Books are listed alphabetically by title. You can browse through the entire list by clicking here and then scrolling down, or you can go directly to a specific book by clicking the appropriate link in the list immediately below:

• Edible Flowers: Desserts and Drinks, Cathy Wilkinson Barash
  
• Edible Flowers: From Garden to Palate, Cathy Wilkinson Barash
  
• Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook, Joetta Handrich Schlabach
  
• Flowers in the Kitchen: A Bouquet of Tasty Recipes, Susan Belsinger
  
• Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, Lorna J. Sass
  
• The Kitchen Garden Cookbook, Sylvia Thompson
  
• Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets, Deborah Madison
  
• More-With-Less Cookbook, Doris Janzen Longacre
  
• The Passionate Vegetarian, Crescent Dragonwagon
  
• Simply in Season, Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert
  
• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison
  
• Wild in the Kitchen: Recipes for Wild Fruits, Weeds, and Seeds, Ronna Mogelon
  

Edible Flowers: From Garden to Palate, Cathy Wilkinson Barash

Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook, Joetta Handrich Schlabach
Produced by the Mennonite Central Committee in the tradition of The More-with-Less Cookbook. Extending the Table contains recipes gathered by Mennonites from more than 80 countries. Recipes are mainly for everyday meals eaten by ordinary (non-rich) people, except for a chapter on feasts and celebrations. African countries are unusually well-represented. Recipes are very economical to make. Some recipes have been adapted, mostly to reduce fat content and/or shorten preparation time and alternates are suggested for hard-to-find ingredients. Also has many brief "stories" about the people who donated the recipes, each with a moral, generally describing hospitality in the particular country. A little of the moralizing is explicitly Christian, but I think most of the stories and morals would also be acceptable to people of other religions or no religion. I really like this book and use it a lot.

Flowers in the Kitchen: A Bouquet of Tasty Recipes, Susan Belsinger

Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, Lorna J. Sass
The best book from the best pressure-cooker cookbook writer, in my opinion. Clear directions for cooking every imaginable grain and bean, and excellent recipes. Lorna Sass knows pressure cookers, and her recipes have enough herbs and spices (a rarity in American cookbooks), and taste good. I use this book more than any other pressure-cooker cookbook.

The Kitchen Garden Cookbook, Sylvia Thompson
Companion book to the author's The Kitchen Garden. Contains at least one recipe for every plant discussed in The Kitchen Garden. It is particularly valuable to have recipes for some of the more unusual plants and it is fun to read the two books in tandem. The recipes I have tried have worked very well. I like these two books a great deal.

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets, Deborah Madison
I enjoyed this book. Great recipes for fresh produce. It's often difficult to find recipes for the more unusual vegetables and herbs so these are appreciated. Also stories about various Farmer's Markets across the USA, and photos. Madison is an excellent cookbook writer, and it shows. Her recipes are good, and they work.

More-With-Less Cookbook, Doris Janzen Longacre
The first cookbook from the Mennonite Central Committee. Described as "suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited resources." Most of the recipes are very economical to make too. Lots of good recipes using basic foods. While there are some recipes from other cultures, the emphasis is on North American-style food. Extending the Table is the mate to this book, and covers the recipes from other lands very well.

The Passionate Vegetarian, Crescent Dragonwagon
I'm somewhat ambivalent about this book. It's an interesting cookbook to read straight through (assuming you have very strong wrists or can prop the book up - it's huge). I have not actually made many of the recipes in it but this is more, I believe, from a lack of time on my part than for any other reason (and because I haven't owned the book very long). I look forward to trying more of its recipes this coming winter. It often calls for ingredients that are both expensive and difficult to obtain in our very rural area, and this is a negative. The recipes 'read well' to me but be warned that the author likes hot food super hot! Extensive use of the less-civilized types of hot peppers.

Simply in Season

"Simply in Season" is the third "World Community Cookbook" produced by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). The others were "The More-with-Less Cookbook" (emphasis on economical recipes) and "Extending the Table" (recipes from around the world).

"Simply in Season", as you will guess from the title, is wholly about cooking and eating seasonal - and therefore at least potentially local - foods.

After an initial 'Fruit and Vegetable Guide', the book is arranged by season, and each season has recipes for:

• Breads and Breakfast
• Soups
• Salads
• Sides
• Main Dishes
• Desserts
• Extras

This is not a vegetarian cookbook as it includes seasonal meat (lamb in spring) and other meats, but many of the recipes do not call for meat.

Basically, it's how to use the fruits of your garden or other local and seasonal foods (maybe bought from a farmstand, farmers market, or CSA). It's the best cookbook of this type that I have ever read - and they've got the seasons right. I hate it when I read an ostensibly seasonal recipe that includes, for example, fresh peas plus fresh tomatoes. At least in my neck of the woods, the two are definitely not happening at once. But 'Simply in Season' is actually accurate about what foods are in season when.

The recipes emphasize healthful cooking and healthful foods. Recipes were sent in by contributors, then each recipe was tested at least two (and usually more) times by testers. The authors spent nearly two years collecting 1600 recipes from more than 450 contributors, then winnowed the recipes down to the best 307 - and those are included in this cookbook. Contributor(s) for each recipe are identified by name and location.

"Simply in Season" is particularly strong in having recipes for unusual seasonal foods: ground cherries, persimmons, rhubarb, and the like. Lots of zucchini recipes, of course. The recipes almost all sound very good to me, and the level of difficulty is about right: I'm not willing to spend an awful lot of time cooking these days. Many of the recipes enable you to make the main dish from/with your garden's bounty - this is always helpful to me. And it has some splendid sounding desserts too!

Like the preceding two cookbooks from MCC, the book also includes little homilies and 'stories' which - in this case - are mainly about the virtues of growing and eating local food. A few of the 'stories' are explicitly religious, but the majority are not. If you object to anything even vaguely spiritual, this may not be the cookbook for you, although really: you could just ignore those parts. For myself, I'm glad to see anything published that may help to inform people about the reasons to support local farmers and sustainable farming. Eat local food, change the world!

I recommend 'Simply in Season' most highly - especially to gardeners, but also to everyone who wants good, healthy, and delicious food.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison
The "Fanny Farmer" or "Joy of Cooking" of modern American vegetarian cooking. This is another huge book, and it is a very complete cookbook with everything from soup to nuts, and everything is clearly explained. Madison is perhaps "the Julia Child of vegetarianism" and a terrific cookbook writer, in my opinion. The book is full of recipes I'd love to cook and eat. For a few examples: Broccoli Raab with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes, Butternut Squash Gratin with Onions and Sage, Quesadillas with Smoky Black Bean Spread and Salsa. So many recipes, so little time!

Wild in the Kitchen: Recipes for Wild Fruits, Weeds, and Seeds, Ronna Mogelon