The Prairie Table Cookbook by renowned journalist Bill Kurtis (with
Michelle Martin) is a new look at food and life on the American western frontier. Featuring over 100 recipes, the book focuses on foods of the American West in the mid to late Nineteenth century. With recipes ranging from variations on coffee to meat loaf and chili, the book focuses primarily upon the American love affair with beef. Each chapter traces the history and foods of various groups on the western frontier - American Indians, the Army, Prairie homesteaders, Cowboys and Chuck Wagons and concludes with delicious modern recipes that savor the flavor of grass-fed/grass-finished beef. With recipes from Prairie Grass Cafe, Frontera Grill and Wrigley Field there is surely something to please every palette. The research took the authors from the genesis of the cattle trade in the Palo Duro Canyon in Texas to the cowtowns of Kansas and places in between. One of the chief objectives of The Prairie Table Cookbook is to educate the American food consumer about the healthy choices and alternatives that exist in the marketplace today, chiefly grass-fed/grass-finished beef. A grass-fed rancher himself, Kurtis provides the reader with several engaging lessons between chapters that explain the cattle production of the old west, the magic of grasses and the prairie and why he chose to be a grass-fed rancher himself. Each chapter contains engaging stories and personal insights from people who lived and struggled on the American prairie in the Nineteenth century, lush color photographs, and of course mouth watering recipes. What makes The Prairie Table Cookbook unique is the way in which it blends history, food, education, travel and photography.