Stonewall Kitchen Favorites: Delicious Recipes to Share With Family and Friends Every Day
Clarkson Potter, 2006
The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese
By Jeffrey P. Roberts
Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2007
The Truth About Good Food
We New Englanders bump up against a Puritan cultural legacy: it should not feel good to feel good. And at this time of year, that leaves us holiday-challenged, tempted yet tormented by the rich and plentiful food that plays an important role in the celebrations looming ahead. Can we find reprieve in those occasions, even if we otherwise assiduously abstain from fats and sweets? Holidays during this darker and colder part of the year certainly provide opportunities to indulge gluttonous desires, if not gourmet. If puritanical-types need reasons justifying indulgence, try this: good eating at this time of year serves both as helpful Seasonal Affective Disorder therapy as well as homage to holidays.
Given that responsibility, special meals should be planned ahead, carefully but also with pleasure. Just as preparing for a trip by looking at pictures and reading guides can be almost as satisfying as the trip itself, so too can cookbooks double the fun of a meal. The particular culinary guide I will suggest is Stonewall Kitchen Favorites: Delicious Recipes to Share With Family and Friends Every Day. Its authors are the two owners and founders of Maine’s well-respected Stonewall Kitchen gourmet foods company, Jonathan King and Jim Stott, who present this collection along with the help of Kathy Gunst, a cookbook author who also lives in Maine.
Although this book is not written specifically for holiday meals, the recipes all deliver those desired qualities: a touch of elegance, fresh ingredients, unexpected twists, and eye-pleasing presentation. Just as important, the dishes are not too arduous to prepare. There are recipes representing many of the world’s cuisines, as well as classic American fare like hamburgers, roast turkey, macaroni and cheese and lobster rolls. But Stonewall’s recipes make those performances more Madonna than Britney Spears, with depth as well as dazzle. Consider hamburgers stuffed with Stilton cheese, turkey stuffed with carrots, parsnips and onions. Or macaroni with 4 kinds of cheese and lobster sandwiched with basil aioli on brioche. Stott and King invite — indeed inspire — adaptations with their numerous suggestions accompanying each recipe. The real beauty of this cookbook is its invitation to be inventive.
Although cookbooks do provide premise for getting out of the house — if only to shop for ingredients — the other book I’m recommending offers occasion to travel across the whole United States, in search of artisan cheeses being made at owner-operated, small-scale farms and dairies. The guide is The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese by Jeffrey P. Roberts. It is a comprehensive listing of artisan cheese makers in 43 states of the Union. New England, thankfully, is well-represented. Maine itself has 23 locations listed. The book’s descriptions are enough to start one salivating. Short vignettes about each cheesemaking operation, the cheeses produced, and the cheesemakers are accompanied with contact information and where their products can be purchased. Entries also feature photographs, many with the proud sheep, goats, or cows responsible for these products. One of my favorites, however, is a photograph of cheese made at Sunset Acres Farm in Brooksville, Maine. Their goat’s milk cheese, Stonington Granite, comes shaped in an ash-covered pyramid. For the illustration, the cheese that looks like granite stands on a slab of granite. And for a gal from Vinalhaven, that’s like, well, the Sistine ceiling!
Taking book in hand, I recently surveyed the contents of one specialty store’s well-stocked cooler. I quickly realized how unfamiliar many names of cheeses were to me. The Atlas proved very useful in explaining the nomenclature, as well as suggesting appropriate wines or beer to pair with them. If you need reasons to dabble in artisan cheese, there are many benefits, including a smaller carbon footprint, boosting local economies, and supporting family farms. And taste tests prove: the freshness and wholesomeness of ingredients put the wow factor in these hand-crafted wedges and wheels.
As you anticipate the upcoming festivities, take my advice: Stonewall recipes and artisan cheeses make memorable meals. And if a puritanical propensity needs appeasement, consider this: with food that delicious, less is more.