Fabulous summer cookbooks

I think I have a huge problem with collecting cookbooks.  I mean that’s what I’m going to call it a collection not a hording addiction LOL.  I do love a good cookbook and I read them cover to cover like a book.  I have purchased a few new fun fabulous summer cookbooks, they are disguised as vegetarian cookbooks,  and I just wanted to share them with you.  If your like me you like to eat more fresh foods come the warm summer months.  I could eat watermelon and fresh corn every night for dinner if I could.   The next best thing is to eat all the yummy fruits and veggies from the farmers market.  I do like to experiment with veggies so I invested in my health and bought a few cookbooks to help me out.

Feast, by Sarah Copeland, is a fabulous vegetarian cookbook my mom bought me in California from my favorite garden store Rogers Gardens in New Port.  I loved it the min I saw it sitting on the shelf just waiting to be taken home and read by someone who may or may not make many of the dishes but just appreciates the look and feel of a beautiful cookbook and fantastic food photography. I looked through this cookbook in record time, the inside photos as beautiful as the cover.  The food is styled on dark wood tables and slate boards.  It’s all very eye catching and sophisticated.  Not all the recipes have photos but there are enough in this book to make your mouth water and crave healthy vegetarian foods.  My favorite recipes include Crispy smashed creamer potatoes with rosemary pg. 126, Mushroom agnolotti with sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes and arugula pg. 190, and my favorite recipe is the Mushroom-Almond milk soup pg. 84.  (I’ve made it 3 times and eat the whole pot myself)

Mighty salads from Food 52, is darling cookbook that I’m reviewing for blogging for books.  I was so excited to see cookbooks on their list.  I’m a salad girl at heart so I was excited to read Mighty Salads 60 new ways to turn salad into dinner. This is not a vegetarian cookbook as it contains fish, chicken and bacon in some of the dinner salads.  I loved the wholesome simple ingredients in each salad.  It is so much fun to make a recipe when you can easily find all of the salad makings fresh at the grocery or farmers markets.  Even though the fresh ingredients used in the dinners were simple,  some recipes had a list of ingredients with over 20 flavors.  Don’t let that scare you, the extra flavors come from homemade dressings and marinades, my favorite being sprouted mung bean, carrot and date salad on page 65.
The salads are sophisticated and elegant.  I can make a huge salad buy some delicious bread,  invite a few neighbors over to dine without doing more than chopping and boiling some pasta.  The recipes will make you look and feel like a gourmet chef, all while using your left over veggies and charring a tomato.   What a delight to to have a healthy cook book that looks so beautiful and has such a variety of  tasty recipes to boot!

I bought this last one  The Forest Feast, by Erin Gleeson from Amazon and I was so nervous that I might not like it.  I think I’m a little old fashion when it comes to books, I love to open them up and peek inside to see if the insides are as intriguing as the beautiful covers. I was giddy when I discovered that this cookbook was so modern and simple.  The recipes often were less than 5 ingredients and still were delicious and fresh.  This cookbooks chapters are  appetizers, cocktails, salads, vegetable dishes, sweets.  The food isn’t substantial but very light and fresh.  I think the cream cheese filled Parmesan poppers are one of my favorites, maybe not the healthiest but tasty non the less pg. 51.  The Avocado egg-in-a-hole is a fun twist on avocado toast pg. 165   The roasted carrots are one of my favorites and they are so simple, I think its the way they are sliced or the spices that are sprinkled on before baking at a high temperature to create a kind of crispy glaze, what ever it is its a very tasty side dish pg. 181.

There you have it my favorite veggie, salad, light cooking in the summer cookbooks. I really hope you take advantage of all the summer and fall farmers markets and try some of these healthy cookbooks yourself.