While winter may be loosening its grip in the Northern Hemisphere, cravings for comfort food remain a constant. Just the right remedy comes in the form of ‘’Worth the Weather: A 1970s Snack-Sized Winter Cookbook’’.
Released this winter by Jennifer Cockrall, Kim Larson, and Mifi Purvis – the brain trust of Savvy Beautiful Books, this delightful wee coil-bound cookbook offers 12 kitchen tested recipes. Think of those dog-eared cookbooks such as Best of Bridge and later Company’s Coming. Perhaps not the glossiest books in your pantry, those cookbooks were the most used and shared.
In a break from working on some of their high-profile clients’ dream projects, the three creative gals noted: ‘’Jenn’s pandemic impulse purchase of a 1976 Travelaire trailer, decorated in harvest gold, got us thinking about the free-wheeling, feel-good food of our youth’’. Reminiscing about childhood ski outings which were as much about the food and social gathering, visions of crepes, fondues, and raclette dinners loomed large. Before you can say ‘’keep on truckin’’’, they were on the road to the Cockrall family cabin to cook up favourites and capture golden memories.
Queue up a seventies playlist including such icons as Gordon Lightfoot and Terry Jacks and travel back in time. Keep a pen and notepad handy to capture your shopping list as you are wrapped in this warm blanket in the ‘Wayback Machine’. For instance, ‘Raclette Returns’ provides key ingredients and the details to roll out this family and friends feast flawlessly.
Or take your canapes to new heights with ‘Three’s Company Devilled Eggs’ for a trifecta of the appetizer served as Prosciutto Speared, Kimchi Surprise, and Avocado Babies. Similarly to their recipe of ‘Perfection Onion Soup” and its upgrade of Korean Red Pepper Flakes, a classic dish is remastered, taking it from good to great.
Great food deserves a beverage equal to it. BC wines pair nicely, and Jenn recalls her parent’s wineskins filled with hot drinks. She believes that may be why she still enjoys a good, mulled cider. So, she tapped her friends at Naramata Bench’s Creek & Gully Cider to share their ‘Hot & Spicy Apple Cider’ recipe. Each winter it is made in a cauldron for their annual wassail night gathering.
About the Authors
Jennifer Cockrall now resides in Naramata and hails from Edmonton. She has been an important part of my life since I moved back to the Okanagan. She used to present the highly lauded Okanagan Food & Wine Writers Workshop. I met her in Penticton as I tried to enrol in the workshop’s inaugural year” It was already oversubscribed and waitlisted. Always a problem solver, she told me I could pay a per session rate for classes that were not number sensitive. And she offered to meet for coffee when the workshop was over for her to bring me up to speed on what I missed. The coffee break stretched over three hours and the friendship forever. In the workshop’s following years, I was always first to enrol!
Business partners Kim Larson and Mifi Purvis are Edmonton-based and have strong ties to the Okanagan. You learn a snippet about their food affinities and their moms in the cookbook. Plus, the cookbook demonstrates you don’t have to go glossy to create a mood. Their copywriting, and the layout invites you in for the ride as well as those warm photographs by Darren Jacknisky.
About Savvy Beautiful Books
‘’Savvy Beautiful Books is a boutique creative shop that makes custom books.’’ The team work with their clients from ‘’aspiring authors to established publishers’’ who want to outsource writing, editing, art direction, and layout.
Jennifer Cockrall, Head of Projects: Jennifer is the award-winning author of best-seller Food and the City (translated into three languages), Food Artisans of the Okanagan, and tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine, which she co-authored with chef Shane Chartrand. A graduate of the Simon Fraser University Book Publishing Program, Jennifer has a track record of navigating the publishing world. She has helped other creators write and complete their books.
Kim Larson, Creative Director: Kim is an art director, creative director, and designer behind dozens of award-winning photoshoots, spreads, and magazines. She’s versatile and unconventional, and she has the creative edge you need to make your book’s style, vision, and message stand out. Kim brings her own decades of experience and her wide professional networks to your project—she’s connected with the country’s best stylists, illustrators, and photographers.
Mifi Purvis, Head of Editorial: Mifi works with new and seasoned writers to bring out their best. She’s an award-winning editor and writer who has elevated the work of other award-winning writers with her sense of story and her editorial skills. The former editor of Food For Thought magazine, her writing has also appeared in many local and national magazines, and she has an extensive background in strategic communications.
Where to Buy Worth the Weather
You will find Worth the Weather at events including Okanagan Seed Savers and similar in Edmonton where the authors participate in culinary happenings. Select outlets such as Tiny’s Cheese Shop in Edmonton or The Cookbook Co. Cooks in Calgary carry it. Or go directly to Savvy Beautiful Books and click on Order Now.
Recently in collaboration with Dana Ewart at Grist Microbaker in the Cannery Trade Centre, Jennifer launched the cookbook locally in the Okanagan.
