NancyM's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
At Mesa's Edge: Cooking and Ranching in Colorado's North Fork Valley
By Eugenia Bone
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2004
The recipes are quite interesting: clearly a mixture of family favorites from the author's Italian roots along with new recipes developed for the bounty found in Colorado's summer months. Because of that, most of these recipes would best be prepared seasonally, as the author does. Some ingredients will be hard for cooks that don't live in this area, or a similar one, to find fresh such as various peppers, zucchini flowers, elk, chukar, wild mushrooms or sour cherries. The author does give suggestions in the recipe ingredient lists for some substitutions where appropriate though, so this opens up these recipes for more cooks.
Many of the recipes have been adapted from other cooks or cookbooks, and in the head notes this is clearly noted. I always appreciate this as it could lead to ferreting out other interesting cookbooks! The author assumes that the reader has good cooking skills so doesn't go into as much detail in the preparation instructions as some cooks would probably prefer. A little more guidance on what to expect as the recipe is being prepared would have been helpful.
There is only one photograph in the book of a recipe and it's not labeled. (It's some form of filleted fish, not too exciting to look at.) Each chapter in the memoir section opens with a sepia-toned photo of the area or the people. The cover photos are really beautiful and had me wishing there were more photos included inside the book in color. The pages are rough cut on the edges which I don't mind in a novel, but they are annoying in a cookbook where it makes it difficult to thumb to a specific page.
The memoir portion of this book is quite entertaining to read; a classic tale of a city girl adrift in the country and how she tries, sometimes too hard, to fit in. She makes many of the same mistakes most people do that are new to an area or culture.
The chapters are written on different themes, but most have a food related theme whether it be about starting a garden, buying at local vendors or preparing new foods. They don't flow together quite right and the pace is a bit awkward here and there as if they were written as separate essays and hastily patched together. But still a nice read. I always enjoy reading about the area that is the inspiration for a cuisine or collection of recipes. It's clear from her writing how these recipes came to be. The head notes for each recipe alone are quite informative. I'd love to see more books like this one.