Hello, everyone! I hope you are all having a pleasant Sunday. As you might have guessed from the title, I am devoting this week’s feature post to my recent foodie reads: Rubies in the Orchard and PETA’s Vegan College Cookbook.

Rubies in the Orchard: How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business by Lynda Resnick and Francis Wilkinson

I was fortunate enough to receive this book from the kind folks at POM Wonderful. As the title suggests, the author is the founder of POM Wonderful, the renonwned pomegranate grower and producer of POM products. At first glance, this book appears to be a how-to book on how to improve a private business. While I do not operate a business, I have always been intrigued by marketing and advertising (which may explain my love of blogging and product reviewing!). Anyway, I endeavored to read through this volume, despite its seeming irrelevance to my life.

Overall, I enjoyed paging through this book, primarily due to its unique blending of genres. Although it is techinically designated as “business” book, I found it to be pleasantly autobiographical as well. Resnick inserts plenty of anecdotes into the narration of her career, from the purchase of Jackie O’s pearls during her reign over the Franklin Mint to the troublesome bottle design process for POM Wonderful juices. By using personal stories as a framework for providing sound business advice, an otherwise dull business book becomes a page-turner.

Highlights of the book include a discussion of FIJI Water’s greening process as well as the significant research that went into developing POM products. If you have no interest in marketing or advertising, you will likely still enjoy these sections, as they relate to topics quite salient in the public psyche these days: environmental conservation and health promotion.

I lack any formal training or education in advertising and marketing (as does Lynda Resnick herself), so I am uncertain as to the validity of the authors’ advice. However, it made for a nice change of pace from my academic reading–quite different from my Faulkner novels. One small negative aspect of this book is the inclusion of quotations interspersed throughout the text. Some were merely echoes of sentences on the page, while others were merely relevant passages to the chapter’s subject matter. Either way, I found them distracting and completely unnecessary.

Bottom line: If you like autobiographies or marketing (or both, like me!), you will probably enjoy this book. You’ll likely learn something new!

Available for sale here.

PETA’s Vegan College Cookbook by Starza Kolman and Marta Holmberg

When I was contacted a few weeks ago about receiving a copy of this cookbook to review for the blog, I was ecstatic–anyone who knows me will tell you that few things bring me more joy than a new slew of recipes to peruse. I had high hopes for this book, which is conveniently aimed at my age group (i.e., college students).

After paging through the recipes over the past week, I have realized that in fact it is intended for a different audience than vegetarians like me. This cookbook is the perfect gift for a new vegan about to enter the chaos known as college life. This 300+ page book contains simple, fast recipes that can easily be produced in a dorm room, with a microwave and a few utensils as its sole amenities. The vast majority of recipes use meat analogs and soy-based “cheeze” products, and it is quite apparent that nutrition was really not considered in the development of this cookbook. In addition, some recipes are painfully simple, such as the “PB and Banana Sammie,” (p. 74) the ingredients list for which includes PB, banana, and bread. Not exactly innovative.  Thus, if you are a relatively experienced vegetarian with an eye towards health (such as myself), then this cookbook will have limited utility for you.

Nonetheless, not all the recipes must be designated in the “duh” category; there are still plenty of meal ideas that are out of the ordinary (as demonstrated by my blue Post-Its marking recipes to try!). For example, one scramble recipe in the Breakfast section suggests incorporating corn chips in the mix–genius! The breakfast section also revealed to me that Bisquick pancake mix is vegan–who knew? There are also quite a variety of interesting salad recipes, many of which include my beloved chickpeas and broccoli. Plus, this book devotes an entire section to peanut butter. Now that is wise cookbook writing.

As a side note, for what some of the recipes lack in innovation, their titles certainly make up for it. From the “Nutty Professor Latte” (p. 202) to the “F-U Tacos” (p. 151), the recipe names range from clever to crude, but they’re all quite entertaining. Each recipe also includes a short blurb about the usefulness and occasion for creating the dish, which newbie college students might appreciate.

Bottom line: If you’re a recent veg convert headed to college next year, this book is perfect for you. You’ll love the variety of easy, filling recipes that fill its pages. However, if you’ve had a few years of vegetarian cooking under your belt or you try to consume minimally processed foods, this cookbook will not become your new Joy of Cooking, (although you will likely find some new meal ideas).

Available for sale here

I hope you’ve enjoyed this new feature at The Broccoli Hut as much as I have–it combines two of my favorite topics: literature and food! Thanks to POM Wonderful and PETA for sending me these books! Please send me any suggestions for future book reviews.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Filed under: Feature Post, Product Review