SuzanneFass

oferl, best of luck trying to make any of the dishes in that book! I suspect the ingredients will cost even more than the book does, not to mention the cost of your time making all the components. 😉 But have fun!! Katie Meadow: I actually only had to CE half the recipe chapters, then do cleanup on almost the whole thing and a cold read on some of the nonrecipe material, plus insert cross-references. Not everything on the whole book, thankfully. And la di dah indeed. Kind of fun, though -- more so than Dominique Ansel's first book, which he insisted on writing himself, no ghost, and which had a content editor (assistant, most likely) who knew nothing about pastry. Oy.

Homestead Living, which puts out a lovely magazine, has recently published a book, Freeze Drying the Harvest, by Carolyn Thomas, for people interested in freeze drying at home. It's pretty comprehensive, with instructions for drying, storing, and using all sorts of foods and beverages? Want to make your own freeze-dried coffee? Don't laugh--it's in there! So are many fruits and vegetables, meats, seafood, even colostrum! Also tips on the size of machine to buy that fills your needs, how to set it up, how to maintain it, and a technical section of its power use. [Disclosure: I copyedited it and wrote the index. But I have no further financial interest.]

You want cheffy? How about Eleven Madison Park: The Plant-Based Chapter? Considering that every recipe has at least half a dozen subsidiary ("Basic") parts to it--and some many more--it's hard to be cheffier than that. And at a retail price of $275, it's less expensive than dinner there. [Disclosure: I copyedited parts of it, and proofed some of it. But I have no financial interest in it.]

Did you miss me? I missed you, which is why I'm back. You might remember me with a slightly different screen name. Or you might remember me as the one married to HWOE -- He Who Only Eats. Still married to him, but for many years now he has been our garde manger, relieving me of the burden of making the salad every night. He's also our house sommelier, so when I tell him what I'm making for dinner, his response is always "I've got a wine for that." I still do the bulk of the cooking, though. And I still copyedit, proof, and write indexes for cookbooks as a freelancer.