The Pressure Cooker Cookbook That Should Be On Your Christmas List

You got yourself an Instant Pot.  You've read through the rather skimpy recipe/owner's manual and now you find most of your recipe searches on google start with "Instant Pot..." Now's the time to get a legit pressure cooker cookbook.  A quick Amazon search will reveal over 3,000 results.  Admittedly, I haven't gone through and looked at nor do I own more than one pressure cooker cookbook but the one I do own is pretty darn fantastic.

Pressure Cooker Perfection by America's Test Kitchen

If you've ever watched America's Test Kitchen on PBS you'll know that they pride themselves on being "America's foremost tasters and testers" and with providing the public with foolproof recipes for successful and flavorful dishes.  I own 5 different cookbooks published by America's Test Kitchen :-)

What I Love about Pressure Cooker Perfection
- it explains the science behind how and why the pressure cooker works and why you need certain ingredients in some recipes but not others
- published in 2013, pre Instant Pot craze, the recipes are written for a stovetop pressure cooker with adaptions for electric pressure cookers.  This means that anyone with any type of pressure cooker can use this book
- the flavors in the recipes are phenomenal.  I never would have thought to use a can of condensed French Onion soup to flavor my pot roast but now I won't use anything but that
- the beginning has a series of reference charts for cooking just about anything: grains, beans, vegetables and meats.  You can use the chart as a starting point and build your own recipe from there

My Favorite Recipes
- Weeknight Pot Roast and Potatoes
- Chickpea Tagine with Cauliflower
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Whole Chicken
- A Pound of Beans (for lots of other recipes)

What I Don't Love about Pressure Cooker Perfection
- I'm a "let's throw some of this in and see how it turns out" type of cook.  This book is written with very precise instructions, ingredients and directions.  Once you get past the sometimes superior tone of the recipes you'll be just fine.  That being said, pressure cooking doesn't allow much room for error as it's a closed system and operates at such high temperatures.  I've learned alot about building flavors by reading this cookbook
- the adaptions for an electric pressure cooker (hello Instant Pot) generally involve setting a separate timer so as to not rely on the built-in pot timer (reason being it doesn't start immediately when the pot comes to pressure).  I skip this step and just reduce my cook time by about 2 minutes
- some of the ingredients can be hard to find.  Examples include: cremini mushrooms, swiss chard, fennel, mustard seeds, and frozen artichoke hearts.


With all that being said, I have my copy of Pressure Cooker Perfection flagged and within easy reach in my kitchen so that I can reference it as I cook and create.

Let me know if you own a copy already, buy a copy or if you have another favorite pressure cooker cookbook!

Book Review: Fearless Feeding by Castle/Jacobsen

There are very few books that stay on the bookshelf in my bedroom for quick reference and easy access and today I wanted to share one of them with you.

Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School

Written by Jill Castle and Maryann Jacobsen

Published in 2013, this book has some great insights and helpful tips on raising well-rounded eaters at all ages and stages of development.  I love that it is written by two registered dietitians with experience in the realm of pediatric and family nutrition, in other words, a knowledgeable team to provide advice.  What also makes the authors credible in my mind is that both are moms who have sat in the trenches of motherhood and wrestled with what to serve their families.

Chapter 1 is the must-read introduction into the Fearless Feeding Strategy.  It takes some time to consider the WHAT, HOW and WHY of feeding our kids.  Here's my quick summary:

• WHAT: picking foods based on nutritional needs, balancing nourishing and "fun" foods, using variety and paying attention to portions
• HOW: structure of meal/snack times, parental attitude toward food choices and consumption
• WHY: stages of development can be predicted but every child has a different food personality

The next four chapters can be read as needed since they are broken into age groups (infancy, toddler, school age, teenager).  When I first bought this book in 2013, I only read the infant and toddler chapters since my oldest was a mere 4 years old.  Recently, I picked the book off the shelf again to read through the school-aged section since I have two kids in that category.

The final three chapters, in my mind, focus on the troubleshooting and "what do I do with this information".  They help you as a parent identify how your own childhood relationship with food could be affecting how you parent, how to determine if maybe your child has a food issue that could use professional intervention and also tips and recipes to help with meal planning and execution.

So there you have it, I highly recommend looking this book up either on Amazon or at your local library.  I've found it to be a resource worth having around the house!