Linda Ziedrich

This is the best book on infant nutrition I've read yet... not that I've looked into that many, but it answered a lot of questions I'd had about how to best manage the transition from breastfeeding to solid foods.

The authors are strongly biased towards longer-term breastfeeding whenever possible, which might bother some people, but it was helpful to me because that means they actually deal with the issues of older nurslings, which is what I have. Most advice on weaning amounts to: "Oh, just show more drop a feed every week/few days and replace it with a meal or formula." That doesn't work so well with a vocal, single-minded toddler who knows what she wants!

I also really enjoyed the first chapter which includes an overview of the history of breastfeeding and its substitutes in "the West." It's a wonder anyone in Europe or North America survived infancy in the last few centuries! I would highly recommend this book to anyone breastfeeding, regardless of how long they plan to continue it. show less

Jeff and I have been getting copious amounts of turnips from our produce shipment, and we haven't been particularly good about eating them. In leafing through this book I found a recipe for Korean Pickled Turnips and decided to give it a try. What better way to enjoy anything than to ferment it?! The list of ingredients was short (and all basic stuff we already had) and the process was very simple. I was pleased to see a good amount of brine after rubbing the sliced turnips with salt, and show more after a few hours put the turnips and other ingredients into a quart sized jar to sit out for awhile. They need to sit for awhile to do their magic, and in a few days they should be spicy, sour and delicious. For now, they smell fantastic and I can't wait to try it out.

The book has many recipes for pickling pretty much everything, not just the standard cucumber. (But it has many recipes for cucumbers in case your old standard just isn't doing it for you any more.) While I will skip the last chapter on pickling meat, fish and eggs (yuck), I look forward to trying out kimchi and maybe see if we can't pickle some of our other stubborn root vegetables. show less

The only book that I could find covering the variety of options on how to wean a child from breastfeeding. Not only does it include a variety of ages, cultures, and methods, it takes a non-judgemental voice about a mother's personal decision on how and when she feels she should wean. The authors even discuss how to handle criticisms from family, friends, etc. Additionally, mothers' personal anecdotes and interviews about the feelings, choices and process of weaning provide the reader with show more additional depth and a feeling that she's not alone in trying to figure out the best thing for her and her child. The only drawback is that the book is so inclusive that there may be only sections that are pertinent to the reader. It is well organized though so it is not hard to find appropriate sections. show less

This book is so great I put it on my Christmas wish list after only reading the TOC.

Lots of recipes on a ton of different fruits, many of which are not included in the Ball Book (including bananas!!!!) and none of the recipes call for commercial pectin. I am in love! Can't wait to try them out, and if they're as good as the Joy of Pickling recipes I know they'll be great.