In COOKING WITH THE MUSE: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare, co-authors Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla explore the full potential of a complete seasonal cookbook, one that celebrates real food and the rich cycles and traditions behind it. Here the glories of fresh ingredients, nutritious cooking, delectable dishes, and culinary literature are honored as never before.

This 500-page cookbook features 150 recipes with more than 200 full-color photographs, dishes inspired by cuisines from around the world. Reflecting the cooking instructor Myra Kornfeld’s background in real foods traditions and nutrition, these dishes highlight fresh, local ingredients and encourage the use of seasonal produce, wild seafood, traditional fats, and meat from pasture-raised animals. This book is also Paleo-friendly and gluten-free-friendly throughout-while remaining a delight for omnivores. All the recipes have been thoroughly tested and are easy to follow. They will appeal to casual and experienced cooks alike.

Thanks to Stephen Massimilla’s venerable career as scholar and poet who also lectures and teaches about food, history, and the environment, he revels in the culinary and literary cross-fertilization of cultures. Compared to other seasonal cookbooks, this volume has extraordinary added value: interesting and beautiful historical and literary pieces about food, cooking and eating, each treasure perfectly paired, like a fine wine, with each dish.

Blackberry Parfait

The word “parfait” is French for “perfect.” A bit of lightly sweetened cream with crème fraîche folded into it creates a perfect combination that is deeper and more soothing than whipped cream alone. Macerated blackberries are surprisingly light. Layered in a champagne flute, the cream and the berries balance each other perfectly, hovering on the cusp between summer and autumn, appetizer and dessert. This parfait is the epitome of elegant simplicity.

Makes 8 champagne flutes

2 (6-ounce) containers blackberries (2 heaping cups)

6 tablespoons granulated natural sugar (such as maple)

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup crème fraîche (see the Cook’s Note)
1. Mix the blackberries with 1/4 cup of the sugar in a medium bowl. Let sit for 20 minutes to dissolve the sugar and let the berries create their own sauce. Stir the blackberries and lightly mash them from time to time to speed the process along.
2. Whip the cream with the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar until soft little alpine peaks form. Fold in the crème fraîche and set aside.
3. Start with a dollop of blackberries. Add a layer of cream, then blackberries, then cream again. Top off with a dollop of blackberries. Swirling islands of purple and white suggest an aerial view of the earth, or what Gerard Manley Hopkins calls “skies of couple-color as a brinded cow.” Chill until ready to serve.
Cook’s Note: You can substitute mascarpone or thick yogurt as tasty alternatives to the crème fraîche.

August
When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend

all day among the high
branches, reaching
my ripped arms, thinking

of nothing, cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body

accepts what it is. In the dark
creeks that run by there is
this thick paw of my life darting among

the black bells, the leaves; there is
this happy tongue.
-Mary Oliver

About the authors:
Myra Kornfeld is a chef, educator, and the author of three previous cookbooks,The Healthy Hedonist, The Healthy Hedonist Holidays, and The Voluptuous Vegan; she teaches in the graduate nutrition program at the Maryland University of Integrative Health and The Natural Gourmet Institute, and is the head chef for the website myfoodmyhealth.com. She specializes in team building events and cooking parties.

Stephen Massimilla is a poet, critic, and professor who teaches literature and values pertaining to food; his honors include a Stephen F. Austin University Press prize for The Plague Doctor in His Hull-Shaped Hat; the Bordighera Poetry Prize for Forty Floors from Yesterday; the Grolier Poetry Prize for Later on Aiaia; and a Van Renssalaer Award, selected by Kenneth Koch. His work has appeared in hundreds of publications, and he teaches literature, food ethics, and writing at Columbia University and the New School.

COOKING WITH THE MUSE: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare
By Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla
Published by Tupelo Press
Publication Date: April 2016
Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-936797-68-4
Price: $39.95
512 pages with 150 recipes
200 full-color photographs with cooked dishes photographed by Michael Grimaldi and ingredient shots photographed by Stephen Massimilla
Illustrations by Francis Estrada