The Breakaway Cook


Book Description

“For the adventurous home cook who delights in intense and surprising flavors . . . this book will provide endless ideas for invention.” —Publishers Weekly “Breakaway” cooking pays homage to culinary traditions yet uses innovative techniques and ingredients to give home cooks a new approach to their dishes. Sample Eric Gower’s Miso Orange Pepper Roasted Chicken, or tease your tongue with his take on Fluffy Herby Eggs, and you’ll be convinced. It’s not fusion—it’s fusion that makes sense. And the cardinal rule is to season with authority. Don’t be afraid of the spice cabinet anymore, and use presentation to create a simple, appealing meal. Spend less time fussing about the preparation and clean-up, and more time enjoying food and its huge role in our daily lives. Eric helps you reconstruct your approach to the kitchen, highlighting the seasonings and essential ingredients or “Global Flavor Blasts,” such as tamarind, pomegranate molasses, miso, yuzu, green tea, Chinese plum sauce, mole, among many others, that will liberate your cooking and provide a lifetime of fantastic eating. Using Gower’s recipes as broad outlines, you can be creative as you go, and within his framework you will discover your own genius in the kitchen. We feel better when we eat better, and it’s easier to be productive, creative, and relaxed when the food part of life is under control. Enter The Breakaway Cook. In addition to the recipes, The Breakaway Cook includes stunning, full–color photos by Annabelle Breakey throughout the text; a guide to using flavored salts in your dishes; sidebars on wine, tea and sake; and ideas for even shorter-cuts on Gower’s easy-to-follow recipes.




The Breakaway


Book Description

THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORT BOOK OF THE YEAR A retirement statement from a sports star rarely causes a flicker, but Nicole Cooke went out as she rode her bike: giving it her all. The contrast could not have been greater - as Lance Armstrong, a fraudster backed by many corporate sponsors and feted by presidents, was about to deliver a stage-managed confession to Oprah, so a young woman from a small village in Wales took aim. She too had been a cyclist, the only rider ever to have become World and Olympic champion in the same year, and the first British cyclist to have been ranked World No.1, but as a woman in a man's sport, her exploits gained little recognition and brought no riches. She too had ridden through this dark period for the sport when drug-taking was everywhere. Nicole Cooke spoke up for those who had taken a very different path to Lance and his team-mates. In her frank and outspoken autobiography, Cooke reveals the real story behind British cycling's rise to global dominance. With a child's dreams of success, she left home at 18 to pursue her goals in Italy. Broken contracts, unpaid wages, a horrendous injury and drugs cheats were just some of the challenges she faced, even before she lined up to take on her opponents. The Breakaway is a book that will not only inspire all those who read it, but which also asks some serious questions about the way society regards women's sport.




The Breakaway


Book Description

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a warmhearted and empowering new novel about love, family, friendship, secrets, and the power of a trip to change your life. Thirty-four-year-old Abby Stern has made it to a happy place. True, she still has gig jobs instead of a career, and the apartment where she's lived since college still looks like she just moved in. But she's got good friends, she's got her bike, and her bike club in Philadelphia. She's at peace with her plus-size body--at least, most of the time--and she's on track to marry her childhood sweetheart. Abby and Mark met at the weight-loss camp Abby's perpetually-dieting mother, Eileen, forced her daughter to attend. Fifteen years later, when Abby reconnects with a half-his-size Mark, and finds out that he still adores her, it feels like fate. Yet Abby can't escape the feeling that something isn't right...or the memories of one mind-blowing night spent with a man named Sebastian two years ago. So when Abby gets a last minute call to lead a group bike trip from New York City to Niagara Falls, she's happy to have time away from Mark, and a chance to make up her mind. But on the first day, Abby is shocked when she sees a familiar face in the tour group--Sebastian, the one-night stand she never thought she'd see again. As a serial dater who lives a hundred miles away, Sebastian is far from Mr. Perfect, and Abby is determined to keep her distance, even if their chemistry is undeniable. To make things even worse, there's a last-minute addition to the trip--Abby's mother, Eileen, whom Abby blames for a lifetime of body shaming and insecurities she's still trying to undo. Over the next two weeks, strangers become confidantes, hidden truths come to light, and a teenage girl with a secret will unite all the riders in surprising ways--while all of Abby's certainties about herself, her mother, and the nature of love are challenged.




Obsessed


Book Description

In this unique culinary memoir and cookbook, renowned cultural critic Elisabeth Bronfen tells of her lifelong love affair with cooking and reveals what she has learned about creating delicious home meals. As she shares her personal stories, and over 250 recipes, she also offers practical advice about tweaking recipes, reusing leftovers, and cooking for one.




'Cult Wars' in Historical Perspective


Book Description

'Cult Wars' in Historical Perspective provides a broad characterization of the shifting religious contours over the past several decades. Offering an assessment of several important topics in the study of new religions, this book explores developments in well-known groups such as the Unification movement, The Family International (Children of God), the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), and the Church of Scientology. Bringing together both insiders and outsiders from various academic disciplines and personal perspectives, this book takes account of the ways in which the cult question is defined and addressed in different countries. It offers a vivid depiction of how the cult wars or cult controversies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries first took shape; the transformation of deeply entrenched positions on cults and sects as at least some members of new groups, cult watchers, and academics entered into serious and sustained conversations about topics of mutual concern; the shifting foci and concerns of the general public, law enforcement and the courts, and academics in various countries; and the complex histories of individual groups in which many dramatic transformations have occurred despite their comparatively short life spans.







Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking


Book Description

A James Beard Award-winning writer captures life under the Red socialist banner in this wildly inventive, tragicomic memoir of feasts, famines, and three generations “Delicious . . . A banquet of anecdote that brings history to life with intimacy, candor, and glorious color.”—NPR’s All Things Considered Born in 1963, in an era of bread shortages, Anya grew up in a communal Moscow apartment where eighteen families shared one kitchen. She sang odes to Lenin, black-marketeered Juicy Fruit gum at school, watched her father brew moonshine, and, like most Soviet citizens, longed for a taste of the mythical West. It was a life by turns absurd, naively joyous, and melancholy—and ultimately intolerable to her anti-Soviet mother, Larisa. When Anya was ten, she and Larisa fled the political repression of Brezhnev-era Russia, arriving in Philadelphia with no winter coats and no right of return. Now Anya occupies two parallel food universes: one where she writes about four-star restaurants, the other where a taste of humble kolbasa transports her back to her scarlet-blazed socialist past. To bring that past to life, Anya and her mother decide to eat and cook their way through every decade of the Soviet experience. Through these meals, and through the tales of three generations of her family, Anya tells the intimate yet epic story of life in the USSR. Wildly inventive and slyly witty, Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking is that rare book that stirs our souls and our senses. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Christian Science Monitor, Publishers Weekly




Sake


Book Description

"Sake is hot, hot, hot (though the best are actually served cold). It's the hippest sip at the cocktail hour and, as the sommeliers will tell you, can be a delicious accompaniment to food. This fun and informative guide demystifies an age-old wine and explains the many types of sake and how to properly taste their complex flavors. Beau Timken's foolproof TasteMatch system profiles 50 suggested sakes and provides their beer and wine flavor equivalents, creating a simple-yet-effective resource for finding a perfect match. Plus, recipes for 30 sake cocktails and 15 sake-friendly dishes make sake appropriate for any occasion (try a refreshing glass of Sake Sangria, or surprise guests by pairing sake with Fettuccine with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pancetta). There's even a section on planning and hosting a sake-tasting party to share your newfound sake expertise. A contemporary look at a traditional drink, Sake captures 1,000 years of culture and updates it for the modern lifestyle. Kanpai!" -- Publisher description.




Manresa


Book Description

The long-awaited cookbook by one of the San Francisco Bay Area's star chefs, David Kinch, who has revolutionized restaurant culture with his take on the farm-to-table ethic and focus on the terroir of the Northern California coast. Since opening Manresa in Los Gatos in 2002, award-winning Chef David Kinch has done more to create a sense of place through his food—specifically where the Santa Cruz Mountains meet the sea—than any other chef on the West Coast. Manresa’s thought-provoking dishes and unconventional pairings draw on techniques both traditional and modern that combine with the heart of the Manresa experience: fruits and vegetables. Through a pioneering collaboration between farm and restaurant, nearby Love Apple Farms supplies nearly all of the restaurant’s exquisite produce year round. Kinch's interpretation of these ingredients, drawing on his 30 years in restaurants as well as his far-flung and well-fed travels, are at the heart of the Manresa experience. In Manresa, Chef Kinch details his thoughts on building a dish: the creativity, experimentation and emotion that go into developing each plate and daily menu—and how a tasting menu ultimately tells a deeper story. A literary snapshot of the restaurant, from Chef Kinch's inspirations to his techniques, Manresa is an ode to the mountains, fields, and sea; it shares the philosophies and passions of a brilliant chef whose restaurant draws its inspiration globally, while always keeping a profound connection to the people, producers, and bounty of the land that surrounds it.




Will Cook for Sex


Book Description

Women were once taught that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. In reality, fewer women cook, or really want to. Making reservations or ordering in has become one of the multi-minded abilities of today's more progressive woman. Therein is the problem. Men must learn to navigate their way around the kitchens, galleys and cucinas of the world. In fact, to every man's advantage, the women can be very generous to men who know a spoon from a spatula. All men need is some beautiful inspiration and a few words of simple instruction from Rocky Fino.