This is, without a doubt, a cookbook unlike any other I've ever read. It is clearly an ode to spirituality and magic in the kitchen. This is a love note to the labor of finding yourself many times over through the act of making food.
I went through the recipes on my first go wondering how I could make these recipes. I was wondering if I was up for the challenge; would I find the ingredients and toil over these complex and daring recipes? My second time through, I was less apprehensive and more curious. That sardine dip, those hand pies, maybe those tea cookies--I could make those. And if I could not find all the ingredients, then I could just consult the seasonal guide for each recipe. I could follow the guidelines and adapt where necessary.
This would definitely not be a cookbook for everyone. The witch vibes are strong with this one. But the innovation, the spirituality, and the depth of this book make it a very interesting read.

Cortney Burns, recipient of the James Beard award for a previous cookbook, has released Nourish Me Home: 125 Soul-Sustaining, Elemental Recipes. The cookbook is full of recipes for healthy, beautiful dishes that are lighter on meats and proteins, and heavier on vegetables and healthful, albeit sometimes surprising ingredients.

Most of the recipes are gluten-free, and utilize alternative healthy grains so that almost everyone can enjoy them. For those who haven’t been particularly innovative cooks in the past, this cookbook gives reasons to expand their recipe repertoire by using innovative and unique ingredients in delicious, beautiful dishes.

The photographs are gorgeous – almost over the top – and the book is worth reading just to see the photographs, which will give everyone a reason to try a new dish.

Nourish me Home is not a cookbook for everyone. The recipes call for ingredients that aren’t found in every kitchen, and some of them are difficult to find. While there are some recipes that are down-to-earth, like Mom’s Pot Roast, there are others that are probably not ones that will be made in most mainstream home kitchens, like Chocolate and Fir Tip (from pine and fir trees) Cookies and River Stone Flatbread (using stones from a river). While there are some recipes that will appeal to almost everyone, there are many that most cooks will want to skip. Although there is a huge movement toward gluten-free, there are others who are okay with gluten and would prefer alternative recipes using it.

All told, this is a “must-have” for tree huggers, and a “maybe” for typical cooks.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for the advanced uncorrected copy of this cookbook.

Recipes described with stories of family traditions and history make for a delightful read. Add seasonal adaptations, multi-cultural ingredients and you have a cookbook that will inspire a love for homemade food.

I found the chapter on preserving techniques and building a larder particularly interesting. Again, building on cooking traditions but using the global ingredients available today.

I love trying/sourcing new ingredients and shopping at specialty markets. I will use this cookbook often. That being said, it is a niche cookbook and those that prefer simple recipes with simple ingredients may want to skip this one.

Very interesting cookbook. Lots of rustic, earthy recipes. Beautiful photos. Some of the ingredients were things I had never heard of, but it all looked and sounded delicious!

This is an absolutely beautifully done cookbook with some very intriguing recipes. I can see it as a coffee table/ conversation starter, but I really didn't find any recipes I wanted to try or that I could see my family eating if I did try them. I love to cook, and very much like the ideas of seasonal variations, but unfortunately, this just isn't in my wheelhouse.

This was an okay cookbook, but nothing more than that. Perhaps it was too much of a niche book for me.

This is an amazing cookbook. I am not sure I could do it justice if I wrote a ten page review. Nourish Me Home is a collection of recipes including soups, salads, appetizers, fermented foods, and desserts, but they are done is a creative way that captures techniques of old and marries them with seasonal fruits and vegetables and takes them across many cultures and somehow across time.

Chapter 1, Filling the Pot, is all about soup recipes, from Spring Chowder to Late Harvest Vegetable Soup, but also provides seasonal variations on many of the recipes so Spring Chowder can become Summer, Fall or Winter Chowder, for example. This continues throughout the book as seasonal variations are found for many of the recipes. Chapters 2 and 3 provide recipes for salads, vegetables, eggs, fish, chicken, beef, and lamb, accompanied by stories of the author's own experiences, everything from her childhood to her professional and personal life, and talks about how she developed the recipe. Chapter 4, The Larder, is fascinating and includes the author's much used recipes for fermented foods, infused vinegars, pickles, spice mixes, sauces, and syrups, which are used in recipes throughout the book. Chapter 5: Weaving Maple Into Silk, introduces recipes for cookies, bread, cakes, puddings, and other desserts, again using many of the recipes from her larder, such as preserved fruits or syrups. Chapter 6: Imagination and Alchemy, provides lists of common flowers, tree varieties, herbs and spices, and their properties, followed by recipes such as Peach Leaf Syrup, Elixir, Wine, and Tea.

This is a gorgeous cookbook, from the photographs to the personal stories to the use of nature to create beautiful food. If you are interested in seasonal recipes, fermenting foods, and using the plants, trees, herbs, and spices around you to make your food even more delicious, this cookbook is for you.

What a fun take on cooking with the seasons!

Ok, so this is totally a niche cooking book, but I totally dig it. The author enlists a common thread of mine of blending and layering previously learned cooking techniques over newer knowledge to blend a really crafty take on hearth and home recipes.

The entailed recipes come from New England/Jewish roots and blend with Eastern cooking styles as well as involving (which I LOVE) alternate simplifications as well as seasonal substitutions.

The style of the book is arranged in more of an Eastern (earth, air, fire, water) style and combined with New England/Jewish, Native American dishes, and from the author's experiences living throughout the US and travels abroad. These dishes would be great for a brunch or to try for a when hosting a fancy dinner party.

What a strange, strange book. :) I would encourage folks to check it out from the library or see if you can peek inside before purchasing it, as this is going to appeal to a very small demographic. The author seems to come from a varied background and the book has a sort of Pagan/Wiccan feel to it but she also seems to come from an academic background and also has lived in quite varied places and has a very varied background in terms of food, too. She apparently worked for some time creating foods for tourists in the midwest and some of these recipes call for foraged foods, which adds another layer.

All that said, these are just some really interesting recipes. They are all gluten free but otherwise do not follow restrictive diets. Meat, seafood, cheese and eggs are used. There is a color photo for every recipe, but the colors remind me of 1970's cookbooks and the plating is very odd (very natural and artistic). The recipes are also quite unique. In one, Burns uses beef to replicate the old fashioned flavor of beaver tail. I honestly have no desire to ever taste something that reminds me of beaver tail, but that's just me.

What I did like -- some recipes have a little color-coded wheel at the end that suggest seasonal substitutions. I love that, as I really believe we all need to get back to eating seasonally, with the foods that are in season and also the flavors of each time of year. I also liked the last sections, which walk you through how to do things like fermenting and pickling (and much more) in great detail, and the last section that tells about all kinds of medicinal uses for leaves, herbs, foraged items, etc. with lots of recipes. If I were new to foraging, preserving, and using medicinal herbs, I might want the cookbook just for that last section. Those sections alone pulled my rating up by a star, as well as the fact that there are color photos for all the recipes and the author is so enthusiastic about what she does. It's not necessarily for me, but it is a great book for somebody.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

Could not review. Protected PDF files are the worst when downloading via a tablet. I was not able to view this file so could not review.

Disclaimer: I was provided a digital copy of this book by NetGallery, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

While this is a lovely cookbook, it is so far removed from the typical American diet that I can't imagine ever using it. I consider myself a good cook and a bit of a foodie, but many of the ingredients in the recipes are not attainable in my rural market.

I enjoyed looking at this, but really did not find a single recipe that I would prepare.

Beautiful photography wonderful recipes well thought out well balanced a cookbook I will be using bargain and again.Inlije the format and the suggestions for substituting ingredients.#netgalley #chroniclebooks

The pictures are beautiful and I love that there us one for each recipe so you know what it should look like.

The book is laid out nicely and the recipes are easy to follow. The author also points out different vegetables to use depending on the season which is helpful and rather unique in a cookbook.

I made Vinegar red pickled onions and they were delicious. Looking forward to trying one of the soups next.

Recipes and ingredient sourcing seem more advanced than 'beginner home cook' skill level, but the ideas were unique and interesting. For me, the photographs were almost all WAY TOO CLOSE, to the point it made me a bit dizzy and I stopped looking at them.