PEARS REMIND ME OF BOOKS, since an image of my windowsill filled with ‘Bosc’ pears not unlike the ones above was chosen as the cover of my upcoming dropout memoir. To celebrate Pear Week of Fall Fest, a harvest collaboration with my culinary blogging friends, I therefore offer up not a recipe, but a chance to win a new cookbook I am loving right now: “Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: A Love Story With 100 Tempting Recipes.” I bought two copies to share with you. Interested? There’s even a pear tart in the mix.
First, though, some quick pear goodies:
What I Know About Pears
- An espaliered Asian pear (flowers, fruit, and structure!) is the ultimate four-season plant.
- Wild “mystery” pears that grow in my yard never seem to ripen.
- Pears (like apples and many other berries) are really roses in disguise.
Why I Love ‘Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef’
SOME OF YOU MAY KNOW Shauna James Ahern, the Gluten-Free Girl, who has participated in many Summer Fest and Fall Fest events here with me the last couple of years. Her extremely popular blog is for people who love food—and great writing.
Don’t let the “gluten-free” part of Shauna and her chef husband Danny’s website or their new cookbook scare you off, if wheat and other glutens aren’t something you worry about eating because you don’t have the kind of sensitivity that prompted Shauna to go gluten-free in 2005. This is just plain delicious food, made from fresh ingredients—and (surprise! rapture!) there is plenty of baking in the mix, including carrot-ginger cake and focaccia–and a pear tart, made with Asian pears and a sorghum, potato and sweet-rice flour crust. There is even homemade gluten-free pasta (and since 1 in 100 Americans is gluten-intolerant and they all love pasta, that’s a handy recipe to have).
What I particularly appreciate: the surprise of tinted “sidebar” pages throughout that augment the recipes and the beautiful story of Shauna and Danny’s growing connection by teaching the basics that professionally trained Danny the chef taught to Shauna as their relationship evolved from dating to marriage to today. How to make things like sauces, stocks, vinaigrettes; plus a page of basics about mastering gluten-free baking and working with flours that may be unfamiliar.
This is a book that works on four levels–love story; recipes; gluten-free support; an expert chef’s tips. You can enjoy it on any–or all of them.
Don’t believe me? See for yourself. You can get to know her and husband Danny (the chef) and their daughter, Lu, in the astonishing video (above) created by another talented pair of Fest participants, Diane Cu and Todd Porter of White on Rice Couple blog.
How to Win the Books
TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY, simply comment below telling us one thing about cooking that someone else taught you, the way Danny taught Shauna chef-style techniques and Shauna taught Danny about gluten-free. (Truth be told, even if you just say “I’m in,” I’ll count you as an entry, so no pressure.)
I’ll select two random winners on at midnight Saturday, October 23, using the application at Random [dot] org, announcing them on Sunday the 24th.
I wish each of you luck–and if not, buy a copy. Worth it (also a great gift, I think–I have some stashed here for holiday giving, too).
Great Pear Recipes From My Friends
- Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Three Favorite Pear Recipes
- Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Pear, Pecan, Parmesan Scones
- Paige at The Sister Project: A Gingery Pear Crisp
- Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Sour Cream Pear Cake
- Todd and Diane at White on Rice Couple: Making Pear Galette
- Gilded Fork: Harvest Risotto with Caramelized Pears
- Roberto at Food2: 5 Ways to Warm Up to Pear
- Michelle at Cooking Channel: What to Pair With Pears
- Kirsten at Food Network: Baking Up Pear Desserts
- Liz at Healthy Eats: Vanilla Poached Pears, With Variations
- Alana at Eating From the Ground Up: Musings on pear and cheese
- Food Network UK: Pear Necessities
What’s a Fall Fest?
FALL FEST IS A cross-blog recipe (and tip) swap–and you’re invited to participate. Simply post your link or recipe or idea in the comments below my post, and also on the blogs of the other participants listed in the recipe links box just above.
Want more information on how it all works? Get the details (and the schedule for upcoming weeks, including our shift into Fall Fest after many weeks of Summer Fest, with a new logo but the same recipe-sharing routine). We’re continuing right into the Thanksgiving holiday.
I’m in!! :)
My grandmother & my father taught me how to cook. The one thing that I miss the most is my grandmothers food. I have made her recipes but they just dont taste the same.
She taught me how to roll tortillas…well she tried her’s were perfect round discs, mine were and still are this strange shape that cannot be considered oblong nor circular…just plain odd.
My Dad taught me the secret of his delicious fried rice and I think of him each time I cook it now. I would love a copy of this cookbook as I eat gluten free :)
Wonderful information, and I love Fall Fest and Summer Fest! Your site is amazing! http://www.ingredientsinc.net/2010/10/fall-favorite-mixed-green-salad-with-pear-and-pecans/
My mother taught me to never work the dough too much. She has also tried to teach me to forgo talking politics at the dinner table…..that isn’t working…I just like to rock the boat.
Love your blog Margaret.
I’ve always been a solo cooker. Cooking is what grounds me, calms me, prepares me for the week ahead. I’ve learned most of what I know from cookbooks and trial and error. I got diagnosed with Celiac Disease about 10 years ago and learned to adapt recipes in the same way – a few good books and websites and a lot of trial and error. I’d love to win Shauna and Danny’s cookbook – it’s on my wishlist!
I love to cook, always have. Since finding out I have Celiac disease 5 years ago, I’ve gone through a lot of trial and error… expensive, gluten-free error! Actually, the one who has taught me most since that time is Shauna! Her posts and recipes have always been so intriguing and delicious sounding that I was never afraid to jump right in. I have her first book (indispensible) and would LOVE the new one.
I love pear dumplings :) filled with goat cheese and almonds.
My mom taught me the importance of saving scraps, composting, utilizing everything that you have, and appreciating it. We try to minimalize our wastes and finish everything we buy/cook.
My mother taught me the importance of dreaming. i still remember a time when my five-year-old self fell asleep dreaming up a recipe for spanish rice. however, when i attempted it in the kitchen, it tasted horrible! my mom convinced me to keep going and told me to never stop dreaming about new flavors.
i’d like to point out that, at age 31, i make a mean spanish rice!
So many have taught me so much. :)
I’m in!
No one taught me in person, but I have learnt so much from reading, picking up techniques along the way. I prefer books that concentrate on fresh, seasonal ingredients for home cooking as opposed to dinner party food. Elizabeth David and Jamie Oliver are both superb at this, even if, were they to meet in that great kitchen in the sky, they would struggle to understand each other!
I found out that I have coeliac (English spelling!) about a year after Shauna, and was lucky enough to find her blog soon after. I had been suffering all my life, like her. I can honestly say now, though, that I have never eaten better.
I am in my fifth year of growing vegetables, have a small greenhouse, and loving the bounty that has come from my little patch of earth!
Our house went gluten-free after my boyfriend was diagnosed as gluten-intolerant just a few months ago.
I figured it wasn’t fair for me to continue to mangia on all the gluten-filled food I knew he loved and would miss so terribly with him sitting next to me, so we tackled the wheat-free world together. There have been MANY pitfalls since we began, but we’ve managed to laugh through the really horrible recipes that didn’t *quite* turn out as I’d hoped (we couldn’t even chisel my first pizza dough off the pizza pan!) and relish in the Ben & Jerry’s flavors that we’ve found we can still indulge in (Peanut Brittle!). As a pair we do anything better, it seems, and I love that.
And while my boyfriend doesn’t know how to do anything more than boil water, he’s actually taught me a few things about cooking. Most importantly, that whether it tastes fantastic or horrible once it’s done, it’s always worth the effort. That man will sit and eat anything I put in front of him. Simply because I took the time to make it and that’s how he shows his appreciation and his support of this crazy, gluten-free world we’re exploring. He’s also taught me that you’re never too old for a good ol’ fashioned high five at the dinner table when your Gluten-Free Baked Ziti tastes AWESOME! :)
Thanks for your blog. Having resources like this so close by makes the world a far better place…
-Melissa
My daughters-in-law both need to eat gluten-free, so I bought Shauna’s first book to gain an appreciation of their diet restrictions … turns out, I gained an appreciation of food!
I have had many cooking instructors. Each time I take out a recipe to make a main course, a salad or a pie, I think of them. It’s part of my ‘joy of cooking’.
Count me in!
I’m delighted to see you feature cooking with pears, because pears are one of the very few fruits that are friendly to my wretched bladder, which suffers from interstitial cystitis, a nasty chronic bladder disease. Thanks. And, I am also gluten intolerant, so this new cookbook looks really good.
My favorite cooking lessons come in recent years from helping my adult sons, both more adventuresome cooks than I am, prepare marvelous meals for their families with a minimum of fuss. The older one was comfortable in the kitchen from the time he was 8 or 9. Makes me very proud.
i love gluten free girl and the chef!!
they have taught me that
being celiac can be
DELISH!!!
thank you!
I’m mostly self-taught, as my mom didn’t enjoy cooking. She did, however, enjoy eating and taught me joy in food (though if someone else was cooking, so much the better!). LOL
My favorite aunt taught me how to brown and crisp sliced onions in butter as a topper for yummy mashed potatoes. I’m in! Thanks for the giveaway!
I learned from my husband that cooking with fresh, local ingredients is best. Also the presentation or plating of the food is just as important. It’s great to have a fully loaded plate that is beautifully planted “adjusted” in front of you.
Pear chutney is a winner! The smell of it simmering is worth all the peeling and chopping. Love your book cover. Thanks for all your good work.
My mom taught me how to clean up!
I haven’t got my hands on that book yet, but soon.
My husband, who doesn’t like to cook, has actually taught me to be less cheffy. He got annoyed when I kept trying to show him a better way to do something, telling me to just let the cooking happen.
Everything I know about cooking was taught to me by one of my grandmothers. The most valuable information was simply to “feel” the process. This tells me when the consistency is right, the flavors are right, the dish is right.
I have friends and family members who must follow a gluten free diet so I’d love to have this cook book in my collection.
My husband is a native Italian so I had to learn quite a bit about Italian ingredients and cooking when we were first married. His family do not use written recipes but taught me by a “watch and learn” method. I think I’ve done pretty well through 36 years of marriage!
My Polish-American mother-in-law taught me how to make noodles for homemade chicken soup. No fancy tools, just kneeding the dough, rolling it out with a rolling pin, nice thick hearty ones.
I am a baker who learned from my mother. I have one bad habit which is not to check that I have all the ingredients before I begin. My husband (who often would run out to get the missing ingredient) has taught me to read through the entire recipe before I begin. For my 60th birthday my siblings gave me baking lessons at the Institute for Culinary Education and there I learned yet another valuable lesson: measure out and set up all the ingredients before you begin. I usually bake with apples, blueberries and plums, but will explore pears next. I very much enjoy your material. Monica
Adding a small amount of coffee to any chocolate recipe actually enhances the taste of chocolate! This was a yummy tip taught to me when I was a young college student….It has worked every time! :)
My partner was diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago and Shauna’s website and first book taught us both that it is not an insurmountable obstacle to good eating. I’ll always be grateful to her for that.
When I finally realized that it was gluten that had been making me incredibly sick for so long I went through a period of unabashed despair! I am a self-taught chef and baker and I had no idea what I needed to do to live gluten-free while continuing to express myself creatively through cooking and baking! Then I “discovered” Shauna James Ahern and I began to be convinced through her incredible writing and “yes” approach to life that it WAS possible to cook and bake gluten free and that it could taste AS GOOD as food always had prior to my diagnosis. Gluten Free Girl has not only been one of my main cooking and baking “instructors” for over two years but my encourager and cheerleader for gluten free experimentation as well. And for all of this and more I will forever be in her debt. Thank you Shauna.
I’m so in! That video is a beautiful thing!
My father taught me how to cook eggs. I remember him showing me his secrets behind scrambled, over medium and omelets. He was all about breakfast.
I am in. My daughter has celiac and she has taught me the same lesson I learned from my Dad, fresh ingredients yields the best food at the table. And my Mom taught me to love every task in the kitchen especially the lowly ones, the love comes out in the meal!
My close girlfriend taught me just recently that it’s ok if something you bake or cook doesn’t turn out as long as you keep trying it to get it right. I use to have a bad habit of trying something, failing horribly and never trying again. Since I’ve been easier on myself I’ve actually started to enjoy being in the kitchen again and starting to be a little more creative.
One thing a friend who is a great raw chef taught me is that you can slice just about any veggie very thin and then massage it with salt so that it weeps a bit. Then add some nuts or seeds, some roasted garlic, and you have a fantastic nutritious salad. Great with purple cabbage, and just about anything else.
She has also taught me the joys of a dehydrator.
My son taught me to make gluten free pancakes. We would really use this book. I have loved Shauna and her writing for over 3 years. She is a joy.
I’m in!!
I learned from my mother that cooking can be creative and artistic. You don’t always need to follow a recipe, but it’s a good starting place.
This has turned out to help me immensely once I learned that I could no longer have gluten. Most of what I cook now hinges on creative ingenuity…and….whatever I happen to have in the fridge!
I’m in! Mom and both grandmothers taught me oh so many things! I think my love of baking though, definitely trumps the others when it comes down to what they taught me.
I’m in!! Next to fresh ingredients, everything else pales.
My daughter has read “Gluten-Free Girl” and loved the recipes inside. She has also gone gluten-free, and is feeling better! My mother did not have recipes but cooked completly from memory and from the garden. She taught me how to be resourceful in my cooking
My mother taught me how to pick the pears from the tree by the old dairy barn
and make them into pear pies to freeze for the winter. Boy are they great on a cold
January night.
I learned about Middle Eastern spices and cooking creatively with them from a Persian friend. Now that I am cooking and baking gluten free I find myself following her advice, experimenting and thinking of her often.
My Mom’s Dad was a professional German Baker .. came to this country to start his new profession and Mom has handed down his secrets of baking .. some I learned just by watching her!
Have been following Gluten Free Girl blog for a Long time .. love her and her new family!
My mother taught me that a recipe is just a starting point, and everything can be improved.
I love the Gluten Free Girl & Chef blog. My Mom is Japanese and has taught me some traditional dishes but I have still have so much to learn. I have had to adapt recipes though since being gluten free for about a year now.
What a great giveaway!
I’m in.
I have always liked watching cooking shows beginning with Julia Child – and reading the food blogs is right up there with cooking shows. I have learned so much about cooking gluten-free for my husband from Gluten-Free Girl.
I think the most important lesson I ever learned was from my mother. She taught me how to bake and cut a whole chicken. The most useful cooking tip a girl can acquire!
My mother taught me how to bake and my mother-in-law taught me how to cook. A perfect combo!
Thanks for the constant stream of gardening info, entertainment, pictures, community and so much more. Very generous and so much fun!
I learned from my dad how to make Tom and Jerry batter for the traditional holiday drink. He took over the kitchen one day each December close to Christmas and created a unbelievable batter that required dividing eggs, using superfine sugar, and lots of patience. His Tom and Jerry batter was so famous he was invited to a local watering hole each year around Christmas to create this hot drink with his famous batter.
As a teenager in rural W. Va., I spent time learning to make yeast bread from a delightful older lady who lived “down the road”. She mixed her bread dough in a restaurant-sized dishpan – no printed recipe – it was all in her head. Her loaf breads were fantastic. I watched and learned, and I still love to make yeast breads!
We love pears! Our favorite salad pairs pears with greens, topped with dried cherries, sliced almonds, shredded parmesan and a light vinagrette.
Two friends are gluten-intolerant. I’m in!