I love cookbooks. I ordered this non-assuming book, Victuals by Ronni Lundy, thinking it was a cookbook. I was surprised to find it has recipes but is something quite different.

Victuals, pronounced ‘vi-dls, is an amazing journey into life and food in the Appalachian region. The stories and recollections took me back to my grandparent’s farm.

The recipes are authentic to the region—things like buttermilk brown sugar pie, speckled butter bean cassoulet with rabbit confit (I might have preferred they had not pictured the skinned rabbit carcass), and sorghum and apple sticky pudding.

A recipe I am planning on making this week is Kale Potato Cakes. It looks amazing and you can use left-over mashed potatoes and/or greens. You add a bit of Asiago cheese and brown till crispy in a olive oil.

Kale-Potato Cakes

Victuals wasn’t what I thought it was, but I love it. Ronni Lundy writes with warmth and wit. I felt as if I went back in time a hundred years to a slower time when folks lived off the land and enjoyed life. I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Blogging for Books.