Swanson - Super natural every day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

So many of the people who helped me bring this book to light have been part of my life for years, and for that, Im fortunate and thankful.

To Wayne, for inspiring me to reach and to imagine what isnt always obvious. And for sharing a number of your beautiful photographs of our life and our city.

To my dad, for making sure my sister and I always had a home-cooked meal to come home towhether we were thirteen or thirty. And to mom, Heather, Mark, and Jack, Im lucky to have all of you nearby.

Thank you to my Ten Speed family. Aaron Wehner, for being so much more than a publisher. Julie Bennett, for wrangling my words and ideas into something fit for print. And Toni Tajima, because few things make me happier than to be working together again on the design of a book; your work is beautiful. To Kristin Casemore, Michele Crim, Patricia Kelly, Andrea Chesman, and Dawn Yanagihara, for your support, input, and insight along the way.

Special thanks to the friends who have inspired a number of the recipes in this book. The creations coming from your kitchens helped drive what was coming from mine: Jess Thomson, Jennifer Jeffrey, Malinda Reich, Karen Merzenich, Olivia De Santis, Carrie Brown, Lori Narlock, Steve Sando, and Molly Watson.

A number of you welcomed the recipes in this book into your homes early on. Your honest feedback and suggestions made this a better book. Heartfelt thanks to my lifelong friend, Nikki, and the entire Graham clanAmai, Emre, Kiah, Azia, and Davidfor putting a bunch of these recipes through their paces. Thanks to Lulu LaMer, Quyen Nguyen, Heather Gibbs Flett, Ross ODwyer, Monika Soria Caruso, Allison Yates, Anna-Lisa Palmer, Shay Curley, and Britta Garcia.

Thanks to Owen Seitel, Amie Ahlers, Gwen McGill, Lanha Hong-Porretta, Yotam Ottolenghi, Dorie Greenspan, Melissa Clark, and Kim Boyce. And thank you to all of the 101 Cookbooks readersthe way you build on ideas and make recipes work in your own lives and kitchens is continually inspiring to me.

SOURCES

THIS SECTION PRESENTS a short list of sources and producers to explore when stocking your natural foods pantry. Some of these products are local to me. You might be able to find similar products in your immediate area, too. Start by browsing your local farmers markets, natural food stores, and co-ops, and ask the people who work there for recommendations if you dont find what youre after.

A LTER E CO

www.altereco-usa.com

An array of fair-trade products, including fine-grain cane sugar thats moist and delicious, with whispers of vanilla. Alter Eco products are becoming more and more widely distributed. If you cant find their products locally, you can order them in bulk from Amazon.com; get a few friends to go in on case-size buys. Organic and Fair Trade Certified.

A NSON M ILLS

www.ansonmills.com

Beautiful, organic heirloom grains milled into flours and meals.

A POLLO O LIVE O IL

www.apollooliveoil.com

Consistently one of my favorite olive oil producers.

B LUEBIRD G RAIN F ARMS

www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com

Another fantastic source for organic grains and fresh-milled flours. They sell a range of wheat berries, rye berries, and emmer farro. Flours are milled to order.

B OBS R ED M ILL

www.bobsredmill.com

Purveyors of a fantastic line of flours, grains, and dried beans and lentilsmany organic. Widely distributed.

F LORIDA C RYSTALS

www.floridacrystals.com

Easy-to-find alternative to less-refined cane sugar. Widely available at natural food stores, Florida Crystals organic sugar falls somewhere in the middle of the sugar spectrum. Its less processed than white sugar, so it maintains some flavor and is free of preservatives and artificial ingredients. You can use it just as you would white sugar.

H APPY G IRL K ITCHEN C O .

www.happygirlkitchen.com

Organic preserves. They also offer seasonal preserving classes and workshops.

I N P URSUIT OF T EA

www.inpursuitoftea.com

Loose-leaf and single-estate teas from Asia and India.

J ULIET M AE S PICES AND F INE H ERBS

www.julietmae.com

Vibrant spice blends, including a dry harissa Ive never seen elsewhere.

J UNE T AYLOR

www.junetaylorjams.com

Beautiful, small-batch, handcrafted marmalades, conserves, syrups, and specialty preserves made with organically grown fruit.

M ASSA O RGANICS

www.massaorganics.com

Known for their whole grain brown rice. They also produce my favorite almond butter. Great wheat berries, as well.

O O LIVE O IL

www.ooliveoil.com

Olive oil and vinegars made from California olives, organic fruit, and local wines.

R ANCHO G ORDO

www.ranchogordo.com

Specializing in New World foods, a fantastic line of heirloom beans, quinoa, dried posole, grains, wild rice, and herbs.

R APUNZEL

www.rapunzel.com

Makes a nice, minimally refined, unbleached confectioners sugar from evaporated cane juice. It is a buff color and tastes faintly of molasses. They also make my favorite vegetable bouillon cubes, which come in two versions: with and without sea salt. I usually use the salted version at about half strength to better control the salt levels in my recipes; typically, I use 1 cube to 4 or 5 cups / 1 to 1.2 liters of water.

S PECTRUM O RGANICS

www.spectrumorganics.com

Expeller-pressed cooking oils, many organic and unrefined.

T HE M EADOW

www.atthemeadow.com

A little shop with a big selection of amazing salts.

W HOLESOME S WEETENERS

www.wholesomesweetners.com

Sugars and sweeteners produced without bleaching agents or bone char. Their organic blackstrap molasses is particularly good.

breakfast

ON A CLEAR DAY, the morning sun greets me at the back of the house. It creeps up from the east and clears the peach-colored, pitched-roof Victorian across the back fence. Then, working its way over the tall eugenia trees, it begins to send warm bands of sunlight through our wood-framed windows into the kitchen. I like to sit there on a stool, sunbeams at my back, espresso in hand.

I decided years back to start eating a real breakfast. It wasnt something I was in the habit of doing. Some days a real breakfast means a bit of homemade granola and yogurt, other days it means turning on the oven for a batch of fresh-baked biscuits or a family-style frittata. Some days I have time to sit and linger, other days are more hurried. Either way, I try to enjoy something substantial.