Real Food for Mother and Baby
Real Food For Mother and Baby:
The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two, And Baby's First Food
by Nina Planck
288 pages
Health/Food, Nutrition
Bloomsbury USA (March 31, 2009)
Nina Planck is an amazing food activist who believes in making good choices about eating. Her previous book Real Food gets rave reviews everywhere. This is a follow up, for those who are trying to get pregnant, those who are pregnant and it even shares ideal first foods. It is full of really interesting information and Nina Planck is a food nutrition guru. Her basic premise is that whole foods are best- however it may shatter some of your current thoughts on what is okay (or even good) to eat.
I haven't read her first book Real Food, but I love the whole food and real food concept. However, this book was a hard one for me. I just couldn't get over that she seemed too opinionated and sure of all that she was saying even when it really didn't seem to sit right with me. I have some examples that threw me off: she condones drinking alcohol while pregnant, saying sometimes she even drank more than a glass of wine a day, but she says it is not good to be a vegetarian while pregnant. That to me seems waky. Yes, crazy. I don't know if it was wrong, but after I read that I had a hard time taking in her logic and ideas in the same way.
Overall it does hold really interesting information, but I just couldn't get over the fact that she pretty much seemed to just want to push what she felt like eating or not eating on the rest of us. Oh, and yes there is plenty of liver to boot. I guess if you love wine and liver and don't want to give up anything while you are pregnant- this is your book. This is a grouchy take on it, I know. I just fear that when something is proven negative- to even guess at how much you and/or your baby can handle and still make it out okay, it is just crazy. Yes I am hung up on that.
The Flavor Bible
Title: The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide To Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs
Author: Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
Pages: 380
Genre: Cookbook, Culinary Reference Guide
Awards: IACP Award- Winning Authors of What to Drink with What you Eat
Yearly Count b: 96
This is insanity, insanely amazing for sure! The Flavor Bible was written as a reference type guide for when you have several ingredients but enhancing their unique flavours for the best culenary experience result is just beyond you. How does it work? Well, you figure out what you are interested in working on, for me that means what I have in the fridge that I need to eat, or sometimes what I buy on impulse at our amazing Saturday Market and then blunder because I have no idea how it should even be cooked. After you have your ingredient/s you check out what pairs well with it, and for each ingredient or spice there is a crazy long list that you can drool over and choose from. And probably designed especially for me, there are sometimes parings to avoid and they are also listed, YAY!
There are also sections titled Flavor Affinities where you can plan a trio of yummy delight, or the " understanding [of] what herbs, spices and other seasonings will best bring out the flavor of whatever it is you're cooking" (p. 33). I can't wait to try some of the ones I see listed! More than a cookbook, this is a reference guide that any person who likes their food to taste good would enjoy. The Flavor Bible lists so many options for most ingredients, many times probably saving you the trip out to the store for that unnecessary item, and that extra candy bar (for the road, you know!).
Most of the book is what the authors call, Flavor Matchmaking: The Charts, but there are two other chapters as well. The first chapter is titled: Flavor= Taste + Mouthfeel + Aroma + "the X factor": Learning to Recognize the Language of Food. And really it is a great chapter emphasizing the importance of things such as saltiness, temperature, bitterness, texture, and pungency. I was intregued by "the X Factor" and that is how the food affects us emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
The second chapter is called, Great Cooking= Maximizing Flavor + Pleasure by Tapping Body + Heart+ Mind + Spirit: Communicating Via the Language of Food, seriously that is a great title as well! This Chapter discusses things such as " Understanding the Essence of the Ingredients", the " Understanding the Essence of the Moment" (p. 25)
This really is a great one, in so many ways! I actually think it is "practically perfect in every way" haha, that is no joke though, it is exquisite! Check out this video below and then you will want it even more 
