Stilettos and Stovetops: Cookbooks with Soul

So, I was perusing my local book store the other day and of course, the first place I go to is the cookbooks! I can't help but salivate over the pictures and dream about the recipes; how they taste, what they will smell like! Its a little disturbing, but hey what can I say..I LOVE FOOD.

I was a vegetarian for several years and decided a couple months to incorporate meat back into my diet. Why, you ask? I don't have some revelatory statement to answer this question..maybe I was tired of being limited to the restaurants I could eat, maybe because I just REALLY missed the taste of bacon, and some of it has to do with the fact that there are farmers out there, raising animals in humane ways, closest to nature, and not horrible by-products of the massive agricultural monopoly that supplies most of our food.

I think we can respect the lives of the animals we eat, thank them for nourishing our bodies, and still feel good about putting them in our mouths. We just have to do the research! Shopping locally is a far better experience than shopping in some huge supermarket (don't get me wrong, I love me some Trader Joes!) but when it comes to produce, cheese, and meat, looking in our own backyards not only connects us to the food we eat, but to the people who are supplying it to us. There is more accountability here, and its such a great feeling to know your food source by name!

There is so much farmland here in the US, and unfortunately a majority of it is subsidized to corn and soy, but there are still great pioneers who fight the fight, and preserve their land to grow healthy, soulful, food! So, I wanted to share some of the books that I think highlight the FARM TO TABLE mentality that allows us to truly enjoy and respect all of the Earth's bounty!