FOOD Dinner Can Be A Picnic All Year Round, by Sharon Elliot, 1981,128 pp., $6.70 ($7.06 for California residents) ppd. from: Fresh Press 774 Allen Court Palo Alto, CA 94303 In Dinner Can Be a Picnic, the author encourages us to capture the magic of a picnic at any time of year, giving us seasonal menu suggestions. Her simple, meatless recipes are arranged by chapter according to time required for preparations; they are indexed and cross-referenced. Predictable meal fare takes a new twist: the zucchini in zucchini pizza is found in the crust; enchiladas contain extra- high protein with the addition of cottage cheese as an ingredient in the filling; quiche offers a potato crust. The question of individual diet is addressed by several recipes—Lentil Bowlado, Salad Spectacular, Pumpkin Soup—that provide a variety of ingredients to be added at the meal itself by the diners. The exclusive use of brown sugar as a sweetener and the processed, canned, or frozen foods called for in some recipes contrast with some innovative uses of tofu and sprouts in other recipes. Purists may decry the former while applauding the latter, but this cookbook may be most valuable for folks looking for an introduction to vegetarian eating. —Nancy Cosper From: Dinner Can Be a Picnic The Global Kitchen, by Karen Gail Brooks and Gideon Bosker, M.D., 1981, 505 pp., $19.95, from: Andrews and McMeel, Inc. 1271 Ave. of the Americas New York, NY 10020 If meals are your favorite rituals, and taking the time to prepare and serve them creatively (even if just occasionally) is one of your more cherished activities, this book is for you. Subtitled “The Authoritative Reference on Cooking, Seasoning, and Dieting with Ethnic and Natural Foods," it is just that. The book is so thorough that it will likely become your primary reference on eating nutritionally without being stuck with the equivalent of rabbit feed. One or two warnings are in order for RAIN readers, however: this is not a country person's or simple living cookbook; many of the ingredients are hard to find and you will probably need a good ethnic grocery handy (substitutes are listed, but they are poor seconds to the real thing). The recipes also call for some sugar, and chicken and seafood recipes are included (but no red meat). These are also not for the harried (or hurried) person, as they require some preparation time, and concentration. As I said, this book is for lovers of food in all its aspects; people who love to think about food, read about it, prepare it slowly and serve it graciously (eating it with gusto goes without saying). Some of the features of Brooks and Bosker's tome: • ethnic menus for "High Protein Meals, Low Calorie Specialties, Low Saturated Fat Selections, Low Cholesterol Meals and Balanced Lunch or Dinner Meals" • discussions of the various herbs most likely to be used in the countries described • hints about the general eating patterns and habits of each culture • Calorie, cholesterol, fiber and other nutritional factors for each of the recipes The chapter on "Nutrition" and "Food" (somewhat general titles, but they serve to describe various food items and their cultural and dietary values) are excellent and well written. And to top it all off there are about forty tables in the appendix, a terrific bibliography, and a perfectly useable index! —Carlotta Collette May 1982 RAIN Page 21 WOMEN Women of Crisis: Lives ofStruggle and Hope, by Robert Coles and June Hallo- well Coles. 1978; and Women of Crisis II: Lives of Work and Dreams, by Robert Coles and June Hallowell Coles, 1980, $10.95 each from: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza New York, NY 10017 Strength-giving: biographies of five women who have dealt with the crises of work, love, and self-definition in Work and Dreams and five women who are knocked around by life and see through the lies, but keep on going and stay true to themselves, in Struggle and Hope. Race and class, as well as sex, trigger these crises. Struggles so close to the core spark social changes, whether intentional or not. People talking about their lives, their dreams and decisions, strike responsive chords in our own lives. The details and nuances and even the circumstances are different, but the questions are the same. I see reflections of myself in each one of these women. It is said we should not judge a person unless we've walked a mile in her moccasins. Walk with these women. —Tanya Kucak. RUSH RAIN staffer Steve Rudman will be travelling through Europe this fall ('82) and would like to visit creative/interesting community projects and describe their activities in RAiN Magazine. He's particularly interested in visiting models of community economic development, neighborhood services, and citizen action. Got any suggestions? Please write to Steve c/o RAIN, 2270 N.W. Irving, Portland, OR 97210. Don't let Reaganomics split your community— strengthen it with help from the Community Technology Workshop at the Farallones Rural Center, in Occidental, California. Titles of the twelve-day, $350 sessions include Weatheriza- tion. Solar Space Heating, Solar Water Heating, and Community Food. For more information, contact Betsy Timm, Farallones Institute Rural Center, 15290 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental, CA 95465, 707/874-2U1. Community Service Conference—"Human Ecology: Becoming Agents of Change," July 16-18 in Yellow Springs, Ohio, featuring William S. Becker on community self-sufficiency, decentralization and renewable energy systems as keys to national defense. For further information write: Community Service, Inc., P.O. Box 243, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Cont. on next page
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