Jam Today Too: The Revolution Will Not Be Catered

By Tod Davies

A book to be savored.” DEBORAH MADISON, author of The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Laughing with Tod at her loves and disasters will make you laugh at your own, and keep cooking.” ANNA THOMAS, author of Love Soup and The New Vegetarian Epicure

Chatty, wise, and terrifically useful, Tod Davies’ second serving of Jam makes disaster delicious and success the stuff of everyday life. What a treat to read and eat.” KATE LEBO, author of A Commonplace Book of Pie

Warm, conversational, and exquisitely practical, Davies returns to the Jam Today series to share new recipes from her home kitchenand stories about her experiences cooking for herself and her friends, family, and petsduring the best and worst of times. Whether she’s describing how she set up her kitchen in an RV after a flood, encouraging young feminists to try cooking a baked potato, adapting an M.F.K. Fisher recipe to create the world’s simplest hollandaise sauce,” or singing the praises of her favorite local food purveyors, her infectious enthusiasm provides inspiration for everyone from trained chefs to those barely able to scramble an egg.

Featuring advice for omnivores and vegetarians alike about how to eat (and what to prepare) to survive natural disasters, cross-country moves, bereavement, holidays-gone-wrong, and even a spontaneous picnic, Jam Today Too provides all the ingredients for daily feeding of mind, body, and soul.

Tod Davies is the author of Snotty Saves the Day and Lily the Silent, both from The History of Arcadia series, and the cooking memoirs Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking With What You’ve Got and Jam Today Too: The Revolution Will Not Be Catered. Unsurprisingly, her attitude toward literature is the same as her attitude toward cookingit’s all about working with what you have to find new ways of looking and new ways of being, and in doing so, to rediscover the best of our humanity. Davies lives with her husband and their two dogs, in the alpine valley of Colestin, Oregon, and at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in Boulder, Colorado.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Exterminating Angel Press
• Release date: May 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781935259268

Reviews for Jam Today Too

[tara35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second of Tod Davies's books I've read and while I enjoyed it quite a bit it's not my favorite food memoir. I love the ideas of cooking with what you have and enjoying food with family and friends. The recipes are more ideas for thing to make rather than firm directions which I enjoyed.

[booklovercook · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jam Today Too by Tod Davies is a collection of food and eating-related...I wouldn't quite call them essays, that is too formal. They would be more accurately described as thoughts, missives, meditations, wisdom. Whatever they are, they are delightful and simply dripping with personality. If I ever need a reminder of what it is to have a strong, identifiable, likeable voice in a book, this is the book I will turn to. The book is organized into chapters that are each a life situation in which food is important: disasters, grief, home, when with friends, when alone, etc. Within these chapters are the nebulous and loosely organized musings I desperately attempt to describe above. Some are distinct, others bleed into one another, and still others are grouped around something - a single event or a single vegetable, for instance. There are recipes, but most are not laid out in a way that one would recognize as a recipe. It is almost as if you are peeking into the food and cooking journal that Davies mentions she kept as a young cook. It is pleasant to read, but seems it would be difficult to cook from. Still, I'm going to give it a go because many of the recipes sound absolutely delicious. Davies is a self-described carnivore while her husband is often referred to as the Beloved Vegetarian, and so she presents us with recipes for both the meat-loving and the meat-eschewing.I found a lack of a cohesive story (anything that one would call plot) that though it did not lessen my enjoyment, would make me hesitate in calling the book a memoir. And so, instead of sitting down to read it as such, I would suggest reading it in short sittings, whenever you feel the need to be enveloped by the kind, funny, and wise presence of an old friend.

[morningwalker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed my free copy of this book from Early Reviewers. It's a combination memoir/cookbook/advice column, that really appealed to me. I related to the author's cooking style and found myself dog-earing many pages that I want to refer to on my nights in the future when I say "Hmmm, what can I make for dinner?" Warning - If you are the type of person who likes to cook from a recipe, and follow it word for word, ingredient by ingredient you will probably tear your hair out trying to use this book as a cook book. However, if you are like me, and love that the recipes aren't really recipes at all, but rather suggestions on where to begin the cooking process with what you have, you will love it too. This was a good win for me and I can't wait to try one of the "recipe."

[mldg_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jam today is written by a woman who really loves to cook. It made me look at food and food preperation differently. I enjoyed the "What's in your refrigerator" game. Reading this book was like sitting in my living room having a conversation with Tod Davis. Enjoyable.

[janehuber · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jam Today Too is a perfect antidote to the current cooking industry machine of shows and cookbooks, with their perfect pantries and rictus smiles. Author Tod Davies shares her ideas, recipes, and experiences, warts and all, in a delightful and inspiring memoir. These are recipes for secure cooks. The book will not hold your hand when you can't find the jar of fennel. You will not be bullied into driving all the way across town in search of duck. Instead, the author encourages readers to improvise, do things your own way, add your own touches. She writes: "this is how I did it," then leaves enticing trails of homemade breadcrumbs for readers to follow.Chapters are peppered with glasses of wine, visits with friends, and comestible inventorying. For Davies cooking is emotional and social sustenance, but it's not something to fret about -- see what you have, cook it up with love, and share it. Jam Today Too is a worthy successor to MFK Fisher's beloved books, and is a must for seasoned home cooks.

[rosecityreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jam Today Too is a collection of essays in the tradition of MFK Fisher, Elizabeth David, or Jim Harrison -- reflections on what to eat, why to eat it, and how to make it. Davies' chatty style offers recipes along with anecdotes about when she made the dishes, including cooking in an RV after their house flooded, cooking for grieving friends, recreating childhood favorites, and cooking for solo meals. Reading the pieces feels like sitting at the kitchen counter with a glass of wine, chatting with your friend while she cooks dinner.

[nelliemc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to love this book. The author is obviously a skilled writer, and the laudatory reviews printed on the book are from very distinguished people, e.g. Deborah Madison. And the comparisons to M.F.K. Fisher, probably the best food writer ever, were promising. And, indeed, Davies does have traces of Fisher. She combines philosophy with recipes, loves fairly simplistic cooking that emphasizes ingredient quality over fussiness, and deals a lot with the romance of cooking. But in the end, it just struck a false note that grew in an irritating fashion.First, there was her cute way of always referring to her husband as "Beloved Vegetarian Husband" which rapidly became very annoying (imitating Pioneer Woman's "Marlboro Man"?) Then there was a trace of smugness in the large number and quality of friends who are farmers and ranchers but seem to like nothing more than giving her lots of free food. But most of all, I couldn't buy into the recipes. I loved the idea of cooking from the pantry, which she does emphasize, or creating leftovers. But boy her pantry doesn't look anything like mine -it's incredibly well-stocked and full of rather unusual items - not many of us (esp. those with only two members) have lots of duck fat, pork skins, and tons of a large variety of organic vegetables always available. (I should note that despite her vegetarian husband (who isn't that strict a vegetarian, eating food cooked in bacon and sausage fat and meat-based broths) there are a number of meat dishes. ) Most of the recipes were for two people, but if I ate the quantity of food and number of dishes she seems to think makes for an easy weekday evening meal, I'd rapidly gain weight (2-3 potatoes with 6 eggs for two people? . And it wouldn't be helped by her strong reliance on cheese and cream to make everything taste good. Also, her cooking is somewhat laborious, given all the chopping, individual sauteeing, need to stir long-cooked dishes - which isn't bad if she had acknowledged it (she works from home), but she seems to think that this style is doable for everyone. In the end, I just had the feeling that she wrote a book she thought would have broad appeal, but wasn't really true to who she is.

[justmerosalie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I never learned much about cooking. It was something you did but not necessarily enjoyed. I've never had the confidence to just do it. Reading this book held just what it seems I've missed and needed. It reads as if you just follow the author about and watch what she does with what she has and you learn from that. You learn how to throw things together and create something delicious. You learn to like cooking and appreciate the role it plays in our lives everyday. Most of all you learn to make good with what you have and how to share with those you love. I have learned a great deal about families and meals and enjoying your own food creations.

[lauraodom-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the author’s voice is quite likable. She reads like a sweet Nana who loves spending time with good food and good people. She is a big proponent of cooking with what you have on hand, which I agree with. Problem is, the what-she-has-on-hand seems to be things I would never have in my kitchen like octopus, squid, lamb and seaweed. So, even though she peppers all her recipes with fun anecdotal stories, I felt myself fighting to not skim at times. I felt bad about it too.. because I really did feel like the author was a dear friend, and that I would be hurting her feelings by not reading the whole thing.There were some pages that I bookmarked for future reference and a few recipes were included that I would probably try, but I don’t see this food memoir/cookbook being something that I pick up again and again.Would I recommend this to my BFF? No. If she had time to read a food memoir/cookbook, I’d recommend Bread and Wine.Would I recommend this to my teen daughter? No. I don’t think it would hold her interest.

[judiex · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To Tod Davies, food is the great connector. It connects people to other people and to oneself. In JAM TODAY TOO, she explores this concept though conversational essays dealing with food during disasters (in her case, floods which destroyed her kitchen), grief, home, friends, feasts, and herself alone. There are seventy two recipes included, all listed at the beginning, but they are not presented in typical cookbook fashion. Some are strictly in essay form. The ones that follow the usual form–list of ingredients, preparation–are augmented by detailed information about how to pick the ingredients and how to prepare them. She lists staples that she always keeps at home as well as telling the reader what tempts her to purchase something else. (Often, it is the price.) Many of the recipes are vegetarian, as is her husband, and she offers advice about preparing one meal to meet the needs of people with varying tastes and needs. She suggests nine ways to use leftover rice.Along the way, she talks about ecology. Regarding calamari she says, “I know they are sustainable...at least they are for the moment, who knows for how much longer with those computer-driven industrial-sized nets dragging every inch of the deep sea floor these days?”She encourages people to experiment: During the Irish Potato Famine, people starved to death because there were no potatoes, their primary food. There was abundant seafood and seaweed in the sea around the island but since seafood was low-class, they never thought of eating it or giving it to their children. Likewise, in the American West, when locusts ate the harvest and coyotes came and attacked people for food, the people ate shoe leather. They didn’t eat the protein-rich locusts or the coyotes they shot. Tod Davies had never tried kale until encouraged to do so by her friends. Afterwards she wondered, “How many other assumptions, ruts, and blind spots are all around, trapping me in a life that is less rich than the one I could have if I opened up a bit more?”“When something goes wrong, don’t panic. It can always be fixed. And sometimes the fix is much better...than the perfection I set out to achieve.”We meet some of her friends and learn how she made new friends. Reading the book, made me think about some of my own cooking memories: Cabbage borscht my mother cooked. First cut veal chops I accidently bought but was afraid to cook because they were expensive and I didn’t know how to cook them without ruining it. Four bunches of radishes my husband bought when I wanted only one. Harry & David’s Rivera Pears.There are several recipes and foods I plan to try. For those that I won’t be trying because of my own food restrictions, I enjoyed reading them and considered ways to adapt them.Reading the book was more like a friendly visit rather than looking at a cold instruction manual. My main complaint is that too many of the recipes called for the same ingredients. While onions, carrots, and potatoes are staples most people have at home, I would have liked a bit more variety. But that may have been deliberate on her part to make the book more user-friendly.I received this book as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved Jam Today and I love Jam Today Too. Jam Today freed me to be a real cook. Tod Davies is the kind of cook that inspires others to bravely cook and that’s what she did for me. She doesn’t limit herself to insipidly following a recipe and I like that. So happy I went back for more Jam Today in this book two. I recommend it. Jam Today Too will make you a better cook and, somehow, a better, freer person.