Another Cook the Book hits the library

The Waseca Public Library held a “Cook the Book” potluck-style event the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 19. The book for the day was Michael Greger, MD’s “The How Not to Age Cookbook,” a vegan take on modern recipes and healthy living, with recipes by Robin Robertson.

 

Seven guests came for the potluck, each bringing dishes made with recipes from the book. Foods included soups, potato salads, dessert and spaghetti. There were pans and crock pots lined up along the counter and 7 hungry people armed with plates and bowls. Stacy Ewert was the first to announce herself and present her dish for the day, Roasted Tomato Basil Soup, “This recipe called for 2.5 pounds of ripe tomatoes and I would’ve added salt but the recipe did not call for it.” One comment about her soup was, “There’s a pure tomato taste to it, very fresh and unique.”

 

Waseca library’s head librarian Afton Finley was next to present her dessert dish, Mocha Chia Pudding, “I had to boil a cup of dates to soften them, add lemon juice and date syrup, almond milk and mix.” There was also a cup of coffee added and she said, “That’s why I didn’t give any of this to my child.” It looked like a chocolatey dish, like pudding. One comment was, “It’s fooling my tastebuds, I think it’s going to taste like chocolate, but it doesn’t.”

 

Karen Dahle, whose schedule has never before allowed her to join one of these Cook the Book events, presented her dish, White Bean Cassoulet. “I already had at home a ton of dried beans, I did add salt to mine if you can’t tell.” One immediate comment was, “That’s why it tastes so good.” She also admitted to having trouble locating one ingredient, “I did not find any savory, that must be a hard to find item. But after tasting it myself I would definitely make this again.”

 

Gwen and David Oraskovich presented their combined dish, grilled vegetable skewers with umami sauce, said Gwen, “The cooking was just basic roasted vegetables, the recipe didn’t say if they had to be peeled or not so I just left them as is. We wanted to grill them and had everything ready, but with the snow I ended up baking them in the oven.” David took care of the umami sauce, “It was a vegetable broth, garlic, ginger, molasses, tomato paste, papali, lemon, and apple cider vinegar.” David also read an interesting fact from his sauce recipe, “Umami is one of the five original tastes.” He received a few “Oh’s” and “Ah’s” from the group in amazement.

 

Valery Bartelt was next to present her dish, spaghetti squash with edamame and basil pistou. “I grow squash in my own garden. The recipe also called for three cups of fresh basil, now I thought that would be a lot, so I purchased more than one of those plants, but I ended up only using one plant, and that was enough. Once you get that first leaf in there it fills up quickly.” She made the pesto sauce in her food processor and used a garlic infused olive oil.

 

Fellow librarian Erica Forsythe was the final presenter with her dish, French style potato salad: “I used a meso pasta with lemon juice, some of the salad is mashed potatoes and dressing. I didn’t want all the parsley, there was also a lot of dill and chives and green onions, which I didn’t add because it was getting to be a little much.” But if there were any complaints none could be heard.