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Gardening A-Z brings you the best in vegetable gardening tips and instructions. With this handy, informative guide, you can choose the right varieties for your particular garden and discover new options you’ve never considered before. Our expert and time-tested advice will help you grow healthy, beautiful vegetables, which includes:

• Seven steps to growing superior asparagus spears
• Sweet beets, one of the sweetest and most nutritious of all vegetables
• Beautiful and bountiful broccoli
• Grow your own corn with the freshest flavor
• Start a cold-hardy crop of kale now for sweet soups and salads this winter
• Discover which types of onions are the best choices for your garden and kitchen
• Parsnips the ivory jewel of the root vegetables
• Fresh peas from the garden are a sweet and nutritious treat
• Peppers are easy to raise and as versatile as they are various
• Dozens of different varieties of potatoes you can grow in your garden

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Mrs. Rowe, known fondly as "the Pie Lady" by many of her customers, was the quintessential purveyor of comfort food. Now her family carries on her legacy at her 60-year-old, all-American roadside café in Staunton, Virginia, as well as at the new country buffet, catering business, four cafeterias, and a bustling take-out counter that sells 100 pies a day. With Southern classics like Key Lime and Pecan Fudge and restaurant favorites like Peanut Butter Custard and Strawberry Sour Cream, along with a variety of crusts and toppings, this little slice of Southern hospitality will satisfy every type of sweet tooth, while convincing even city slickers to take the time to smell the French Apple Pie.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $19.95. AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

In this unique combination of cookbook, memoir, and travelogue, Mike Mills, the unrivalled king of barbecue, shares his passion for America's favorite cuisine and its intense smoky flavors, its lore and traditions and its wild cast of characters.

Through conversational anecdotes and personal photographs, readers meet a diverse circle of colleagues and friends. Join Mills in a behind-the-scenes tour of the barbecue contest circuit, with stops at some of the best "shrines, shacks, joints and right-respectable restaurants."

Also included are prize-winning recipes that have earned Mills his fame and fortune as a barbecue maestro. These 100 recipes will enable anyone with a grill to achieve champion barbecue flavor right in their own backyard. The selection features Mills' own secret concoctions and treasured family recipes as well as choice contributions from his pitmaster friends, and it covers all manner of barbecued meat and fish, sauces and dry rubs, as well as the sides, soups and down-home sweets that complete any great cookout.

With its folksy, fun-loving tone and its unique insider's take on a hugely popular and deeply American subject, this volume will appeal to lovers, food mavens and cooks of all stripes.

About the AuthorsMike Mills is the only barbecue person to win three Grand World Champion titles at the Memphis in May International Barbecue Festival. He is also barbecue guru and partner at Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke restaurant in New York City and owner of six notable barbecue joints, two in Southern Illinois and four in Las Vegas.

Amy Mills Tunnicliffe is a journalist and publicist. She also conducts training seminars and is a sought-after public speaker.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $19.95. AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

This one-of-a-kind cookbook will transport you to a time where things were simpler, and food was always tasty and satisfying. Each of the recipes contained in this book is a reminder of how good food tastes in rural America, and will prompt you to create the dishes you grew up eating.

Among it's over 100 recipes, you'll find simple dishes like corn pudding and fried okra, as well as family favorites such as chicken friend steak with gravy and home-style pot roast. Leave room for lemon-friend bluegill and pond perch casserole, and don't forget the stuffed roast possum! Of course, you'll want to try a hand at molasses popcorn balls and wild blackberry pie.

About the authors: Rolland Love and his family lived off the land in the Ozark Mountains. Growing up, he roamed the Ozark Mountains, floated it rivers, and provided food for the family. "We grew vegetable, hunted game, and enjoyed the rivers' bounty," he says. "We were self-sufficient. And there was no need to travel, we already lived in paradise." He is the author of An Ozark Mountains Blue Hole Murder Mystery, a young-adult mystery adventure set in the Ozarks, and its sequel An Ozark Mountains River's Edge Murder Mystery. He has also published short fiction in numerous outdoors publications. He likes to fish for smallmouth bass and create fun stories to tell his grandchildren.

Mary-Lane Kamberg was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and has spent most of her life in the suburbs. She has never eaten squirrel brains and doesn't want to. She does like to eat, however, and is "game" for almost anything. She is the author of The 'I don't Know How to Cook' Book. She, her husband and daughters have spent many summers at the Lake of the Ozarks swimming, water skiing, fishing for crappie and visiting grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

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The third edition of The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home has been completely revised and updated. It includes dozens of recipes, from basic food preservation techniques to jams and marmalades, pickles and sauerkraut and even preserving herbs.

You don't need a lot of time or years of experience to preserve garden-fresh fruits and vegetables. Simple step-by-step instructions give you the confidence and know-how to freeze, dry, can, store and brine the abundance from your CSA share or summer garden.

Grate and freeze excess zucchini; it will be perfect in quick breads and muffins all winter long. Pick up a crate of less-than-perfect tomatoes at the farmer's market and preserve them in jars of spicy salsa. Turn the overflow of green beans from your CSA farm share into tasty dilly beans to eat all winter or give as holiday gifts. Dry mushrooms, make ketchup, can nectarines and make fruit leather.

This user-friendly book includes charts and lists that will help you successfully preserve foods, as well as a recipe section for using your preserved food in delicious meals. With these techniques and recipes you will be eating local all year long.

About the author: Janet Chadwick has been a teacher, and has authored several books including No Time to Cook, How to Live on Almost Nothing and The Busy Persons' Guide to Preserving Food. As a teacher, her special focus was on cooking for people with special diets. She lives in Florida.

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What could be better than enjoying a glass of cold, home-brewed beer, made from your own blend of barley and hops? Here, professional brewer John Parkes demystifies the brewing process and explains in simple terms how to produce a variety of ales, bitters and stouts with the help of just some basic equipment and a few key skills. Those new to home brewing will love the easy-to-follow instructions and the detailed explanations of the brewing process, and adept home brewers will be delighted with the wide selection of recipes. Made with natural ingredients, the brewing methods and beer recipes featured here will appeal to anyone seeking a more wholesome, self-sufficient lifestyle.

About the Author:

John Parkes has a lifelong fascination with beer, and in 2006 set up his own company, Red Rock Brewery, brewing traditional beer on his own farm. His beers are sold locally in Devon, England, and are also served in pubs around the area.

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Grain harvesting can be done in small spaces. With Homegrown Whole Grains, you'll learn how to grow, harvest and cook nine nutritious whole grains. From wheat and rice to heirloom grains, this book covers everything you need for a successful grain harvest.

All you need to start grain harvesting is to convert part of your yard into a field of grain. After the harvest you can enjoy nutritious whole grains, using them whole in delicious recipes or milling them into flour for artisan breads and other baked goods. Barley, quinoa, millet, buckwheat and oats are among the grains you’ll learn to take from yard to plate.

Author Sara Pitzer started this book 30 years ago, when she wrote Wholegrains for the original folks of the back-to-the-land movement. Today, she writes about grain harvesting with a different attitude, one that helps modern homesteaders grow their own food at a smaller, more manageable scale.

For the gardener who is eager to grow more than a variety of vegetables, this grain harvesting book will become a dear resource. Each of the nine grains featured in Homegrown Whole Grains has a different flavor and use. By harvesting them at home, you'll be able to make such varied foods as whole grain pasta, as well as add variety to homegrown food.

About the Author: Sara Pitzer has learned and written about grains in Pennsylvania's Amish country, California, the American Southeast, Thailand and Peru. She is the author of more than a dozen cookbooks and travel guides.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is recommending books to readers. For 40 years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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Saving time and money is easiest with make-ahead meals, and in Fix, Freeze, Feast you have all the steps you need for making delicious meals ahead, freezing them and enjoying them whenever you are ready.

By making food ahead you will be saving money, as you can buy seasonal products or in bulk. Freezing your meals in ready-to-eat servings will allow you to have a delicious homemade meal at the table in minutes, without having to spend hours preparing, cooking and cleaning every week. Just thaw your meals in the fridge overnight, reheat and enjoy.

With more than 100 recipes including sauces, beef, pork, chicken and vegetarian meals, as well as pastas and Mexican-style dishes you'll be on your way to filling your freezer with delicious meals that, once thawed, will take just minutes to cook.

The recipes in this book include meals you can prepare, freeze, and cook when you are ready, fully-cooked frozen meals you'll just need to thaw and reheat, as well as recipes for smoothies, freezable cookie dough and other treats.

Fix, Freeze, Feast contains tips on grocery shopping for your make-ahead meals, and recipes for using your frozen marinades and sauces in other recipes anytime, as well as labels for correctly identifying your meals in the freezer, and detailed information about cooking your once-frozen meals.

Cook ahead, skip the restaurant, save money and enjoy fast wholesome meals every night in no time.

About the Authors: Lindsay Tkacsik and Kati Neville are enthusiastic make-ahead cooks, warehouse club shoppers, and founders of meal assembly businesses. They share an appreciation for well-organized freezers and clearly labeled containers.

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You don't need a commercial kitchen or unrecognizable ingredients to whip up fresh buttermilk, yogurt, cream cheese, crème fraîche, mozzarella, goat cheese and other dairy delights. The simple homemade cheese recipes in The Home Creamery encourage you to turn your fresh, sweet milk and cream into cultured dairy products and soft, unripened cheeses.

To use the homemade cheese recipes in this book you'll need the best quality milk you can find. These recipes start with pasteurized milk, which is widely available. Cow's, goat's or sheep's milk will work for these homemade cheeses, so start experimenting with your favorite!

This book's recipes range from the easy yogurt cheese, for which you'll just need yogurt, salt and some cheese cloth to enjoy a delicious treat, to homemade cottage cheese, ricotta and goat's milk feta, which will give you the satisfaction of enjoying wholesome and delicious dairy products - while knowing every ingredient that went into making them.

Enjoy your creamy, homemade spreads and cheeses as simple accompaniments to small bites or light meals, or as starring ingredients in more substantial side dishes, salads, entrées and desserts. The Home Creamery includes 75 recipes to use your homemade cheese in, from Cheese Blintzes to Chocolate Sour Cream Cake. You will be able bring out the very best in your dairy creations.

About the author:
Kathy Farrell-Kingsley is the author of many magazine articles and cookbooks - including The Big Book of Vegetarian and Chocolate Cakes, selected by Julia Child as one of the best cookbooks of 1993. Kathy was also the founder of Great Cakes Bakery, which still operates in Westport, Conn.

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Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François have proved that people want to bake fresh, homemade bread with their groundbreaking, hugely popular first cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Now, the Artisan revolution continues for those who are changing the way they eat and bake because of health concerns or lifestyle choices. Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day takes Hertzberg and François’ established methods and applies them to breads rich in nutrition and flavor.

Packed with 100 new healthy bread recipes featuring whole grains, fruits, vegetables and gluten-free ingredients, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day will show you how the "secret" to gourmet, homemade bread in five minutes a day works with super-healthy ingredients, too. This book covers everything you need to know about baking healthy breads, including chapters outlining the techniques behind delicious, nutritional bread as well as detailed descriptions of the ingredients and equipment you need to turn your kitchen into an artisan bakery. This book is guaranteed to rise … to the top!

About the authors:

Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., is a physician with 20 years of experience as a practitioner, consultant and faculty member at the University of Minnesota Medical School. His interests in baking and preventative health sparked a quest to adapt the techniques of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for healthier ingredients. Zoë François is a pastry chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America who teaches baking and pastry courses nationally and consults to the food industry.