Part One Background
1 The Global-Warming Diet
What foods and food processes make up the Global-Warming Diet and how can we eat a Cool Cuisine, the ultimate low carb(on) solution? The chapter explores how our food choices are as important as the type of car we drive, when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. Includes: Recipe for Making One Gallon of Gas; Household Emissions Comparison; Evidence of Twentieth-Century Warming; and Cool Cuisine Stages 1-3.
2 Why All the Oil in My Soil?
Discusses the agricultural practices that contribute to global warming from a culinary perspective. Includes: Monocropping is Bad for Dinner Parties; Fertilizers, Pesticides and Candy-Coated Brie; Deforestation and Shady Coffee and Chocolate; Erosion versus Earthworms (the True Iron Chefs); What is the Carbon Cycle?; Carbon Dioxide Year by Year; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and five tasty recipes influenced by chapter topics including Dark Chocolate Chili. Seoul Massage
3 Global Warming and Tonight’s Dinner
How is global warming expected to affect the foods that make up your dinner tonight? Experts from the USDA, NASA, and the University of California, Berkeley share their findings on the future of wine, wheat, stone fruit, fish, and water. Includes: Evidence for Human Contribution; Projections of Future Climate; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and five recipes influenced by chapter topics including Best Choice Seafood Dinner with Peach-Ginger-Mint Salsa.
4 In Search of a Cool, Clean Drink
Follow the author’s journey as she attempts to clean up her habit of drinking bottled water. This chapter explores the bottled water phenomenon and challenges the reader to join the movement to eliminate the production of 15 billion plastic water bottles per year (half the annual U.S. consumption), by refilling them at least once with tap water before disposal. Includes: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch; Water Taste Test; Bottled Water versus Tap Water: Energy Analysis; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and six recipes influenced by chapter topics including the famous Earth Day Cooltini!
Part Two Solutions
5 The Summer of Grapes: Local, Organic, Seasonal
A season spent pruning and harvesting Cabernet Sauvignon grapes at a neighborhood vineyard leads the author on a journey to explore local, organic and seasonal eating. The chapter incorporates interviews with farming and agricultural experts. Includes: Full Circle Food Cycle; Food Miles Comparison; Who’s Eating Who in the Food World?; Soil Nitrogen Sequestration Research at the University of California, Davis; Most Local Plate; What’s in Season When?; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and six recipes influenced by chapter topics including A Salad for All Seasons.
6 Holy Cow!
Chapter 6 interviews farming and ranching experts and visits Crown S Ranch in Washington, for a first hand comparison of pasture-raised (grass-fed) animals to factory-farmed (grain fed) animals, from an environmental and health perspective. Other topics include raw milk, methane digestors, and the connection between pasture land and carbon sequestration. Includes: Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and four recipes influenced by chapter topics including Lettuce Cups with Grass-Fed Meat (or Braised Tempeh) and Peanut Sauce.
7 Seven Innovative Recipes for Success
The author interviews seven industry leaders about their solutions to the Global-Warming Diet. The solutions come from: Kiteship Inc.; Kaiser Permanente Medical Groups; Google Café 150; EcoSynergy; StopWaste.Org; Norcal; and Coskata Inc. Includes: Apple versus Apple iPod Comparison; Paul’s Compost Recipe; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and five recipes influenced by chapter topics including Wind-Powered Zucchini Boats with Cheddar.
Part Three Culinary How-To
8 America’s Changing Palate
The time for change to a cool, green cuisine is now! We are ready to move away from a meat- and potato-centered diet to food with more health and flavor. We just need to learn how to cook the food. Includes: What is it about Food and Cooking that Escapes Us?; I can’t get no Satisfaction; Who is Emitting?; and two recipes influenced by chapter topics including International Stir-Fry Sauce – Orange-Maple- Chipotle.
9 Eat More Vegetables!
We know that vegetables are good for us – so let’s start eating them! Includes: Vegetable Cooking Techniques; Energy Efficiency of Foods; Cooking Carbon Comparisons; Antioxi-Who and Phyto-What?; Salt Taste Test; Carbon Footprint Label; How to keep your Knife Sharp; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and six recipes influenced by chapter topics including Dijon Green Beans with Roasted Candied Shallots.
10 Great Grains
On the menu for a Cool Cuisine are plenty of whole grains to replace some of our meat consumption. Preparation and seasoning of whole grains can be remarkably easy once you learn a few little tips and tricks. Includes: Grain Cooking Chart; Grains and Health; Food-Auto Comparison; Seasoning Lesson #1; The Condiment Plate; Seasoning Lesson #2; How to Make a Sauce; Those Nasty Imported Herbs and Spices; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and nine recipes influenced by chapter topics including Winter Emmer Risotto with Roasted Root Vegetables and Rosemary.
11 A Cook’s Look
Let’s take a cook’s look at using small-farmed beef, cheese, eggs and honey. Includes: Hometown Cheese Platter; Grass-fed versus Grain-fed Beef Taste Test; Making Sense of the Terms; Questions for Egg Farmers; Honey Taste Test; The Ozone Hole: A Lesson for the Future; Book ‘n’ Cook Club Ideas; and four tasty recipes influenced by chapter topics including Truly Green Egg Omelet.
Epilogue: The Secret
Shhhhh … it’s a secret – you’ll have to look at the book…
Appendix
– Offsetting this Book’s Carbon Emissions
– Endnotes
– Resources