Summer Grill & Wine

Would you like some cheese with that wine? How about some barbecue? Something about the summer months invites us to spend more time outside taking advantage of the great weather, tasty fresh ingredients, and longer days-- all things wine tasting and grilling are made for!

Maybe you're a grilling neophyte or a certified wine-tasting expert-- there's something for every pallet in the UCC Library's cookbook collection.

A little bit of wine, a little bit of food, and some light conversation

What to Drink with What You Eat
This helpful volume will help you decide everything from the best beverage to go with truffles to the perfect food to serve with the soda at your summer barbecue. Also great for sparking conversations: "Wine with pizza? Really?!"


The Vintner's Kitchen: celebrating the wines of Oregon
Have you ever noticed the Avocado Crostini in the photos for Rustle-Prayer Rock Vineyard while waiting for a movie to start at the cinema? Thought it looked good? Now you can learn how to make it-- and which wine goes best with it. Fruit salads, entrees, wine punches, pasta and barbecue-- this cookbook has a little of everything, and many of the recipes are from the Umpqua area.


Serious Barbecue: smoke, char, baste, & brush your way to great outdoor cooking
Adam Perry Lang studied under several culinary internships before deciding what he really wanted to do was cook things with fire-- and here he is to help you do it, too.


Perfect Pairings: a master sommelier's practical advice for partnering wine with food
Evan Goldstein provides details on the major types of wine as well as menus and recipes for food to accompany each variety. Specific labels are suggested after each recipe, and the index in the back lets you look up both "food by wine type" and "wines by food being served."


Quirky Histories

Cooking with Shakespeare
If you're heading out to the theater or down to Ashland, you're bound to work up an appetite. This historical cookbook covers what food was like in Shakespeare's time, including original recipes with modern adaptations, each with a difficulty scale.


The Texas Cowboy Cookbook
Combine grilling with history-- and savor some of the Old West in your own kitchen or backyard with this collection of cowboy meals from the 1800s through the present. Hint: it helps if you like beans.


What I Eat: around the world in 80 diets

This isn't a cookbook, exactly, but if your travel budget is stretched thin and you'd like to experience the world through food, this might be just the ticket. Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio photograph and document a typical day's worth of food for individuals around the world, from a Bangladeshi child working as a train station porter to the manager of a high-rise eatery in Canada to a sustainable farmer in Virginia. Even more interesting-- calorie counts and meal lists are provided, as well as a brief snapshot of each person's "daily routine."

Documentaries to Check Out

The next time that you are wondering what do to with some of your free time, you may want to consider checking out a documentary from the library collection. Documentaries are a wonderful way to learn about other cultures and different ways of life. They also offer the possibility of stimulating discussions. The UCC library has a wide selection of documentaries on various topics, so you are sure to find something that interests you.

If the darker side of sports is something that you would like to learn more about, then check out Blood Equity. Produced by Roman Phifer, former Denver Broncos coach, this film explores the lives of professional football players after retirement. Football enthusiasts will enjoy interviews from players like Willie Wood, Donnie Green, Daryl "Moose" Johnston, and Mike Ditka. Even those who don't follow football closely will be interested in the irony of the struggles that former NFL players face against the NFL Player's Union.

The struggles that same-sex couples face in the United States is documented in Pursuit of Equality. This culturally relevant documentary may appeal to you. The film centers around same-sex marriages that took place in San Francisco in 2004. You don't want to miss this controversial, award winning film that deals with current issues that our country faces.

If global issues are more appealing to you, then Burma VJ may be an appropriate selection. Featuring partially reconstructed and smuggled film, this documentary takes you to restricted areas to follows the uprisings against the Burmese military that took place in September of 2007.

These are just a few of the documentaries that are available at the UCC library. So try to find one that engrosses you, and you may be able to learn a few things without even leaving your sofa!