Practically Pagan – An Alternative Guide to Cooking

The book is divided by seasons each containing foods that are available for the specific time of year. She lists the food that are generally found fresh for her area. I love that she talks about using everything with little waste.

In January, she has a recipe for chili with minced beef that doesn’t have tomatoes in it. I cannot wait to try it. The corn muffin recipe sounds so simple to make. For February, there is a recipe for Colcannon. My husband has been wanting to try it and I was looking for a good recipe. I cannot wait to make it. I also love the recipe for sticky toffee pudding. The recipe calls for muscovado sugar and I had to look for substitutes but easily found some. The Depression Cake is a great recipe for now since some groceries are getting hard to find. There is a leek, potato and sage soup for March. There is a Greek custard pie and anise cookies for dessert.

In April, the recipe for Cottage or Shepherd’s pie sounds better than any recipe I have made before. The recipe for cheese, bacon and rosemary loaf is on my list of things to make this month. I love the variations for the potato salad she included in May. I just bought three pounds of bananas and cannot wait to make the banana tarte-tatin. The spinach and broccoli soup along with the scones for June sound amazing. The chocolate cream cake is calling my name!

This is only a sampling of the recipes offered in this book. The directions are easy to follow, and the ingredients were not hard to find. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in eating closer to the seasons and cooking at home.