Book Description
No country inspires as much fascination as Italy, and no region in Italy inspires as much adoration as Tuscanyâfor its interior design, art and architecture, fashion, artisans and crafts, food and wine. In Dreaming of Tuscany you'll experience the essence of a place that dreams are made of, ensuring you'll get the most out of your experience. Sharing her recommendations of favorite insider places and word-of-mouth gems, best-selling lifestyle author Barbara Milo Ohrbach acts as a guide to food markets, exquisite shops, overflowing antiques markets, not to mention cooking courses, outdoor painting classes, ancient palazzos and small museums. And you can live like a Tuscan once you return home, with this book providing sources for everything from luscious bed linens to peppery olive oil. Dreaming of Tuscany is illustrated with three hundred sumptuous images by photographer Simon Upton. Don't dream of visiting Tuscany without first reading this book.
Customer Reviews:
Discovering Tuscany.......2007-10-12
This is a lovely "coffee table" book.
I found the information to be extremely general - book does not contain information that cannot be obtained in any take along travel guide such as Foders, Blue Guide, Cadogan, Rough Guide, etc. In addition, this book is NOT a good reference for individuals who travel on a budget. Most accommodations & ristorantes fall into the 4 star range; expensive.
This book is the perfect book for the pretentious American tourist.
Dreaming of Tuscany.......2007-06-07
As a frequent traveler to Tuscany, I find this book one of the best. It reflects the romantic and unique part of the world known as Tuscany. Wonderful coffee table book, resource for Tuscany and reading for rainy days.
Dreaming of Tuscany.......2007-01-15
Since my daughter and I are going to be in Tuscany in the spring, I found the book to be a great resource for the area. I'm looking forward to seeing things firsthand...but so glad that Ms. Ohrbach has done the groundwork for us...a much more efficient use of our limited time there!
Customer Reviews:
More a Pleasure Book.......2007-04-12
Good book, nicely written & put together. Easily read for enjoyment.
Not a book for learning technique, layouts, or building methods.
Book Description
"Provides an excellent introduction as well as suggestions for using these plans to add architectural detail to your own home...an excellent bibliography."--Victorian Homes
"The best home, barn and landscape designs...in a charming book....[It] contains numerous original illustrations showing a wealth of construction details, site plans and plantings."--Fine Homebuilding
This classic bestseller contains the finest collection of architectural designs from a bygone era--and it's a boon for anyone hoping to construct that dream house or add charming touches to a modern one. Hundreds of illustrations from actual 19th century building plans feature architects' blueprints and drawings, full-color photos, and more. The buildings range from humble farmers' cabins to summer getaway cottages for the rich, and there's plenty of detail work, including built-in shelves, dormers, and turned balusters. With this information, an architect could easily create anything shown on the pages.
Customer Reviews:
LLL.......2007-07-26
I was very disappointed in this book. Ever since I learned that the house I grew up in was built in 1752, I've been fascinated with early American architecture, particularly old farmhouses, outbuildings and barns. I was hoping to discover the original floorplans for some of these sprawling farmsteads I've seen through the northeast and midwest. None of the houses included in this book look like any of the farmhouses I've seen. What about the huge two-story farmhouses meant to hold the dozen or so children farm families had in order to work the farm? Most had a large central hall at the entrance with a large staircase. Some had the kitchen in an ell so the whole house wouldn't be heated by the wood cook stove in the summer, or even had a separate summer kitchen. There is no mention of saltboxes or sprawling capecods with the sheds that connected to the barn. Plus every barn shown has the animals housed on a floor below ground level! Most of the old barns I've seen house the animals on the main level and have a loft for the hay. If you're looking for original floorplans of old houses you're familiar with, look elsewhere!
One-of-a-kind book.......2006-08-25
This was exactly what I was searching for....a history lesson on how to properly plan a site for a home with ancillary buildings on anything over an acre.
Nostalgia and Fun Bits of History.......2006-07-04
This book is all about 19th century buildings, just like the title says. These are the houses that pushed forth from the established coastal settlements through upstate NY, OH and the Midwest during that century of expansion. I confess that this isn't my preferred style of house, but the book itself is a delight. The illustrations are exquisite; Currier & Ives stuff that make you just want to jump into the scene. And the texts that accompany the plans are full of fun facts. This is not a scholarly text, just a breezy ride back through time with a guide that makes it all come alive. You'd have to be a real curmudgeon not to enjoy this book ...unless of course you were determinedly looking for something else. A note however on the coverage. Although the subject of the book is the 19th century, the early part of the century (Federal and Greek Revival in particular) up to about 1840 is not really treated in this book. This book is about what was built during the industrial revolution, when things -including house plans- were mass produced. Buy it for a couple of hours of light reading and some new perspectives on how we lived and built in the latter 2/3 of the 19th century.
A rare find of historic country building plans.......2001-04-14
I am an architect designing a house for a client -it is a Charleston Style house with the master bedroom in a "carriage house" attached at the rear. This book helped me to create/design a more authentic carriage house. I am a horse lover from way back so I ate up the book front to back! I was pleased to find many examples of architectural details and embellishments. The plans of historic houses and barns are a rare treasure. Would be fun to build one of the farm houses!
A background of the evolution of early american housing.......2001-03-21
Donald J. Berg does an outstanding job of showing the evolution of the designs and the backgrounds of the designers of single family housing primarily in the 19th century. The plans and illustrations are excellent for those that want to use them as a guide for present day construction.
Book Description
America's quintessential house style is reinvented for the 21st century family in this book. Farmhouses evoke nostalgic memories, real or imagined, of a simpler life, and deep, nourishing connections to the seasons and the land. This remarkable collection details and celebrates today's interpretation of the American farmhouse by focusing on traditional elements as adapted for modern needs, such as porches, roofs, windows, mudrooms, doorways, vestibules, fireplaces, and nooks. The 20 homes in this book represent today's best interpretations of this classic style in new and renovated homes designed for modern living. In suburban and rural communities from Maine to California, The Farmhouse celebrates an enduring American icon. This engaging tour, including over 300 color photographs and drawings that vividly showcase the farmhouse of today in a variety of settings and seasons, will delight, instruct, and inspire homeowners, architects, designers, and builders alike. Site and floor plans plus sidebars with historical detail are also included.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing - Full of Great Ideas.......2006-10-14
This book is a valuable resource as my husband and I plan our "farmhouse" that we intend to build next year beginning in February. It gives examples of restorations, new construction built to look like the old classical farmhouses across the midwest, and amazing interiors. I love the shaded boxes of information, emphasizing the importance of features such as shape, the color white, porches, etc. It is a lesson book for those wanting a basic education on how to talk farmhouses. We bought three books, and this one is far superior to the others.
Perfect and Invaluable.......2006-01-03
One of over $1,000 worth of books I ordered prior to starting our remodel, The Farmhouse is above and beyond the best book I bought for our tastes, and is the primary resource I have given to our architect. No country shabby chic here -- the style is spare, warm, and elegant. Great photos and text. This book will save us thousands by beautifully getting across our ideas for our new Boulder, Colorado home. Those who like this book would also like Jeremiah Eck's The Distinctive Home.
Review-The Farmhouse: New Inspiration for the Classic American Home.......2005-11-02
An informative book with good examples and photos.
Beautiful Inspirational Book!.......2004-11-29
This book is a great quality hardcover full of spectacular color photos of the traditional farm style. I found it's content and pictures insipiring and it would make a great gift for any 'farm-style' enthusiast... or it's great for any coffee table! Really an excellent book, un-beatable in terms of conveying a classic style and delivering inspiring ideas!
Not for those looking for a "classic" farmhouse style.......2004-09-14
This book, although well detailed and presented left something to be desired as far as I was concerned. Appreciating the "classic farmhouse" style, which covers a wide variety of architectural detail, I did not like many of the homes highlighted in this book. They were much too contemporized for my "Yankee" preferences. Oddly, the house most resembling a traditional farmhouse style inside & out was a California Greek Revival.The unusual angling of portions of 1 house, the strange selection of plastic siding for another, the glass & steel addition to an otherwise beautiful famhouse, left me wanting more. I'm sure some people like this style, but they were "cold" buildings. If you are looking for a book on beautifully detailed, classic farmhouses, look no further than "American Farmhouses" by Leah Rosch. I believe a modern day farmhouse can be built with an eye to the past and livability for today without sacrificing the warmth and traditional look.
Book Description
From the New England saltbox to the Pennsylvania Dutch, from the southern colonial to the western ranch, the American farmhouse is an icon of our history and our traditions of hearth and home, an architectural entity in and of itself, as well as a highly coveted retreat for country dwellers. Conveyed throughout Farmhouse: Country Retreats in both images and words are the many qualities that make farmhouses special and the importance and pleasures of preserving and restoring these homes.Evocative images and lively descriptive commentary combine to create a fascinating inside look at what it is like to live in farmhouses across America-for those who are ready to inhabit these one-of-a-kind treasures with their singular histories or for those who are dreaming about it. Interspersed are detailed black and white drawings that reveal how these unique architectural styles originated and developed. In addition, a practical guide to choosing and living in a farmhouse is provided. Featured is a wealth of information about evaluating building elements, including roofs, windows, chimneys, and cellars; upgrading fireplaces and stoves for heat and utilizing porches and verandas for cooling; decorating with complementary and appropriate furnishings and wall coverings; and keeping the integrity and history of the buildings intact. More than two hundred photographs and drawings capture the essence of the American farmhouse in all of its charming, rustic glory.
Customer Reviews:
Steeped in Tradition.......2007-09-18
I love this book, the photos and stories within are charming. It demonstrates how the North American farmhouse came to be. There is a fictionalized account of a day in the life of a farmhouse of the late 1860s, when the pace of progress was fast; it may seem almost idyllic, even enviable. The follows a heavily illustrated section on how farmhouses took shape, how they developed, how they operated, and what it is like to live in them. This section leads to how people can adapt to living in farmhouses today, in hopes that some of the character of these buildings will remain unchanged and their redundant parts (turned into workrooms, studios, bathrooms, and so on) will retain their proportions and history. If you're looking for information about the historic architecture of farmhouses, this is the book.
Quite rudimentary.......2007-07-06
I love books about design of all types and from all over the world. This one, however, details such old and rudimentary buildings that it's just not "stylish" enough for me. I like to imagine myself living in these places and I wouldn't want to live in any of these. No offense to the author. It just wasn't a book for me.
Book Description
Take a tour of comfortable and charming farmhouses, presented Country Living style. Breathtaking photographs, accompanied by marvelously in-depth information, reveal the myriad ways these old-fashioned homes can fit beautifully into our modern-day lifestyles. While the exteriors of these houses all retain their strong lines and architectural origins, the interiors showcase a variety of sensibilities. See sophisticated farmhouses that smoothly combine the best of old and new; homes entirely decorated in flea-market finds; houses that serve as showcases for magnificent antique collections; and contemporary redefinitions with loft-like spaces and fashionable décor. Each profile goes room by room, carefully explaining the owner’s needs, desires, and design decisions: everything from wall treatments and light fixtures to shelving and appliances receives meticulous attention and discussion.
Customer Reviews:
I expected more...:(.......2006-12-26
Quite uninspiring. The inside jacket and the foreward were the highlights of this book. I was unimpressed w/ most of the rooms, it seemed like it was put together quickly....certainly not one of my favorites. Many rooms looked unfinished to me. The book does look nice on my coffee table....that's about it.
Amazon.com
Despite the fact that Michael Korda was city born and bred (and, as editor in chief of Simon & Schuster and a bestselling author, part of Manhattan's elite), when he decided it was time to put down roots, he wanted land, trees, and a place in a community with history. The house he bought with his wife, Margaret, in Pleasant Valley, two hours north of New York City, was built when George Washington was president. It came with two barns, 20 acres, a backhoe, a bush hog, a York rake, a dozer blade, a bluff, and a slightly deaf old man named Harold Roe. Since Korda couldn't handle a hammer (plumbing and heating problems in his past merely involved calling the building super and keeping a 20-dollar bill handy), Harold became a permanent fixture, wielding large equipment, destroying the flowers, and showing the couple everything they needed to know about the real country.
Pleasant Valley, it turned out, was on the "wrong" side of the Taconic Parkway. It was "red and black plaid hats with earflaps and insulated bib-front overalls country," as opposed to Ralph Lauren estates country. Despite the blue-collar atmosphere (or rather because of it), the Kordas have been there for two decades. Becoming locals hasn't been easy, however. Korda relishes the moments that mark him as an insider--hanging out at the local diner, buying a Harley-Davidson, and most importantly, buying pigs. Pig watching in a place like Pleasant Valley is a truly bonding experience, which Korda describes with his characteristic dry wit:
Pig watching is not something anybody does in a hurry, as we came to learn. You have to shift your trousers down a bit, loosen up your belt a notch or so, give your belly a little breathing room, light a cigarette if you're a smoker, and look at the pigs for a good long time. Then you sigh, nod your head, and say, "Them's nice pigs, them pigs." Then you look at them some more.
You get the idea. A natural raconteur, Korda makes the quirks of living in an old house and the quest for local status in an insular community highly entertaining, and he proves once again that, while he may not be handy with tools, he certainly knows his way around the written word. --Lesley Reed
Book Description
With his inimitable sense of humor and storytelling talent, New York Times bestselling author Michael Korda brings us this charming, hilarious, self-deprecating memoir of a city couple's new life in the country.
At once entertaining, canny, and moving, Country Matters does for Dutchess County, New York, what Under the Tuscan Sun did for Tuscany. This witty memoir, replete with Korda's own line drawings, reads like a novel, as it chronicles the author's transformation from city slicker to full-time country gentleman, complete with tractors, horses, and a leaking roof.
When he decides to take up residence in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in Dutchess County, ninety miles north of New York City, Korda discovers what country life is really like:
- Owning pigs, more than owning horses, even more than owning the actual house, firmly anchored the Kordas as residents in the eyes of their Pleasant Valley neighbors.
- You may own your land, but without concertina barbed wire, or the 82nd Airborne on patrol, it's impossible to keep people off it!
- It's possible to line up major household repairs over a tuna melt sandwich.
- And everyone in the area is fully aware that Michael "don't know shit about septics."
The locals are not particularly quick to accept these outsiders, and the couple's earliest interactions with their new neighbors provide constant entertainment, particularly when the Kordas discover that hunting season is a year-round event -- right on their own land! From their closest neighbors, mostly dairy farmers, to their unforgettable caretaker Harold Roe -- whose motto regarding the local flora is "Whack it all back! " -- the residents of Pleasant Valley eventually come to realize that the Kordas are more than mere weekenders.
Sure to have readers in stitches, this is a book that has universal appeal for all who have ever dreamed of owning that perfect little place to escape to up in the country, or, more boldly, have done it.
Customer Reviews:
Poorly researched, contradictory and full of unnecessary insults to locals.......2007-05-19
I found this book to be insulting to those from this charming area of New York. At first, I read this book hoping that his snobbery was done in jest. As it was made clear that the author was completely serious and his ignorant view of this town was incorrect and offensive, the book lost its charm, if, of course, it ever had any. I was surprised that such a small-minded story was to follow in this book since the author presents himself in the first chapter to be world-traveled. Clearly, world-traveled does not mean you travel well.
Rising above.......2007-02-09
The typically tedious arrogance of East Coast intelligentsia must be overlooked while reading this book. It's just too funny to be dissuaded by Korda's sophomoric attitude. My husband and I kept reading lines to each other and laughing. We've taken the same road and we couldn't have said it better. It's a must-read for anyone who is planning a similar path...before you sign on the country dotted line. Oh, the days/weeks/months we sat waiting for the "remodeling crew" when we could have tracked them down at the local café. We laugh now every time we pass that café and see their trucks...now that our moving wounds have healed.
A rich man's self-absorbing babble.......2006-09-26
This book gives you a good picture of life in the country (country here meaning two hours away from Manhattan), if you have a British blonde model as a 2nd wife whose passion is foxhunting and horseback riding, four horses in the barn, two stable hands, a Hungarian mother and daughter team to cook your dinners for you, an interior decorator to dress your house in imported fabric from Italy, and a full-time help who mows your grass and takes care of all your country needs.
In sum, the pleasure of moving to the country for Mr. Korda: looking at the forty acres and thinking: "it's all mine." And the tribulation: being snubbed by even richer friends because his estate is not as grand as the next person's.
Do not even make the mistake of opening this book.
Spare me Mr. Korda.......2005-03-16
I was about halfway through this work when I began to read the reviews here. I was heartened to find that I was not alone in finding Korda's tone condescending, snobbish, and in its own way, extremely provincial. He seems to value his neighbors, if at all, for one reason: their utility. That is, their usefulness to himself! He displays very little genuine interest in these hardworking people in terms of their histories, their interior lives, their unique stories. They're just there to fix stuff and do the physical labor which is apparently beneath Mr. Korda.
Despite the author's long-time position as editor at Simon and Schuster, I did not find the book particularly well-written. Indeed, I found it riddled with cliches, especially "in our neck of the woods." Did the editor not submit his work to an editor?
I almost always finish books once I start them. In this case I made an exception. Life is too short to read unfunny and basically insufferable books like this one.
it will take more than a tuna melt to make Korda "country"........2004-09-01
I have to agree with the other reviews that this book falls a little short of the target. I disagree, however, with criticism that Korda focuses his ridicule on the country folk. I thought he poked equal fun at his various big wig guests from the city. What struck me, and why I can't give the book a favorable review, is that I'm not sure that Korda is aware that he himself is ultimately one of the saddest characters - naive, gullible, short-sighted and arrogant. The only person in the book who seems to escape having fun made of them is Mr. Korda (even his wife comes across as a beautiful 'get-what-she-wants princess). A little self depreciation would have gone a long way.
Take, for example, this final line from chapter seven: "The trick is to become just plain folks somehow, however you manage it - and if it takes the occcasional tuna melt, so be it". Lines like that inevitably indicate that Korda believes he is extraordinary, but for the good of the people around him, willing to stoop to the level of everyone else. That's why so many people are turned off by the book. The central character in the novel needs some development.
Book Description
A country farmhouse surrounded by fields and trees is a quintessentially American secene, but it's one that has universal appeal. These simple homes speak to us of history and values, promising both comfort and protection.
The "country look" remains the single most popular American style. Despite social and economic changes and the whims of fashion, it continues to shape our design and decorating tastes. Now in these lavishly illustrated pages, American Farmhouses offers a rich and inspiring survey of country architecture and design, from painted furniture to porches, stenciling to saltbox houses.
Part of the appeal of country homes lies in their hand-hewn individualism and heritage of Old World charm. Many familiar design elements derived from distinct traditions brought by the early settlers, then adapted to local conditions and materials. Even in the early twentieth century, most country houses were still designed and constructed by local craftsmen, resulting in an immensely rich variety still visible in farms large and small across the country.
Today, the interior of a country home can be a meticulous restoration in a traditional style or a flea-market mix of furnishings and collectibles. The nearly twenty profiles of country homes in American Farmhouses, ranging from a rustic German-style house in Texas to a classic Greek Revival in upstate New York to a contemporary reinterpretation in Connecticut, are full of stimulating and original ideas.
To help readers bring the "country look" home, whether in a city apartment or a rural getaway, American Farmhouses also includes a detailed sourcebook of manufacturers, craftsmen, and architectural antiques dealers nationwide. Here is everything from cast-iron firebacks to milk paint to farmhouse tables, from suppliers who continue to keep the spirit of the farmhouse vital and alive today.
Customer Reviews:
american farmhouses.......2006-03-22
this is a very nice and informative book anybody who likes country and primitive will surely enjoy this book
Great, but narrow spectrum.......2005-05-25
I grew up in California agriculture and the houses selected for this book bare little resemblence to Western farmhouses. All the houses are from east of the Mississippi, mostly East Coast and very old. There is one Texas farmhouse from the Civil War era.
It seems that the design strategy of the owners has been to restore the old farmhouse ambience with older style elements. In California we try to reach the ambience of the farmhouse but with modern elements and techniques. If this is your objective then the book is still interesting but it won't give you much direct inspiration.
I rate it three stars because the author forgot that the western US has its own farmhouse style and we happen to be American also. A more appropriate title would have been "Colonial American Farmhouses".
- jim
a new must=have for country decorating.......2003-01-20
This book could revolutionize and galvanize traditional country decorating, much like Mary Emmerling's American Country did when it was first published. If you buy only one decorating book, this should be it. Not a bad photo in the whole book. I am thrilled with it!
Sumptuous and Informative.......2002-10-11
As a devotee of country style and an admirer of farmhouses around the northeast, I found this book to be charming. A cross between a coffee table book and a reference guide, it's the kind of thing you can pick up and peruse easily without having to read straight through. It's refreshingly useful-with just enough historical information for the nonacademic. I learn something new every time I refer to it. Yet it's lovely to page through, which also makes it a great Christmas gift for anyone who loves country style. The nicest thing of its kind to come on the market in a while.
Amazon.com
The food in the French Farmhouse Cookbook is a reminder of how deeply the soul of French cooking is rooted in the fruits of the soil and sea. For three years, Susan Herrmann Loomis traveled the coasts and visited rural farms in all corners of France. She discovered more than treasured recipes for the quintessentially French dishes that appear in this book. She also met people passionate about the foodstuffs they raise, gather, catch, or produce. Their stories make this book a living tapestry of individuals and the food they cook. Many dishes, while utterly French, fit well into today's preferences for sensible good eating.
Book Description
As much a book of inspiration as a collection of over 250 uncommonly delicious recipes, French Farmhouse Cookbook captures the rustic and richly flavored farmhouse cooking that is the basis of French cuisine and a perennial inspiration of French chefs. The author visited and lived among farmers, cheesemakers, ranchers, and vintners from the Pyrénnées to Alsace-Lorraine, from Normandy to Provence. The result is a stunning portrait in recipes, lively essays, and a wealth of astucesótips passed down through generations of cooks. Here are dishes prepared by lifelong cooks--not chefs--intended to satisfy, not impress.
"Susan Loomis's new book is that rare thing: a cookbook that expresses accurately the milieu of its recipes. It is a timely and beautiful reminder that we have to connect back to the land in order to recover a sustainable future."--Alice Waters, author of Chez Panisse Vegetables.
Main selection of the Book of the Month Club's Good Cook Club. 55,000 copies in print.
Customer Reviews:
Authentic, easy, fun!.......2007-05-14
My husband first bought a copy of this cookbook at a yard sale. I didn't look at it right away, fearing another overblown, complex and difficult French cookbook. Mais non! Most of the recipes are fairly easy and reflect the fresh, authentic nature of country French cooking. We now keep this cookbook at our house in Southwest France, in Wisconsin AND in Florida. This is the only book of which we have three copies!! The recipes are a delight (Loomis' gougeres are the best and have several quite helpful hints that no other chef has given).
The food and the stories capture the essence of rural France--making the cooking, wherever you may be, pure delight a la Francais!
Authentic, accessible and delicious.......2007-02-22
I served for two years in southwestern France as a Mormon missionary. When I came home to Calgary, Alberta I pined for the simple, fresh, unpretentious food I'd grown used to eating in rural France. Luckily the French Farmhouse Cookbook was first published about four months before I got home, and when I stumbled on it by accident in a bookshop I was overjoyed.
Not only are the recipes authentic and accessible, but the stories Ms. Loomis tells about how food is raised and grown -- how seriously the farmers and growers view their work -- ring absolutely true to my experience living in France. I've never found another North American book so true to real French family food.
Especially useful are recipes for small things that one can take for granted at any supermarket in France -- creme fraiche, sucre vanille, quatre epices, etc. -- but that are hard come by in most US or Canadian stores. You can substitute other ingredients (sour cream for creme fraiche) but it's not quite the same; the effort the author took to include everything needed to reproduce the authentic experience is another reason this is my favorite French cookbook. I can't recommend it highly enough.
La Créme de la Créme!!.......2005-07-19
My wife is French, her sole and all-absorbing passion in life is cooking. She has two armoires filled with cookbooks, including all the classics. This is her favorite. All of the recipes she has made from this book have been exquisite. Two thumbs up, and all eight fingers! This is a must-have!
Bon Appetit!
GLIMPSES INTO ANOTHER WORLD.......2005-06-22
The stories about the actual farms and farmers who provide the recipes and ingredients in this wonderful book are fascinating. Nothing is taken for granted, and meals are extensively discussed and savored. Memorable is the story accompanying the recipe for Duck with Prunes in which the cook providing the recipe explains apologetically that the recipe is from another region of France, but "we love it so much, we cook it all the time."
The farmers' pride in the quality of their produce and livestock, and the care with which Susan Herrmann Loomis specifies exactly what kind of oranges, or chickens or asparagus are to be used in each recipe inspire a very unAmerican way of viewing cooking and eating, in which only the finest ingredients are perfectly cooked. The descriptions of the walnut farms, the Bresse chicken farm, the vanishing family farms are evocative of a great foreign film. After reading this book cover to cover, I feel as though I've had a course in French rural culture--with refreshments. Highly recommended!
practical and diverse.......2005-03-10
This is one of the most practical and most referred to book on my cooking shelf. This book is extremely practical because Loomis uses easy-to-find ingredients and the recipees for entrees can be made in 30 minutes or couple of hours (but most of that is waiting time). The instructions are detailed but to the point and tips are delighful. There is also a good diversity in the complexity of the dishes but most are relatively simple, as they were farm-house cooking, meaning either they had to be put together very fast before dinner, or tossed into the oven or stove before doing the days' chores, and to be enjoyed at night after a long stewing/braising/etc. The dishes (esp the basque region dishes) are very flavorful and bring out the best flavors in the ingredient. Highly recommended for enhancing/inspiring your home cooking.
Amazon.com
Lynne Rossetto Kasper's authoritative first book, The Splendid Table, explored the food and culture of Emilia-Romagna, Italy's culinary heartland. In The Italian Country Table, a collection of 200 regional recipes gathered from farmhouse cooks, Kasper once again provides cultural investigation and authentic, workable recipes. The resulting cookbook-cum-chronicle will appeal to anyone seeking delicious, down-to-earth dishes and an introduction to cherished culinary traditions.
Covering every course of an Italian meal--from antipasti through pasta to vegetables and, of course, dessert--the book weaves recipes with vignettes exploring, for example, Puglia's ritual drying of winter tomatoes. Included also are notes on buying tips, special cooking techniques such as glazing, and discussions of culinary moment, like the nature of a true risotto Milanese. The immediately inviting recipes include such temptations as Mushrooms Stuffed with Radicchio and Asiago, Hot and Spicy Eggplant Soup, Leg of Lamb Glazed with Balsamic and Red Wine, and Espresso Ricotta Cream with Espresso Chocolate Sauce. Kasper also offers a chapter on focaccia, pizza, and bread, as well as menus, shopping sources, and a useful discussion of ingredients. (Taste before you buy, and then pause, she advises. "Aftertaste can reveal how a food's been stored, careless production, or foods going from mature to over the hill.") Concluding with a guide to Italian guest farms, folk life museums, and places to eat and shop, the book is a comprehensive introduction to basic but inspired home cooking and the traditions that both contain and nurture it. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
If you dream of Italy -- and who does not? -- be prepared to fall in love with this extraordinary cookbook. Written by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, author of The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food (winner of both the James Beard and Julia Child/IACP Cookbook-of-the-Year Awards), it is every bit the equal of its celebrated predecessor.
Read its exuberant pages, eat its lusty dishes, and you enter a landscape vibrant with rural life. You are one with the terrain. In some sense, you are home. That, of course, is the miracle of Italy -- no matter where we come from, we want to be a part of it. And the miracle of The Italian Country Table is its ability to take us there.
And what a journey! You will never be as impatient to get into your kitchen as when you are planning a meal from this book. Two hundred recipes, personally collected from home cooks throughout the length and breadth of Italy, will keep calling you back.
Who could resist the "Gatto" di Patate, a mashed-potato "lasagne" from the Neapolitan countryside? Or a Tuscan Mountain Supper of warm beans tossed with an herbed tomato sauce and eaten with tart greens? Or Pasta of the Grape Harvest, a Sicilian dish of grapes, red wine, orange zest, spices, pistachios and linguine? Or Chocolate Polenta Pudding Cake?
Kasper, host of Public Radio's The Splendid Table, is a master teacher who thinks about cooking in a way that is radically distinctive. Her chapter on tomatoes and tomato sauces, a treasure by itself, will change the way you think about them -- and cook them -- forever. Her guide to buying and saucing pasta contains more useful facts than many books that devote themselves to pasta exclusively.
Kasper, the grandchild of Italian immigrants, describes herself as someone with a love of lingering "in places where life changes slowly." This personal book abounds with stories of artisans, farmers and family. It is a portrait of Italian country life.
Where you read The Italian Country Table, cook from it or use it to plan a trip (there is an appendix that lists guest farms, country hotels, restaurants and museums), you have only to turn its pages to be transported to a rustic Italy that few of us know, but all of us long for.
* 16 pages of finished dishes in full color
* 50 black-and-white photographs of country life
Customer Reviews:
Just not that great.......2007-07-23
This book was recommended to me by an Italian friend when I asked for a cookbook recommendation that could serve as sort of an Italian cuisine bible. Over the last 4 years, every recipe I've tried as seemed to be time consuming to make and slightly disappointing to eat.
I'm planning to buy 1 or 2 Biba books to replace this one.
You've gotta try this one.......2007-03-07
My copy of this book, battered from much use, is one of the best cookbooks I've ever found. Full of wonderful recpies and variations of recipes, anecdotes and information about country cooks and food artisans,a great discussion of foods and pastas, several menu suggestions and a list of sources for hard-to-find items. Everything I've made from this book has been spectacular. I heartily recommend it.
great gift.......2006-01-13
I bought this cookbook for my recently retired father who has discovered a love for cooking (after 30 years of preparing the same 3 dishes). Just days after he recieved the book, he called me raving that he and my mother loved it, that the first dish he made (chicken balsamico) was an 11 or 12 on a scale of 10. Since then he has tried many more recipes and they've all been sucessful and delicioso.
My favorite cookbook, bar none. .......2005-10-31
GOOD READ, GREAT RECIPES
How I adore this cookbook. I have a lot of cookbooks, and I always reach for this one first. First of all, you can read it like a novel. LRK's stories are wonderful, and hearing the origins -- anthropological, agricultural, familial, anecdotal --is really fun for a literary foodie type (like me).
THE SIMPLE-TO-COMPLEX CONTINUUM
But my appreciation of this book goes way beyond its bedside appeal. It's my first, best resource in the kitchen, too. I've noticed a few of the other reviewers found the recipes a little complex, and I'd like to address that. It's true that some are multi-step and use a lot of dishes. It's true that, say, the Tyrolean Pot Roast (*drool*) might take a couple tries before it comes out letter-perfect. But let me balance that by saying that:
SIMPLE
(1) there are plenty of recipes so simple you'll find yourself using them every night. Like string beans with olive oil, salt and pepper (optional raw garlic halved and rubbed on the sides of the bowl). It's one of those foundational recipes accessible enough for a novice cook, and the technique may be applied to many vegetables.
CLEAR
(2) Even in Rossetto Kasper's more complicated recipes are not tricky because she explains them so well. It's really hard to take traditional recipes passed down through generations without measurements, cooking by feel, and in another language, no less -- and translate them into a coherent step-by-step set of instructions. That's exactly what Rossetto Kasper has done, though -- she takes recipes a la nonna (grandma recipes) and converts them into accessible text that any home cook can achieve if they really try.
IDIOT-PROOF (SORT OF)
(3) Most of Rosetto Kasper's recipes are really forgiving. She'll point out where you can make substitutions. For example, if you have run out of rosemary, but your basil plant is temptingly available in sun-drenched glory, chances are good that Rossetto Kasper will point out that you can switch them just fine, and that traditional Italian home cooks often do, according to the seasons, regional differences, and the whim of the cook. I've screwed up so many of her recipes the first time, and all my mistakes have been not just edible, but good. Good enough that I was more than interested in trying a second time, for even better result. Example: The Polenta Chocolate Cake. I defy anyone to make that cake not taste incredibly good -- you'd have to do something really drastic, like omit the chocolate or pour ketchup over it. The first time I made it, it was for a giant family dinner. I was stressed and goofed up the cooking time (probably three or four other things). My family moaned like they were having a giant collective foodgasm. It's just really that good. Sure, I made it correctly after that, but it's good to know if you don't always manage to color in the lines, all is not lost.
AUTHENTICITY
More thoughts: her authentic recipes are really authentic. I made her ring-shaped currant/anise seed bread (forget the name) a few years ago for the first time and happened to bring it when I took my grandmother to visit one of her friends. This tiny, very old Italian woman flipped out when she saw it because it reminded her so much of something her own mother made, with a recipe "from the old country." (I know it's a cliché, okay, but that's what she said! She meant it!) The she tasted it and just about cried because it was JUST like her (long dead) mother used to make. Since she never knew the recipe, she hadn't had it since the last time the last (long dead) old woman in her family made it. That's the kind of food you get from this book. Making old ladies that happy is really, really special.
MORE AUTHETICITY
I had a similar experience with the Pane Dolce di Zucca (Pumpkin Bread -- nothing like American pumpkin bread, and actually, I generally use butternut squash, per Rossetto Kasper's suggestion). My husband had colleagues from Italy here in the United States for a month or so. They were kind of homesick. I sent some of this bread in to work with my husband one day and they went wild when they tasted it -- apparently it's a country recipe that they'd all had from their families, but wasn't available commercially, and that they hadn't had in a very long time since they lived in the city now for work. They were absolutely mystified as to how this American (me) managed to figure it out. Not until they met me and heard my lousy Italian grammar did they believe my husband wasn't secretly married to a little old Italian grandmother, heh. The book is like one giant Italian Proust Madeleine.
NUTRTITION
This book really emphasizes fresh, organic, whole foods.
FOR ALL LEVELS OF COOKS
I think this book would be excellent for a novice cook or a very experienced cook (or anyone in between). I loved it for the authentic recipes I've never come across in other texts, for the stories, and for the clarity of the directions. I would have loved it as a beginner cook because there's plenty to make that's not intimidatingly complex, and there are pictures. The sections on tomato sauce, broth, and sourcing/selecting ingredients would be extremely useful for a cook who was just starting out, or perhaps just moving from survivial cooking to loftier, more ambitious cooking.
RECIPES I LOVE
Crackly Apply Meringue Cake, Rosemary Pear Tart, Chicken Balsamico, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, Pork with Peppers, Marinated Trout, Melting Cavolo Nero (Kale), Chickpea All Souls Soup (a basic recipe that can be used for many different beans), different things with Farro (wheat berries) -- and my goodness, I can't remember what all else. Suffice to say, the spine is cracked, the pages are wrinkled and stained, and it's just the best.
Superior Survey of Rural Italian Cuisine. Not Simple!.......2005-07-26
`The Italian Country Table' is Lynne Rossetto Kasper's second book, a follow-up to the `won every award in the book' title, `The Splendid Table', which is also the name of Ms. Kasper's National Public Radio show which I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing.
It is a great pleasure to see a book this good in such a crowded field. Ms. Kasper has narrowed the field a bit by focusing on `country' recipes. By doing this, she is outflanking the Hazan / Bastianich / Batali / Bugialli / Scicolone crowd and even sidestepping the footprints of the great Elizabeth David's `Italian Food'. Instead, her primary competition is from Susan Herrmann Loomis, who has made a business out of `farmhouse cooking', Vincent Schiavelli, who concentrates on Sicily (and to whom Ms. Kasper gives an acknowledgment), and Elizabeth Romer of `The Tuscan Year'. As Ms. Romer and Senor Schiavelli spend more time on memoir material than they do on culinary content, the real comparison is with Ms. Loomis, who is at a disadvantage in that her home base is in France rather than in Italy.
As Ms. David discovered in 1954, Italian cooking in the hinterlands can be both utterly simple or it can be incredibly complex, especially for dishes designed for major celebrations. The star of this book may very well be its vegetarian timbale made for weddings. In Italian, it is even named as a wedding dish, `Timballo Matrimoniale'. The joker behind this recipe is that it is not a genuine rural Italian dish. It is the invention of the author based on the famous dish that typically contains three or four different varieties of meat. I have seen a timbale made twice. The first was on Mario Batali's show of three years ago, `Mario Eats Italy'. The second, and much more accessible version was in Stanley Tucci's movie, `Big Night', where the chef, played by `Adrian Monk' himself, Tony Shaloub, makes two of these monster pies or `molds'. Ms. Kasper's version is true to the heritage of this dish, as it involves six subassemblies, a page and a half of ingredients, and two pages of procedure.
This complicated dish is not a singularity in this book. There are genuinely rustic `enhanced' versions of many other Italian specialities, such as a very jazzed up version of the Caprese salad.
While `The Splendid Table' limited itself to Emilia-Romagna, the current book includes recipes from the Alps to Sicily, although the larger number seem to come from Lazio (Rome) and north of Rome. I am especially happy to find both simple and complicated recipes here, as it reassures me that the author is not limiting herself to just simple recipes. Although, she does offer some genuinely simple methods for some tasks which may appear difficult at first, such as making homemade soft pasta.
Ms. Kasper's method, almost identical to the one I have seen Sr. Batali do on numerous occasions, is the classic eggs in the well, with the added recommendation that we eschew the mechanical pasta roller and do everything by hand.
I am really hard pressed to find any general, substantive difference between the book by Ms. Loomis and the book by Ms. Kasper. I will give a small edge to Ms. Kasper for the wider range of recipe complexity, more genuinely personal connection to the material, and for the better digressions into the history of some Italian culinary traditions. Ms. Kasper also opens a window to a true taste of `Italian Kitsch' when she digresses on local museums of recently antiquated farm tools and homemade toys.
Both books cover the full range of subjects, although Ms. Kasper seems to be a bit more focused on important recipes. Ms. Kasper includes all the typical subjects in her chapters, which are:
Antipasti / Light Meals
Pasta (sauces without tomatoes)
Pasta Meets the Tomato
Rice, Grains, and Beans
Soup
Poultry, Meats, and Fish
Vegetables and Salads
Focaccia, Pizza and Breads of Ingenuity
Desserts
Menus
Ingredients
Both books also give very good press to the Italian practice of boarding tourists in farmhouses as a method to provide income to local farmers in the face of the new European Union agricultural regulations.
Ms. Kasper has excellent appendices on mail order sources for foods and seeds, plus the contacts for a wide selection of restaurants and farm boarding establishments in Italy. She also has a carefully identified `Partial Bibliography' which concentrates on personal and regional writings on Italian food. The `big' books from Elizabeth David, Marcella Hazan, and Giuliano Bugialli are not here.
If I were to be copy editing this book, the only suggestion I would make regarding it's layout is that it include a map of Italy's principle provinces and cites and indicate more clearly, with each recipe, from where in Italy the recipe comes.
I do give extra points for the great personal black and white snaps that decorate the sidebars on personal experiences in Italy. I also give extra credit for revealing something about broth making which is new to my understanding of both broth making in general and Italian brodo's in particular. I am not fond of the longish cooking time for this broth, but I take Ms. Kasper at her word that this is how they actually make `Brodo di Mamma' in Imola.
If you are already a big fan of Ms. Loomis' other books, get her `Italian Farmhouse Cookbook'. Otherwise, Ms. Kasper's book seems to be just a little deeper and more authentic, from a spiritual native of Italy.
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A Culinary Traveller in Tuscany
The Most Beautiful Villages of Tuscany (Most Beautiful Villages)
Authentic Tuscany (Authentic Italy)
Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria: Revised Edition (Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria)
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