Check out the latest post at The Anxious Bench by John Turner, author of a just-released biography of Brigham Young. He offers some whimsical thoughts on how much he likes to eat, recipes he cooks, healthful living, the More with Less Cookbook–and the first, sort of, review of Moral Minority. Here’s a taste:
Before childrearing reduced our adventurousness, my wife and I even enjoyed cooking. While living in Colorado for a year after graduate school and staying in a furnished rental home, we stumbled upon several years’ worth of Cooking Light magazine. . . . Those big, glossy pictures made me want to try every entrée and dessert. We didn’t try everything, but we did our best. A few Turner family favorites: Feta Chicken with Vegetables, Joe’s Special (swiss chard for breakfast!), Confetti Burritos (with sweet potato), and Moroccan Salmon. My mother-in-law even baked CL’s herb-crusted standing rib roast twice! The latter dish is just about the best-tasting beef I’ve ever had this side of Texas brisket barbecue. We had plenty of clunkers as well. Gruyère-stuffed calzones – ugh. . . . Besides lapses in judgment and skill, there was a major problem with these Cooking Light recipes. They were not easy on the wallet. When you’re buying fancy cheeses, meats, and spices to make dinner, those dinners get expensive quickly. For some reason, it’s apparently necessary to own every variety of oil and vinegar known to humankind. Truffle oil? I thought truffles were fancy chocolates, not mushrooms. We couldn’t afford to really jump on the foodie bandwagon. . . . The More-with-LessCookbook is the antithesis of Cooking Light or other contemporary food magazines. . . . The cookbook’s discussion of irrational food consumption is just as appropriate – probably more – for 2012 as for 1976: too much protein, too much processed food, too many calories, too much food eaten by Americans while others go hungry. Men and women may not live on bread alone, but they certainly don’t need truffle oil. We need more of the Bread of Life, but if you’re like me, you could use a bit less of certain earthly things.
David R. Swartz 