Older Bolder Life

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Older Bolder bookshelf

the Older Bolder Bookshelf: A Classic Pair of Santa Fe Cookbooks

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We love to cook around our camp, more specifically we love to cook tasty, interesting, flavorful, and healthy foods.

Two of the most-used cookbooks we’ve collected over the years have been these two from author Joan Stromquist, who collected recipes from the talented chefs in and around Santa Fe and collated them into these two simple, paperback cookbooks. They were published in the early 1990’s, and you’ll not find new copies out there, but if you’re a fan of southwestern and in particular the very unique flavors of New Mexico, you’ll find these fascinating and indispensable.

Of course you’ll need to do a bit of tweaking for many if not most of the recipes to bring them into alignment with ancestral food and nutrition principles, though that’s typically a piece of cake to accomplish. Both are worth it simply for the soup and salsa recipes alone…

Prowl through your favorite used-book purveyor to find these, there are still a number of copies floating around out there in good shape.

the Older Bolder Bookshelf: The Primal Blueprint from Mark Sisson

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I’ve shared with readers here on the Older Bolder Life before that my wife and I, as well as our offspring, have all ended up being avid readers. My wife is a book a week or better reader typically, and I’m holding steady on my quest to read 80 books or better this year. That in part led to me starting a feature here on the blog covering books worthy of your library, mainly focusing on great cookbooks, and general health and fitness/wellness works, leaning most often to the ancestral health side of things in particular.

There’s no way possible to have the discussion about influential books written in the past quarter century covering health and wellness without mentioning Mark Sisson’s The New Primal Blueprint.

Sisson’s story is both inspiring and instructive; a bright, inquisitive individual pursues very high level endurance running as an amateur and later professionally to the point of physical injury and breakdown, coaches for a bit, and then begins to tinker with nutrition plans that lie “outside the box” of conventional medical/nutritional and athletic performance wisdom.

I’d challenge you to name an other single individual who has had the worldwide influence in the past 10-15 years that Sisson has (Dr. Gundry perhaps); Sisson’s goal of helping millions has indeed come to fruition, and he’s clearly not done yet.

I personally resonate deeply with the Primal version of the classic paleo approach, and as a physician find the principles of Sisson’s Primal Blueprint for the most part absolutely sound, grounded in commonsense, and eminently applicable for most.

The book spends a fair amount of time detailing Mark’s story, an overview of the ever-accelerating nutritional evolution (maybe that’s better said as revolution) happening around the world today, as well his (let’s go ahead and say it) ingenious 10 Primal Blueprint Laws – for those who aren’t familiar, I’ve posted an image from his site summarizing his core concepts.

The book itself is encyclopedic, and might be for many a somewhat intimidating read given its length and detail. For those looking to make a true lifestyle change, that detail is however critical, and thankfully, wonderfully instructive.

I refer to my copy (purchased, not provided for a review) at least weekly as I dig up some detail, reference, or example for clients, family, and friends, and have actually given away a number as gifts.

Worth having a copy on your bookshelf? Absolutely.

the Older Bolder Bookshelf: License to Grill

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There are a bevy of great grilling cookbooks on the market these days, and no doubt more to come, with I’m guessing a great one or two to come forth focusing in particular on ancestral foods.

That said, the critical point of where you source proteins for the grill duly recognized, great grilling cookbooks don’t have to be ancestrally focused to be useful for us all. Many a great grilling chef (and cook) have trod the fascinating path of meat and heat before us, and left us a treasure trove of great recipes, tips, and tricks along the way.

I’m something of a cookbook collector from way back, one of the most used cookbooks in our family collection is in fact this one: License to Grill, written by acclaimed chef Chris Schlesinger and editorial genius John “Doc” Willoughby (1997). This is one that you’ll want to track down and read through if it’s not on your self today.That’s a pic of my own well-worn copy from the back porch last night, digging back through for a recipe component I couldn’t quite remember…

Chris Schlesinger is a renowned chef and restauranteur; he currently owns Back Eddy in Westport, MA, and formerly founded and managed the East Coast Grill and Jake and Earl’s Dixie BBQ, both in Cambridge. He’s written numerous cookbooks and has long been recognized as one of the true geniuses around the grill.

John Willoughby is the executive editor of Gourmet magazine, formerly of Cook’s Illustrated, prolific cookbook author, and graduate-level writing instructor at Harvard’s Radcliffe Seminars.

This is not the fanciest, prettiest cookbook you’ll find; there are just a few pages of images interspersed among the detailed and thoughtfully written recipes, each presented with a short story personalizing some aspect of the recipe or the food itself.

The cookbook itself is fairly classically organized, offering succinct but useful thoughts on fire and preparing food, along with set of recipes for appetizers, cooking on skewers, beef and pork, fish and other seafood, fowl, hobo pack cooking, extra-spicy offerings, low and slow genuine ‘Q, sides, condiments and sauces, and a few (non-ancestral!) desserts.

I’ll bet if you dig around you can find a well-preserved used copy of this one, as well as some of Schlesinger’s other nifty cookbook offerings.

the Older Bolder Bookshelf: Franklin Steak

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In Texas, the Southwest, and the greater barbecue world, then name Aaron Franklin is often uttered in hushed and revered tones.

He’s the pitmaster at his iconic Austin joint Franklin Barbecue, he’s co-founded a nifty fusion Asian smokehouse – Loro, written another culinary best seller Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto, and taught thousands via his PBS show BBQ with Franklin.

I’d known, via barbecue and cooking circles we follow, that another steak-focused cookbook was coming this past spring, and being a long-time fan of Franklin’s impressive skills, his bent to teach and share knowledge freely, and his understated, oft-acerbic wit, I’ve had the book on my short list for a year or so – it was worth the wait.

Others have noted that his Franklin Steak (released this past April) doesn’t read like a typical cookbook; sitting down and paging through you might think you’d picked up a culinary school textbook.

The book is divided roughly into three sections: sourcing great steaks and meat (you’ll be led to do some out of the box thinking here), prepping meat and fire (including grills, fuels, etc) to get the best results, and then of course he dives deep on cooking great proteins, with a variety of approaches presented, a look at classic steak side dishes, and even libations to pair with your steaks for those so inclined.

Around our camp, and metaphorical camp fire, we’ve been having extraordinary results with sous vide techniques for steaks of late, though Franklin’s book has prompted several new, and very tasty, approaches to prepping and finishing steaks here at home.

The book is well illustrated, beautifully photographed, damned instructive, and a worthy addition to the cookbook shelf of any steak, and cooking, fanatic.

By the way, this isn’t a paid review, I bought my personal copy a few weeks back in Austin.

the Older Bolder Bookshelf: Cordain’s The Paleo Diet

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For those among us who like to read, as my family does, we’re going to be posting quick recommendations and reviews of books that we’ve read, studied, and enjoyed along our own health and wellness journey.

We’ll be looking at newer publications as well as come of the classics in this particular health space, as well as some of my personal favorite cookbooks interspersed here and there.

The Paleo Diet was written by one of the longtime thought leaders in the paleo world, Loren Cordain, PhD, now Professor Emeritus at Colorado State University’s Department of Health and Exercise Science in their College of Applied Human Sciences. The book was originally published in 2002 (revised in 2011), making it almost an historical text given how rapidly the science related to ancestrally-focused nutrition plans has evolved over the intervening two decades, though when I stumbled across a used copy at my favorite second-hand book store a few weeks back I couldn’t pass it by.

Cordain’s work in this seminal paleo book was one of the first presentations to the lay public of what we’ve all come to recognize as core paleo principles, and he laid out a very logical and thoughtful presentation of the key historical presumptions upon which the movement was built. You’ll note in reading that further research has refined and modified many of the principles “around the edges”, for example tweaking protein requirements and targets pending specific metabolic conditions, though his framework presented in this book still informs the eating habits of hundreds of thousands of people today.

The Paleo Diet isn’t the final word on eating, and living, ancestrally today, but is a fascinating and informative read, particularly for those interested in taking a deep dive into ancestrally-guided health and wellness. Though it’s not a very popular principle these days, it’s critical to understand history to interpret our world today, and this is book is unquestionably part of the ancestral health movement’s history.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 20 July 2019

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This week I’ve ended up doing a fair amount of research and reading about aging, including things to do to mitigate or modify risks that accumulate as we roll down life’s highway. Some of the interesting links included….

Increased activity in middle age lessens mortality risk. (Duh!)
Extending US life expectancy – another no-brainer type report for many adherents to ancestral health principles, though a stunning reminder of how poorly US health markers have evolved over the past few decades.
Lifestyle and dementia risk.

Anti-aging gurus are still talking about this NAD+ study; and big Pharma is chasing the holy grail (read as the magic pill) to impact the aging process without lifting your metaphorical finger.

Ben Greenfield posted a fascinating, and related podcast, on the 6th.

In the battle against aging, remember the “young blood clinics” from last year?

Looking at the link between TRT (testosterone replacement therapy), often offered the “aging” male, and increased risk for CVA and MI.

And what about the link between chronic inflammation and Alzheimer’s?; chronic inflammation is a bad actor, and critically impacted by easily addressed lifestyle factors.

Hearing loss is tied to other impactful ailments as we age.

An Interesting Poke at the Gym and Muscle Culture

Gym, Eat, Repeat: The Shocking Rise of Muscle Dysmorphia. A lay article, but interesting…

The Older Bolder Bookshelf

This week I’ve added a feature to the blog we’ll call The Older Bolder Bookshelf; I’ve shared many times before that we’re huge fans of reading, both for pure recreation, as well as continually learning new things.

There’s such a rich, and interesting, body of work that’s been produced (in terms of readable and worthy books) in the ancestral health world, I’m going to add a more or less weekly post about books you should at minimum read and consider for adding to your home library. Some reviews will be short and sweet, some will be a bit longer.

Oh, and we’ll be sharing a pile of our favorite cookbooks as well…

Food, Glorious Food

What did medieval peasants eat?

Crispy Ancho Coffee Chicken
Zucchini Ribbon Salad with Cashews and Ricotta Salata
Quick Turmeric Zucchini Dills

Introducing the Older Bolder Bookshelf

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We’ve decided this week to add a new feature here on the Older Bolder Life, our blog for Older Bolder Fitness, a more or less weekly book recommendation, sometimes even a more detailed book review, for those among us interested in good health, longevity, protecting and preserving brain function, and good eats.

My lovely wife and I have been avid readers since we met in college several decades ago (and long before that actually), and invest a fair of time and effort to curate what in our minds at least is a very interesting and eclectic home library.

And while it’s perhaps in this day and age considered to be a dated and old-fashioned concept, I remain utterly convinced that it’s possible to become deeply knowledgable (dare I say even develop legitimate expertise) about almost any topic on the planet via reading and study, and one of the venues to gain that knowledge is by reading great books.

My intent will be to focus on solid reads, both current and foundational in the Primal / Paleo / ancestral health worlds, as well as great cookbooks (hey, it’s obvious we love great food around here…). I’ll do my best to see if I can wrangle some books to give away as well.

More to come….