Friday, October 22, 2010

Hot Food Trend

A few people made joking comments (all in good fun) about one of my early blogs on fried chicken. Well, guess what? Fried Chicken is now one of the "hottest" trends in the US and Canada on high end restaurant menus.

Almost every early community cookbook included a local recipe for fried chicken. Of course, with most of us trying to be health conscious we have drastically cut back on any fried foods. I use Peanut Oil instead of vegetable oil and if you make sure to fry at an even and hot temperature, the chicken will actually absorb very little oil.

This link will take you to a nice story on Fried Chicken, Comfort Food de jour.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/fried-chicken-its-the-comfort-food-du-jour/article1766857/

In case you missed my original fried chicken blog post, here it is as well. Good eatin', ya'll!

http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/17/631904749?lite


Saturday, October 16, 2010

Combatting Childhood Obesity

Recently, we have all been bombarded with the fact that there is an epidemic of childhood obesity in the US. Seemingly gone are the days when kids gathered to play sports without any adult supervision or organization. With the advent of video games and big-screen, high definition TV, it is a sedentary life style for the majority.

The saddest part about childhood obesity is that it usually leads to adult obesity. As I have gotten older, I can attest that it is much easier to put on pounds than to take them off. It is hard. This whole subject is so complicated and is certainly different for every individual.

Rather than harping on the reasons for this epidemic, my purpose rather is to tout two cookbooks currently on the market designed to offset childhood obesity. In the Kitchen with Kids is a collection of recipes from members of Junior Leagues around the country. These recipes are from the mom’s of young children who understand the need for healthy and nutritious foods—and yet, they’re recipes that kids like.

Each recipe is illustrated with how-to steps and a hero shot of the finished dish. Buying this book doubles in its reward, because the profits support the Kids in the Kitchen educational program conducted by these Junior Leagues, which concentrates on food and nutrition in their local communities. The program was developed by the local Leagues and the Association of Junior Leagues International.

The second book is No Whine with Dinner by Registered Dieticians Liz Weiss and Janice Newell Bissex, also known as the Meal Makeover Moms. Both of these ladies hold Master of Science degrees along with their RD certification. Under the umbrella of Meal Makeover Moms, these ladies have created an adorable cookbook of kid friendly, appetizing, and nutritious recipes to fit any palate. The book is also loaded with valuable nutritional and product information. Personally, I love this book.

Please feel free to share your stories on what you do to insure your children’s health.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

A SURPRISE VALUE--RETRO



Occasionally, and out of the blue, one will find a true surprise--a great value that was totally unexpected. That is what I think about the Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking. This book was first published in 1986 and has sold more than 550,000 copies.

The recipes came from Home Economics Teachers across the US and the format of the book is in encyclopedia form. The 5,000 recipes are arranged from A to Z and each food entry includes detailed information such as the origin or use of the food, its nutritional and caloric value, plus its seasonal availability.

If you follow my blog, you know that most of my interest revolves around community cookbooks and this is no exception because Home Economics Teachers once formed a very tight knit and important community within our culture. Generations grew up learning how to cook, sew, and plan for running a household based on the guidance and wisdom of Home Economics Teachers. One reason that the sales of cookbooks today is so strong is that these classes are no longer taught in our schools.

What I like about this book is that if I have a particular food that I want to try out, it's "as simple as A-B-C" to find a recipe. As an example, lets say that fresh cranberries are available and I want to try a dish using them. I flip to the "C's" and there are breads, puddings, cocktails, salads and pies. In other words, lots of recipes to think about for almost any food you can come up with.

Another unique feature of this book is that it was never sold in retail stores. Up until it was featured on QVC last year, it was only available through the Southwestern Company's door-to-door selling program. This unique program has trained thousands of college students working their way through school turning them into some of the great leaders in our communities today. Many of the students learned that this book was so popular with consumers that they could sell their regular product line books at the initial sales stage and then when delivering the books offer the Encyclopedia as an additional option, and many people would buy both. No doubt, those who did buy it are still enjoying it today.

The book is filled with surprises such as menu planning, napkin folding ideas, sauces, bread making tips, table settings and many others. This is truly a book that belongs in every homemaker's kitchen.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Mustard Sauces


Lately my taste buds have acquired a liking to mustard based sauces. When I came home a few nights ago, I was met by the delicious aroma and was thrilled to find Robin in the kitchen working on a new sauce for dinner. She whipped it up out of thin air and we used it on our baked chicken breasts. It was amazing.

I’m not suggesting that this recipe doesn’t already exist somewhere, but she concocted it without any guidance and boy, did it turn out tasty! If you try it, please let me know what you think.

¼ cup Grey Poupon, or any coarse Dijon mustard
¼ cup yellow prepared mustard (we used French’s brand)
2 teaspoons dry mustard, or to taste
1/3 cup Honey
1-2 teaspoon white wine or apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly dredge 4 chicken breasts in flour mixed with salt and pepper. Coat each breast with a thick layer sauce and place in shallow baking pan and bake for about 45 min or until quick read thermometer registers 176-180 degrees. While baking, coat chicken with sauce once or twice more.

Enjoy!

3 Keys to Successful Cookbooks

You might be asking yourself why someone writing a blog focusing on custom publishing and community cookbooks would spend so much time writing about customer service. The reason is simple. In every seminar and publishing presentation we make, we emphasize that when you publish a cookbook you are setting up a business, and it must be run like a business, if you want it to be successful.

If someone tells me that they published a cookbook and it wasn’t successful, I can tell you unequivocally that the cause of the lack of success was one of three reasons. By the same token, a successful project will be successful for three reasons.

1. The one simple and obvious reason for success or failure is the quality of the product itself and its value for the money. Someone simply throwing some recipes together without regard to uniqueness, quality editorial, design or theme will probably have a tough time. However, a well crafted and themed cookbook with tested recipes written consistently and precisely coupled with interesting information about the cuisine of the area or the history of the recipe will find a niche following. So, I freely admit that the product itself can be a huge component of success or failure.

With these next two ingredients in place, a shoddy product can at least be successful from the standpoint of selling through the initial inventory. What are these two ingredients? They are great business services and customer service mixed with great marketing. A lack of either of these is a sure sign of failure.

2. In my blog of a few weeks back I illustrated a couple of “poor” customer service experiences I had encountered. This past weekend I experienced great customer service from Target. Surprisingly, a “big box” store like Target is the last place I expected to encounter great service. I have been bragging about them to everyone since then. The ladies in the CS department went out of their way and even broke a policy to do the right thing in replacing a defective product.

3. When you set up a publishing business, you must set up business rules and regulations. You establish discount policies, return policies, inventory control systems, collection policies, store or phone hour policies and many others. We preach the philosophy that something as simple as manning a phone or returning recorded messages within a 24 hour time period are critical to your success. An account carrying your title has little time to waste if they try to order only to reach a recording and not have the call returned promptly—they will simply choose to carry someone else’s book.

If you have a cookbook or are considering publishing a cookbook, please know you are setting up a business—a very fun and rewarding business, but nevertheless, it’s a business. Run it as such and you will be rewarded.