The Minnesota Table: Recipes for Savoring Local Food throughout the Year

The Minnesota Table: Recipes for Savoring Local Food Throughout the Year is a collection of travel stories, recipes, and menu ideas that follow Minnesota’s growing seasons. Travel along in spring, summer, fall, and winter to hunt morels, pick blueberries, winnow wild rice, and come nose-to-nose with yaks, elk, and bison. Meet gardening nuns and artisan farmers who breathe color and warmth into the argument for sustainable agriculture; try new twists on classic and regional recipes that take the pure flavors of fresh, local ingredients to new heights. Recipes include Grilled Rainbow Trout with Chive-Lemon Pepper Butter, Wild Rice Dried Cranberry Salad with Clementine Vinaigrette, and Maple Sugar Crème Brûlée.

About the Author :
Shelley Holl lives in Edina, MinnesotaB.J. Carpenter lives in Roseville, Minnesota Shelley Holl is a writer and visual artist who has worked as a travel columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and New Orleans Times-Picayune. She is the author of Louisiana Dayride: 52 Short Trips from New Orleans. She lives in Edina, Minnesota. B. J. Carpenter is a freelance food and travel writer who was a cookinginstructor at Cooks of Crocus Hill for 18 years. She was also the chef/ownerof Black's Cafe and Catering in Minneapolis for 6 years. She contributed to the book *Bakingwith the **St.** Paul Bread Club*, published by Borealis Books. She lives inRoseville, Minnesota. B.J. Carpenter is a freelance food and travel writer who was a cooking instructor at Cooks of Crocus Hill for 18 years. She was also the chef/owner of Black’s Cafe and Catering in Minneapolis for 6 years. She co-authored Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club, published by Borealis Books. She lives in Roseville, Minnesota.

Review :
“This is one of those cookbooks, if it is accurate to call it such, that is as enjoyable and interesting to read as it is to cook…For the growing population of folks concerned with supporting local food economies by eating vegetables, meat, and dairy produced close to home, Holl’s essays will likely feel highly relevant, providing new insight, resources, and perhaps some fun road trips. For her part, Carpenter, a culinary instructor and former restaurateur, provides seasonal recipes that are relatively simple in their elements (letting all those locally produced meats and veggies sing) yet sophisticated and delicious.” “It’s a lovely book, one which proves that “Minnesota food” doesn’t have to mean endless recipes for hotdish and bars.  The authors, Shelley N.C. Holl and B.J. Carpenter, have done a splendid job of demonstrating that locally grown food can be prepared in ways that respect the beauty of the ingredients while still managing to be accessible. Truly, I love this book.  The more I dig through it, the more I find that I didn’t know.  If you are at all interested in locally-grown foods, this book is worth having on your shelf, whether or not “local” for you means Minnesota.” Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} Star Tribune The cookbook of the moment: "The Minnesota Table".  Author Shelley N.C. Holl introduces readers to the state's farmers, food artisans and traditions through beautifully drawn essays and sketches, and chef BJ Carpenter's seasonally focused menus feature recipes that creatively exploit familiar, locally raised ingredients. You sit down for a quick look-through, but find, an hour later, that you’ve been going page-by-page, reading Holls’s fascinating text…Holl provides mouth-watering photographs and delicate watercolors. Carpenter offers unexpected recipes. – Lavender Magazine There are plenty of recipes--delicious recipes, focused on the kinds of foods that are raised in Minnesota. But to call it a collection of recipes would be a grave understatement. This lovely book is more of an exploration of the Minnesota foodscape, covering all kinds of topics--it's almost like an essay collection with recipes, rather than a cookbook (although there are tons of recipes too)…This book is a gem. – www.knitthink.typepad.com/flyoverland