When I signed up to review Dishing Up The Dirt, I totally forgot about one big logistical problem — I live in Iceland. This is usually not a problem when reading or reviewing books, thanks to Kindle. However, that doesn’t really work when it comes to cookbooks.
Fortunately for me, my mom lets me mail all sorts of stuff to her house in Minnesota, and she was pleasantly surprised when this beautiful cookbook showed up! I asked her to help me review it, and we’ve had so much fun discussing the recipes over the past week.
Dishing Up The Dirt is a new cookbook by Andrea Bemis, the creator of the popular blog of the same name. Andrea and her husband, Taylor, own and operate Tumbleweed Farm in Oregon.
This book is their ode to farm-to-table living. It has beautiful, lush photos that invite the reader into the world of the author and her husband and the life they have mindfully chosen. It weaves in the joy and pain of hard physical labor on the farm and the satisfaction of preparing and eating home-grown food.
It covers all four seasons with over 100 creative recipes that use seasonally available produce. There are recipes for any time of day, featuring main dishes, dips, side dishes, desserts, salads, smoothies and even cocktails. This is not a meat-free cookbook, but most recipes are vegetarian and if not can be easily adapted. Additionally, most are gluten-free or could have gluten-free options substituted in.
So there is truly something for everyone and every diet in this cookbook!
We decided to make the honey and cardamom whipped sweet potatoes and the chocolate chip and real mint cookies. The sweet potatoes had a light, subtle flavor, and would be delicious as a side dish or with a raisin bagel crisp or hearty grain cracker. The cookies were also delicious. They were not too sweet and had a very nice, subtle mint flavor. However, make sure you follow the directions to chill them first.
This cookbook is especially perfect if you’re someone who has a vegetable garden or loves buying tons of fresh produce. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut preparing certain foods in certain ways, so it’s great to have some inspiration and new ideas to mix up your daily routine. My mom has a huge garden, and says she can’t wait to try more of these recipes as the garden grows.
The seasonal approach of this cookbook also ensures you’ll have new recipe ideas all year long.
Overall, we highly recommend this book and Mom is already telling her friends to go buy it. I can’t wait to visit Minnesota in May and take this beauty home to Iceland with me.
To learn more about Andrea, check out her Instagram, Facebook and Dishing Up The Dirt blog.
Finally, I want to send a big thank you to my mom for helping me with this review, as well as TLC Book Tours for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. If you’re interested in purchasing Dishing Up The Dirt, here are links to purchase this cookbook or add it to your TBR list.
HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
1 comment
Ooh those whipped sweet potatoes sound unusual and very tasty! I’d like to try those.
Thanks for being a part of the tour!