Splendid Grain: Robust, Inspired Recipes for Grains with Vegetables, Fish, Poultry, Meat, & Fruit »

Rebecca Wood, teacher, lecturer, student of Oriental medicine, author of five cookbooks, including "The Whole Foods Encyclopedia," and educational consultant to the natural food industry, runs the Naturally Grand Cooking School. She lives in Grand Junction, Colorado. http://www.rwood.com

With 250 luscious recipes, along with eight pages of color photographs, The Splendid Grain dramatizes how you can incorporate extraordinarily healthful grains into your life without changing your lifestyle.

Grains can transform taste and texture in unsurpassed ways like these:

• Nutty, sweet oats form the delicious crust of fried chicken

• Piquant quinoa heightens and absorbs the savory juices of gingered lamb

• Hearty buckwheat becomes a sweet, delicate, Parisian-inspired crepe

• Thai black sticky rice flavored with coconut makes unforgettable exotic banana dumplings.

The natural and native history of each grain is also explored along with its health benefits.

Dean Fearing

'The Splendid Grain' is a much-needed encyclopedia of innovative grain recipes and lore — practical, useful, andstimulating.