Frances Schaffer's Shortcuts to Gourmet Cooking and Family Favorites - Hardcover

Frances Schaffer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0971867755 ISBN 13: 9780971867758

Publisher: Infusionmedia, 2008

Synopsis

If you think of gourmet cooking as fancy or elaborate preparation, you may think that gourmet and shortcutting are not compatible. But think again. By defining gourmet as fine food carefully prepared from scratch, even the simplest old family recipe can be gourmet. Shortcuts, in this case, do not mean using a lot of canned or prepared foods. They mean planning and using recipes, skills, and equipment to shorten time spent preparing fine, homemade cooking. That is what this book is about, and here are some of the special features: Options: Variations of basic recipes changing one food creation into another. Step Method: Recipes are broken down into steps, so they are less confusing. Staples and Equipment: Recipes are included for simple broths, mixes, and other basic homemade ingredients to keep on hand for healthier, more flavorful dishes; plus, this includes some sound advice on investing in a few quality pieces of equipment. Quick Tricks and Helpful Hints: Tips on how to streamline your cooking and eliminate steps. Plus an extensive section on classic Italian cooking. Besides providing all of the above, this book is a family memoir and a cooking adventure story to which you can relate. It contains anecdotes and asides that will amuse you as they help with your own cooking endeavors. My object in writing this cookbook is to make food preparation less stressful, more enjoyable. Food should be (1) tasty, (2) healthful, (3) look nice in just that order. That, to my mind, is true gourmet cooking, and it should, not take all your time. I want you to have the pleasure of serving your family and friends nourishing meals that taste good. And I do mean I want it to be a pleasure for you. But Frances Schaffer didn't immediately take to cooking. It wasn't until one of their five children was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that Frances started cooking from scratch. She was a nurse by trade, but gave up the occupation for the vocation of caring for her family in a personal and specific way. She cooked everything based on the Feingold diet. This diet eliminates all artificial preservatives, flavorings, coloring, and salicylates. While not all the recipes in this book contain all natural ingredients, I have tried to use them as much as possible. Receipts that contain all natural ingredients are marked with an apple. I also include a few low-cholesterol recipes, which are marked with a heart. (Note: Some of the recipes in this book may fit the Feingold all-natural diet, but the Feingold Association does not endorse any recipes because the approved products for the diet are ever-changing.) The safe-food list for your area may be obtained with a membership to the Feingold Associations. This list is invaluable for anyone who wants to eat foods without additives. If more consumers were to choose additive-free foods, more manufacturers would offer them. For more information on the Feingold Diet, visit feingold.org. Schaffer bought fresh milk, made her own butter, cream and ice cream. She made everything from bread to crackers and really fine-tuned her Italian cooking. What benefited their son also came to benefit Grand Island. After the family bought the historic Hamilton-Donaldson mansion at 820 W. Second St., Schaffer decided to open an Italian restaurant on the main floor. Features: Hard cover, 372 pages (with index,) large section on Italian cooking and numerous other sections, including basic kitchen equipment needs, staples for a well-stocked kitchen, appetizers, beverages, breads, cakes and frostings, candies, cookies, desserts, eggs, meats and poultry, pies, salads, soups, vegetables and a Do You Know; section on how to make crackers, marshmallows, etc.

About this title

About the Author:

In the 1940s and 50s, Frances Calhoun was growing up in the central Nebraska city of Grand Island. Every school day, she passed the Hamilton-Donald Mansion on Second Street, awed by the magnificent entryway with its giant columns. She told her mother she was going to knock on the door of the mansion and ask if she could buy it. Her mother quite firmly told her she was not to go near the place. So, she always walked on the other side of the street when she passed by, fearing some dreadful impropriety. Still, she thought, she would like to own it some day. The thought proved to be prophetic. In the meantime, Fran graduated from St. Francis School of Nursing, becoming a registered nurse. She married Dave Schaffer after graduation and they had five children. She relied on many prepared foods available to get meals on the table, but decided to follow the Feingold Diet after their child was diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). She started making everything from scratch, using all-natural ingredients, and rediscovered the pleasures of fine cooking. Her husband told her she should open a restaurant. There was some tradition for this. Her nonna (Italian for grandmother ) had been widely known in Wyoming for the Italian dinners she served in her husband s bar, and Fran s mother had cooked for special events at a local golf club. It all came together in the early 80s. Fran had what she calls her mid-life crisis and decided it was time to try a new career direction. At the same time the Hamilton-Donald mansion in Grand Island came up for sale. She and Dave had always collected antiques and wanted the proper home to display them. They decided it was perfect. They could live comfortably on the second floor and have a restaurant on the first floor. When they moved there in 1983, Fran immediately opened up her Italian restaurant, naming it Nonna s Palazzo (Italian for grandmother's palace ) in honor of her Italian grandmother. Over the years, Fran has continued to hone her cooking skills. Like so many women today, she had many interests and was very busy, so she learned ways to prepare made-from-scratch foods more efficiently. She developed shortcuts and used modern equipment to take some of the more intensive labor out of cooking. Many people asked for her recipes. She had been working on and off for several years on a cookbook, and when she closed the restaurant in 2005, she was then able to devote herself to devising and revising ideas more thoroughly, and at last produced the book, hoping you might enjoy cooking from scratch more easily and in less time. Several secret recipes are revealed in this book, including Grandma Calhoun s Sour Cream Raisin Pie, a double crust caramelized raisin pie. This recipe was requested by Gourmet Magazine and actress Eva Marie Saint. Others secret recipes are Italian Cabbage Rolls, Raspberry Pie, Quick Sorbet, Lemon Parsley Chicken, and Fettuccine Sauce. Try the other recipes to find Fran s secrets to Italian cooking.

Review:

ADDITIONAL HONORABLE MENTIONS:

New York Book Festival; June 2, 2010Nashville Book Festival; November 8, 2009New England Book Festival; December 25, 2009 --Google.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Infusionmedia
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0971867755
• ISBN 13: 9780971867758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 372
• Illustrator: David Schaffer