Weekend Cooking- Eat What You Love Everyday by Marlene Koch

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food. 

Eat What You Love Everyday by Marlene Koch
Published by Running Press ISBN 978-0-7624-5163-0
Hardcover, $26.50, 349 pages

A few years ago at the Book Expo, I met Marlene Koch, author of the cookbook Eat More of What You Love. She created recipes for some of our favorite dishes and lightened them up without losing any of the flavor. Her recipe for Steak Diane is one my family enjoys a great deal.

Koch was at BEA again this year, promoting her new book, Eat What You Love Everyday, and once again it looks like a winner. It has 200 new recipes, all lower in sugar, fat and calories.

Marlene Koch at BEA

Following the introduction, there are short sections on Everyday Healthy Eating Tips (like 'Cook everyday'), Everyday Ingredients (where she discusses things like agave nectar and buttermilk), Everyday Meal Planning ( I liked 'Set aside time each week to look for new recipes', and Pinterest is a good resource for this), and Everyday With Diabetes.

There are fourteen chapters, with standard ones like Breakfast and Brunch, Everyday Soups and Sandwiches and some different ones such as Cook It Fast or Slow: Pressure and Slow Cooker Favorites, and even one with Menus for Every Day, Every Occasion, and Everyone, which puts together recipes from the book into various meals.

I found several recipes I'm going to try include:

• Savory Southern Biscuits
• Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Southern Style Grilled Cheese (with pimento!)
• Antipasto Pasta Salad
• Fabulous French Onion Chicken

The first one I'm going to make is
Breakfast-Style Egg Salad Sandwich
Ingredients:
2 large hard-boiled eggs
1 green onion, chopped, white separated from green
1 1/2 teaspoons light mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons plain nonfat Greek yogurt
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 slice light white or wheat bread
1 1/2 teaspoons real bacon bits (like Hormel)
Directions:
1. Peel eggs, cut them in half, remove yolk from one of the eggs, and discard it. Using the coarse shred on a box grater, grate the egg and egg white into a small bowl (you can mash the eggs with a fork, but the grater makes for a much creamier egg salad). Add the white part of the onion, mayonnaise, yogurt and salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.

2. Toast bread and spread the egg salad on the warm toast, sprinkle the bacon bits on top, and garnish with the green part of the onion.

One of the best things about these books is that Koch uses ingredients that every kitchen has readily on hand. If you are looking to lighten things up, you can;t go wrong with Eat What You Love Everyday.

Marlene Koch's website can be found here.

rating 4 of 5

BEA14- Book Group Speed Dating Part II

In a previous post, I covered the books presented by Harper Perennial, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Liveright and Norton publishers during the Book Group Speed Dating at BEA14. This post covers Picador (Macmillan), Random House, Simon & Schuster and Soho.

Darren from Picador (Macmillan) presented the following books:

• Dark Amelia- by Sally O'Reilly, an historical novel about Shakespeare's muse, with some sorcery thrown in. Fans of Deborah Harkness will like this one.
• The Boy Who Drew Monsters- by Keith Donohue will appeal to fans of Stephen King and Joe Hill. It's a YA crossover book about a young boy who draws monsters that come to life, set on an empty Maine estate.
• The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.- by Adelle Waldman is coming out in paperback after making many 'Best of 2013' lists. This one is about a 20-something young man in Brooklyn looking for love and sex. It has become a cultural touchstone.
• Someone- by Alice McDermott is publishing in paperback and made my list of Most Compelling  Books of 2013. It's the story of an ordinary Irish-American woman as she ages from childhood on. It's beautiful and quiet, and my review is here.
• Man Alive!- by Mary Kay Zuravleff tells the story of family living outside of Washington DC and what happens when Dad gets hit by lightning and it changes his personality.
• Lookaway, Lookaway- by Wilton Barnhardt also publishes in trade paperback after making a big splash at last year's BEA. The story revolves around a Southern family falling apart and the tough matriarch keeping them all together. 

Maggie from Random House shared their upcoming books:

• Still Life With Bread Crumbs- is Anna Quindlen's latest novel about a middle-aged artist who moves to a cabin in the woods and finds artistic inspiration and maybe love. Every woman of a certain age will want to read this, my review is here.
• The Weight of Blood- by Laura McHugh put me in mind of HBO's True Detective with its story of a murdered teenage girl and how it may possibly tie into her friend's mother's disappearance years ago. Lots of creepy atmosphere here and I raced through this one even though these kinds of books are not usually my cup of tea.
• The Mill River Redemption- by Darcy Chan, who first book, The Mill River Recluse, was a self-published ebook. There are some of the same characters in this book about love, family and forgiveness in a small town.
• The Deepest Secret- by Carla Buckley tells the story of a mom who accidentally hits someone with her car, but can't turn herself in because she has a son with a devastating chronic illness. The ending is said to be completely unexpected.
• Under the Wide and Starry Sky- by Nancy Horan continues the trend of novels about the wives of famous men, this time it's writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny.

Briony from Simon & Schuster had five books:

• A Sudden Sight- is Garth Stein's follow-up to his smash The Art of Racing in the Rain. This one is a family story with a ghostly twist and an environmental slant, and is described as 'visually beautiful'.
• We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas is one of the books that had everyone talking this year. The debut novel sold for one million dollars at auction, and it is the story of Eileen, an Irish- American woman, from childhood through marriage and adulthood. It's about love, desire and the fight to get into the middle class. This is one I will definitely read.
• Juliet's Nurse- by Lois Leveen gives us the story of Juliet's nurse from Romeo and Juliet, and takes the reader from 14 years before their love story and beyond the final scene of the play. Fans of Phillipa Gregory will like this strong female protagonist.
• Before I Go- by Colleen Oakley is traditional women's fiction, along the lines of PS I Love You.  A terminally ill woman tries to find a spouse for her husband before she dies and then regrets her attempt.
• Henna House-is Nomi Eve's historical novel about young Yemenite Jewish girls who will be adopted by the Muslim community if they are unbetrothed when their parents die. Fans of The Red Tent and The Dovekeepers will want this one.

Soho presented four books:

• Herbie's Game by Tim Halliman is described as "the spawn of Donald Westlake and Carl Hiaasen". He is a favorite of Nancy Pearl.
• The Bishop's Wife  by Mettie Ivie Harrison is a mystery set amongst the Mormon community. When a prominent Mormon's wife disappears, her friend believes the husband killed her. It's based on a true story, and written by a practicing Mormon.
• The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin is a YA crossover, called a 'docu-novel' about a teenage artist who may have committed suicide- or was it murder? The novel is filled with paintings and photographs.
• Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis tells the story of young teen in Greenwich Village in the 1970's, and it "lifts the skin off the character" with its in-depth character study. It won an O. Henry Prize.
• I'm Glad I Did is a YA mystery novel written by Carole King contemporary Cynthia Weill about young songwriters working in the famous Brill Building in 1963. There should be lots of interest in this given the smash Broadway show Beautiful is so popular.

Thanks again to BookReporter.com for putting this event together; it gets better every year.

BEA14- Speed Dating with Publishers

BookReporter.com has been hosting a Book Group Speed Dating session at BEA for the past few years, and each year it grows bigger and bigger. This year, over 200 participants heard from 21 publishers about their upcoming books that would be perfect for book clubs.

The participants, many of them librarians and bloggers, sit eight to a table and the publishers rotate from table to table talking about their books. It's very well organized and always a great, informative event.

At my table, we heard from Mary at Harper Perennial. She talked about these books:

• This Is The Water-by Yannick Murphy, about a murder on a girls' swim team and the parents who try to find the killer.
• We Are Water- by Wally Lamb that tells the story of a marriage, artistic expression and the secrets a family keeps that can harm for generations. This is coming out in paperback, and I read it in hardcover, it's another thought-provoking Wally Lamb novel. My review is here.
• What I Had Before I Had You- a debut novel from Sarah Cornwell is coming out in paperback in August as well. I read this one too, and it is heartbreaking look at how bi-polar disorder affects a family. My review is here. 
• Sea Creatures- by Susanna Daniel is described as a "beautifully written" domestic drama about a woman who has to choose between her husband and her son. This one intrigues me.
• The First Phone Call From Heaven- by Mitch Albom is coming out in paperback in October, and would be a good holiday book club read.
• This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage- by Ann Patchett is coming out in paperback in October as well. I loved this book of essays that tells the story of Ann's life, from childhood to a first marriage to finding her voice in writing to a successful second marriage and her new career as a bookstore owner. My review is here.

Carla and Hannah from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt shared their thoughts on these books:

• Wonderland by Stacey D'Erasmo is a stunning debut novel about a female rock star looking to "find the artist within."
• The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances- by Ellen Conley is a redemptive novel about a young woman who signs up to train dogs at a sanctuary, where she learns about friendship from the dogs.
• The Lion Seeker- by Kenneth Bonert is an immigrant saga, an "epic event" about a Jewish immigrant living in Johannesburg after WWII. This one is perfect for Jewish and male book groups.
• Florence Gordon- by Brian Morton has a New York City setting and is a novel about a 75-year-old "feisty feminist" who teaches her granddaughter about feminism, and unwillingly ends up in the middle of her family's catastrophes. This is one I really want to read.
• Fire Shut Up In My Bones- by Charles M. Blow, a New York Times columnist who writes about finding his voice after a painful childhood in Louisiana. It's also about the community he grew up in, as well as sexual politics, and has garnered great reviews.
• Falling From Horses- by Molly Gloss has also gotten great reviews and is called "good old-fashioned storytelling" about a cowboy who goes to Hollywood to become a stunt rider and meets a woman who wants to be movie star.
• The Jaguar's Children- by John Valliant is a novel that HMH is very high on. It's a page-turning thriller about a man hiding in the back of a truck trying to sneak into the US from Mexico. The truck stops and he only has a cell phone that has government secrets on it. 

Liveright, a new imprint to me from Norton, had some intriguing books.

• Epilogue: A Memoir by Will Boast has an awesome cover- a school photo of the young author. It's the true story of a young man who loses his family only to find a deeply hidden secret that changes everything.
• Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories- by Terrence Holt is another true story, a collection of stories written by an emergency room doctor about the cases and people he has met in his work. 
• The Last Days of California- by Mary Miller about a family who travels across country by car preparing for the Rapture. It was called "Carson McCullers meets Karen Thompson Walker" and Miller has an "incredibly strong voice." This would be a good YA pick too.

Norton shared three books.

• An Italian Wife- by Ann Hood is one I really want to read. It tells the story of a 15-year-old Italian girl arranged to marry a man who moves to the US. She follows ten years later, where she and her husband have seven children, one of whom belongs to the man she really loved. It is portrait of America from 1890s-1970s, with "lots of love and sex".
• Orfeo- by Richard Powers is a novel about science, music and love and is called Powers' most emotional book yet.
• The UnAmericans by Molly Antopol has received terrific reviews and will be out in paperback in October. It is about immigrants and families, changes from the Old World to the New World, and has been compared to Jhumpa Lahiri's The Intrepreter of Maladies.

I will cover the books presented by Soho, Simon & Schuster, Picador and Penguin in a post next week.

My Favorite BEA14 Books

One of the most exciting things about going to the Book Expo is the chance to get advanced copies of upcoming books. This year I got books from some of my favorite authors, including Dorothea Benton Franks' The Hurricane Sisters, which publishes this month and is certain to be in everyone's beach bags this summer. I saw her at the Harper Bloggers Bash and then ran into a few times on the BEA floor; she is such a fun, genuine person. (My review of The Hurricane Sisters will be posted on June 19th.)

Another terrific Harper author, Stephanie Evanovich, was at the party as well and the followup to her debut novel Big Girl Panties is called The Sweet Spot and is a worthy sequel. The story centers on baseball superstar and ladies man Chase Walker (think Derek Jeter) who pursues restauranteur Amanda, trying to convince her that he is a good guy. But he is hiding something. It's sassy and sexy and if you like baseball like me, this is a must-read. This one publishes in July and my review will be posted on July 8th.

I was so thrilled to meet Jane Smiley, who wrote one of my all-time favorites A Thousand Acres. Her new book is Some Luck, about three decades in the life of an American farm family, and it will be out in October.

Australian Liane Moriarty is an Amy Einhorn find, and I loved two of her novels, What Alice Forgot and The Husband's Secret, which I recommended to everyone and which got rave reviews from many publications. I got to meet her as well and get an autographed copy of her upcoming novel, Big Little Lies about parents at a primary school and a dead body at School Trivia Night. It publishes on July 29th.

Colm Toibin wrote a beautiful novel, Brooklyn, about an Irish woman who comes to America and how she made a life in Brooklyn. His new book, Nora Webster, features a character from Brooklyn and I can't wait to read this October release.

Actor Alan Cumming, from TV's The Good Wife and currently on Broadway in Cabaret, wrote a memoir, Not My Father's Son, and after hearing him talk about it at the Author Breakfast on Saturday, I'm moving this book up on my TBR list.

Gone With The Wind is my favorite book, and I'm intrigued by Daniel McCaig's novel, Ruth's Journey, which tells the story of the slave known as Mammy in the book. It is sanctioned by the Margaret Mitchell estate.

Empty Mansions is a book I have had my eye on for awhile, so I was happy to find a paperback edition at BEA. It tells the true story of heiress Hugette Clark, who recently died and left her fortune to a nurse who worked at the hospital she lived in.

One of the books that had everybody talking at BEA is Matthew Thomas' We Are Not Ourselves, a debut novel that sold for one million dollars at auction. The novel is about an Irish-American family and their matriarch's struggle to get them into the middle-class where their dreams can come true.

I've got a lot of reading ahead of me, I'll keep you posted on the good ones.
What books are you looking forward to reading this summer? Let me know in comments.

My review of Big Girl Panties is here.
My review of Brooklyn is here.
My review of What Alice Forgot is here.
My review of The Husband's Secret is here.