Carolyn Niethammer’s Cookbooks:

It is always best to patronize your local independent bookstore. They can order any of these books for you and have them in less than a week. However, if you prefer to order on-line, I have given you the links.

American Indian Cooking, Recipes from the Southwest (originally published as American Indian Food and Lore), University of Nebraska, 1999.    A look at the wild foods Native Americans gathered and how they prepared them as well as how they figured in rituals and other household uses.  Find it here. 

The Prickly Pear Cookbook, Rio Nuevo Press, 2004.   Dozens of uses for both the prickly pear fruit and the pads.  Complete directions for how to use this delicious and nutritious plant, from harvesting to setting a beautiful creation on the table. It is out of print but there are used copies that pop up.

The New Southwest Cookbook, Rio Nuevo Press, 2005.  Fabulous recipes devised by the Southwest’s top professional chefs using the iconic ingredients found in the Southwest. A must for any regional dinner  party.  Find it here.

Cooking the Wild Southwest: Delicious Recipes for Desert Plants, University of Arizona, 2011.  This book describes 23 easily identified and gathered edible wild plants of the desert Southwest and adds tasty recipes to help you bring them to the table.  Watch a book trailer here  to give you an idea of what you might find.  Buy it here. 

A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson’s Culinary Heritage. University of Arizona, 2020. Tucson has been named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy and this book tells why, covering the time  from 10,000 years when hunter-gatherers roamed the Santa Cruz River Valley to today’s urban farms. The intervening years saw the introduction of the first agriculture north of Mexico and the introduction of Mediterranean plants by the Catholic missionary priests. You’ll learn why we say “Tucson tastes like nowhere else.”

Carolyn’s other books on Native American women can be found on her website.