Mini Review: Kombucha, Kefir, and Beyond by Alex Lewin

Title: Kombucha, Kefir, and Beyond: A Fun and Flavorful Guide to Fermenting Your Own Probiotic Beverages at Home
Author: Alex Lewin
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: February 15th 2017
Source: Fair Winds Press


Book Description:

Saying "Cheers!" Never Felt Better

Fermented foods have taken the world by storm, largely due to their health and real food benefits. They help improve digestion, enable us to better assimilate vitamins and minerals, and strengthen the immune system.

Of all fermented foods, drinks are some of the most versatile--and tasty! Think kombucha, kefir, and real ginger ale. Many of these items you can buy in the store, but making them at home is simple, economical, and even better for you. With just a few ingredients and materials, you can start brewing your own delicious beverages for your family. Ferment Your Drinks is packed with innovative drink recipes, from healthy homemade sodas to traditional kvass and cider, that you can make in your home kitchen and enjoy all year long!

Inside, you'll learn:
--Why to ferment your drinks
--The history of fermentation and the value of traditional foods
--The benefits of fermented drinks to your health
--All the basics: the process, the tools, and how to get started
--Five-minute recipes for lassis, fermented lemonade, and more
--How to use starters to make kombucha, kefir, root beer, wine, and others again and again
--Age-old recipes for kvass, switchel, vinegar, and mead
--Everything you need to know about why the recipes work, why they are safe, what to do if they go wrong, and how to modify them to suit your taste

Raise a glass to good health with Ferment Your Drinks!

Review:

★★

Oh dear. I do so very much hate giving bad reviews. Let's get this over with quick, okay?

There's a long history about fermented drinks and some soapbox-y type stuff about health benefits and American obesity and how these drinks are the answer. There's long, complicated, boring sections on this as well as in chemistry and beverage science. I'm not going to say I don't care, because I understand the importance of food science and knowing how your actions produce the food/drink you're making. But this was the majority of the book, which is not what I expected (or wanted).

The title has "flavorful" right in the name. But unfortunately, the few recipes that were included were either very basic, or not appetizing to me personally in the least. I wasn't inspired by any new tastes. There's also some that have pretty hard to find (at least, if you're not using the internet) ingredients, like worm salt.

The "resource" guide included Craigslist and Reddit.

Maybe you'll have better luck with this book than I did. For me, I didn't take anything away from this. The second star is because I appreciated the effort of the science and history parts, even if it's not what I wanted from this book.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Meet Me in My Cape Cod Kitchen by Linda Maria Steele

Title: Meet Me in My Cape Cod Kitchen: Recipes for Seaside Living
Author: Linda Maria Steele
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: November 28th 2015
Source: Netgalley


Book Description:

With more than 60 delicious recipes, this book celebrates sharing good food with family and friends, inspired by the sweetness of living by the beach. Accompanied by food photography and beautiful Cape Cod landscapes, chapters focus on baked goods such as cakes, cookies, quick breads, cheesecake and biscotti, as well as appetizers, entrees, and salads and even summertime-perfect drinks. Many of the easy-to-follow recipes rely on seasonal and regional ingredients, such as Linda's Supreme Lemon Cake, Cape Cod Cranberry Loaf, Turkey and Cranberry Empanadas, Linda's Simple Lobster Salad, and Bella's Raspberry Tea. Children will enjoy helping with treats such as Nana's No-Fail Sugar Cookie Recipe, which the author makes with lobster-shaped cookie cutters. This celebration of Cape Cod focuses on gratitude for simple pleasures and includes reflections on life in a seaside community.

Review:

★★

One and a half stars.

I've got to be honest, I'm super disappointed in this one. I picked it up because I used to live in Massachusetts, and I miss the food on the coast. This didn't deliver.

The recipes are sorted by course. Chapters include topics such as "The Art of the Appetizer", "Thirst Quenchers", and "The Joy of Salad". But, there's not always much meat to them, so to speak. Cheesecake, for example, has a whole chapter, but there's only two recipes in it. So, not much of a point there.

Let's talk about the good parts of the recipes. They're pretty straight forward, with easy to follow, numbered instructions. It's approachable, and not very intimidating. That'd be good if I were new to cooking. There's also a lot of personal touches throughout the book. There's little stories and poems in between the recipes. It sets a nice tone.

Now, the not so good. The pictures are awful. They're really small, and they're not even high quality. They look like photos taken off a stock page or website. There's also a lot of clip art. I don't know why there needs to be clip art, it makes it look unprofessional and dated.

I'm also disappointed that in a Cape Cod focused cookbook, there's literally only 5 seafood recipes. And one of those is for breaded fillets.

Normally, at the end of a cookbook review, I pick the three recipes that I think sound the best to highlight. I usually have more than three, but pare it down. This is a rare time where I only found two recipes that sounded worth making.

Those recipes would be Turkey and Cranberry Empanadas and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cheesecake.

All in all, this is a book I was super excited for. But the weird clip art and the "meh" recipes make it come off like a book put together by a classroom or Girl Scout troop as opposed to a published one. I wouldn't recommend it.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Rich Kids of Instagram: A Novel

Title: Rich Kids of Instagram: A Novel
Author: The Creator of Rich Kids of Instagram, Maya Sloan
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: July 8th 2014
Source: Netgalley & Gallery Books

★★

One and a half stars.

---

When I read the blurb for this book, I thought it sounded really intriguing. I'm out of my teen years now, and I can assure you that they weren't spent in outlandish luxury. I thought this could be a cool (even if fictionalized) look into a world that I wasn't a part in, kind of like the Gossip Girl books. It sounded scandalous and cutthroat, and I looked forward to reading it.

Unfortunately, I was let down once again by a blurb that was more captivating than the actual book. To say this wasn't my cup of tea is an understatement. The first issue was the excessive switching of points of view. I don't mind doing this when it's done well, but because all of the POVs are the same kind of person (the snooty well off teen), it was really difficult to keep them all. That being said, the voice of these characters was really irritating to me. I'm down for bad language, but it was thrown in to places where it didn't really add anything. On top of that, the dialogue between characters sounded so forced and plastic most of the time. I found it hard to get into the allure of senseless sex, scandal, and drugs because it was presented so annoyingly.

Also filed under the "ugh" category is the amount of times a character was referred to as being rich. I kind of figured as much. I mean, it's the name of the book. The book about the inner circle and lives of rich teens. It's a safe assumption that the people they know (which are name dropped constantly by the way) are rich too. I get it.

It did gain some stars in its rating, though, because it did keep me reading, and I have to admit I did like the pictures that were included. I also really like the cover design. I know that's not how you should judge a book, but it does overall sum up the general plot of the stories within its pages.

As someone who was previously unfamiliar with this website that apparently has been mentioned all over the place, this book was not for me. I'm not entirely sure what age group this book is aimed for, but even though it is about teens be warned that there is a lot of profanity, sex, and drugs. Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books for my copy in exchange for my honest review.