Saturday, June 9, 2012

Real Food Cookbook

That's right...Real Food!  

Harvest recipes are some of my favorites.  If I've run out of homegrown produce, my local farmer's market is open Saturday and Sunday.  Harvest recipes include fresh veggies and are usually very simple meals to prepare.
Freshly harvested Swiss Chard

I've been working on the Real Food Cookbook for several months and I'm finally in the finishing stages.  I couldn't complete my book with out Great-Grandma's 14 Karat Cake.  

Why is this recipe so important?  My Great Grandmother was the president of her Women's Club in the 70s in California.  She helped put together a cookbook to raise money.  The book was given to my grandmother and then to my mom.  To this day my Mom still uses the cookbook even though it's in several pieces.  The 14 Karat Cake has become famous in our family and is a staple for birthday parties and family gatherings.

What is Real Food?  To me, real food means homemade.  It's simple, healthy food with an occasional decadent dessert.
Baked Falafel
As I stated in a previous post, The Politics of food,  According to bread.org 925 million people are hungry.  Please click the links for the full post.  Also at bread.org, "More than one in five children live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That's 16.2 million children."

16.2 Million hungry children! With that in mind I've decided to donate a portion of all book sales to several non-profits.  I'll include which non-profits in my official announcement next week.
*UPDATE: 10% of all pre-order sales will be donated to Feeding America and Feeding South Florida*


If you'd like more information, please feel free to comment or send me a private email.

17 comments:

Tina said...

Bravo Mary! The figures are staggering. My Mother works for the school district here as the 'lunch lady'. The stories she tells me about food waste and the number of kids whose parents send them to school with no lunch or money is a sad state of affairs. I wish instead of throwing out all that food at the end of the day, why not donate it to the kids who are hungry? I just don't understand it. it seems criminal!

Mary Smith said...

I truly is a mystery why so much food goes to waste. I've been looking into volunteering or donating to my local food bank. They have a "backpack" program which gives packs of food to school children who would usually go hungry after school and during the summer months.

Thanks for your comments. Please pass it on!

Unknown said...

Wonderful idea. Thanks for linking to "Our Favorite Things" Link and getting the word out.
Karri
www.mylifesatreasure.blogspot.com

The Groundskeeper said...

The picture of the Falafal is definantly better than my trial turned out. Is it really baked? perhaps that is why it looks so much better. I tried to fry it and ended up with almost all of it falling off. I gave up after two tried.

Mary Smith said...

Thank you Kerri!
Yes the falafel is baked. My first few attempts fell apart. It's a delicate balance between all of the ingredients.

Anonymous said...

The amount of food that is wasted is staggering to me. Great post. I would love for you to link up to my party today. @ http://mamaldiane.com/?p=6932 Have a wonderful week

Mary Smith said...

Thank you Diane. According to Feeding South Florida (Feeding America), $1 donation= 7 pounds of food or grocery items for people in need.
Thank you for the invite!

Ladies Holiday said...

A cookbook - cool! I agree withteh real food philosophy- great to spread the word and get back to food that actually grows. Hopping by from the eye heart hop.

Mary Smith said...

Welcome! You've got a great blog and thanx for "hopping" over!

Betsy @ Romance on a Dime said...

Nice - that's really neat that you are putting together a real food cookbook. I'll be excited to see it when it comes out. I'm also glad you hear you are donating some of the money to a good cause.

Thanks so much for linking up at Romance on a dime - I'm so glad you shared this!

Mary Smith said...

Thank you Betsy! You've got a great link up. I forgot to grab your button but I'll do it today.

Thank you everyone for the encouragement! The official pre-order sale starts June 22nd and I've already sold 5 copies! That's $13 donated or 91 pounds of food or grocery items for families and elderly people who are in need.

I Gotta Try That said...

Great information. Thanks for sharing.
Marcie @ www.IGottaTryThat.com

Dawn said...

Hi! I'm a gluten free, soy free, nightshade free vegan following along off the Blog Hop at Just us Four!

I hope you come visit, follow along and see what I'm cooking up on Fridays!

dragonflies-at-dawn.blogspot.com

Mary Smith said...

Thanks for stopping by!

Across the Avenue said...

Excellent Post, thanks for sharing!! Found you on the Aloha Blog Hop, stop by http://sassyshopperreviews.blogspot.com/ to follow back. :)

Jonell w Harrison said...

You have my attention; I will take the time o check back and see what more I can learn and put to use. Thank you for sharing with us.
Jonell
south Alabama

Mary Smith said...

Thank you Sasssy an Jonell!
Jonell, you might enjoy the DIY Tomato Cages. They are easy to make and much sturdier than most store-bought brands.

http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-sunday-i-made-tomato-cages.html