Spring Forward

Linda Hafner’s new cookbook takes cooks on a culinary journey through the four seasons

This time of year the need to encourage families to sit down together at the dinner table seems unnecessary. Still, although it’s available now, Linda Hafner’s new cookbook is meant to nudge everyone into the kitchen all year long. Hafner, one half of the dynamic duo behind Chuck Hafner’s Farmers Market and Garden Center in North Syracuse, devised Simple, Fresh & Healthy (Beaufort Books, New York City; 170 pages/softcover; $19.95) to help cooks get quick but healthy meals on the table.

Denise Owen Harrigan wrote the book, taking copious notes while Hafner busied herself at the stove, chatting while she chopped, and the recipes and stories inside are enhanced with handsome photos by worldrenowned food photographer James Scherzi and the clean, accessible design by his wife, Holly Boice Scherzi. Their visual touches make this as much a coffee-table book as a kitchen staple.

“I’ve always wanted to write a cookbook,” says Hafner, “so it was my idea to approach Jim. I was a home-economics, nutrition teacher, seriously into exercise, that’s all been my thing. And with the big push to eat fresh, to eat local, I had the idea to do it in seasons. We have so much available in Central New York, in all the seasons and I wasn’t sure people knew what was available in what season.”

In keeping with that theme, the book is arranged into four chapters—spring, summer, fall and winter—with in-season foods being written into recipes; asparagus and strawberries in spring, for example, or hearty soups and stews in winter. While contemplating the idea of a cookbook, Hafner decided she should grow her first vegetable garden (ah, the irony!), and the book begins with an explanation of how she built it, diagrams to assist readers and a list of the 15 items she cultivated.

“I’d never done it before,” she marvels, “so I started with spinach in March, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I used probably $35 worth of seeds, and yielded probably $400 worth of produce from it. I just kept harvesting and kept planting. When the spinach was done, I planted peppers.” All of this is to get the reader in the mood to do it themselves, at the same time realizing they can succeed because a rookie gardener made it happen in a 6-by-10-foot space.

Of course, you don’t have to grow a garden to enjoy the easy, tasty and nutritious recipes included here. Cooking them will prove simpler than what Hafner went through to get the recipes on paper. “What was hard for me,” she admits, “was, as a cook, I don’t measure. As a baker you have to

measure; as a cook you don’t. So as I was cooking I’d take the olive oil and put it in the pan, and Denny {Harrigan} would say, ‘Wait, wait, you have to measure that.’ So I’d put it back and measure it.

“But at the same time, I want people to cook. I want them to know that you don’t have to follow the recipes exactly. If you don’t have basil, maybe you use oregano. If your family doesn’t like oregano, maybe you can use something else. I tell people to experiment. Try it, taste it as you go and see what you like.”

Actually, says Scherzi, who had previously worked on cookbooks for the Dinosaur Bar- B-Que and Joey DeCuffa, Hafner’s process isn’t all that unusual. “Nobody that we’ve shot with has any recipes written down so we just consider that normal,” he says. “But, much like the Dinosaur cookbook, John {Stage, owner of the Dino} would cut up some onions and throw them in the pan; I’d take them out and measure them. Linda and Denny did the same thing.

“What we’ve found when doing cookbooks,” Scherzi adds, “is you can come up with a concept, but once you get going, a cookbook tends to take on a life of its own. And we’ve learned not to fight that. Each cookbook has its own personality; there’s no cookie-cutter formula for us. The book is an extension of Linda; it’s not an extension of us. We’re here to help her tell her story. I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve done a lot of books and they’re all different. They all reflect the author’s or the creator’s intentions.”

Still, in keeping with the “simple” theme of the book, not one ingredient could be considered exotic or hard to find. “Linda was very careful not to put anything in there that isn’t readily available,” says Scherzi. “The book is geared toward the younger crowd. It’s written as 1-2-3 type directions for the ingredients, but there are no odd ingredients anyplace.”

As for the healthy slant of the cookbook, Hafner called on her years teaching home economics to devise recipes, but the stated nutrition values as published in the book came from a registered dietitian. “My cousin, who is a dietician, got a program that is very specific. For example, and this was new to me, if the cucumbers are sliced or chopped there is a difference in the nutritional value. If I was using canned chiles, I’d have to tell her what brand and what size the can was.”

Simple, Fresh & Healthy is, above all, a handsome addition to a cook’s bookshelf. The seasonal concept flows logically, with the stunning outdoor photography hitting its peak when produce does: summer. Still, Scherzi’s photos of Hafner’s creations—whether taken in her back yard, in her kitchen or in his East Molloy Road studio—push this cookbook into the coffee-table book category.

“Each chapter is a different color palette,” says Holly Scherzi, the book’s designer. “Linda wanted bright colors,” adds her husband. “She said, ‘The garden is bright. When I walk into the garden I see bright, vibrant colors. I want bright colors.’ And Holly carried that through the recipes and through the design. We tried to accent visually when we could to complement Linda’s philosophy.”

So as you thumb through the book, you’ll encounter green as the dominant color of the chapter Spring: The Tender Season; red for Summer: The Vibrant Season; mustard for Autumn: The Golden Season; and purple for Winter: The Comfort Season. In each chapter, ingredients get highlighted so they pop off

the page. “People I’ve shown the book to love this because they can see the ingredients right away and they know if they have it at home,” Hafner says. In addition, bullet points highlight sentence-long instructions. “People don’t read paragraphs,” she adds, “that’s why I wanted the bullets.”

Hafner couldn’t have been more supportive of every recipe and every photograph and every page layout, except for one—the cover; that took some convincing. While the Perfect Peach Shortcake photographed on the cover sure looks pretty, the nutrition-savvy Hafner wasn’t entirely sold on the concept.

“I thought, Oh, my gosh, can I put a dessert on the cover of my cookbook?” Hafner says. “I called {local registered dietitian} Linda Quinn and my cousin and asked what they thought. You look at the recipe, and you can see I give people the choice of whipped cream or plain yogurt as a topping and both said to me, ‘If I can get my clients to eat a half a biscuit with fresh fruit and yogurt, I would be thrilled.’ Plus, one of them did tell me that desserts do sell.”

So with the Scherzis’ track record of producing gorgeous cookbooks by local chefs, an eye-catching cover image and design, and Hafner’s pedigree (her parents, George and Lee Gelsomin, owned and operated the dearly departed Sweetheart Market in North Syracuse), Simple, Fresh & Healthy is sure to be a hit for holiday gifting. The book is currently available for sale at Hafner’s, 7265 Buckley Road. For more information, call 458-2969.

Since it’s late fall, here is a recipe from the winter chapter of the book. o

Night-Shift French Toast Soufflé

10 cups hearty, whole-grain bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (I use Pepperidge Farm 15-grain bread, about 16 slices)

8 ounces cream cheese, softened (lowerfat)

8 large eggs 1½ cups

1 percent milk cup half-and-half

½ cup maple syrup

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Additional maple syrup for serving

Place the bread cubes in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish thats been coated with cooking spray. Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the milk, half-andhalf, maple syrup, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Pour this mixture over the bread cubes, cover the dish securely, and refrigerate overnight. About 90 minutes before serving, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the bread mixture from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Bake for about 50 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and dust the top of the soufflé with powdered sugar. Serve with maple syrup. Makes 12 servings.