Canal House Cooking Vol. No. 2: Fall & Holiday eBook Review

I have said before that I am a huge fan of Canal House Cooking and their daily weekday posts about what they have made for lunch. Their desire to present delicious foods that are accessible to the home cook is accompanied by sharing knowledge about the benefits of eating in the season, shopping locally for your foods and the enjoyable pace of making foods from scratch and with passion.

Canal House Cooking Vol. No. 2: Fall & Winter eBook

Recently, their body of cookbooks was released in eBook format. I had the opportunity to review their Vol. No. 2: Fall & Holiday edition. I can say that most of the cookbooks on my shelf have a few recipes that I want to make, but only a select few lead me to want to make each recipe in the book. That has happened once again with Canal House Cooking Vol. No. 2: Fall & Holiday. So much so, that I am willing to make all of the duck recipes, and I’ve never had duck before.

In this cookbook, Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton have collaborated to share recipes that they make for themselves and their families all year long. The recipes included in this edition are reflexive of the ingredients available in the fall season and run through some delicious options for your holiday table. The images that they conjure up for the reader of starting the fire in the wood stove, cleaning the kitchen and checking the pantry for staples should make everyone want to slow down and make long range plans for their fall and winter cooking. The stories that accompany the recipes are clever and the ladies’ humor makes the home cook smile as he/she reads tips such as “make as many as you have the patience to peel.” They also offer valuable tips for those who want to eat more whole foods and learn to be more engaged in your food sources. They encourage you to talk with your fishmonger, butcher or cheesemonger at the market and learn your local farmers’ names at farmers’ markets and at their local farm stands. Putting people back into the picture of your food’s lineage brings a special intimacy into how you prepare their foods. I also appreciated the image that they paint of them toting their soup pumpkin through town in order to find an oven large enough in which to bake it. It harkens back to times when we took a moment to connect with our food, which to this blogger’s delight, is making a comeback.

Mushroom Ragu on Polenta

I am fortunate to have the opportunity to share the Mushroom Ragu on Polenta recipe as an excerpt today (see PDF file below). Tomato and I will be growing our own mushrooms this winter via a Back to the Roots mushroom kit (with review to come!!). We are looking forward to seeing how we can incorporate those homegrown mushrooms into this recipe and we will be sure to report back with the results. Until then, test out the Mushroom Ragu over Polenta recipe, grab the eBook and be sure to sign up for the daily emails from Canal House Cooking. Enjoy!

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of the cookbook for review purposes. All opinions and delight about the cookbook are my own.