Now Available for pre-order
Learn how to live a healthy life and leave a legacy of wellness by looking both to the past and to the future.
You Are What Your Grandparents Ate takes conventional wisdom about the origins of chronic disease and turns it upside down. Rooted in the work of the late epidemiologist Dr. David Barker, it highlights the exciting research showing that heredity involves much more than the genes your parents passed on to you. Thanks to the relatively new science of epigenetics, we now know that the experiences of previous generations may show up in your health and well-being.
Many of the risks for chronic diseases — including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and dementia — can be traced back to your first 1,000 days of existence, from the moment you were conceived. The roots of these vulnerabilities may extend back even further, to experiences your parents and grandparents had — and perhaps even beyond.
Similarly, what happens to you will affect your children and grandchildren. That’s why it’s so important to make good dietary choices, get a suitable amount of exercise and be cautious about exposure to toxins. Positive lifestyle changes have been shown to spark epigenetic adjustments that can lead to better health, not only for yourself, your offspring and their children, but also for generations to come.
This book makes hard science accessible. It is a call to action for social as well as personal change, delivering the message that by changing our own health, we can also influence the future of the world.
Judith Finlayson is a bestselling author who has written books on a variety of subjects, from personal well-being and women’s history to food and nutrition. A former national newspaper columnist for The Globe and Mail, magazine journalist and board member of various organizations focusing on legal, medical and women’s issues, she is
also the author of over a dozen cookbooks. Judith lives in Toronto, Canada.
Foreword by Dr. Kent Thornburg, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Developmental Health at the Knight Cardiovascular Institute, and Director of the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.
YOU ARE WHAT YOUR GRANDPARENTS ATE
Now Available
Chile peppers bring both sweet and fiery zest to dishes — discover a fascinating and seemingly endless variety within the pages of this delightful book.Contrary to popular belief, a pepper does not need to make your eyes water or start a fire in your mouth to qualify as a chile. “Chile” is simply the common name for the fruit of the capsicum plant and chiles come in a wide variety of colors, shapes and flavors.
There are five major species of chile peppers and thousands of varieties, in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors. Even experts disagree about how many there actually are. So it is probably not surprising that the spelling for the word itself is somewhat problematic. Is it chili, chilli or chile? You are likely to come across all of those spellings if you are reading up on the topic.
This comprehensive book (which serves as both a reference and a cookbook) from bestselling author and expert researcher Judith Finlayson takes you through dozens of chiles and provides absorbing information on everything from the historical and geographic origins of chiles to information on the Scoville scale (which measures the hotness of a chile and was invented by Wilbur Scoville) to the health benefits of chiles and finally, 250 delicious and inventive recipes.
Full color throughout, this book takes inspiration from chiles and embraces them with an enthusiasm that maximizes their true flavor potential. From fiery Tex-Mex inspired meals to savory and sweet Thai dishes, this incredible collection of recipes is sure to make you a lover of all things chile.
Split Pea Soup with Ham
How can winter be all bad when part of my cold -weather ritual is making a pot of this Quebec-style split pea soup with ham?
Parsnip Soup Shooters
How’s this for cold-weather hospitality? If you are entertaining on a chilly night, start the evening with a welcoming shooter of hot soup. I serve this parsnip soup in espresso or demi-tasse coffee cups before a glass of wine. It makes about 16 shooters.
Why do you need a mortar and pestle?
Why do you need a mortar and pestle? To make homemade sambal, of course! Sambal is a catch-all term for any one of a number of Indonesian chile pastes. Start with a simple mix of chile peppers and, for variety, incorporate more pungent ingredients such as shrimp paste
Pimiento Peppers
Pimiento peppers are a well-known variety of C. annuum. They are small and can be heart-shaped (like the Spanish piquillo) or round and ridged. They are sweeter than bell peppers. Fresh ones are very difficult to find; most end up canned (and called pimentos) and are used to stuff olives or to make pimento cheese, a favorite in the American South According to pepper expert Jean Andrews, the canned pimento industry didn’t develop until after 1914, when a roasting machine was invented that made peeling easier.
Spinach and Tomato Dal
Dal can be pungent or very tame, and it plays a significant role in Indian cuisine. This mildly spiced version makes a delicious main course over hot cooked rice; it can also be served as a side dish.
Icelandic Salt Cellars
Speaking of Iceland… these are saltcellars I picked up in Reykjavik. I love their whimsical, other-worldly designs. I have Icelandic sea salt in both – a smoked version on the left. Guess I’m missing that fantastical island today…
Aleppo Peppers
Do you ever stop to think that all the casualties of war aren’t just human lives? Take Aleppo pepper, for instance. It’s a Syrian chile, dried and crushed with a mild, fruity flavor and it’s one of my favorites. It has been grown in that country for centuries. Sadly, because it is traditionally cultivated in the war-torn region around Aleppo, the city for which it is named, this pepper is no longer available for export. Most suppliers now substitute Turkish Maras pepper.
The Maras pepper is a very close relative – probably even the same variety — and it is grown in a very similar terroir, so for culinary purposes, if properly grown, it is probably a satisfactory swap. But I am grieving the loss of the authentic Aleppo. I discovered it many years ago in Montreal; Phillipe de Vienne, an extremely knowledgeable spice vendor, imported it for his shop Epices de Cru in the Jean Talon market. At the time, I was experimenting with a Middle Eastern cooking and was immediately smitten by the pepper’s sweet yet spicy flavor. I associate it with a time in my life when I was learning about Middle Eastern cuisine and exploring other regional spices and herbs such as sumac and za’atar. It is part of my memory bank — like Proust’s madeleines – and in some ways, I feel like I have lost a friend.
If peace ever returns to Syria I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the farmers will return to their land and our supply of authentic Aleppo pepper will begin again. In the meantime, chile growers are keeping the variety alive. Thanks to chile grower extraordinaire, Rebecca, Johnston at chilli-seedz.com for cultivating the Aleppo pepper in Queensland Australia, and also for her beautiful photo.
Green Chimichurri Sauce
This sauce is ubiquitous in South America, where it is a significant player in the art of churrasco: meat, most often beef, that is grilled over charcoal or a wood fire. Parsley is the traditional base, but cooks vary the herbs and spices. I flavor my green chimichurri heavily with robust, earthy oregano, which is what the gauchos use, according to famous Argentinean churrasco chef Francis Mallman. Chile is not typically added in Argentina, he says, but this seems to be a very purist approach in practice. Pass the sauce at the table or use it as a marinade.
Moreover … It is amusing to note that chile peppers do not grow well in the country of Chile. The climate is too chilly (pardon the pun) for them.
