Book Reviews

My only excuse for not having found it earlier is that I had one year old twins who never slept and all I did was nurse, look about with bleary eyes and try to make noodles for the fifth night running. I guess The Splendid Grain would have been of no use to me then. I would have cried when I read it. All these recipes for bagels made with barley flour and Strawberry Blue Corn Waffles that I could not cook because I was on the floor baby-proofing the outlets or cleaning up oatmeal from the baseboards.

I read an article on bread by Laurie Colwin back before I had children. Wisdom wasted on the uninitiated. In it Laurie Colwin said that she found a bread cookbook when her daughter was young and she read it as fiction because that is what bread baking is to people with babies. This is not just to let me off the hook for missing a great cookbook when it came out but to say buy it even if you have no kitchen because it makes such a good read.

The recipes in "The Splendid Grain" are easier than they appear. I made bagels with my three kids and a few assorted extras over on play dates. We made the dough in a few minutes and then let it rise while we kept the dog from scaring one child and we forgot about the dough all together by the time the dog was on a leash and the child pacified. When we came back to the dough it had a strange gray color from the barley flour but this was a plus for the under seven set.

Making the bagel shapes was easy enough for three year olds. Boiling was fun and baking easy and we were done. The dozen were gone immediately. I had one that I split with my husband. They were an eerie Halloween gray but had a complex taste from the barley. I forgot about them in my rush to try the next recipe from The Splendid Grain. I was informed at school a few days later that my son's friend, the one who is scared of the dog, was never coming over again if I did not stop upstaging her mom by doing things like making these great homemade bagels. I guess they did not forget about the bagels for a while.

We made waffles, and breakfast cakes; winter squash potage was the hit of a Hanukkah party for which we promised to make Matzoh Ball soup but I just couldn't leave old Rebecca Wood to do it. No one missed the Matzoh Balls, and I make excellent Matzoh Balls. We had cornmeal mush instead of oatmeal. Real Vietnamese Spring Rolls are the plan for dinner tonight. She makes it look so easy. On the still-to-try list is a Rye and Cauliflower Casserole and Quinoa Soup Saigon Style.

The Apricot Millet Breakfast Cake is what brought the book to my attention. I would like to thank my friend Jeanie for the cake I finished before I could share it with the kids as intended. Jeanie was a chef and cake baker extraordinaire before kids. I trust her food judgment and envy her huge Hobart mixer and professional range. She gave us a piece of this cake as I was picking my son up from a play date. Jeanie showed me "The Splendid Grain." "You've seen this, right?" I hadn't. I wanted to borrow it but she wouldn't let it go--a sentiment I appreciated.

So I went out and bought the book. That was about six weeks ago. I slept with it next to my bed. Read all the fascinating information about each kind of grain and read the recipes, as Laurie Colwin taught me, as a good novel and not a cookbook. Then I started making grocery lists for all Rebecca Wood weeks. This has continued for at least a month and no one has stopped eating long enough to thank me. But I want to thank Jeanie publicly. This gift of "The Splendid Grain" does not raise her in my esteem, it simply reminds me of how highly she is held (even though she would not lend me her copy).

You do need to add a salad or some steamed vegetable to the all Splendid Grain menu. But no protein need be added as she has every combination of chicken, prawns, tofu, you name it in the recipes. It is just a little light on salads or some kind of green stuff.

I have a mind to call Rebecca Wood and thank her for this book. She researched so thoroughly and cooked so plentifully for us, her readers. Rebecca wood covered it all. Ancient food from the Americas to a Norwegian friend's mother's recipes. From macrobiotics to blinis with caviar and Christmas Hen. Normally I am wary of someone trying to cover the whole world and every grain. Things tend to get diluted and hodge-podgy. Not so in "The Splendid Grain." Each recipe is crisp and novel.

I am grateful. It is the week after Christmas as I am writing and Hanukkah has passed into the winter. I have been made aware this year of how the traditions I find around me all stress this time of year as a time to bring light and warmth into your heart in this darkest time of the year. Rebecca Wood's book feels like a warm hearth to me, and a good friend cooking for you. I am grateful that I am out of the dark woods of parenting early childhood. I am grateful to Jeanie for bringing this book and a lot more into my life. The Splendid Grain came to me through a warm friend and I have shared it with my friends over the winter. I am grateful for the feeling of warmth and the book that has helped inspire me to share it.

Thank you for reminding me what is important.