Hi Jini, Nicole and anyone who has read Nourishing Traditions--

Can you please give a brief description of the book's contents? You cannot tell much from the Amazon write up, but it says it has over 700 recipes, so if that is true, it must be more of a cookbook than a narrative (I want a cookbook, not alot of text). Are the recipes an all around selection or heavy on grains, etc.? And...any subjective thoughts about it?

thanks so much,

Susan

SSR:

I saw it at Borders Bookstore, but I didn't have time to leaf thru it. Maybe you could just check it out there before you buy it.

Thanks, Karoe--

I have not seen it locally BUT can keep checking...and your suggestion sparked what I could have thought of (but hadn't)...if I cannot find it, I can have Borders or B and N special order it; you are not obligated to buy it...so can check it out that way.

Thanks!! Hope you are doing well??!

Susan

Hi, Susan.

Sure, I'd be happy to describe the contents.

To begin with, there are about 75 pages that discuss modern nutritional advice, fats, carbs, proteins, milk, vitamins, minerals, beverages, food allergies, kitchen tips, etc.

Beyond that, each chapter has an introduction that explains why the book advises what it does. (For instance, the section on grains explains why soaking them enhances digestion.) There are chapters on Salads, Soups, Fish, Poultry, Organ Meats, Game, Beef, Veal, Ground Meat, Tex-Mex, Eggs, Grains & Legumes, Snacks, Desserts, and Beverages. So no, I wouldn't say there's any heavy emphasis on grains at all; there's a good variety here.

I've enjoyed almost all of the recipes very much. Some of my favorites are the cultured milk smoothie (which I have for breakfast almost every day), the fish cakes, the oriental style salmon filet (gets raves from everyone who's tried it), the Greek rice (another rave recipe), the apricot toasts, the stewed rhubarb (my husband thinks it looks disgusting, but it tastes great), the flourless carob cake and the ginger ale. Oh, and the mushroom soup is absolutely divine. I'm not a big liver fan, but I don't mind the liver and onions recipe....soaking the liver in lemon juice for several hours, as instructed, does seem to make a difference.

So there are a lot of recipes to choose from....lots more that I think sound really good but just haven't tried yet.

The side notes all through the book have very interesting quotations, as well.

I give it two thumbs up. Even if someone doesn't want to completely adopt the Weston Price way of eating, there are a ton of delicious recipes in here.

Hope that helps!

Nicole

Nicole--

Thanks so much---I appreciate your thoroughness, and its obvious from your tone how much you really do enjoy this book! I have so many cookbooks and am extra careful about buying new, but this sounds special and helpful on many fronts.

thanks again!

Susan

Hi Susan,

Yes, this book is unusual in that it is both EQUALLY valuable as a cookbook, and as an excellent education on WHY it is beneficial to eat this way.

I have utilized it as both and have spent hours just reading the section introductions and all the info contained in the sidebars - compiled together, these would make a stand-alone book.

For the price, it's an amazing value.

I've been frustrated with the meringue recipes though (I always have lots of extra egg whites to use up), so if you (or anyone else) figure a way to make those work, please let me know! Mine just go flat and the sweetener leaks out and pools around them as they cook. My oven only goes down to 170 degrees, so don't know if that's the problem....

take care,
Jini

Thanks, Jini!

You round out the good input from Karoe and Nicole. Great to have your slant as, well. Now I really need to get it...my inner cook comes to the fore at your meringue challenge. I am very curious about that and will try it when the book comes in. Will absolutely let you know...and, depending on my findings...may be able to help with a different meringue recipe that I used all the time when I was on SCD.

Thanks once again, take good care!

Susan

Hi, Jini.

I've had trouble making the merengues with maple syrup, too (as the recipe specifies). Same thing with honey, which I tried for making merengues when on the Specific Carb Diet.

If you take the merengue portion of the recipe from the Merengue Marvel on page 582, it works out a lot better for making merengue cookies. The rapadura seems to dissolve better into the egg white than the maple syrup does. Unfortunately, that also turns them into much more of an occasional treat, since the rapadura is still sugar. They are delish, though.

Take care,
Nicole

Another thought is to use stevia. When I was on SCD, I used saccahrin...not very smart, BUT that did work. Now I would use a tiny bit of stevia instead....I would think that would work great. Sounds like any liquid is the problem.