Review: Bake Like a French Pastry Chef

Michel et Augustin is the pastry version of Ben & Jerry's in France, creating cookies and other desserts with a team of 100 employees in Paris, Lyon, and New York.

With the ambition of becoming "the first company on planet Earth to be 100% pastry-certified," this book compiles five years of employee training sessions to prepare for Certificat d'Aptitude Professionnelle exams that certify the ability to make good French pastries.

The lessons and recipes are divided into five pastry families (tarts, entremets, choux pastry, puff pastry and viennoiseries) with instructions on making doughs, creating fillings and exploring variations. There's a glossary of pastry terms from bain-marie and frangipane to pecher mignon and T45, an encyclopedia of essential ingredients, and a collection of templates for shaping Paris-Brest, Religieuse, Salambo pastries and more.

Bake Like a French Pastry Chef

Delectable Cakes, Perfect Tarts, Flaky Croissants, and More

by Michel de Rovira and Augustin Paluel-Marmont

Countryman Press, 2018

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Pastry
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Reading the History of California Wine

This book tells the 200-year story of the heady dream that wines as good as the greatest of France could be made in California. A dream dashed four times in merciless succession until it was ultimately realized in a stunning blind tasting in Paris. In that tasting, in the year of America's bicentennial, California wines took their place as the leading wines of the world.

Here is the complete and dramatic story of the ascendancy of California wine in vivid detail. It also looks at the larger story of California itself through its singular wine history.

Crush

The Triumph of California Wine

by John Briscoe

University of Nevada Press, 2018

Out of the Past
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History and American West Titles

Review: The Science of Enlightenment

This book is by American meditation instructor Shinzen Young, ordained in Japan as a monk in the Shingon tradition of Buddhism which attempts to reach eternal wisdom through symbolic gestures, mystical syllables, and mental concentration.

The title suggests a scientific study of meditation that reveals its inner workings and proves its benefits, but that's not what this volume is about. Young has collaborated with scientists looking at the effects of contemplative practice on brain waves and physiology, and makes mention of those studies when he describes his approach to teaching meditation as "informed by the spirit of science." But don't expect to find summaries of that research or references to peer-reviewed publications.

Instead, the author teaches the basics of meditation, explains various meditation practices, tells the history of Buddhism, relates inspirational tales, and uses scientific language to make meditative concepts more understandable and less mystical.

The Science of Enlightenment

How Meditation Works

by Shinzen Young

Sounds True, 2018

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Prisoners of Our Thoughts
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A Guide To... Jewish Travel.

This concise, easy-to-use handbook is for the Jewish traveler, or anyone interested in Jewish history and culture. Jewish sites and resources in major metropolitan areas as well as small communities throughout the United States and Canada are featured. It includes a directory of synagogues, community centers, kosher restaurants, Judaica shops, lodgings, and Jewish establishments.

The Jewish Travel Guide: Museums, Shops, Restaurants, Landmarks, Hotels and Other Sites
by Betsy Sheldon.
Hunter Publishing, 2001

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Review: North Wild Kitchen

"My understanding of Norwegian cuisine went from an unfortunate stereotype (meat and boiled potatoes) to a world filled with berry-infused moose sausage, fermented trout, wild nettle soup, rhubarb juice made from birch sap, home-brewed beer, and traditional cheeses and porridges made on the farm," writes food blogger Nevada Berg in the introduction to this exploration of her adopted land's culinary traditions.

Norwegian cuisine has been shaped by centuries of trade and migration and has much in common with the palates of its Nordic neighbors and northern Europe, but what makes it authentic is its use of locally sourced foodstuffs and traditional methods of smoking, curing, and preserving foods in a challenging climate.

Eight chapters explore separate parts of Norway's culinary culture - foraging (Sankingen), fishing (Vann), farming (Seteren), harvesting (Innhostingen), hunting (Katen), preserving (Stabburet), outdoor cooking (Balet), and baking (Jernet, Takken, og Ovnen). Each chapter includes correspondingly traditional recipes along with newer dishes well embedded in the culture. Notes on ingredients and equipment are included along with thoughtful essays and descriptions of each dish.

North Wild Kitchen

Home Cooking from the Heart of Norway

by Nevada Berg

Prestel, 2018

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Now Exploring "Out of the Woods"

In this introspective collection of essays, Julia Corbett examines nature in our lives with all of its ironies and contradictions by integrating personal narratives with science and research.  Each essay delves into an overlooked aspect of our relationship with nature — insects, garbage, backyards, noise, open doors, animals, and language — and how we cover our tracks.

Out of the Woods leads to insights into the products, practices, and phrases we take for granted in our everyday encounters with nature and encourages us all to consider how we might re-value or re-imagine our relationships with nature in our everyday lives.

Out of the Woods

Seeing Nature in the Everyday

by Julia Corbett

University of Nevada Press, 2018

Book Notes Wild
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
The Nature Pages

Reading the History: Battle of the Bulge.

In the winter of 1944–1945 , Hitler sought to divide Allied forces in the heavily forested Ardennes region of Luxembourg and Belgium. He deployed more than 400,000 troops in one of the last major German offensives of the war, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge, in a desperate attempt to regain the strategic initiative in the West.

Hitler's effort failed for a variety of reasons, but many historians assert that Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army was ultimately responsible for securing Allied victory. Although Patton has assumed a larger-than-life reputation for his leadership in the years since World War II, scholars have paid little attention to his generalship in the Ardennes following the relief of Bastogne.

In this book, Captain John Nelson Rickard explores the commander's operational performance during the entire Ardennes campaign, through his "estimate of the situation," the U.S. Army's doctrinal approach to problem-solving. 

Advance and Destroy

Patton as Commander in the Bulge

by John Nelson Rickard Ph.D.

University Press of Kentucky, 2018

Out of the Past
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Artwork: General George S. Patton