticed it on newsstands until I moved to Manhattan and started shopping at Whole Foods. I bought my first issue this year and subscribed right away from one of the insert cards and have been salivating and learning every month since. 

Become a Fan of the Culinary Librarian on Facebook!

I've made a Facebook page to quickly share links, photos, and musings longer than 140 characters! 

Feel free to "Like" me to be updated on all sorts of on-goings! 


http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Culinary-Librarian/123899134306768

I've been considering doing a giveaway ... so maybe if I reach a certain number of followers on Facebook/Blogger/Twitter I will decide what to do! 


Hope you like the postings. Please feel free to upload links & photos you think your fellow readers would enjoy! 

Great resource for starting Culinary Research from NYPL's Rebecca Federman!

From the Cooked Books Blog
"A Guide to Culinary Research" by Rebecca Federman, the NYPL's culinary librarian. 
Follow her on Twitter! @cookedbooks


http://cookedbooks.blogspot.com/2010/05/guide-to-culinary-research.html



This information definitely would have helped me doing some research for college papers and will help me researching now! 

Her first point about the keyword "cookery" is very true even if it seems a little odd. 
Go get one of your cookbooks and look at the copyright page-- look all the way at the bottom of the page where the book is classified and... ta-da!:
I. Cookery
Usually listed first then further classified into a regional cuisine (many of my cookbooks say "Cookery, French"). Even some of your favorite food memoirs will have Cookery listed-- definitely the place to start!!

Culinary Tweets

When I first started my own Twitter account back in the fall I really didn't know what to do with it. I thought Twitter was kind of pointless (due to facebook) and confusing (because I didn't get notified everytime anything happened by email, again due to facebook). I also was frustrated by the character limit and felt as if my thoughts were constantly being cut off.

It took me about a month to get the hang of it and realize just how useful 140 characters of microblogging can be-- especially for foodies! For one, tons of celebrity chefs, food critics, and respected foodies tweet many times a day, providing insights on a wide range of culinary areas. There are also plenty of restaurants/cafes/bakeries, grocery & specialty stores, food carts/trucks (especially helpful in NYC for the trucks who move daily and update their location on twitter), farmer's markets, foodie newletters, and culinary publications such as magazines & cookbooks who all provide insider tips, general information, event news, and promotional notifications. Twitter has become an excellent resource for me to find out about what is happening in the culinary world around me which is constantly changing. It is also an excellent forum for give-aways which I myself have been lucky enough to win (Gift Cards from Lenny's in NYC). The tweeters who win these give-aways are known as "Twinners" = Twitter + Winner. Some recent culinary give-aways include:

• Kitchen Aid Mixers from @MarthaStewart
• Kitchen Aid attachements from @KitchenAidUSA
• Gift Cards to Whole Foods and NYC restaurants
• Cookbooks from celebrity chefs such as @jamie_oliver (King of the US School Lunch Revolution)
• A popcorn maker from @bonappetitmag

In all, whether you're looking to share information with others, post pictures of your latest gustation, tweet to your favorite chef about how much you love her/him, learn about all of @GaelGreene's latest thoughts about NYC Restaurants, or win something you've always wanted (i.e. a Kitchen Aid!) then Twitter is definitely worth trying out.
To follow me and check out some of my favorite culinary tweeters, check out my twitter page to the right or click here: @culinarylibrari.


Happy Tweeting!