Modern Pioneering Book Review

I was super excited to see the change in Blogging for Books and all of the new offerings that they had.  The hardest part was where to start with so many options to choose from.  I am much better at the limited choices so that I don't over think it.  I was looking and looking and one book kept calling to me and it was Modern Pioneering: More Than 150 Recipes, Projects, and Skills for a Self-Sufficien​t Life by Georgia Pellegrini.  The cover was just calling to me and the description of how to lead a better life by living of what you have.  It is what I always try to do so I was really eager to read it.  The book got dropped off late at night by the UPS driver.  I opened it right away and cheered.  My husband thought I was a little strange but I passed it to him and told him how excited I was to get it.  I started reading right away.

The table of contents was even pretty including the following categories:

Introduction
The Garden
The Home
The Wild
The Rest

It is a perfect book to keep on the shelf and reference and great to read cover to cover.  There is information on how to plant potatoes and jalapenos (both which I would love to grow) as well as indoor and outdoor plant care.  There is information on how to forage off the land which might be a little beyond what I am going to do now but still fascinating.  Every page brought new and interesting information about how to live more off the land.  Even the information that might have been old or common sense was a great reminder and a different take on how to make that item like chicken broth.  It isn't how I do it but sounds like a great recipe.

My only complaint is that she seems to use a lot of wine.  There is wine in the chicken and beef broth recipes.  There is a recipe for wine Popsicles and champagne in the fruit rolls ups.  While all that sounds fine, I am working on providing the most for my family for the least and we don't have extra wine around (or any wine for that matter).  It is strange that she has so many recipes with wine in them but I guess that is the difference in how people live their lives and what they consider standard pantry items.

I hope that you check out this great reference book for the great stories of her childhood and the recipes!  I can't wait to try out a few different ways to do things.  The one that seems interesting that I have never even thought of trying is the smoked sea salt on the stove.  There is a recipe for wheat bread which sounds like it might be interesting so I might be trying that soon.  I hope that you pick up the book and see what interesting things you can make with the help of some Modern Pioneering!!  Let me know if you check it out and what you made with all the great ideas.

* I was provided this book free of charge for my honest opinion on the book through the Blogging for Books program.