After four years in Beijing, what better way to celebrate my repatriation–and to launch this blog’s “Cooking the Books” feature–than with a review of Cooking with Shelburne Farms? Based in Vermont, Shelburne Farms is a working farm, guest inn and educational center that supports sustainable agriculture. The cookbook, which was published in September and written by the farm’s head chef, Rick Gencarelli, and journalist Melissa Pasanen, celebrates the produce of Vermont: apples, dairy, maple syrup–essentially, all things American. It sounded like the perfect way to celebrate autumn, but how would their self-proclaimed country-style cooking stand up in my city kitchen? It took two pounds of butter to find out.
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