Lulu's Reviews > Smoke, Roots, Mountain, Harvest: Recipes and Stories Inspired by My Appalachian Home

Yes, I decided that after Nadiya’s recipe book, I would like to get a taste of a different part of the world. Smoke, Roots, Mountain, Harvest by Lauren McDuffie was available on Netgalley and I didn’t need more incentive than the gorgeous cover and the luscious title. Who could say no to discovering delicious home-cooked meals from West Virginia?

Since I’m thorough in my research, I went online to see who Lauren McDuffie is.

She’s a blogger, freelance writer, author and photographer. And let me tell you, her blog, Harvest and Honey, just as her Instagram account are breath-taking. Full of mouth-watering photos of dishes I could NOT chose only one to try from. Of course, I needed to see her cookbook, from Chronicle Books, which introduces readers to more than 70 recipes, all from Appalachian ingredients.

But now more about the book. I have to start with the slight inconvenience it caused me when it came to being able to read it. It is 240 pages of recipes flavoured with colourful pictures, which makes it impossible to use my good old impossible. Next best thing was to use Aldiko reader on my tablet, but boy, it took ages to turn pages. That’s why reading it went slowly and I couldn’t really enjoy the book to its full potential.

Not even this, though, could hold me back and I dived into this little piece of heaven. First off, I appreciated it that the recipes were divided by seasons. I like order in pretty much every part of my life and being able to turn to a specific recipe without having to look for it for ages is a life saver. Other than that, I really like that it there’s a whole chapter on what ingredients and tools you need for home cooking. As a first cookbook for a beginner cook, it’s essential to learn the basics and this book definitely helps with that. It walks you through how to build a campfire, how to clean a cast-iron skillet and how to choose the right wine to go with your dish. It covers everything you might need to cook delicious meals with maximum preparation and thus success.

I wanted to give the book a try, so I chose two recipes that I had all the ingredients for. This proved a bit tricky as the author uses some herbs, spices and sauces that are not available where I live, which I’m quite sad about. So, in the end I went with Buttermilk & Herb-Fried Chicken; instead of the original recipe’s Hot Honey, though, with some Hungarian cucumber and sour cream salad.

And the dessert I opted for was some Blackberry Crisp.

I have to say, the chicken was some of the best I’ve ever head and the crisp is just my kind of dessert. I love fruits and oats together so it was a winner!

I know that I’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to this cookbook, but I’m sure I’ll use it when I feel like having some hearty winter food. Or breezy summer salads and honey-infused sweets.