Goodies for foodies

Here are a few of the best cookbooks for healthy, creative eating as we move into the cold months.

The Tiny Mess

By Trevor Gordon, Maddie Gordon
and Mary Gonzalez

From buses and treehouses to sailboats, off-the-grid mountain cabins, converted rail cars, and the refrigerator of dumpster-diving urban freegans, The Tiny Mess is alive with the story of people, the meals they love, and the anything-but-ordinary places they cook in.

It is a collection of tasty and unique recipes, personal stories from the cooks themselves, storage solutions, illustrations and photos of everything in-between.

This is the cookbook to win all the awards this year, if we have our say. Photographer Trevor Gordon lives on a sailboat with his creative wife, Maddie, and they have teamed up with their best friend, Mary Gonzalez, a vegan baker and gardener who cooks inside and outside her camper on an avocado farm. They started a kick-start campaign and have successfully just released this over-the-top, gorgeous cookbook, inspired by folks living in tiny homes and with minimal kitchens. If you live in a “tiny mess,” used to, dream of, or know someone living the simpler life, this is the cookbook to inspire and get you through this long winter. A book where every page, along with every recipe, is to be savored.

Garlic Farmers’ Cookbook

By Garlic Seed Foundation

This is the complete guide to everything you need to know about the history, health benefits, growing and cooking of garlic. It is loaded with recipes for every imaginable use of garlic from beverages, to breads and soups, to side dishes and entrees, and even to ice cream. Compiled by the nonprofit group Garlic Seed Foundation, this is a must-read for every grower and lover of garlic.

By Gail and Laura Piazza

A newly-updated and expanded edition has just been released of Recipes for Repair, the best cookbook out there on battling chronic inflammation conditions and Lyme disease. Laura Piazza is a New Hampshire photographer living with Lyme who, along with her professional food-taster mom, Gail, has compiled the recipes that have proven most effective in battling these disorders and offering a 10-week recovery program.

Wild Fermentation: The flavor, nutrition and craft of live-culture foods

By Sandor Ellix Katz

This book claims to be “the book that started the fermentation movement,” and with this newly-updated edition it is indeed the “Bible” for learning about and creating everything with fermentation. Katz is the bestselling author and James Beard Award-winning chef that has been inspiring people to turn their kitchens into labs, creating microbial diversity for healthier living. Recipes from all around the world include foods from sauerkraut to kombucha, sourdough breads to miso, and wines to beers. Fun and inspiring tips to learning these ancient arts of food preservation and healthy eating.

The Things We Cook: A Green Hope Farm Cookbook

By Molly Sheehan, illustrated by Alli Howe

This wonderful cookbook comes from a small family farm in Meredith with a flourishing flower essence business. Molly Sheehan’s earthy, healthy, delicious recipes were compiled from her grandmother, friends and son and they spell out farm-fresh cooking at its best. Combine this with the charming illustrations and graphics from Alli Howe, and you have our own local version of the famous Moosewood Cookbook.

(Katharine Nevins is co-owner of MainStreet BookEnds of Warner, an independent, family-run, community bookstore since 1998.)