nitebeing's review
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
4.0
we need more cookbooks like this, especially by and for neurodivergent folks (why don't all recipes have an "equipment needed" list???). most people don't stop to realize the ableism of kitchen design & cooking practices. would've rated higher if the author had a slightly better analysis & acknowledgement of class, and had processed a bit more of his own internalized ableism & explicitly made more room in prep times & ingredient variations as some recipes are still much too energy intensive to be doable by many Disabled folks (either at all without a simplified version or especially within the stated time frames, many would take me quite a bit longer).
novella42's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
I love that Jules Sherred saw the need for this book and wrote it himself. I love his attention to energy levels many "spoonies" and fellow disabled and chronically ill people live with. Sorting recipes into low, medium, and high energy days is something I do all the time. I loved his pre-surgery meal planning menu.
I love the heart and soul he poured into the book, the fact he shared his favorite recipes along with the cultural and personal history behind them. His photography is gorgeous and the food all looks truly delicious.
All of that being said, I also struggled with some internalized ableism as I read through the book and knew my personal prep time would be 3-5 times the length of his listed prep times. I don't know what it is about cooking from a wheelchair with C-PTSD, but everything takes so much longer. I feel like I'm having to employ so much concentration to plan or just remember all the steps everyone else finds so simple. Ten minutes to dice seven different vegetables and find and measure out six different spices? How??? That's going to be at least half an hour on a very good day, probably longer. I know it's just my internalized ableism that made me feel ashamed when I saw the time frames for his recipes, which all looked complex to me, even the shorter ones.
I often felt overwhelmed by the number of ingredients in most of the recipes he used, and found myself doing the extra mental math I do for most cookbooks, of "skip all those spices, use this spice mix/find a jar of curry sauce" and "skip chopping these ingredients and microwave a bag of frozen veggies to add instead." I know that probably defeats the purpose of a cookbook, but I just won't be able to make most of this without figuring out a lot of shortcuts.
I wish there were "super simplified" tips at the end of each recipe doing this kind of adjustment. But maybe I'm just not the target audience for this book and should just stick to "5 ingredient dinner" cookbooks or box meals. I guess I was expecting something more like the Depression Cooking Zine by Sonali Menezes.
Jules' love of delicious and complex food is beatiful and aspirational for me. Maybe someday.
I would love to see him apply this same kind of attention and love to a Low Spoons cookbook.
I love the heart and soul he poured into the book, the fact he shared his favorite recipes along with the cultural and personal history behind them. His photography is gorgeous and the food all looks truly delicious.
All of that being said, I also struggled with some internalized ableism as I read through the book and knew my personal prep time would be 3-5 times the length of his listed prep times. I don't know what it is about cooking from a wheelchair with C-PTSD, but everything takes so much longer. I feel like I'm having to employ so much concentration to plan or just remember all the steps everyone else finds so simple. Ten minutes to dice seven different vegetables and find and measure out six different spices? How??? That's going to be at least half an hour on a very good day, probably longer. I know it's just my internalized ableism that made me feel ashamed when I saw the time frames for his recipes, which all looked complex to me, even the shorter ones.
I often felt overwhelmed by the number of ingredients in most of the recipes he used, and found myself doing the extra mental math I do for most cookbooks, of "skip all those spices, use this spice mix/find a jar of curry sauce" and "skip chopping these ingredients and microwave a bag of frozen veggies to add instead." I know that probably defeats the purpose of a cookbook, but I just won't be able to make most of this without figuring out a lot of shortcuts.
I wish there were "super simplified" tips at the end of each recipe doing this kind of adjustment. But maybe I'm just not the target audience for this book and should just stick to "5 ingredient dinner" cookbooks or box meals. I guess I was expecting something more like the Depression Cooking Zine by Sonali Menezes.
Jules' love of delicious and complex food is beatiful and aspirational for me. Maybe someday.
I would love to see him apply this same kind of attention and love to a Low Spoons cookbook.
niceonehros's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Excellent resource, actionable, and inspiring
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