Cooking Close to Home; A Year of Seasonal Recipes

   This book is a collection of inspirational recipes to guide your cooking through the natural seasons of the harvest, and to help those who enjoy cooking learn more about preparing and buying local foods.  For anyone who has recently joined a CSA, this book will serve as a seasonal guide to using the foods typically received in a farm share.

   Cooking Close to Home has recipes for appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, and desserts and includes tips on how to preserve the harvest. All the recipes are organized by the seasons.  The recipes use ingredients that are available in Vermont and throughout the Northeast, as well as ingredients that you have preserved for the winter season. In addition to the delicious recipes in this book you will find useful “Harvest Hints” throughout, which include a variety of tips from what the ingredients are, where and how to purchase them, what to look for when choosing foods at the farmer’s market and how best to store produce for the winter season.

   The cookbook includes over 150 inspirational recipes for all seasons, accented with appetizing color photographs of many dishes, and photographs of our visits to farms, orchards, and farmers markets throughout the Northeast and Quebec. Some of our favorite seasonal recipes are Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus Salad with Goat Cheese and Wild Mushroom for spring, Wheat Berry Salad with Summer Vegetables and Garden Herbs, Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Crunchy Pumpkin Seed Brittle for fall and Braised Turkey Thighs with Currants for winter.

   The two authors bring a unique combination of talents to this book. Diane Imrie is a Registered Dietitian and graduate of McGill University in Montreal.  She also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Vermont.  Diane has been speaking nationally on the topic of sustainable food for the past several years. Richard Jarmusz has worked as a chef for twenty five years and is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Richard has won awards and is sought after for cooking demonstrations and culinary consulting. Both authors have been involved in local food for many years, and have implemented a local and sustainable food program that is nationally recognized. Richard is a back yard gardener and Diane is known for her community garden work.