Simple Food for the Good Life: Random Acts of Cooking and Pithy Quotations by Helen Nearing

This little book has been through multiple editions since it’s original publication in 1982. Helen Nearing and her husband Scott were pioneers in homesteading and there have been over 30 books written about their lives. The book is much more than a cookbook ; it is a blueprint for living a more simple, basic, back to the land life. The author did not consider herself a good cook or a willing one. She was convinced, finally, by French friends to put her recipes on paper {anyone that knows anything about French cooking knows how they feel about the way they do things in the kitchen so this was a major compliment}.

Once she finally became convinced by her French friends to put her recipes on paper, she spent countless hours in rare book rooms in the New York, Boston, and Philadelphia libraries, researching previously written cookbooks because she was concerned she would be writing a book someone else had already done; she wanted her book to be unique!

Description from the publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing:

Fifty years before the phrase “simple living” became fashionable, Helen and Scott Nearing were living their celebrated “Good Life” on homesteads first in Vermont, then in Maine. All the way to their ninth decades, the Nearings grew their own food, built their own buildings, and fought an eloquent combat against the silliness of America’s infatuation with consumer goods and refined foods. They also wrote or co-wrote more than thirty books, many of which are now being brought back into print by the Good Life Center and Chelsea Green.

Simple Food for the Good Life is a jovial collection of “quips, quotes, and one-of-a-kind recipes meant to amuse and intrigue all of those who find themselves in the kitchen, willingly or otherwise.” Recipes such as Horse Chow, Scott’s Emulsion, Crusty Carrot Croakers, Raw Beet Borscht, Creamy Blueberry Soup, and Super Salad for a Crowd should improve the mood as well as whet the appetite of any guest.

Here is an antidote for the whole foods enthusiast who is “fed up” with the anxieties and drudgeries of preparing fancy meals with stylish, expensive, hard-to-find ingredients. This celebration of salads, leftovers, raw foods, and homegrown fruits and vegetables takes the straightest imaginable route from their stem or vine to your table.

“The funniest, crankiest, most ambivalent cookbook you’ll ever read,” said Food & Wine magazine. “This is more than a mere cookbook,” said Health Science magazine: “It belongs to the category of classics, destined to be remembered through the ages.”

Though we aren’t vegetarian, I really enjoyed reading this book and looking through the recipes because I do want my family to have healthy and yummy meals.  After all, you don’t have to sacrifice yummy for healthy!  What I loved about the book was that it is full of simple recipes with emphasis on a minimum number of ingredient and as many raw ingredients as possible. Here is a three course meal example:

Salad: Apple Slaw
Ingredients:

• 3 apples, grated
• 1/2 head red cabbage, grated
• 2 cups of celery, chopped coarsely
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of oil

Directions: Combine the apples, cabbage, celery and raisins.  Add the honey, lemon juice and oil.  Tossing well after each addition to coat the ingredients well.  Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

Soup:  Super Supper Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of any kind of dry beans, soaked over night in two quarts of cold water
• 2-3 tablespoons of butter or oil
• 2 onions or leeks, sliced
• 2 potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
• 2 stalks of celery, sliced
• 2 turnips cubed
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• a pinch of thyme, marjoram, aniseed

Directions: Bring the bean and water to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the beans are soft (about an hour).  In a large skillet, heat the butter or oil and saute the vegetables until they are soft.  Add the vegetables with the beans along with the seasonings and simmer for 30 minutes.  Serves 6-8

Dessert:  Peanut Butter Balls

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups of Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 and 1/2 cups of honey
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 cup of chopped nuts

Directions: Bring the oats and peanut butter to a boil with the 1/2 cup water.  Add the honey, vanilla, and chopped nuts.  Stir well and being once more to a boil.  Cook for a minute or so.  Remove from the stove and let it cool.  Spoon unto a buttered plate or pan and roll into balls.

The chapter on herbs and other seasonings is particularly informative especially if you or your family are watching your salt intake.  In this chapter you learn how to substitute spices, seasonings and herbs in place of salt.  Along the way, the book is peppered with delightful quotes from cooks and cookbooks over the centuries.

If you would like to simplify your life and your diet, learn more about why you should absolutely do this for the mental and physical well being of you and your family, this is the book for you!

To order a copy of your own, please visit Chelsea Publishing,  or order it from Amazon.  If you want more information on Chelsea Publishing visit them on Facebook or Chelsea Green’s Twitter feed we’re @chelseagreen.

Like this book? Digg it! 0diggsdigg Tweet This Book! Share on Facebook ShareThis Print this page. Book Data ISBN: 9781890132293 Year Added to Catalog: 1999 Book Format: Paperback Book Art: index Number of Pages: 6 x 9, 309 pages Book Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Old ISBN: 1890132292 Release Date: January 1, 1990 Web Product ID: 266 Also By This Author

Simple Food for the Good Life