Mommy Made and Daddy Too or All about Braising

Mommy Made and Daddy Too!: Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby and Toddler

Author: Martha Kimmel

Everyone loves a home-cooked meal—even babies and toddlers! Experts agree that homemade baby food is the healthiest way to feed young children. By making their own baby food, parents can drastically reduce the sugar, salt, artificial colors, fillers, additives, and preservatives in their child's diet. And now making baby food from scratch has never been easier—with this practical, user-friendly cookbook by Martha and David Kimmel, founders of the phenomenally successful Mommy Made* line of baby and toddler food.

Updated for a special 10th anniversary edition, Mommy Made* is filled with 140 easy-to-make recipes that are perfect for introducing your baby to wholesome solid foods. These delicious, kid-tested dishes—which include finger foods, shakes and smoothies, snacks on the go, spoonable treats, and a variety of table dishes—were created with your baby's special nutritional needs in mind, and will help your child establish healthful eating habits that will last a lifetime.

Mommy Made* also includes:

• Nutrition advice from birth to three years—incorporating guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics

• A blueprint for when and how to get your baby started on solid food

• Answers to parents' most frequently asked questions: from milk and protein needs to determining portion size, preventing "hunger strikes," and detecting food allergies

• Tips on pureeing, straining, and mashing, as well as storage, thawing and reheating, and using the microwave

• A handy nutrition glossary, food pyramid, and list of helpful websites

• And much more!

Book review: Microeconomics or Influence Edge

All about Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking

Author: Molly Stevens

From the perfect pot roast to the fragrant complexity of braised endive, there's no food more satisfying than a well-braised dish.

The art of braising comes down to us from the earliest days of cooking, when ingredients were enclosed in a heavy pot and buried in the hot embers of a dying fire until tender and bathed in a deliciously concentrated sauce. Today, braising remains as popular and as uncomplicated as ever. Molly Stevens's All About Braising is a comprehensive guide to this versatile way of cooking, written to instruct a cook at any level. Everything you need to know is here, including:

• a thorough explanation of the principles of good braising with helpful advice on the best cuts of meat, the right choice of fish and vegetables, and the right pots
• 125 reliable, easy-to-follow recipes for meat, poultry, seafood, and vegetables, ranging from quick-braised weeknight dishes to slow-cooked weekend braises
• planning tips to highlight the fact that braised foods taste just as good, if not even better, as leftovers
• a variety of enlightened wine suggestions for any size pocketbook with each recipe
• 16 color photographs, 50 line drawings

Author Biography: Molly Stevens is a contributing editor at Fine Cooking magazine and co-author of the cookbook One Potato, Two Potato. She lives near Burlington, Vermont.

Publishers Weekly

Cuisines as diverse as Vietnamese, Moroccan, Italian, British and American all use braising; the technique can be a means to cook everything from vegetables to pork belly. Stevens, a Fine Cooking contributing editor, says that braising is simply "tucking a few ingredients into a heavy pot with a bit of liquid, covering the pot tightly and letting everything simmer peacefully until tender and intensely flavored." With the help of appetite-inducing photos of Vietnamese Braised Scallops, and Braised Endive with Prosciutto, Stevens illustrates just how exciting a braise can be. "Braising," she clarifies, "is a building process. The cook adds layer upon layer of flavor, nuance, and character to a dish at each stage." Although braising is a relatively simple cooking method, Stevens takes her time explaining it, drawing on food science to explain not just how, but why (for example, "Give food plenty of space," because "If the pan is too crowded... the released moisture can't escape and will cause the meat to steam, not brown"). Aside from Stevens's sometimes superfluous prose and ho-hum anecdotes, the book contains interesting tasting notes and cultural information, and Stevens's lengthy instructions will be particularly valuable to beginners. Photos, line drawings. Agent, Marion Young. (Aug.) Forecast: Celebrity endorsements (e.g., from Judy Rodgers, a recent James Beard Award winner) and marvelous photos and layout will draw readers to this work. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Why I Cook	xi
	The Principles of Braising	3
	Vegetables	36
	Seafood	96
	Poultry & Game	128
	Beef	214
	Veal	300
	Pork	336
	Lamb	404
	An Opinionated Pantry	435
	Sources	455
	Bibliography	459
	Index	461