SEAT
OF THE PANTS SUPPERS
By NANCY
HEISER
Reviewed by
Kenny Brechner
Locally produced cookbooks can be a rummy affair, and I have had occasion to wonder whether their production was in fact subsidized by the canned foods industry. Two new cookbooks however, Seat of the Pants Suppers: How To Cook For Those You Love When All You Really Want To Do Is Sit Down And Eat, by Brunswick author, Nancy Heiser, and The Best of Strong Cooking, a fund raiser put together by the Strong Public Library, make a charmingly contrary example.
Seat Of The Pants Suppers offers, along with its clever title and breezy line drawings by Charlotte Agell, the following observation. The great mass of women and men work hard all day and come home to find that the fairy godmother has not descended upon the household to cook supper while they were out. These same people, tired and hungry themselves, cringe when they hear their children ask: 'when's dinner?' or 'why can't we have pizza again?"
Operating on the principle that "sanity and time outside the kitchen" are more valuable possessions than a duck pate, Heiser has collected 113 easy to prepare but wholesome recipes. Divided functionally into poultry, meat, and vegetarian sections, Seat of the Pants Suppers delivers what it promises, sensible, varied, main course cuisine for harried cooks.
The Best of Strong Cooking, a joint production of The Strong Bicentennial Committee and The Strong Public Library, describes itself as " A Compilation of Recipes from some of the best cooks who live or have lived in Strong and the surrounding area." It is also, thanks the services of Morris Press, exceptionally well designed.
Tables of weights and measures, a removable plastic stand, attractive loose leaf inserts, and a glossary of kitchen terms, give the book an attractive, professional feel. These tools are standardized however, and are not quite up to the homespun charms and terms with which The Best of Strong Cooking abounds. One recipe, for example, tells the reader to "cook until mixture hairs." "Hairs," was a novel cooking term for me, and I was severely disappointed not to find it in the glossary of cooking terms.
The book, it must be admitted, is a bit top heavy on desserts, but it contains many simple, sensible dishes of all stripes, and a surprising amount of whimsy. Who could not wish to know more about recipes with titles such as "School Lunch Buck Roger's Bake, Vivian's Glorified Carrots, That Casserole, and Mrs. Earl Luce Sr.'s Dessert Bread Pudding."
Anne Baker
has even contributed two humorous recipes, the alarmingly titled "Preserved
Children" and a "Recipe For Love." She also contributed an
extremely funny "Stress Diet." The Stress Diet begins with a half
grapefruit, slice of toast, and small cup of skim milk for breakfast, and then
gradually slides up the caloric scale ending with " 1 Large Pepperoni and
Mushroom Pizza, 1 Large pitcher of beer and 1 entire frozen cheesecake eaten
directly from freezer."
