New Cook Book Focusing on Fresh Produce

The Non-Diet Cook Book by Krystle Nicole Russin is a cook book focusing on using fresh produce, locally sourced. Below is an interview with the author :

Please give a little background on yourself and how you became involved in cooking?

I enrolled in one year of cooking class during high school. Before then, I never cooked. I was afraid I would not be able to follow a recipe and am sure many others are the same and don’t cook for this reason. I became more interested in food after this class. My infatuation with food went from enjoying it to believing it made me feel better about my life in a small way. I loved eating out understanding my food.

Later on around age 19 to 20, I realized one day I will have a family and I want to be able to cook for them.

Where did your interest in using local produce and organically grown products come from?

I grew up in Illinois. For those unfamiliar with that part of the USA, it’s so diverse. You can go shopping in the Magnificent Mile but a short drive away there are quiet cornfields. I went to high school with people whose parents were farmers. Immediately on tasting cooking made from locally grown produce I could tell right away how beautifully fresh the food was. The way a fresh pie tastes compared to a store bought one is a world of difference!

What kind of local produce do you mainly use in your cooking and how do you source this?

Mainly vegetables, fruit and cheese. Any time I have access to homemade cheese, I get excited. Your cheese selection can easily destroy or create the perfect dish. Many people depend on this cheese-like substance that probably was cheese at one time, dump it into say a soup and wonder why it tastes bad. Real cheese has a stronger flavor, texture – none of that weird folding plasticity!

It’s becoming incredibly unnatural buying “natural” food. The fruit is grown for size and colour over taste. Consumers see a neon carrot bundle, genetically engineered to look appealing, but it never tastes as good.

Alternatives like whole foods stores, markets and your general organic grocery stores often carry local products and produce in greater abundance. Most cities have markets every so often. You can visit a good farmer’s market about once a month at the least!

If you are not sure where to get local produce, ask around. People can tell you about a nearby apple orchard, a farmer selling fresh dairy products, anything. It helps the community by putting money back into local farmers’ pockets rather than benefiting a huge company’s share price.

At the grocery store, check labels so you may tell where your produce comes from. Some stores do carry regional produce if you look hard enough.

Why do you think it is important to source food locally?

Because you know exactly where it comes from. You know that farmers sacrificed time, effort and money to make your food delicious. It is not going to have strange chemicals you cannot pronounce sprayed all over it. Locally grown food is well worth the money and generally, you can work out a deal with farmers that’s better than going to stores!

What health benefits do you think there are to eating home-grown produce and food sourced directly from the farm?

The first thing my teacher taught us in my school cooking class was how fabricated common food is. Take your typical packaged sandwich bread. She explained how all the natural vitamins, minerals and benefits found in wheat and bread contents were extracted out at the factory. The bread ingredients receive a preservative treatment, unnatural fats for flavor are added, your bizarre “oxysomething #6 red” ingredients. After that, the factory re-adds vitamins into the newly made bread. The process is so ridiculous. And this gets done to all the frozen or packaged products we see!

Pay attention. This is what makes people gain weight. Ready made and mass produced food includes products found in low grade dog food. Fast food hamburgers use the lowest grade of beef there is. People should eat fresh beef!

If only people would cook fresh food and use local produce as a basis for any meal, people would see they don’t gain weight as easily, have better health, help local farmers earn a living and enjoy food more.

Can you give an example of a recipe or two found in your cook-book that use (or that you recommend the use of) products sourced directly from the farm?

Yes. Anything in my cookbook should be made using the best quality ingredients. Your results will greatly differ depending on them! Any dish tastes amazing if you use real products. For example, both of these recipes are from my cookbook.

Many people don’t know you can make your own popcorn by using unpopped corn kernels. Once upon a time, popcorn didn’t materialize from a box! This one is very easy and fast if you can access dry kernels:

POPCORN

Fill bottom of paper lunch bag with about 1 cup unpopped organic corn kernels. Fold bag several times, leaving room for popping. Pop in microwave 1-2 min. Carefully watch bag as time varies according to microwave.

This is a simple chowder, just like the rest of my recipes, that will taste very exciting if you use good products. You can alter the amount of say, onions, if you aren’t an onion fan and prefer using half or one onion. Fresh herbs and ingredients will make it pop:

CLAM CHOWDER

2 qts clams • 2 onions chopped • ½ gal milk • 2 garlic cloves • 7 potatoes chopped • 1/3 lb pork • 1/3 stick butter • ¼ cup water • parsley • celery chopped

Clean clams. Cook pork and cut into bits. Cook all ingredients on stove about 10 min., adding potatoes in last.

What is the main aim of your cookbook?

My goal is to show people of all ages that if they eat properly, they would not have to worry about fitting into their pants.

Also, people knew how to arrange portions and size. They drank without problems and ate dessert because they understood you need to eat core food groups.

Where is your cookbook available?

People may purchase it in the UK on Amazon Kindle, soon as a printed book on Amazon.co.uk and in the USA on Amazon in both print and Kindle.

I worked so hard on this cookbook for some time to create excellent recipes and teach people the value of real food sources.