• 1. semirhage527
     
• 2. 527 (insert surprised face here)
     
• 3. Christmas! I grew up in a Catholic family so it's Christmas all the way. My favourite part is when we were kids on Christmas morning my dad would wake us up by blasting Queen through the house so to me holiday music has never been the hymns such at midnight mass but Freddie Mercury telling us we are the champions. Even now even though I live alone and have to travel to the family festivities I wake up and listen to some Queen on December 25th.
     
• 4. I think a Blumaroo would definitely be Santa. So happy and bouncy and ready to bound up and down chimneys to deliver joy.
     
• 5. Ok to actually do my favourite winter sport is downhill skiing (although I enjoy XC as well) but to watch it's ice hockey. It's just so freeing going down a mountain. My fav team has to be the Blackhawks. I grew up going to Ice Hogs (their AHL affiliate) games (since it was in my hometown and my dad did their marketing for awhile) and it was always a blast. Gotta go with Tazer for my fav (tho freezing the puck is more for Crow's territory and we love him too). I know the cap is obvious but he's just so great! I know they're desert species but I think Rukis would make great hockey players!
     
• 6. I'm all about the cookies for the holidays and my favourite are rugelach. I normally do the raspberry chocolate version she has in her cookbook but that one is also great!
     
• 7. For aps I’m thinking Yooyu Cheese Ball
     and Chokato Dumplings. First course, fruity bread salad
     followed by Maraquan cream broth. For the main let’s go traditional, roast pork, Meridellian Style Mashed Potatoes
     and grilled veggie platter
     for the table. Holiday feasts are always finished off with holiday cookies so candy cane cookies
     and a holiday wocky cake
     for dessert and plenty of drink flowing between courses! Finally we’ll end it all with a nice mug of hot chocolate.
     
• 8. Thad is quiet and thoughtful and loves sitting down and taking in the world so he’d love a pillow cap of convenience
     so he can relax anywhere, a gaming lantern
     so he can see and a new book to take with him. And maybe a new backpack
     for all his stuff!
     While Thad is content to find a nice place and sit Sol is always gogogo. She loves learning new things and exploring everything. She’s been dying to upgrade her telescope and while Captain Tuans Collectors Telescope
     is probably too big for a stocking (unless it’s bigger on the inside!) and not super portable perhaps a smaller quality one
     could be found. She’d also like a copy of Backpacking Across Neopia as that’s the dream!
     Unlike his sibs who love to be outside Alyosha is more content inside with the finer things in life and a robot noil
     to cater to his whims and a new cloak
     would be just the thing.
     
• 9. My wishlist
     
• 10. One of my favourite winter memories was one that got me and my sister into trouble but it was so worth it. When we were kids we were obsessed with Sailor Moon and when ever we played it I was always Mercury and she was always Mars. Living in N. Illinois huge icicles were the norm and having a woods in our backyard meant an endless supply of sword like sticks so one winter we decided to have a battle (psh who cares if they’re on the same side right?) and broke off a huge icicle and grabbed a stick from the dried for the fireplace pile and lit it on fire and had an awesome battle in the backyard until mom saw us oops.
      
• 11. 2016 I’d really like to get back on a regular writing schedule and find a new job. Haven’t really set any longterm neopets goals since right now I’m just enjoying playing again.
      
• 12. 1st) Bouquet of Flowers Parasol, Stormy Ombre Flower Wand, Enchanted Tale Dress, Flowering Vine Garland, Pink Lace Parasol, Tulle Cloud Skirt, Dark Prism Forest Background, Frozen Tree Branch Wings, Fireworks Face Paint, Frightful Doorway Background
      2nd) Bouquet of Flowers Parasol, Pink Lace Parasol, Stormy Ombre Flower Wand, Dark Prism Forest Background, Frightful Doorway Background
      3rd) Bouquet of Flowers Parasol, Dark Prism Forest Background
      
• 13. I just started hanging around here so I don't know many people but /u/TheHeadlessOne was awesome and explained Food Club to me and even busting day one I've still managed to turn a profit by day two so I think this is going to be a great thing long term so thank you!

I am in the same position you are in. Love cooking, no formal training, but love the science, theory and art behind it all. I have a few books that I find to be indispensable.

• How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian by Mark Bittman are two of my favorite recipe books. Loads of pretty simple recipes, lots of suggestions for modifications, and easy to modify yourself. Covers a bit of technique and flavor tips, but mostly recipes.
  
  
• CookWise by Shirley Corriher (the food science guru for Good Eats!) - great book that goes much more into the theory and science behind food and cooking. Lots of detailed info broken up nicely and then provides recipes to highlight the information discussed. Definitely a science book with experiments (recipes) added in to try yourself.
  
  
• Professional Baking and Professional Cooking by Wayne Gissen - Both of these books are written like textbooks for a cooking class. Filled with tons of conversion charts, techniques, processes, and detailed food science info. Has recipes, but definitely packed with tons of useful info.
  
  
• The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters - this is not much on theory and more recipes, but after using many of the recipes in this book and reading between the lines a great deal, this taught me a lot about how great food doesn't require tons of ingredients. Many foods and flavors highlight themselves when used and prepared very simply and this really shifted my perspective from overworking and overpreparing dishes to keeping things simple and letting the food speak for itself.
  
  And mentioned in other threads, Cooking for Geeks is a great book too, On Food and Cooking is WONDERFUL and What Einstein Told His Chef is a great read as well. Modernist Cuisine is REALLY cool but makes me cry when I see the price.

One of the first veg. cookbooks I got when I was just starting out was Linda McCartney's World of Vegetarian Cooking (also known as "On Tour"): https://www.amazon.com/Linda-McCartney-Tour-Meat-Free-Dishes/dp/0821224875/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386369&sr=1-5&keywords=linda+mccartney

It has recipes from all over the world, from North Africa to Asia, Europe to North America and everywhere in between. They're great starter recipes in that the ingredients are simple (and easy to substitute if necessary), and the instructions are clear. They're great to build on - I've adapted quite a few recipes to my own tastes over the years.

A much more recent couple of books are Ottolenghi's Plenty and Plenty More:

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386476&sr=1-1&keywords=ottolenghi+plenty

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-More-Vibrant-Vegetable-Ottolenghi/dp/1607746212/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3YR260YE36YRJAQVCP9G

These are books that celebrate plant-based cooking which is of course inspired by many cuisines, but is itself a wholly original cuisine. Many of the recipes are not knock-offs of popular meat dishes (e.g. lentil bolognese) or existing dishes that happen to be vegetarian (caprese salad) but rather truly original compositions. It's really refreshing for simple but beautiful meals made of creative (but not pretentious) dishes.

I bought Martha Stewart's "Meatless" cookbook last year and it has great recipes too. https://www.amazon.com/Meatless-More-Than-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0307954560/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386647&sr=1-6&keywords=vegetarian+cookbook

It's Martha Stewart, so it's not going to blow your socks off with complex spices and heat, but the recipes are again a wonderful place to start. Well-balanced, visually appealing and reasonably priced to make, you can always jazz them up yourself.

Finally, one of my favourite cookbooks, vegetarian or otherwise, is Anna Thomas' Love Soup: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Soup-All-New-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0393332578/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386804&sr=1-1&keywords=Love+SOup

The recipes are heavenly (and as they're soup, you can always tweak to your taste - it's the ideas that are important). But what's really special is the narrative. She really engages you with lots of personal anecdotes and context for the ingredients, recipes and meals in general. I sat down and read it like a novel when I was given it for Christmas one year! It's really lovely.

There's two sides to the Game Designer coin: One is developing a good set of rules which are enjoyable, stable, and of appropriate complexity, while the other is creating a good physical prototype which can reasonably be used for heavy playtesting.

Developing a good set of rules is a vague and nebulous thing, and counterexamples can be found for virtually any advice someone gives you. There are a few constants, however:

• Make sure your game doesn't contain any false choices: If a player is given a choice, there should be strategic value in all possible options. Cake or death? It's not really a choice at all, is it? Similarly, if moving Admiral Reinhardt from his starting position overwhelmingly leads to his demise, there's not really a reason to move him at all, is there?
  
  
• Study some Game Theory, but don't get lost in its ivory towers. Game Theory can quickly transition from discussion of the interaction of game mechanisms and various game types into purely abstract mathematical concepts indistinguishable from a college-level Calculus class.
  
  
• Dabble in computer programming. This may seem completely unrelated, but a games rules are actually a system of logical instructions, and one of the most common problems with amateur game designers is that their game will literally "crash" with unhandled exceptions or edge cases. If you understand how computer programs work, this will help you create a stable ruleset, which you should strive for before you...
  
  
• Playtest. Repeatedly, often, and with a wide variety of people who do not know you personally. Take notes. Try to keep in mind who your target audience is: People who are primarily Monopoly fans aren't going to have favorable things to say about Puerto Rico or Agricola. Listen to your target audience, but do not feel compelled to change your game for every complaint. Try to be objective towards your own ideas.
  
  
• Revise. Playtesting will always highlight problems, from the minor to the game-breaking. Sometimes you can fix things with just a new line of text in the rulebook, the addition or subtraction of some tokens, or changing the specific effect of a card or board space. Sometimes you will have to take the whole thing apart and start from scratch. Try to cast your net as wide as possible: A single rule which catches 12 problems is better than 12 smaller rules that catch 1 problem each.
  
  Keep bouncing back and forth between the playtest and revise stages until your target audience is pleased with the game.
  
  On the physical prototype side of things:
  
  
• Pawns - Don't be afraid to cannibalize existing games, or use off-the-shelf materials from Dollar Tree or similar stores. Shaped erasers, beads, or just cheapo chess pieces colored with magic marker can work fine for virtually any kind of pawn in a prototype.
  
  
• Cards - Thanks to places like ArtsCow, these are now the easiest part to get at factory quality. Failing that, print your cards on standard 8.5"x11" paper, cut to size, and place in a protective card sleeve with a regular playing card to add stiffness.
  
  
• Non-Modular Boards - Typically, boards don't actually require much thickness in order to be functionally playable. I tend to print on multiple 110lb cardstock sheets, trim to size, then use Post-it notes on the underside to hold it together while playing.
  
  
• Modular boards and tiles - This is perhaps the most tedious part, and it gets harder the more complicated your tile shapes are. The quickest way is to print on standard paper, glue to foamcore or chipboard, and trim to shape. For something closer to factory quality, print on 110lb cardstock, then glue the printed cardstock on top of 5 other sheets of cardstock. This will create a tile roughly the thickness of Settlers of Catan tiles. For higher print quality, you can print your graphics through a photo printing service (such as through your local Walgreens or Rite Aid), and use that as the top layer. If you're feeling particularly ambitious, purchase a Xyron Wishblade, and use it to cut shapes out of cardstock. It won't cut things much thicker than 110lb, though, so you'll still have to glue layers together for thicker tiles.
  
  
• Boxes - Strictly speaking, as a game designer, your prototype's box should be purely functional - Large enough to contain the game, and with enough marking to clearly identify the game within your collection. Tackle boxes and bead craft storage boxes are often good candidates for game prototype storage. If you have lots of playing cards, check the sports cards/collectible cards section of your local Wal-Mart type store: They should have multi-compartment card storage cases.
  
  As for actually getting your game published, that's a whole other matter.
  
  Some recommended reading: Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games is not only a good collection of simple games designed by one of America's most innovative game designers, but also a fascinating look into the thoughts and methods behind the creation of those games. The Game Inventor's Guidebook is also good reading, and contains interviews with industry people - it's not completely up to date, however, and some of the interviews are more about a game as a product (A fast-selling game is "better" than a slow selling game), rather than concepts regarding balance, strategy, complexity, or innovation. Similarly, Paid to Play: The Business of Game Design gives some good insight into the industry in general.

Hello, and welcome to /r/tabletopgamedesign!

I can see in the comments that you are keeping your idea intentionally close the vest. You don't need to worry about people "stealing" your ideas - that really doesn't happen for three reasons:

• Everyone already has their own ideas they care more about. I'm not going to bother stealing your idea when I already have fifty-billion of my own.
  
• The hard work is everything that comes after the idea. Game ideas are a honestly a dime a dozen, but taking an idea and chiseling away and polishing it until it's a finely tuned machine is the real challenge.
  
• You literally cannot copyright game mechanics. I could release a game that is mechanically identical to Risk but used my own unique art and assets, and could probably get away with it. But, nobody would buy it, because Risk exists.
  
  Eventually, you will need other people to help make your game into a reality, whether it's working with a publisher, a manufacturer, or even emailing your art to staples@printme.com to print them at your local store. Careful! A rogue Staples employee / aspiring game designer might steal your stuff! /s
  
  If you really don't want to share, nobody here can force you, but the quality of advice we can provide will be much lower. FWIW, I'm not just walking the walk - I have a website for my game, IntraSolar that anyone can visit and download the rulebook for. I'll also be releasing a print-n-play version sometime soon!
  
  ---
  
  My #1 piece of advice, however, is that nobody will design your game for you. Game design itself is not a game in that there are no set rules, pieces, or paths. Your path is your own, and will be more rewarding if you take initiative and purposefully move down it, rather than waiting around for someone to guide you.
  
  For now, I can at least share with you some very high-level information that should help get you started. Looking at your user history, I'm going to assume that you have no-to-little experience with tabletop gaming, but this also could be a completely incorrect assumption.
  
  

  Books to Read
  

  
  

• Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design by Geoff Engelstein.
  
• The Game Inventor's Guidebook by Brian Tinsman
  
• Probably most books on this page.
  
  

  Games to Play
  

  
  I'm going to recommend some boardgame staples. Many of these games are older, but all of them have been very well received in the boardgaming community and have valuable lessons to teach if you haven't played them.
  
  There are many other great games out there, many of which are heavier than this, but considering that you are (likely) new to the hobby, this is a great starting point.
  
  

• Seven Wonders
  
• Pandemic
  
• Dominion
  
• Splendor
  
• Secret Hitler
  
• Mysterium
  
• Sushi Go!
  
  

  Podcasts to Absorb
  

  
  You can also find them on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
  
  

• Ludology
  
• Shut Up & Sit Down
  
• Heavy Cardboard
  
• Board Game Barrage
  
  

  Blogs to Follow
  

  
  

• Boardgame Geek's Blog
  
• The Geek Weekly
  
• Meeple Like Us
  
• Meeple Mountain
  
• Punchboard Media
  
• Stonemaier Games' Blog
  
• Pandasaurus Games' Blog
  
  

  Creators to Watch
  

  
  These last two are more videogame-focused but still contain relevant & great ideas / discussions.
  
  

• Shut Up & Sit Down
  
• Board Game Geek
  
• Watch It Played
  
• Game Maker's Toolkit
  
• GDC
  
  ---
  
  There are so many other great games and resources out there that I couldn't possibly hope to put together a comprehensive list, but these are my top picks for beginners. I frequently listen / watch / read many items on this list myself on a daily basis.
  
  Good luck on your journey, and I hope you open a window into your prototype soon!

Investing in culinary texts rather than cookbooks really helped me. These books provide very basic recipes along with relevant techniques/information. Once you get these down, it's a heck of a lot easier to be creative with your dishes (e.g. knowing the 5 mother sauces of French cuisine leads to literally thousands of other recipes).


Suggested reading material:

Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making
One of my absolute favorites, I refer to this book pretty much every time I'm in the mood for something new. The author does a great job at keeping things simple while providing great information on traditional applications (along with how to flavor things to your own tastes) for dishes ranging from Mornay sauce to Ganache.


On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals
This was my required text for intro culinary classes, which makes it expensive. I'm sure finding older/used versions will be much cheaper and just as useful. This is a great resource for techniques such as deboning poultry, ideal use for various potato species, the different cuts of beef and pork, the best cooking methods for said cuts, culinary terms, etc.


The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
My god do I love Marcella Hazan. She's the Italian Julia Child, and does a fantastic job at making intimidating dishes much more approachable. While this is more of a classic cookbook than the previous two, Hazan provides info on produce selection, basic kitchen techniques, ideal tools to have, and, of course, hundreds of traditional Italian recipes with notes on altering flavor profiles.


YMMV, depending on how deep into the cooking world you'd like to get. Sometimes it's just easier for me to look through google results of a specific dish for inspiration. Good luck!

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

Seconding u/theUnmutual6's recommendations, in addition to u/BlueSmoke95's suggestion to check out Ann Moura's work. I would like to recommend Ellen Dugan's Natural Witchery and her related domestic witchery books. Ellen is a certified Master Gardener and incorporates plants into much of her work.

Some of my favorite plant books!

Plant Science:

• Plant Physiology and Development (you can get away with the previous edition of this one!)
  
  
• Botany for Gardeners
  
  
• Essential Plant Pathology (do NOT get the first edition - the second edition is superior in almost every single way)
  
  
• American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques
  
  
  Foraging & Field Guides:
  
  
• A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America
  
  
• Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt To Plate
  
  
• The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
  
  Herbalism:
  
  
• Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use (this is the first one I would recommend to novices)
  
  
• The Herbal Apothecary: 100 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them
  
  
• The Herbal Medicine Maker's Manual
  
  
• 300 Herbs: A Materia Medica
  
  
• Culpeper's Complete Herbal
  
  Ethnobotany:
  
  
• A Modern Herbal Vol I and Vol II (these could belong in the above section or here - I love love love these books. I think they are a must for any hedge witch or green witch!!)
  
  
• Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees
  
  
• Whispers from the Woods: The Lore & Magic of Trees
  
  
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
  
  I also encourage y'all to look into fungi as well. I work with both plants and fungi and I think they bring a fascinating and fulfilling aspect to my work. Plus, hunting for mushrooms is super fun! I can recommend field guide books for folks who are interested, they just tend to be very region-specific so I'm not going to list all of them here.
  
  For general fungus reading I recommend the following:
  
  
• Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds
  
  
• The Fifth Kingdom
  
  
• Mycelium Running
  
  
• Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing & Working with Fungi
  
  
• Mushrooms Demystified

This isn't food, but still might be a good gift for anybody interested in cooking and with a sense of humor.

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Chicken-Parody-Cookbook/dp/0385345224

I brought this over to a white elephant exchange last year with friends and it was a huge hit - the recipes are pretty good, but the erotica style writing is what really sells this cookbook. The recipes which involved string and tying are especially hilarious.

It might be a good addition to any culinary care packages you may want to send to your Reddit Secret Santa, or to any other giftee on your list this holiday season.

youtube is your friend! I like CheapLazyVegan, SweetPotatoSoul, VeggieKins, also do you have a public library ? i get a bunch of vegan cookbooks from there. Personally I like reading things on paper better than youtube recipes, but to each their own.

https://www.amazon.com/Oh-She-Glows-Cookbook-Recipes/dp/1583335277

https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/

Nooch (nutritional yeast) gives things a nutty, cheesy flavor. Put that in sauces, tofu stir fry, cashew cream for 'cheese' (you blend cashews - soak them in water overnight first- with plant based milk in a smoothie).

I wish you well on your vegan journey, my friend, I've been vegan for one month and I love it!<3 come over to the compassionate side where we practice loving kindness towards all creatures

​

MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR B12.

For your dad - maybe a beautiful cookbook from a region your dad loves, or would love to visit, along with some of the unique spices called for in the cookbook. My personal favorite cookbook is Jerusalem, but I've also been drooling over this Basque cookbook.

Depending on her sense of humor, this could be great for your mom. Maybe something that makes her feel beautiful or pampered. I love getting my mom pretty earrings and scarves that she would never get for herself. Depending on the flavor of hippie that she is, an assortment of essential oils might be a nice gift.

Both my partner and I are vegetarians and we both like to cook. We often cook enough food to have leftovers, so our go to "quick meal" is often reheating leftovers.

If you like Indian food, this Easy Chana Masala recipe is one of our favorites. You can skip the mango powder if you don't have it/can't find it/don't want to bother getting it.

For making rice, if you don't have a rice cooker, having a gas stove is the best. But if you have electric, the best method uses two burners - 1 on high to bring the rice to a boil and the other on low to cover and simmer on. I usually do a 2 to 1 ratio water to rice and simmer white rice around 15 minutes, brown rice around 45 minutes. I also enjoy a curry rice as a side dish - simmer 1-2 tsp curry powder in butter or oil for 2 mintues; add 1 cup rice, 2 cups vegetable broth, 1 bay leaf, and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil and then simmer 15 minutes for white or 45 minutes for brown rice.

For making beans, canned beans work pretty well when pressed for time, but I recommend using dried beans for better flavor and texture. Soaking your beans overnight really helps to reduce your cooking time on dried beans, but that does mean you have to plan ahead.

I'm not sure if you want cookbook suggestions, but here are a few good ones that I like:

• Veganomicon
  
• The Heart of the Plate
  
• The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook - not exclusively vegetarian, but it has a lot of good vegetarian recipes
  
  If you're looking for recipes, there are a lot of vegetarian/vegan food blogs out there and you can also check out /r/VegRecipes and /r/veganrecipes.

Low energy could mean that your caloronutrient ratio is off. Your cronometer results confirm this. 30% protein and 20% fat would make anyone feel sluggish. Try starting the day with just fresh fruit – either in a smoothie or as they are – but lots of it.
I have noticed a significant improvement in my energy levels since trying to keep both protein and fat below 10% (each, i.e. >80% carbs) on average throughout the week. It's not easy to transition, especially from a psychological and social point of view, but I think the 811rv diet is optimal for maximum health. But if it works for you, it might be worth it... I don't want to come across preachy, but Dr Douglas Graham's book is worth reading, even if you don't have the intention of transitioning. It has lots of good information.
Getting your blood tested is probably a good idea regardless of how you choose to proceed.
Best of luck, mate. Hope you feel better soon.

Yotam Ottolenghi came out with a followup on his Plenty cookbook a few months ago, its called Plenty More. Used to see vegetables as only a side dish but he really changed my mind and enabled me to see that they can really be the star of the table. There are many interesting combinations. And as a man who is an omnivore himself, he often makes his dishes hearty enough that many of us wont even miss the meat.

Another book which you should look into is Thug Kitchen. If you haven't seen their blog, you should really check it out.

You should also look into Deborah Madison's books. This one is practically the Bible among vegetarians due to how comprehensive it is. Ironically, she also is an omnivore.

Theres also the Moosewood Cookbook which is great for weeknight meals as many of the recipes are simple and quick.

If you like Indian, I would really recommend 660 Curries which has some of the best Indian food I've ever tasted. I often compare food I get in Indian restaurants to what I've cooked from this book. Yes, its not completely vegetarian but the vast majority of Indian cuisine is vegetarian so it should still be a valuable resource for you.

Speaking of Indian food, Madhur Jaffrey (who is known for her Indian cookbooks) has a great cookbook dedicated to vegetarian cooking.

My personal recommendation is that if you want to get really into foraging then you need to pick up the three books that I consider the foragers holy books:

Wild Edible Plants by John Kallas

The Foragers Harvest and Nature's Garden by Samuel Thayer

Both of these books focus on North American foraging (but I assume that's OK with you considering that your books are US based).

I believe that John Kallas is from Oregon and as such many plants are based around that area and just generally west of the Mississippi. I have been able to find some of the plants that he listed in the book (I am from SE part of US), but some are not native/introduced so I will never find them while walking around.

Samuel Thayer is from Michigan area if I remember correctly and so his books focus on my side of the country. His two books are identical in style, but Nature's Garden was written after and contains more plants in number compared to his first. They are both fantastic resources to own.

The reason I prefer these three books is because they do not skip important information and contain many pictures, harvest date ranges, look-alike information, recipes/procedures, and a lot more. These books go out of their way to make sure you forage confidently and with plenty of information.

If you want to get into this hobby, as I have too recently, now is the perfect time to pick up these books and start getting familiar with plants because spring is right around the corner.

Hope this helped and good luck!

edit: grammar

I got my gf the same ice cream maker last xmas, and we use it all the time. i think we had one batch that was too hard, and its because i didnt follow the recipe, and therefore made it in a way that it set too hard.

first, 15 minutes isnt long enough, we usually let our ice cream go for about 25 minutes. we do not prechill our mix, but we also dont heat it, except for the one time we made chocolate. so maybe the difference is the prechilling, but even when we did that, we went for 25 minutes.

second, add a little liquor, OR vanilla extract if you have the pure shit made with liquor. my gf makes her own by soaking a bunch of vanilla beans in vodka, we always add that. it not only gives a little flavor to make it taste a little more rich, but it helps keep the ice cream from solidifying as much in the freezer.

third, that sounds like A LOT of eggs. we usually use two or three, that could be part of the difference maker here.

fourth, get the ben and jerry's recipe book from amazon. its the shit, it has all kinds of great recipes. and in a lot of cases it has the reasoning behind making certain things a certain way.

hopefully that helps some. we have been making consistently good ice cream in ours, and it always sets just right. if you have any more questions, just ask.

Wow.. thank you very much for all the great info. I've started learning some edibles, but I'm still wary because I wonder if I have a variety, or cousin which is toxic. Like Barberry, (berberis vulgaris). I've been trying to find some of that to try out a treatment on my Lymes. There are so many other plants that seem so similar, and some are toxic. I'm always worried I will mis-identify a toxic for one that isn't.

I really learned a lot from John Kallas's book: Edible Wild Plants. He has a really thorough write up on each edible, and lots of pics at all life stages. Recipes too. The one drawback to this is that there aren't as many species as I other books I have. But I do feel more confident wildcrafting the edibles he describes because there's lots of info and pics. One I really love is wood sorrel. Its so tasty.

I'd like to learn more about different plant families and their characteristics. I'll have to start researching that.

One last little thought/question I have is: toxic plants often seem to have medicinal properties in low doses. I find that really interesting. How prevelent is it in the plant world, that toxic plants are also curative? I would love to hear your thoughts on that.

cheers

edit: spelling of barberry.

I highly recommend that you buy "The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz. (Amazon link here) It has a ton of amazing ice cream recipes, as well as recipes for sorbets, sherberts, frozen yogurts, toppings and mix-ins.

To get you started though, here's an ice-cream roundup from one of my favorite (and most reliably good) food blogs. Several of the recipes are from the book I recommended including the chocolate and vanilla, which are both amazingly good and a great place to start.

Ice-cream making is so much fun, and really easy - it's my favorite treat to make during the summer.

I would snag this most excellent book of ice cream recipes.

http://www.amazon.com/Jerrys-Homemade-Cream-Dessert-Book/dp/0894803123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347902019&sr=8-1&keywords=ben+and+jerry%27s+ice+cream+recipe+book

You'll probably after the third or fourth batch find yourself inventing flavors but the intro to the book covers some pretty good basic recipes for sherbet, and the different types of bases for normal ice cream. One of the random things I learned from this book was that just about any fruit will taste more like its self if covered in lemon juice and sugar for a few hours.

You can also pick up an ice cream machine for pretty cheap from Amazon. I would recommend getting the stand mixer attachment if you have a stand mixer, if not keep in mind that any of the salt free ones, including actually the stand mixer attachment require that the bowl be frozen for 12 hours before use. Practically this limits the machine to one batch of ice cream a day.

More food suggestions:

Rice and beans (dry beans may be cheaper than canned), bean dips / spreads (ever mash white beans with some garlic, salt and olive oil? mmm... also, homemade hummus is very easy), lentil stews. For all these and nuts/oats, shop around! Bulk goods can be much cheaper, and if you look in ethnic stores or international sections at big supermarkets, you'll almost always find a better deal than what you buy in little baggies in well labeled aisles.

There's a guide out there somewhere (can't find it now) on cheapest vegetables and fruits by nutritional value. For instance, cabbage is generally pretty cheap and can get you a long way. You can roast it, saute it, steam it, slaw it, or grate it and mix it with tomatoes for a great salad. Also, bananas anyone? Straight up, or in milkshakes, or fried... Of course, fruit & veggie prices will depend on your location and possibly on the season as well.

For protein: eggs (oh-so-many ways), tofu (baked is easy), TVP, edamame (easy peasy, delicious, and possibly cheaper at Asian stores), milk products (ricotta, cottage cheese, and learn to make your own yogurt and/or kefir; I'd say go for the fresh stuff though, not the highly processed string cheese and grated cheddar and whatnot). And protein powder. Shop around. Most stuff in dedicated "supplement stores" is highly overpriced.

Stalk thekitchn.com for some really basic recipes that look doable. Or go looking for really simple cookbooks that you can get at your library, like Alice Waters - The Art of Simple Food.

Video series or anything? I really learned a ton reading The Professional Chef, which is a textbook in a lot of culinary schools I hear. I have the eTextbook version that has a lot of video links and interactivity.

If you're into the science behind cooking I'd also really recommend The Food Lab, I have the hard back version and it's also just a beautiful book.

I also have Cooking and Sauces by Peterson, also textbook quality books.

And of course, the ever popular Better Homes & Gardens Ring-Bound Cookbook, How to Cook Everything, and The Joy of Cooking are staples on my bookshelf as well. Great for reference or a quick look to find a particular recipe just to see how others do it.

I also browse a lot of websites and watch a lot on YouTube. I'll save recipes I find online using the Evernote Web Clipper and tag them so I can find them easily in the future. This works great because I can pull them up on my iPad while I'm cooking.

When a recipe calls for a method, tool, or ingredient I'm not very familiar with I'll usually just search it on YouTube and get some ideas about how to use it. That's worked really well for me so far.

I have a few ice cream cookbooks that I love - you can probably find a handful of recipes from them via Google and food blogs.

David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. A lot of his recipes use an egg custard ice cream base - the recipes I've tried were delicious and really rich. He also has a lot of non-egg recipes and sorbets, plus recipes and suggestions for mix-ins. It's a good mix of more traditional flavors and some interesting/gourmet ones.

Jeni's book is another one that I've seen highly recommended. I've had it for awhile but just tried one of the recipes recently, and I loved it. Her recipes uses cornstarch instead of eggs, plus a few other tricks, and the recipe I made was REALLY good - perfect texture for scooping, and really tasty. Her recipes veer a little more towards the unusual, but there are some classics in there also and some sorbets, frozen yogurts, etc.

I swear I know I plug this cookbook all over this subreddit but it is changing my life on the regular:

Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden is the best vegetable-centric cookbook I own and maybe the best cookbook I own, period? This cookbook helps me figure out:

• how to choose good veggies at the market (especially when they're unfamiliar to me)
  
• different ways to prepare the same veggies (yesterday I learned that raw asparagus is actually delicious!)
  
• how to get better at using the same minimal pantry of ingredients to flavor a whole bunch of different things in slightly different ways
  
  I think if you listed all of the ingredients listed for ALL of his ingredients for ALL of his recipes in his ENTIRE cookbook, it would probably be less than 50 things. It's all about reusing the same stuff to produce different tasting dishes and I eat all kinds of cool salads now. Here's the one I made for the first time yesterday.

I eat a combo of vegan/paleo. Why?
Paleo ppl know how to cook their meat in decently low calorie dishes
Vegan - man do they know how to make veggies! You don't really know how to cook veggies until you dig into these recipes.

• 1 Oh She Glows - Food genius! Best I've ever owned!
  

• 2 Against All Grain - Very solid, I love everything including the desserts
  

• 3 Thug Kitchen - Amazing flavor combinations and loved most everything I made, some things were more effort than they were worth. I found myself going to the grocery store a lot when I was cooking through this book. Avoided the desserts because of the use of all purpose flour, sugar etc. The baking seems more traditional.
  

• 4 Everyday Detox - Love the shakes and desserts, the cookie recipes are the best I've made, but the food falls flat. The combos don't knock my socks off.
  

• 5 Paleo Comfort Food - Found a few good things in here but lots of misses. Resorted to writing X's and check marks on the pages of things that were successful and not so successful.
  

  
  

Haha ok. Basically its a diet called 80-10-10 (80% carbs, 10% protein, 10% fat). There are two ways to do the diet - a cooked version or a raw version. I did the latter and that's what I would recommend to those with digestive problems. You eat raw, vegan foods - which boil down to fruits, veggies, and nuts and seeds in such a way that you end up with the ratio to 80% carbs, 10% fats, and 10% protein.

Basically you eat a lot of fruit. You get carbs and calories through fruit. It's enough to sustain you. The fruit is super light on the digestive system.. it does wonders on it and gives it the break its been dying for - to repair itself.

After 6 months of doing the diet, I was never bloated again.. I was completely healed internally. For 6 years, I experienced constant pain and was diagnosed with a gluten allergy and ulcerative colitis. I was in so much pain I spent hours on end in bed and couldn't live a normal life. I was desperate to find anything to help me. I tried drugs.. but they didn't seem to make anything permanently better. I didn't want to take them.

So I found this diet and thought it was f*ing crazy. I would never have done it unless I was desperate. I thought I wouldn't last a week.. but I wanted to try it. After a week, I saw a bit of improvement. Not a ton.. but a lot more than I had experienced in months. The pain overall was lower. So I kept going..

After 6 months, I feel I was fully cured. But now its been 2 years and I go back to eating old comfort foods occasionally and feel fine. I eat healthy overall, and try to eat this way most of the time.

Here's more good links if you're interested:

A forum for people doing it - http://www.30bananasaday.com/
The book that started it - http://www.amazon.com/The-80-10-Diet/dp/1893831248
A documentary about the festival held last year of people on this diet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1nS5E0HRn0
Common questions answered - http://rawschool.com/2011/interview/


Edit: If you're curious about it, please ask me more questions because I like talking about it.

Sam Thayer's books, especially The Forager's Harvest.

It's not a huge guide, and only covers a dozen or so plants, but it's a real botanist-level course in beginning plant identification. Some people would say it's the best guide out there right now.

A great way to get started is with online resources, because there you can find a lot of different pictures of the same plant, to help you nail down an identification of edible plants. And you can't be too careful with edible plant identification. Steve Brill (who is also a good book author) has a wonderful website.

Also, there are people on YouTube with extensive wild plant identification channels.

YES, I love making Indian food because you can turn relatively basic ingredients into ridiculously delicious meals with the right spices. I really love this book, which I got as a present a few years back. It can be bought used for super cheap http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Indian-Cooking-Julie-Sahni/dp/0688037216

edit: I also really like Aarti Sequeira's youtube channel for her Indian recipes or American recipes with an Indian twist. She also now has a Food Network show. She's fun to watch and makes Indian food a lot more accessible.

1. I read Eating Animals, by Jonathan Saffron Foer and could not find a rational argument against veganism as the ethical choice given my access to alternatives to animal products. I was reading a whole lot of books on all sort of food-related topics, had no intention of going vegan or even vegetarian, but that was that. Went vegan the following day (July 4, 2011)
   
2. My spouse is working on decreasing animal product use. He kind of tapered - he was avoiding red meat, then lacto-ovo-veg, now he's closer to 80% vegan with occasional LOV meals. He also found meat substitutes he likes so he can do burgers, tacos, and other foods that are comfort food to him. I don't really have much practical advice, I guess, except that meat substitutes / analogues are a perfectly reasonable option if those flavors/textures are significant to you.
   
3. I'm boring. On a typical day I have oatmeal and coffee with soy milk for breakfast, some kind of grain plus frozen veggies and either beans of chopped up baked tofu for lunch (I make a big batch, portion it out, and freeze it ahead of time for the week), and tofu and some veggies for dinner. All boring, all easy, all tasty and inexpensive. For good recipes, I recommend checking out the post punk kitchen. Two of my favorite cookbooks are [http://smile.amazon.com/Mediterranean-Vegan-Kitchen-Donna-Klein/dp/1557883599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415407055&sr=8-1&keywords=mediterranean+vegan](The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen) and The Oh She Glows Cookbook.

>healthy lean meats

Stop using that expression.

Also, it gives me the impression that you may not have read the FAQ. It's worth checking out. If you're on mobile and can't see the sidebar, I will link it for you.

I've scrolled through a few of the comments, and I'm getting the impression that eating (especially meat-eating) is an emotional experience for you. It may be helpful for you to face facts about what eating constitutes in terms of the destruction of another being.

There are plenty of great resources out there devoted to the respectful treatment of meat as a food and as a creature. Some of the best cookbooks out there have a great attitude of respect towards the magnificent things that get to become delicious meals for us.

I found and enjoyed this book in my local Barnes and Noble. I will preface the link to it by saying that I have no qualms whatsoever about eating meat, and don't even have a particular preference for the critter being treated humanely (pardon my coldness here, but I think it's silly to split hairs over whether or not your pig knew it was loved when you skinned it and ground it up into sausage before eating it).

The River Cottage Meat Book

There's a whole lot of cookbooks in that space of "you know how to cook already, here's a slightly more advanced set of recipes" that you can dive into. Deep-diving into a single cookbook for a while will expand you "outward" and give you an understanding of a particular cuisine or technique and let you stock your pantry around that.

Just speaking personally about what i've done.

Taste and Technique: Recipes to Elevate your Home Cooking was one that i cooked a good deal of recipes from and it seriously upped my game. It's French/Pacific Northwest recipes that use (relatively) easy to find ingredients and provide seasonal variations on most of the dishes.

If you have access to a decent spice market, Ottolenghi's books are pretty good for expanding your repertiore. Jerusalem and Plenty More.

If you have access to good produce, i know people that rave about Six Seasons but i haven't used it yet. I also like Lucky Peach's power vegetables but the ironically kitschy photos are a little off putting (but the recipes are super solid).

People need to break this mentality that cooking knowledge needs to be "deep" like you're going to level up until you're gordon ramsay. Cooking knowledge past the basics is better thought of as "wide" wherein you expose yourself to a variety of techniques and cooking styles and work them into your repertoire, where it becomes an expression of your personal craft.

As a time to end boredom, my friend from school took me to a Japanese restaurant on our break between classes. He wanted me to try sushi, and I was so scared. I eventually caved, and now LOVE IT!!! In fact, that is what I am going to have today for lunch! Happy birthday by the way, even though it is late at this point <3 If I win, I would love this cookbook. Thanks!

I've found the most useful resource on sauces to be James Peterson's Sauces. It covers classical and contemporary sauces, and for classical sauces, contemporary methods of production. It's very useful.

Forgot another resource: If you're going to be in the industrial or modernist world, then Martin Lersch's Textures is a pretty great (and free) resource for working with hydrocolloids. Lersch's blog is also a good resource by itself.

Good luck!

Thanks. I more or less follow the guidelines in the book The 80-10-10 Diet, although I occasionally eat meals that are higher in fat. I also have had mild IBS type symptoms and eating all that soluble fiber from fruit has helped me (has to do with providing an optimal environment for the good gut bacteria). I know of other people who eat this way who previously had IBS or other GI issues and were helped a lot. One girl in particular had Crohn's so bad she looked severely anorexic but now is at a healthy weight. In California you should have access to high quality fruit too and you need good fruit to be successful at this diet. Also watch this video for some inspiration, there are a lot of hotties on this diet! There are other resources out there, but start by reading the book. For me, the transition took several years, but it is so worth it...

When you're right, you're right. How about this?

Dear Snookums,

I'm sorry that you don't like your vegetables, but don't feel bad about it. According to http://www.parenting.com/article/picky-eating "Nearly 40 percent of kids under 6 are picky eaters" and there is hope "But picky eating won't last forever - most kids grow out of it by age 8 or 9."

I've pasted below direct links to resources that are focused on getting past food aversions.

http://lifehacker.com/5972108/how-to-learn-to-love-healthy-food-even-if-youre-a-picky-eater (has tips and yummy recipes).

http://www.parents.com/kids/nutrition/picky-eaters/ (which is an excellent resource for parents dealing with picky eaters... some of this may help you as well).

If you think it may be a sensory disorder, this may be a good resource for you:
http://www.foodandnutrition.org/September-October-2014/Picky-Eater-Sensory-Processing-Disorder/ (which talks about a nutritionists approach to picky eaters).

Why, there are even book about this very topic (if you want to spend money)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_fb_0_12/188-9140512-6085824?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=picky+eaters&sprefix=picky+eaters%2Cfashion%2C134&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Apicky+eaters ....with at least one describing tactics of hiding vegetables in common dishes, if you are so inclined ( http://www.amazon.com/Sneaky-Chef-Strategies-Healthy-Favorite/dp/0762430753/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427319434&sr=1-10&keywords=picky+eaters ).


And finally, there are abundant resources for adults who suffer from pickiness:

http://www.pickyeatingadults.com/
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-do-you-get-a-fussy-adult-t-59583

Finally, if I may paraphrase the great philosopher, Bubba.

"Anyway, like I was sayin', vegetable is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, vegetable-kabobs, vegetable creole, vegetable gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple vegetable, lemon vegetable, coconut vegetable, pepper vegetable, vegetable soup, vegetable stew, vegetable salad, vegetable and potatoes, vegetable burger, vegetable sandwich. That- that's about it."

By the way.. all of these links were on the 1st page of Google search results.

The ham is new to me for lasanga...I must try! Your layers are straight forward and now your making me want to try the same in my cast iron!!

Couldn't agree more on cast iron. My wife and I used to always cook on steel and teflon. Now we have 3 cast iron pans complete with lids and use them all the time!! Such a wonderful thing. Let's not forget these bad boys are great to cook with everywhere! We take them camping all the time. Tastes do improve and you get a workout to boot given the bigger pans are quite heavy :)

I'll be ordering Mastering Pasta: The Art and Practice of Handmade Pasta, Gnocchi, and Risotto https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607746077/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5TD7xbWZYC9TZ to help me build the pasta skillz!

A few books that, while more geared towards finding a publisher than what you need to do to publish games yourself, probably still have some good information about the business for you, especially the first one:

• The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook
  
  
• Paid to Play: The Business of Game Design
  
  
• The Game Inventor's Guidebook
  
  You could also try contacting someone who had a successful and shipped Kickstarter. They're probably more approachable than a major company, and they probably do things on a more budget-conscious level than some of the larger companies, which should make their advice pretty valuable for you.
  
  Good luck!

This looks fantastic, especially the rice. I know from experience it's not always easy to make the grains long and lovely like that. I recommend getting this cookbook. It's easy to follow and the finished product is always delicious. My boyfriend's parents used to have an Indian food catering business and they gifted us this cookbook! I think the trick to good Indian food is having the right spices and being REALLY patient when you're browning the onions.

This is a really interesting question and I’m curious to see what others post. When it comes to how to plan, pace, and execute a multi course meal, I mostly learned through osmosis cooking around my parents and just doing it myself. Would love to learn of some books that talk about this more explicitly. One resource I recommend though is this series of chefsteps articles. They describe the whole process of planning and executing a particular menu.

When it comes to flavor pairings and how to put together a well rounded dish or meal, I think there are lots of great resources. Most of the books below are more sources of inspiration than books that explicitly discuss how do flavor pairings or whatever.

• Six Seasons: vegetable focused cookbook discussing what’s in season. The main point is that you should think of the year broken into six seasons. I often use this book to jog my memory of what things might go together based on seasonality
  
• The Bug Fat Duck: this is a great source of inspiration in so many ways. The plating is beautiful, the dishes are often made up of many components and inspire pairings. Above all, it discusses Hestan’s ideology and creative process in crafting dishes and menus. As a heads up, this is a pretty modernist book, and pretty much all of the dishes are an insane amount of effort to pull off and may require special equipment. I mostly use it for ideological inspiration
  
• Atelier Crenn this is pretty much the same style of book as above, but a different chef

OP, can you clarify what you mean by "I've been given a tight deadline of 3-4 months to provide the game for printing." Who's giving this deadline, and why is this deadline a thing?

BTW, totally cool about the lack of experience. We all start there. Many of these questions have been answered (at least partially) in this sub and on awesome blogs around the internet.

So, to partially answer a few of your questions:

2: design is mile 19 of the marathon, and may not be important at all unless you're Kickstarting it. Publishers will likely use their own artists (though to your credit, having art may put you ahead of the game since that's less work for them to do.

3: This is where playtesting over and over again is necessary. Beyond that, fifth grade math FTW – if this card is in the deck X times and the deck is Y big = X/Y.

4: I started with maybe $20 worth of games from a second-hand store (mostly for the pawns, dice, etc.), some index cards and sleeves, and Sharpies of different colors. Get the mechanics and fun right, worry about the design later.

5: This varies by game – how much luck / strategy is appropriate?

6 and 7: Somebody can probably write a book to answer this one. At least one is worthy reading: https://www.amazon.com/The-Game-Inventors-Guidebook-Role-Playing/dp/1600374476

This is definitely a great resource, Danforth really distilled a LOT of info into this book and the one that focuses on just beef. Another great resource is by River Cottage, they have great detailed books as well. I picked these up while working at a butcher shop and found them incredibly useful.

The River Cottage Meat Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580088430/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_SnlNAbTPKFQP4

Oh I've just recently started doing Bing Rewards. I hope everything works out with it. :) Anyway I would LOVE this book. If you buy it used it would only cost $4 including shipping. :) Totally rad, man PS Have fun on your camping trip.

Alice Waters (founder of Chez Panisse) has a book called The Art of Simple Food. I've had a lot of recipes out of this book and they're all simple and lovely. I also really like this tomato sauce recipe recently featured in the NY Times. Marinara is usually just ok, to me. This recipe is so bright and fresh tasting; it really features tomatoes. If you're open mornings, I've recently been enamored with fresh greens for breakfast. A frittata, a nice omelette, or phyllo-topped with eggs: top with greens. I like a handful of fresh arugula toassed with olive oil (or truffle oil), a touch of red wine vinaigrette, and s&p, and some sliced cherry tomatoes. It really brightens ordinarily heavy breakfast dishes. Also, I love the taste of homemade nut milk. I soak overnight equal parts almonds, cashews, and pistachios, some sunflower seeds, and some pumpkin seeds. Strain and rinse. Blend (2 or 3 parts water, 1 part nut mixture). And a pinch of salt and sugar/agave/honey to taste. It's lovely and so much more healthful than regular milk. You can also combine with egg and cornstarch (or chia seed) to make a custard or cream (see Chad Robertson recipe in "Tartine 3"). I love food and have worked in many restaurants. I also love eating simply. I'm vegetarian so I'm definitely biased towards meatless dishes, but if you have any questions or want some more suggestions, let me know!

Brother, you will think my answer in jest - but my words come from a place deeper than parallel in mine heart.

Purchase for thine self the cookbook "Fifty Shades of Chicken," for therein lie many easy and wonderful rituals by which birdflesh may be transmuted into gains.

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Chicken-Parody-Cookbook/dp/0385345224

With this and the Modern Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding, your swole will resist all attempts at control. Wheymen.

I'm a vegetarian that is always craving variety too! Some of my favorite websites for inspiration are:

https://smittenkitchen.com/ (one of the originals, she is GREAT)

http://www.101cookbooks.com/

http://www.veganricha.com/ (a lot of Indian and international cuisine)

http://www.isachandra.com/recipes/

http://cookieandkate.com/

Finally, I recommend Plenty and Plenty More - two cookbooks celebrating vegetables from the famed Ottolenghi. His cooking is fantastic (ignore the pomegranate seeds on the front cover, I promise it's so much more than that, he just happens to be middle eastern!)

https://smile.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=J1TA1NT14PVDZVX7G173

https://smile.amazon.com/Plenty-More-Vibrant-Vegetable-Ottolenghi/dp/1607746212/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1607746212&pd_rd_r=J63PHF1F8H0ZEMPVJTSR&pd_rd_w=PCmMs&pd_rd_wg=dsz8A&psc=1&refRID=J63PHF1F8H0ZEMPVJTSR

If you want something decadent, adventurous, and cheap, try some of the cuts less-commonly consumed in North America.

Corned beef tongue is fucking delicious, and a staple of Jewish deli with good reason. In most parts of the world, the tongue is one of the most valuable cuts because it is so rich in taste and texture. In North America, you could probably get a 3-5lb cut for $10 if you're friendly at the butcher's or farmer's market.

Pig's feet is fattier and more unctuous, and it features in all sorts of cuisine from soul food to Southeast Asian to traditional French cooking.Here are a few preparations.

A lot of these cuts are cheap either because they require planning ahead for a slow cook, or because a mild cultural taboo keeps most people from our continent from approaching these delicious cuts.

If you want to learn a lot more about getting the best value from your meat, here are some books I'd recommend. Consider the up-front cost an investment that pays dividends each time you don't spend more money on restaurants and pricey cuts.

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, by Fergus Henderson ($12.04)

The River Cottage Meat Book, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall ($26.40)

Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal, by Jennifer McLagan ($23.10)

Definitely pokeweed, as sprashoo said. Do not eat the berries, stems, or roots at all - cooked or raw. The leaves can be eaten like salad greens, but they have to be rinsed and boiled several times before they're safe. Not sure if this one is worth the trouble, although some may disagree.

As far as finding edible plants, there are lots of websites. Edible Wild Food is a good place to start.

I also really like the foraging books by Samuel Thayer: Nature's Garden and The Forager's Harvest.

I am in southcentral PA and have been able to find many of the plants in Thayer's books. He goes into great detail about each plant and mainly only covers ones that actually taste good.

Stalking the Wild Asparagus is a great inspiration and a classic, but I'd recommend at least pairing it with The Forager's Harvest for an updated foraging manual. Great list- glad to see Seymour on there!

For Indian cook books I would recommend these two: Book 1 and Book 2. Just use the internet to find reasonable substitutes for the more exotic ingredients, most of the time there is some workaround. For the rest of it I have a few general reference books but mostly I just wing it. What ever you do you probably want to start by cooking the hell of of an onion. A good caramelized onion will go a long way in making things taste more like food than merely sustenance. Also worth noting if a recipe says your beans will take an hour and a half to cook plan on at least two or three. Have fun with it and good luck.

The Perfect Scoop is by far the best ice cream book out there. I've made most recipes from that book and every one is delicious.

As far as ice cream makers go, I have the attachment for my Kitchenaid and it works great.

Ha! Well since you asked...

• Run Fast, Eat Slow and Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky
  
• Dining In by Alison Roman; also her column at the NY Times
  
• The First Mess blog and cookbook
  
• 101cookbooks blog and cookbooks
  
• Six Seasons, by Joshua McFadden
  
• Seven Spoons by Tara O'Brady
  
• Any of Nigel Slater's books - especially Tender
  
  Truly truly, I could go on. But those are some good places to start :)

http://www.amazon.com/Foragers-Harvest-Identifying-Harvesting-Preparing/dp/0976626608/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377479697&sr=1-1

Easily the best book on the market concerning foraging. Maybe you guys could go camping or geocashing and look for edible plants. At the very least it should make for an interesting and potentially useful read for someone who likes the outdoors and food.

Along a similar vain, this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Knew-Cleaning-Made-Easy-ebook/dp/B008GWMH0K/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377479881&sr=1-4
is an interesting read about how to clean various stains with everyday house hold objects.

Get yourself an ice cream maker and then make Kahlua Coffee ice cream in 2 hours with this uber simple recipe. Get tipsy and eat ice cream!

I absolutely love my ice cream maker. I got it for $40 at Costco and use it a few times a week. I particularly like making fruit sorbets...I get a different fresh variety at the farmers market every weekend, and I experiment with adding fresh herbs...my sage peach sorbet was to die for!

Bonus: This Ben and Jerrys ice cream cookbook is excellent!

You might want to look into cuisines that have a more integrated take on dishes than the western style of star ingredient + sides.

For instance, there are a lot of great Indian vegetarian dishes where you'd never feel like you're missing meat, because curries are about a whole integrated dish of ingredients in a delicious spicy gravy.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Levantine (Lebanese, Palestinian, Israeli) cooking, and there are a lot of great vegetarian dishes there. /u/greypillar already recommended Ottolenghi's Plenty and I seconded and added Plenty More, which have clear influences from this region (Ottolenghi is Israeli). There are also a lot of good recipe's in Michael Solomonov's Zahav. I've heard good things about Bethany Kehdy's Pomegranates & Pine Nuts, but I don't own it myself. Check out the recipes on her blog and see if anything piques your interest.

I think it's great to experiment, and would recommend anything within the vegan arena (regular vegan, raw vegan, low fat raw vegan, smoothies, juices), or a combination of all of these. It's all good from my perspective. I would only recommend longer term juicing if you have some kind of serious ailment. Smoothies and/or a diet high in fresh fruits is hard to beat. It really depends though, as I know nothing about your current position. Depending on your age, your current health status and your physical/athletic ambitions, I might have different advice for you. One book that I would automatically recommend in any case would be The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Douglass Graham.

Youtube is another place to start as well. Search for "raw vegan" and you can spend hours soaking this stuff up like a sponge. You will observe a broad range a characters and ideas, and you'll doubtless find people and methods that appeal to you.

reddit constantly makes light of animal rights, which really is one of the most important issues of our time.

It is wrong to torture/imprison/experiment-on animals for the same reasons it is wrong in humans.

"But apes aren't people." - It depends on who you ask. Some think apes are people, see The Great Ape Project. And why are people especially entitled to humane treatment? It is because we recognize that we wouldn't want the same thing done to us. Many white people did not consider black people equally human, and used this as a justification for their mistreatment. Now we recognize that we shouldn't have done that. We do the same thing with animals today.

"No, I mean apes are part of the human species." - Species is just a term of connivence that usually describes animals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. We have to ask why we shouldn't torture humans, and then we will see that those same reasons apply to apes as well.

"But apes aren't as smart as people." - Nowadays we don't say that medical experiments should be performed on retarded humans, since they are not as smart. It is their capacity to suffer that we consider, not their intelligence, when we decide not to perform medical experiments on humans. In terms of capacity for suffering, there is no reason to think that apes and humans are not equal.

"We can gain important medical knowledge from these experiments." - Nazi experiments on humans helped advance our medical understanding, but most people still think they were wrong. Again, consider if it would be worth it to experiment on retarded humans without their consent, since we could learn important things. Furthermore, the value of the information that actually comes from these experiments in dubious. Consider that the vast majority of improvements in life expectancy come from public health measures (sewers, clean water, vaccinations, etc.). As far as medically important drugs, nearly all are discovered serendipitously, rather than in directed research. See this book.

These arguments apply equally well to many animals, certainly the common food animals, pigs, cows, etc. Don't torture them! If you want to eat animals (since they are delicious, and provide many useful products), just find ones which were treated kindly while alive, it's not that hard. Unfortunately, nearly all the meat, milk, leather we have comes from tortured animals. reddit hates vegans. but most vegans are simply doing their best not to torture living things.

reddit is an ass when it comes to animal rights. reddit would have whipped their black slaves in early 1800s America, and they would have sent their jewish neighbors to concentration camps in 1940s Germany. In both cases, groups were thought of as sub-human, and therefore they could be mistreated. Today we do the exact same thing to animals. Being human is irrelevant!

Tl;dr: When thinking about animal rights, consider the animal to be a retarded human child, and then proceed with the ethical decision.

Get yourself Julia Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking book. It's a great place to start. If you're primarily into veg, another place to go would be Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine which is a positively massive cookbook that is great and vedic (no onions, etc. only hing).

Also, Manjula's Kitchen has some good videos.

The classic ratio is to use one egg per 100 grams of flour. This is what Marc Vetri suggests in his phenomenal Mastering Pasta.

Have you made fresh pasta before? I'd make yourself a couple small batches for practice before attempting your 10 cup dinner. I've been making pasta every week this year, and although I'm not great, I can assure you experience helps.

I started with that ratio and it works great, but now I eye ball everything. I toss flour onto the counter, crack an egg into the center, and start mixing. I add a extra flour as I go. It's easy to add more flour but tough to add moisture. Sometimes my apartment is really humid, sometimes the eggs are smaller, sometimes I use only yokes -- start with the rule of thumb, one egg per 100 grams of flour, and get used to working with the dough.

If you have more questions about making pasta I'd be happy to answer them. It's my favorite thing to cook and I'm obsessed!

You've already accomplished some amazing things so it's not going to be hard for you to learn to live on your own. If you can give yourself some time on your own before law school that would be helpful. For my kids, I've found that a meal service such a Green Chef (organic) really helps in learning to cook because they send you all the ingredients and instructions. That way you don't have to grocery shop or figure out what to cook--it might be a good in-between. If you want to really learn to cook, consider reading Alice Waters: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Simple-Food-Delicious-Revolution/dp/0307336794/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=alice+waters&qid=1550337049&s=gateway&sr=8-1 It can be hard to find time to exercise while in law school; consider walking on a treadmill or biking while studying (some people hate this, but I like it). Good luck!

Haha. I have a book you might like: https://www.amazon.com/Sneaky-Chef-Strategies-Healthy-Favorite/dp/0762430753/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496043529&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sneaky+chef

I liked the blueberries with my french toast even better. I'm still getting used to not using syrup, but it's still pretty good.

Along this vein of things, OP might also consider The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals - I bought this years ago for a friend with a very picky husband, and she had great success with it.

For $50 you can get one of these and make it way easier on yourself. I have one and it works great. I also recommend the Ben and Jerry's recipe book. Best blueberry ice cream I've ever had.

Happy to help.

Not a site, a book. I literally had it sitting within arm's reach when I saw your post so I grabbed and transcribed. Published in 1982, my edition was purchased circa 1995, but here's a link for the same book, newer edition it looks like, on Amazon.

I live in FL and like the rest of the Eastern US and Canada, we've got plenty of it. I've tried it. Nothing to write home about for sure.

• I am obsessed with cooking and baking. Trying new recipes is a weekly, sometimes daily thing. Specifically, I LOVE Deb's recipes!!
  
  
• Deb's Cookbook (Smitten Kitchen) because, then I can cook/bake all of the delicious food!
  
  
• Thank you, so much!

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Indian-Cooking-Julie-Sahni/dp/0688037216/
This is the only book you'll ever need on Indian cooking. Every single dish I made from this book was just perfect. It has no pictures, only a few drawings but if you stick to the recipe you'll be rewarded with the most delicious Indian food.
http://www.juliesahni.com/

As far as edible plants goes, I've enjoyed this one. It covers all of North America, which I find to be a plus.

This one is a general survival handbook that I've enjoyed quite a bit, although it is physically a much larger book than the military field guides are. What it lacks in portability it more than makes up for in scope. The illustrations are VERY well done, and it is streamlined to be easily absorbed in case you need to use the information.

Yotam Ottolenghi has some nice cookbooks with great recipes and beautiful photos that I've given as gifts.

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Cookbook-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/1607743949/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Ottolenghi-Cookbook-Yotam/dp/160774418X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

• Le Creuset. Just one example - they have lots of nice gifts.
  
  
  
• Ice cream maker with recipe book and two stoneware bowls.
  
  
  
• Maybe they have a dark sky and enjoy stargazing? If so, a telescope
  
  
• In a rural area, they probably don't have access to high end grocery stores. A gourmet gift basket could be nice: Dean and Deluca; Harry & David; Vosges

Most phallic looking item:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NH3BU4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2TKA3DHDIZYOU&coliid=I1HTVHTJQMR8MX

Most "oh god, I would never be seen with this in public" looking item:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1567187072/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2TKA3DHDIZYOU&coliid=IR47146VJO5LT

Item which would most make you seem like an old posh Englishman:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0688037216/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2TKA3DHDIZYOU&coliid=I1TV3AAMPQQJZY

Most geeky item:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004X6FM8W/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2TKA3DHDIZYOU&coliid=I3TPK6ULWW4ZZB

Item which would most help you achieve a goal:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0136807453/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2TKA3DHDIZYOU&coliid=I3AM5LIMTP9Q3B

Best item to bring to a deserted island:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0026SUCDE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2TKA3DHDIZYOU&coliid=I3BV00J05UR92C

I think that if you like to cook, then everyone should have this cookbook on their wishlist. But that is just my opinion. I like to cook because I am not very crafty.

I would be interested in a scarf or bookmark. I don't read but something to hold the place in my recipe book is nice. :)

These three books are from incredibly talented chefs in the US and London and are truly outstanding: [Plenty] (https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1452101248&pd_rd_r=QS2966PJKEEF0GRXT77M&pd_rd_w=AGutm&pd_rd_wg=8W62G&psc=1&refRID=QS2966PJKEEF0GRXT77M), [On Vegetables] (https://www.amazon.com/Vegetables-Modern-Recipes-Home-Kitchen/dp/071487390X/ref=pd_sim_14_23?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=071487390X&pd_rd_r=QS2966PJKEEF0GRXT77M&pd_rd_w=AGutm&pd_rd_wg=8W62G&psc=1&refRID=QS2966PJKEEF0GRXT77M), and [Six Seasons] (https://www.amazon.com/Six-Seasons-New-Way-Vegetables/dp/1579656315/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1579656315&pd_rd_r=K5GB31833Y91YN058FX5&pd_rd_w=mrmpX&pd_rd_wg=A77Ay&psc=1&refRID=K5GB31833Y91YN058FX5).

My favorite book on my shelf right now is Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables.

We are big carnivores at my house, but this book has taught me to approach eating seasonally so differently. The information is helpful, delicious, approachable, and unpretentious. Buy it and then immediately make the fried delicata squash "donuts" with pumpkin seeds and honey.

When I go to the store I try to shop in the bulk section so I can buy exactly how much I need for a recipe instead of a box of something. Also, I am really good at eating leftovers.

I use One Pan, Two Plates by Carla Snyder for my husband and I. I think the recipes are really delicious and easy and (mostly) healthy. You could prepare one of the recipes and then have leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Pan-Two-Plates-Weeknight/dp/1452106703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418833179&sr=8-1&keywords=one+pan+two+plates

I have not used this book, but I've heard it's good (Cooking for One by Judith Jones): http://www.amazon.com/Pleasures-Cooking-One-Judith-Jones/dp/0307270726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418833055&sr=8-1&keywords=cooking+for+one

I just started raw myself a few months ago. There are two basic routes you can pursue: high fat or low fat. If you go high fat, you'll eat a lot of raw nuts and avocados, plus fruits and veggies. If you go low fat, you'll eat a LOT of fruit. Bananas are the cheapest.

Whichever route you choose, you may find benefit in using a site/app to track your macronutrient calories; I use cronometer.com but there are many others. It is really easy to under-eat when you're going raw, especially the high-carb route.

I'm on high carb, aiming for 2000-2800 calories a day. It's been quite a struggle to get even 2000 most days; I often am around 1600. The macronutrient ratio I'm aiming for is 80/10/10 (carb, fat, protein).

An average day's consumption might be:

• Breakfast: a liter of fresh-squeezed orange juice, then a banana or two after. (A lot of raw fooders are into food combining, which mostly means only eat fruit on an empty stomach, and don't eat anything else until the fruit has transited out of your stomach - 15-30 mins is what I aim for).
  
  
• Lunch: smoothie with 5 bananas + 100g of greens
  
  
• Dinner: As much fruit as I can eat (usually about 300g) of whatever I have available (grapes, melons, mangos, nectarines), followed by half an avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives (not sure if these are raw?), salad, then some cashews or pistachios to inch my calories up if necessary.
  
  Many high carb raw people say you need more like 3000+ calories. I am working my way toward trying that but I've found it difficult. They say at the beginning it's best to let yourself move gradually toward that as the volume of fruit you need to eat is huge. Cooked and high fat foods are much more calorically dense.

I try to eat mostly paleo so the America's Test Kitchen Paleo cook book is great. In fact, America's Test Kitchen anything is great.

It's not health related but you can certainly modify the recipes to be low-carb but I also really like 2 plates, 1 pot I haven't come across a recipe I didn't like in that book. I will say that I usually have a ton of leftovers from the side portions of the meals.

Everyone (especially me) should Do One Thing Every Day That Scares Them or if you prefer a more "traditional book", I can always use a 3 A.M. Epiphany. (I could use sleep too but that doesn't come in a book format.)

No e-books on my wishlist though. The ones I want usually wind up more expensive than the hard copy version!

Oh, If I were a book, I hope that I'd be a great one. (Or a sexy one. ;)

Well!

So this is a short, but predictable story. Sexy time with my man. Things are going great. Wonderful. And then, I feel a burning in my bubble gum by the bum. It's okay, keep pushing. I got this.

I had to stop. I'm burning. Wtf man. Well, turns out he still had pepper oil on his hands from dinner earlier. Didn't even remember. I made him poor milk on my sausage wallet while I sobbed in the tub.

It's funny now that it's over, but use gloves people. For your hands and your flesh flute.

This may not even count, but I thought this was entertaining for my "NSFW" themed item: Fifty Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook

She has a cookbook too that is really great. I think most of the recipes might be on her site, but I still recommend picking up the book. Several of our favorite things to make come from there.

http://smile.amazon.com/The-Smitten-Kitchen-Cookbook-Perelman/dp/030759565X

Exceptional list you have there, but I recommend one more for its high ratings by peppers and ease of use:

Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods

https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-American-Natural/dp/1402767153/ref=pd_aw_sbs_107_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1402767153&pd_rd_r=4e057b20-f28e-11e8-ae28-63a19228e702&pd_rd_w=X1NDt&pd_rd_wg=92LXw&pf_rd_i=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=926ebe02-3236-40c6-ac63-01ad178f498a&pf_rd_r=SSHTMY1FXBEAX0HR6F1Y&pf_rd_s=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=SSHTMY1FXBEAX0HR6F1Y

[Plants of Coastal British Columbia: Including Washington, Oregon and Alaska by Jim Pojar]
(https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1551055325/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1977604502&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1594853665&pf_rd_m=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&pf_rd_r=ZE56QP0A00SH8K6G23SM)This book here is my holy bible for foraging and IDs. I know you are in Oregon, but I'm on Vancouver Island which is practically in the US and as west coast as it gets. Many of the plants growing where I am grow in parts of Oregon too. Consider fining this book or one similar. IMO a good Id book with images is the most important thing to carry with you (aside from gloves and a pocket knife).



Here are a few books I do not own but have read or heard people recommend.

Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West by Michael Moore

Pacific Northwest Foraging by Douglas Deur

Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt to Plate by John Kallas

Jerusalem and Zahav are Israeli food cookbooks that handle vegetables nicely, though neither is vegetarian. The former is coauthored by Yotam Ottolenghi, who also wrote Plenty (which /u/Osatomr has recommended elsewhere in the comments).

It's also worth looking into Indian cuisine, as some versions of it are both vegetable-centric and relatively easy to make (due to their one-pot nature). I don't know of any Indian cookbooks off the top of my head, but Serious Eats' recipe for channa masala is a fun starting point (if a slight departure from tradition).

Mastering Pasta by Marc Vetri has a chapter dedicated to semolina pasta. It focuses on extruding, but you can cook them fresh as well. There's also a recipe for gnocchi sardi which is made with semolina and always cooked fresh.

>authentic, multi-regional Italian food.

Slight lol.

Consider a16 (own - can recommend); mastering pasta (also own, can also recommend but maybe a little less).

The reason for the LOL is that that sicilian food is so different from neapolitan, and that from venetian, that there is no one cookbook.

I'd recommend focusing on one region at a time - there are lot of them - and going seasonal where you (she) can.

I was recently given a cookbook that I have really enjoyed: One Pan, Two Dinners. I've yet to make anything in there that I didn't really enjoy, and they combine different foods in interesting ways. Perfect amounts of food for the wife and I.

I have found The Game Inventor's Guidebook by Brian Tinsman to be a wonderful resource. It is a bit dated since so much has changed these past 8 years, but the book is a great tool nonetheless.

Powders like this are beneficial when you a parent dealing with a feeding disorder -or even picky eating and they literally gag/vomit if fed anything they don't want to eat like veggies. I run a nonprofit for special needs children and even though my boys were not like this there are many that are. There are also many ways to make food with veggies hidden in them some of the SLPs have shared and this is also shared in a book called The Sneaky Chef which has a number of recipes.

I don't believe the answer would automatically be yes or no. The other variable would be ingredients, purity of them, nutrient content, and where they are produced. While food is the best source of nutrients we aren't in the same world today we were decades ago. There is a rise in heavy metals and other contaminants in the soil, even in organic food. I eat a lot of veggies but supplement that with IQed a nutritional composition which is made from food ingredients so contains full meal and vitamin replacement if needed because in addition to contamination our soils today are depleted of nutrients in comparison to decades ago So the answer depends on what powder you are using and why.

This book, http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-American-Natural/dp/1402767153/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1458181171&sr=8-3&keywords=wild+edibles, is my favorite. Tons of plants with maps of where they grow and pictures of the real plant. Some of my personal favorites are fiddle-heads, wild asparagus, and black raspberries. Wild grapes are delicious, but a bit sour, in the late summer. Black walnuts are nice if you can get to them before the maggots do.

I love everything I've made out of The Perfect Scoop

It is from the Jerusalem cookbook. I am on the road now but will post the recipe in a little while. It was very simple!

Edit: it looks like user /u/weareabrutalkind linked to the recipe in this thread. That's the recipe I used, except I added white wine in place of arak, and I added marjoram from my garden and a little extra fennel seed. I realize it would have been better to use an anise liqueur but I just couldn't make it to a liquor store. However, it turned out perfect and I have no complaint.

Two books have vastly expanded my knowledge, understanding, and creativity in my approach to homemade ice cream making. I absolutely swear by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book and Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book. I see a lot of chatter about Jeni's of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream ice cream recipes for mouth feel, but her approach uses corn syrup and corn starch. That's the kind of ingredient I am trying to avoid by making my own ice creams, so I can't attest to her recipes.

Ben & Jerry have three cream base recipes. Humprhy Slocombe should really be owned by anyone who makes ice cream. It's kind of like a Joy of Cooking, but for ice cream. and it is a fun read. Whenever I try out a new flavor, I start with these two books and go from there.

These are the ones on my wishlist:


The Vegonomicon


Everyday Happy Herbivore


Thug Kitchen


But I could never go vegan!


Oh She Glows Cookbook


I personally own The Vegan Stoner Cookbook and I like it a lot.

One Pan, Two Plates has a lot of great recipes with sensible portion sizes for two people. Don't trust her cooking times for things like rice and lentils and stuff like that though, they take way longer than she says.

While it is not exactly what you are looking for - on the topic of books, make sure you get the "River Cottage Meat Book". It's not a traditional butchery text book, but has loads of great meat information.

http://amzn.com/1580088430

I also second The Joy of Cooking, and would like to add the following to your list:

• Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
  
  
• Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food
  
  
• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Everyday and The River Cottage Meat Book
  
• Any of Alton Brown's books, some examples here and here
  

haha. durianriders aka as harley johnstone. He is very critical of all things keto, paleo, atkins, low carb.

His favourite catchphrases:
fruit yourself
carb up
if you aren't losing weight - you aren't getting enough carbs from calories
you cant function at peak performance without carbs
no athlete does a low carb diet
i dont exercise much
i sleep 12 hours a day

No offence/nothing against Harley johnstone - im sure he's not a bad person... but his lifestyle is complete opposite to keto. almost 100% fruit - a raw food vegan. His guru is dr doug graham author of the 80/10/10 diet
REVIEWS
http://www.amazon.com/The-80-10-Diet/product-reviews/1893831248/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0

READ THE BOOK FOR FREE
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7HUzyxEtLv5V1lzTUxvUXVDNU0/edit

I can't speak for whether it works to aid weight loss or whether its healthy but i do know that harley and Freelea (his GF) are making a decent living out of a website and thousands of adsense laden youtube videos to promote this lifestyle. Don't ask any critical questions on his forums or youtube videos though - it will get you banned sharpish.

I used an adapted version of David Lebovitz's recipe, which I found on Kitchen Confit. Basically it uses 4 oz of goat cheese instead of 8 oz. I think 4 oz is plenty goat cheese-y.

It's worth noting that the first time I made this, I overcooked the egg mixture and ended up with some sort of scrambled egg concoction. I was able to rescue it with an immersion blender.

Edit: The topping is something I made up. It's mostly honey, with a bit of butter and a tiny splash of vanilla. Unfortunately I don't have a recipe for it because I just played around with it on the stove until I liked what I saw/tasted/smelled.

My favorite cookbook for beginners is Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food, which has really delicious recipes for making basic things from scratch; she walks you through a lot of basic techniques and tips for learning how to cook, not just following a recipe.

James Patterson Peterson literally wrote the book on this topic. go buy it, it's a completely fascinating read in it's own right with the side benefit that you get to understand the different aspects of how sauces work and their history.

If you're looking to just learn about which plants are edible and which are not, it may be cheaper to just buy a book about edible plant identification kind of like this one.

If you're looking for this as well as other aspects of living off the land, it may be more prudent to take a wilderness survival course that will include edible plants as well as how to build a shelter, how to trap and dry meat, how to navigate without a compass, etc.

Either way, my gf and I are getting into this sort of thing and would love to learn ourselves. Feel free to drop a pm if you want to team up.

This is really really good, lots of suprising dishes and good tipps (but also not just turkish):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1607743949/ref=mp_s_a_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1487615654&sr=8-2-spell&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=yottham+ottolenghi

Fifty Shades of Chicken.

Apparently it's pretty funny, and a completely useable cookbook.

You should try the cookbooks Sneaky Chef or Deceptively Delicious.

I think it's true that while more exposure helps, seeing parents eat it helps, avoiding processed food helps, etc., sometimes kids are picky and irrational. And I'd rather be putting some vegetables in them than none at all.

If you do want a book get The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. It has great recipes, but more importantly it tells you how things should be cooked.

Combine with blank cards, your own blank folding game board, some neutral pawns, and/or a set with pawns, tokens, timers, and more, and you're set!

Need inspiration? Do a Little. Reading.

In my opinion it's way easier to make ravioli from the sheets, you can buy him this fancy crinkle cutting wheel and a pasta making book! I recommend Mastering Pasta and Flour + Water Pasta.

The River Cottage Meat Book dramatically improved my approach to proteins in so many ways. I would recommend it to anyone.

Read The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Douglas Graham. It's the simplest and best. The basic premise is get all the carbohydrates you desire from simple sugars from fruit, then eat very little protein and fat (veggies, nuts, seeds)

Plenty and Plenty More are the absolute best cookbooks I've ever owned of any kind.

I can recommend two cook books.

1. mastering the art of French cooking by Julia Childs
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Volume/dp/0394721780
   
   
2. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. A personal favorite.
   
   http://www.amazon.com/The-Smitten-Kitchen-Cookbook-Perelman/dp/030759565X
   
   

I have this book. It's alright, I think I wanted something with more exotic shaping guides, but the internet has been good for that.

the Oh She Glows cookbook is fantastic and I have never made a bad recipe.

I love this one and use it all the time.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Pan-Two-Plates-Weeknight/dp/1452106703/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449342825&sr=8-1&keywords=One+pan+two+plates

I got this one last year. It's great.

http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-Adventure-Series/dp/1423601505/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375922689&sr=8-1&keywords=edible+wild+plants

Great book

The River Cottage Meat Book - also a great book for both technique and recipes.

I agree heartily (and hungrily) with the resources suggested above. For an overall view of meat in general (both "odd" and regular bits) I would also recommend "The River Cottage Meat Book" http://www.amazon.com/The-River-Cottage-Meat-Book/dp/1580088430

Start with the basics, the 'minimum viable kitchen' - http://priceonomics.com/cookware/

Really you just need a big knife and a little knife, a big pan and a little pan, measuring cups and spoons, things like spatulas and tongs. Buy as you go.

If you're a carboholic, start out with pastas. Different sauces and lots of vegetables and you can use any meat you want, but you don't have to if you don't want to.

You might want to try one of the 'one pan meals' cookbooks as well http://www.amazon.com/One-Pan-Two-Plates-Weeknight/dp/1452106703/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410206314&sr=1-1&keywords=one+pan+meals

Seriously, it's the best! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607746077/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I know you've already got a ton of suggestions but, I highly recommend this book

Mastering Pasta by Marc Vetri

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1607746077/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484998931&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=mastering+pasta&dpPl=1&dpID=61FMdoMqdnL&ref=plSrch

Other's have been rather rude about this whole thing. If you are putting low effort into questions we can give you low effort responses--instead of being a toxic community. You'd think as a community we would be able to identify toxic stuff since a huge part of "can I eat this" is "should I be careful of anything that looks like this, but I really REALLY shouldn't eat".

In any case look into a few books.I've got https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-American-Natural/dp/1402767153 and would recommend it as both a place to start, and reference material. There's a region guide to point you at specific plants to look up online. Once you know a specific plant, find a video ID guide of it online and watch a few, then use the book as reference material when in the field. I recommend https://www.youtube.com/user/EatTheWeeds for videos. He does stuff that's in Florida, but 60-70% of his stuff applies in the "mid-west" states.

You could also use https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-Foods-Adventure/dp/1423601505 which only covers ~10 plants, but they are plants that can be found almost everywhere.

Before you eat anything, look up "poisonous look alikes *plant name*" where plant name is the name of what you think you've got in your hands (so likely a phone in a field with cell access)

If you need help ID'ing specific plants, come back to this sub.

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A few things that should be addressed, I hope this doesn't come off too negatively.

• Don't tell people they're eating veal when it's pork
  
• It would be a bad idea to use the fat-cap from the loin in sausages, there is way too much silver skin and sinew, grind it and render for lard.
  
• Braising a loin is an affront to the animal that died for it, it tastes sad, dry and stringy.
  
• DON'T TELL PEOPLE THEY'RE EATING VEAL WHEN IT'S PORK.
  
  
  I get that you want to make a Youtube tutorial series, but you need more experience in both the cutting an the cooking of meat. Take a break from making videos to spend time reading/cooking/editing videos.
  
  RESOURCES TO CHECK OUT!
  
  One of the most straight foreward books on Butchery
  
  Amazing techniques on utilizing the whole animal
  
  Great technique for the weird parts
  
  Great foundational stuff as well as a bit about ethics
  
  YOUTUBE VIDZ!
  
  A short series on cool butchery techniques
  
  A well-spring of meat knowledge, dude knows his stuff

There's a lot of edible plants people have just forgotten about in favour of the sweeter, less healthy versions we eat now. Here's a book about it. Or just Google edible plants in your area http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1402767153?pc_redir=1409138159&robot_redir=1

At Amazon, #1 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Vegetarian & Vegan > Vegan


Edit Link to amazon

Sauces by James Peterson
I own it and it's a highly valuable resource.

my girlfriend and i make a lot of ice cream and one of our favorite books is your ice cream book (found here: http://www.amazon.com/Jerrys-Homemade-Cream-Dessert-Book/dp/0894803123)


my question:

if you could add 5 recipes to that book, which would they be?

and if possible, can i get said recipes?

Also The River Cottage Meat Book although it is extra British, I consider it to be an essential read. Also, Pork & Sons is my favorite meat subject.

For a book with more personal experience collecting and cooking wild edibles I always suggest Foragers Harvest. It's all first hand experience.
*edit because mobile

I can send food and medical supplies if you need it. Here is a guide I recommend, just in case you need to escape to the wilderness for a few months.

Here is a good book for identifying edible wild plants.

However, the only one I've been brave enough to try is boiled young poke weed leaves... which tasted terrible :P

As /u/DroogyParade said, get a copy of On Cooking. Hell, I have one one and I'm just an enthusiastic home cook. Also, if you want a good book on sauces, and guy named Peterson wrote what is considered to be the current tome on sauces. It is very well done and very organized for having to cover such a vast subject.

This is a really good guide. http://www.amazon.com/The-Foragers-Harvest-Identifying-Harvesting/dp/0976626608

http://www.amazon.com/The-Oh-She-Glows-Cookbook/dp/1583335277

All these recipes are really good and I'm not even vegetarian, my wife is.... I've cooked half the book with her.

[This] (http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-Foods-Adventure/dp/1423601505/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1463064183&sr=8-3&keywords=edible+wild+plants) book will be very helpful as it not only teaches you how to identify edibles, nut also how to prepare and utilize them. It was written by a PhD in Ag from Michigan St. University.

Fifty Shades of Chicken is one of my favorite food novel/cookbooks.

GA here, this is my favorite book I've found so far https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-American-Natural/dp/1402767153

Yes it is much like posting religious sentiment in r/athiest.

I'm not going to read a book about eating unhealthy food when I am 6'0 147 lbs, eating 4000 calories a day, 3000 of those being carbohydrates.

We have to be cautious about scientific results especially those that are in the meat, dairy or egg boards interests. I do not question the legitimacy of the science, just the scope of the findings. Studies can be framed in a way to get answers you want to find out, cholesterol lowers with weight loss, feed someone a calorie restricted diet of only eggs and you can have findings of eggs lowering cholesterol levels. Studies like this have been coming out for a while to protect industry, seems like diet gurus figured they'd take advantage of the false information.

I think the problem with this diet is of all others that calorie restrict is sooner or later you end up in a condition where just taking more away from your body is no longer healthy. You are left eating this diet super high in cholesterol and trans fats. (all animal products contain a lot of trans fats.)

I would like to advise a high carb, low fat diet. Heres some books on the subject since you seem to like reading about diets.
http://www.nealbarnard.org/books/
http://www.amazon.com/The-80-10-Diet/dp/1893831248

r/indianfood gets some good recipes every once in a while. I just ordered this book

I've heard this book is good for practical use, better than the Peterson guide. I don't have either yet but plan on purchasing what I linked.

Highly recommend the following:

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Simple-Food-Delicious-Revolution/dp/0307336794

I can highly recommend Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking. She is very thorough (I think she gives 4 or 5 ways to prepare basic basmati, for example).

This rule dictates 95% of what I do in the kitchen.

There is a cookbook called "One Pan, Two Plates," it is legit, I highly recommend it

Edit: here ya go fam: https://www.amazon.com/One-Pan-Two-Plates-Weeknight/dp/1452106703

may i suggest the Jerusalem cookbook? it's a really well put together look at the many diverse cuisines that make up 'jewish' food. i've made a number of the recipes in it and they are all phenomenal.

http://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-A-Cookbook-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/1607743949

James Peterson: Sauces is the best book I have found. It is more a text book though so it is extensive. French foundation but covers other things. My pan sauces are the beesknees because of it.

^^ this + this = how I gained 5 pounds last summer

I'd also recommend [this book] (http://www.amazon.com/The-River-Cottage-Meat-Book/dp/1580088430), plus any of [these casings] (http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=85_94) (they'll last forever too, if you pack them in salt.

Here are some I have saved:

• Pho (NY Times)
  
  
• Ribs
  
  
• Bone Broth, I do both chicken and beef
  
  
• Carnitas
  
  
• Pot Roast
  
  
• French Onion Soup (Slow Cooker setting)
  
  
• Duck Confit
  
  
• Short Ribs
  
  
• Chicken and Rice Burrito Bowl
  
  
• Baked Potato Soup
  
  Really I just think about of what I'm craving and Google that thing cooked in the InstantPot, some recipes are good, some are bad. It's just a matter if figuring out which blogs and sites know what they're doing. Also I'll adapt Slow Cooker or Dutch oven recipes
  
  I also suggest the following cook books for one pot cooking:
  
  
• One Pan Two Plates
  
  
• All-in-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two
  
  
• The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook
  
  
• Dinner in an Instant
  
  

The Forager's Harvest appears to be in the same vein as well.

I'm pretty sure it was this. Dunno anything about mushrooms--unfortunately, I hate them!

I'm in the NW US and I found that fwp has some nice, very specific laminated pamphlets on flora and fauna for my area at their main offices. Not edible focused but you can find what is/isn't edible labeled appropriately in them.


Perhaps your fwp has the same? If not try searching by the proper biome label (where I am it is the Taiga) and I found this with a quick search - but if you are closer to the coast you should search for Chaparral.

http://www.amazon.com/Sauces-Classical-Contemporary-Sauce-Making/dp/0470194960

Accessible and comprehensive

Nothing says fun like a bird with a nice tight tie!

https://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Chicken-Parody-Cookbook/dp/0385345224/

I highly recommend Jerusalem by Yottam Ottolenghi.

It is food found mainly in Jerusalem, but many of the dishes are served throughout the Middle East with slight variations.

Here's the Amazon link - https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Wild-Plants-American-Natural/dp/1402767153

I like this one. It's not the most comprehensive, nor the most general, but I find its approach spot on.

Check out the Art of Simple Food. http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Simple-Food-Revolution/dp/0307336794

Lots of basics, simple ingredient dishes.

Joy of Cooking

How to Cook Everything

The Art of Simple Food

I think that his is a cookbook that everyone should own or at least 499 people should.

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Chicken-Parody-Cookbook/dp/0385345224/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394561211&sr=8-1&keywords=50+shades+of+chicken

It's not just a German book.

https://smile.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Chicken-Parody-Cookbook/dp/0385345224

The first recipe is "Plain Vanilla Chicken" which I know because I got it for my mother for her birthday in 2012.

Det här kan vara en bok för dig då..

https://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Chicken-Parody-Cookbook/dp/0385345224

In case you wanted more

Kink?

The last fact reminded me of this book.

James Peterson; Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making is in my library.

James Peterson - Sauces?

• Rack of lamb: fat scored in a checker, seared in oil, then roasted
  
  
• Bearnaise: homemade from this book which I highly recommend... I can post the recipe if needed
  
  
• Pasta: linguine cooked to al dente- then finished in a pan with julienned summer (I think?) squash and a bunch of chardonnay and topped with some basil chiffonade and diced heirloom tomatoes
  
  

This is the Bible for making Sauces.

Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making

this is a great book...


https://www.amazon.com/Sauces-Classical-Contemporary-Sauce-Making/dp/0470194960

This is one of the classic indian books. It branches into different types of indian cuisine from basics and how to make a full meal. This is the book I turn to for indian food.

>excessive pickiness around food can set you up for issues with weight

This feels so familiar.......

> saying "hey, I'm at my goal weight, time for dessert seven days a week!"

A diet should probably include six months to a whole year of weight maintenance so satiety hormones can get back on track.

So maintaining the weight would be part of the diet.

Maybe that works?

http://www.amazon.com/Jerrys-Homemade-Cream-Dessert-Book/dp/0894803123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408236293&sr=8-1&keywords=ben+and+jerry%27s+ice+cream+recipe+book

This is the recipe book my dad and I have been using. Since I've been home for the summer from college, my dad and I have been eating a lot of this ice cream

Not a sub, but I got the Ben & Jerry's book https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0894803123/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_lq4bAbVAQ9NHW

http://www.throughherlookingglass.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Cherry-Garcia-Ice-Cream4.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/Jerrys-Homemade-Cream-Dessert-Book/dp/0894803123

I ate a pint of it earlier today (storebought)!