Bookworm: A Homemade Life

The sign of a great book is that you don’t want to put it down. In the case of A Homemade Life, the only reason you do put it down is to run to the grocery store to buy the ingredients to make one of the 50 enticing recipes woven into the stories.

Written by Molly Wizenberg (pictured on right), creator of the Orangette (Best Food Blog, according to The U.K. Times Online in 2009), A Homemade Life is a wonderful read that feels like a visit with a good friend, not only because of Wizenberg’s warm writing style, but because she seems like someone you know. She lives to eat and cook good food (desserts being a favorite) but she doesn’t fall back on a prestigious culinary degree; she simply was brought up in a household where food was a primary focus and love.

In her introduction she writes, “Dinner didn’t come through a swinging door, balanced on the arm of an anonymous waiter: it was something that we made together. We built our family that way—in the kitchen, seven nights a week. We built a life for ourselves, together around that table. And although I couldn’t admit it then, my father was showing me, in his pleasure and in his pride, how to live it: wholly, hungrily, loudly.”

Wizenberg’s stories walk you through periods of her life—from childhood to her days living in Paris to her time making eggs for her dying, beloved father at home—with food as the common thread. It ends on a high note by chronicling the meeting of her husband though Orangette, a tale that is fun for anyone who longs for a true partner—especially one that will cook with you. A Homemade Life closes with the story of her wedding meal followed by a recipe for the no-fail chocolate cake they ate. Even if you’re an armchair cook, this book will tickle your palate and warm your heart with its inspired stories and recipes.—Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.

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