Colwin, Laurie - More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen

[oyceter]

I haven't read Laurie Colwin's first book about home cooking, but I don't think I needed to. This is a wonderfully homey, comforting, happy-making book; it cheered me up immensely. A lot of it is because of Colwin's attitude toward cooking. She likes good ingredients and fresh food, but she's also a fan of things that taste awesome with minimum preparation (the elegant slob, she calls herself).

I was a little wary when the introduction was on the importance of the family dinner and having families eat together. While I usually do like dinners together, I find that people propounding this also tend to advocate "all-American" family values, most of which just don't work with me. But Colwin goes on to talk about how the meaning of family changes and how the giant Norman Rockwell dinners meant slaving at the stove and doing the dishes afterward; she writes of how families are friends or single-parent or gay or lesbian or multiracial.

I particularly like that she includes non-American food in the book; she's equally fond of chutney and fermented black beans as she is of turkey. That said, most of the recipes are American.

And well, she's just funny!

I come from a coffee-loving family, and you can always tell if my sister and I have been around, because both of us collect all the dead coffee from everyone's morning cup, pour it over ice, and drink it. This is a disgusting habit, and only a coffee addict would indulge in it.

It is gross! But it also sums up coffee addiction! (Not caffeine, mind you -- I do like caffeinated things, but I loooove coffee above and beyond that.)

Really fun, and incredibly cheering to read on cold, rainy winter nights.

Comments

[kaizoku.livejournal.com]

both of us collect all the dead coffee from everyone's morning cup, pour it over ice, and drink it. This is a disgusting habit, and only a coffee addict would indulge in it.

What a good idea! When I lived the same city as my parents, I used to siphon off their leftover coffee into a jar, which I would take back to my apartment and put in the fridge, and then reheat on those mornings when I woke up groggy and in need of coffee. It was pretty gross, but it did the trick (and for cheap.)

[oyceter]

Heee! Glad to pass on the tip...

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Her first book on food is also extraordinary, and I suspect you'd love it. Her fiction is lovely too, although it is pretty much about white people.

[oyceter]

I suspect I will pass on her fiction for a little, even though it sounds good -- for some reason, my brain seems to be going for the whacked out fantasy or gothic manga!

But definitely going to hunt down her first food book.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Do it! You can find out about the ex-boyfriend who cooked eggs until they resembled an asbestos mat! Plus my favorite-ever baked chicken recipe.

[oyceter]

Hee! That is awesome! Um, in a horrific sort of way, but still.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Those books are lovely. I can't remember whether it is in that one or the first one that she writes about cooking at a shelter for homeless women. Her recipes are also very usable (at least, the ones I've tried are).

Her novels are about white people of a certain class and geographical location, but they do (I think) convey a sense that this is a group with its own idiosyncratic ways and quirks, rather than representing The Universal. (Does that make sense?)

[oyceter]

Oh, that must be the first one! I am dying to try some of her recipes, especially because they look fairly easy and delicious.

Re: her novels, that does make sense. I think I will pass for now, but mostly because my brain seems to be craving crack manga at the moment.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I remembered just after posting that Goodbye without Leaving is about a white middle-class young woman who becomes the single non-black singer in an Ikettes-like backing group, and afterwards works for a non-profit organisation that protects the rights of black musicians (e.g. when their work gets ripped off and turned into pop music it goes after the corporation for recompense).

[oyceter]

Oh interesting! Thanks for the FYI!

[bossymarmalade.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this book review! It's exactly the sort I find helpful, where you include critique as well as what you liked. Many of my foodie books are aggravatingly problematic, so it's nice to get a lead on one that won't make me wonder why I even bought the thing in the first place. *g*

[oyceter]

It's a really great book! It cheered me up immensely and made me laugh out loud frequently.