I’ve enjoyed reviewing “Seven Years of Plenty,” a cookbook by Linda Olsson, author of the blog Seven Years of Plenty. Cooking is one of my downsides; however, I am grateful for those of you willing to teach us how to do it using basic ingredients. This book is filled with cultural recipes from around the world in places such as Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, Armenia, Italy, and Lebanon as well as many other countries. Because America is a melting pot, Linda has chosen to share a variety of recipes as “it shows the boundless creativity of people throughout the world.”
Linda teaches us how to use wheat, rice, beans, vegetables and fruits in everyday recipes and encourages us to have a garden. At the end of each chapter she includes additional “In a Pinch” recipes for times when fresh foods such as eggs and milk, are limited. Because her grandmother lived through both World Wars and the Great Depression, she has been taught to work with what you have when you are without.
She says, “I have tried to honor that heritage and to believe that the kitchen is a noble place to be. We are nourishing our families. Even when our ingredients are limited, we can take care of our families the way our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers did for their families in difficult times and in good times.”
My only suggestion would be to add a country recipe index so we can find recipes from a particular country. A well, researched recipe book which will help you see that you can use food storage everyday.
This book gets 4/5 stars from me.
(If you have other book titles you would like me to review, please send me an email.)