Northwest Bounty

Here's another interesting and well written local cookbook.  It's not just a collection of recipes.  Each chapter focuses on a food group and starts out with an essay, not just on how that food is produced in the Pacific Northwest, but also on who does the producing. The writing style provides a contrast to the other book I mentioned.  In  Dungeness Crab & Blackberry Cobbler, the anecdotes are short and sweet, contained mostly in sidebars or within the body of the recipe, gauged for short reads.  The essays in  Northwest Bounty provide a detailed and flowing narrative that invite the reader's attention and absorption.  Both books are engaging and thoughtfully written in their own way.  I would recommend either one.

Dungeness Crabs & Blackberry Cobbler

This cookbook is exceptional because of the informative anecdotes about the food and folk ways of the Pacific Northwest accompanying the recipes.  It's not just a reference, it's also eminently readable.  The stories give me an opportunity to reflect on the traditions of the region as I try the recipes.  The chapter on wintering-in will prove particularly useful this week as I try to figure out what to do with all the tomatoes we recently harvested with the coming of the first frost.  Also, our neighbor  found some chanterelle mushrooms peeking out from underneath the pine mulch littering the floor of her lushly forested acreage and has been generous enough to share her bounty with us.  I now have the key ingredient to try Hibler's recipe for golden chanterelle griddlecakes!

I live on Vaughn Bay, which is in the South Puget Sound region of Washington State.  I gain inspiration every day from the beauty of my natural environment.  I hope to share some of that inspiration with you, my reader.

This is the view just outside my back door.