Spotlight: The Everlasting Meal Cookbook

I love cooking, and I do my cooking from recipes. I like my cookbooks to be practical. My friend Mark reads cookbooks as entertaining nighttime reading. That’s not my style. I’m looking for a cookbook that’s going to end up full of food stains and a spine broken from use. I make notes in the margins to say when I made a dish and what I thought of it. I want cookbooks that turn into lots of delicious food.

I heard about Tamar Adler’s book The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z on the Nerdette podcast (a great place for book recommendations of all kinds). It sounded intriguing and practical, so when I saw it at my library, I grabbed it.

It is a gem for cooks who dislike waste. The book is designed to help use things up. Organized in categories — e.g. vegetables, fruits, pickles, snacks, empty jars — the content is alphabetically arranged with advice and instructions on what to do with what is in your kitchen. The chapters start with some basic recipes — in vegetables, there are any-vegetable curry recipes; in beans and rice, risotto and pilaf. Then Adler goes item by item.

Got too much applesauce? Here’s a recipe for fruit leather. Too much cottage cheese? Make a mini souffle. Need to know how to reheat your take-out egg rolls? Adler’s got you covered. Did you know you can use your excess iced tea to brine a chicken?

The book caused me to think more creatively about the contents of my fridge. These odds and ends aren’t a problem but an opportunity! For example, I ended up with a bottle of carrot juice (please don’t ask) and no plans to consume it. But then I thought about the recipe for cooked carrots that I like. I could use the juice instead of water and voila, no waste!

Adler is funny and frank. She, despite her legal team’s warnings, tells you not to worry about dairy products past their sell-by dates. She says of the kiwi: “Overripe kiwis make disconcerting jam and smoothies, and unripe kiwis are tannic and unpleasant. I have little to offer but a word of caution. Only buy kiwis is you’re confident in their ripeness and the likelihood of their being promptly eaten.” So warned!

This book will be essential when I come upon a forgotten item in the back of my fridge or the grocery store is only selling what I need in family size. Less waste and more deliciousness. Hooray.