Cheryl Sternman Rule

Cheryl Sternman Rule is an award-winning food writer and cookbook author. Her work has appeared in Women’s Health, Cooking Light, Sunset, Body + Soul, Health, Relish, Vegetarian Times, the San Jose Mercury News, Metro Silicon Valley, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Edible San Francisco, Edible Silicon Valley, The Kitchn, Etsy, Today.com, and Serious Eats; and in several books published by the American Heart Association and the EatingWell Media Group. Cheryl also served as a contributing editor at EatingWell, a daily food news blogger at iVillage, and the Fresh Talk columnist at Recipe.com. She is the voice behind the food blog 5 Second Rule, winner of both Saveur Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Award for Best Food Blog in the writing category (2014) and the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Award for Best Culinary Blog (2012). In 2008, she won the Greenbrier Award given by the Symposium for Professional Food Writers. Visit her website for more information.

YOGURT CULTURE (2015)

Long celebrated as a versatile ingredient in cuisines across the globe, yogurt has recently emerged as a food of nearly unparalleled growth here in the United States. The time has come for a modern, far-ranging cookbook devoted to its untapped culinary uses.

In Yogurt Culture, award-winning food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule presents 115 flavorful recipes, taking yogurt farther than the breakfast table, lunchbox, or gym bag. Rule strips yogurt of its premixed accessories and brings it back to its pure, wholesome essence. In chapters like Flavor, Slurp, Dine, and Lick, she pairs yogurt not just with fruit but with meat, not just with sugar but with salt, not just with herbs but with fragrant spices whose provenance spans the globe. She provides foolproof, step-by-step instructions for how to make yogurt, Greek yogurt, and labneh at home, though all of her recipes can also be prepared with commercial yogurt.

Rule explores yogurt from every angle, explaining how to read a label, visiting producers large and small, and gaining entry to the kitchens of cooks from around the world. Deeply researched and peppered with stories, interviews, and full-color photographs, Yogurt Culture offers a fresh, comprehensive take on a beloved food.

"The Internet has plenty of yogurt how-to's, but I found the most accessible and complete guide in a book called "Yogurt Culture," by Cheryl Sternman Rule, published last year. Her book made homemade yogurt seem not only easy, but also kind of essential."—The New York Times

"Sternman Rule stuffs her book with a global smorgasbord of tempting recipes. Some were gathered during trips abroad, or adapted from interviews and cooking lessons with immigrants in the U.S. for whom yogurt remains an essential taste of home." —NPR.org

"Yogurt is hugely popular in American supermarkets, but it’s often sweetened to sugar-bomb status, packed into snack cups or processed into squeezable tubes. In food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule’s kitchen, though, we get a worldwide, whirlwind tour of the versatile ingredient...” —The Seattle Times

"Sternman Rule traveled and interviewed yogurt producers, chefs, and home cooks from a wide range of cultures while writing the book to explore how yogurt is used across the globe and just how versatile it can be in the kitchen..." –The Oregonian

"Part cookbook, part guide, and 100% inspiring. Whether you buy little containers of it from the store or make your own at home, Yogurt Culture will make you fall in love with the tart and creamy stuff anew..."–Paste.com

"[Cheryl Sternman Rule's] anecdotes throughout give texture and context to many of the recipes, from the Eritrean spicy tomato bread salad with yogurt (called fata) to the syrup-drenched orange phyllo cake. Rule’s yogurt primer is comprehensive, going so far as to delve into the relationship between yogurt and gender..." –The San Francisco Chronicle

“Sternman Rule shares recipes and stories from kitchens around the world and visits yogurt producers large and small to explore the scope of this booming industry. After exploring the history of yogurt, she... offers a fool-proof guide on how to take the anxiety of making yogurt from scratch. Rule also explains how to strain regular yogurt into a thick, creamy Greek version, then combines it with blood orange and kalamata olives for an outstanding dip..." –The Detroit News

"... [Rule's] evocative descriptions of the people and cultures that inspire her recipes make me want to pull out my pots and pans — or my passport — just so I can taste what she tasted…Cheryl Sternman Rule delves deeply into the traditional flavors and food ways where yogurt plays a starring role, and with “Yogurt Culture,” we are all the richer for it." –The San Diego Union-Tribune

"...Turning a critical eye to the history and economics of this extremely popular food, [Rule] explores global eating habits, the practices of large co-packing facilities, and the growth of notable companies such as Dannon and Chobani. In addition to this informative content, and perhaps best of all, Rule delivers outstanding recipes..." —Library Journal, starred review

Rights: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

RIPE: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables (2012)

Eat fruits and vegetables not because you’re told you should, but because you want them in every sense of the word. Because they are beautiful. And satisfying. And you desire their freshness, flavor, and simplicity. That’s why Ripe is arranged by color, not season.

Author and food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule, who is also the voice behind the popular blog 5 Second Rule, and award-winning food photographer Paulette Phlipot, have teamed up to bring inspiration to hungry home cooks. Their goal is not to deliver another lecture on eating for the sake of nutrition or environmental stewardship (though they affirm that both are important), but to tempt others to “embrace the vegetable, behold the fruit” because these foods are versatile, gorgeous, and taste terrific.

Each fruit and vegetable is accompanied by a lighthearted essay, breathtaking photography, and one showcase recipe, along with three “quick-hit” recipe ideas. With 150 photos and 75 recipes, this unique cookbook will quicken your pulse and leave you very, very hungry.

RED: beets, blood oranges, cherries, cranberries, grapefruit, pomegranate, radicchio, radish, raspberries, red apples, red bell peppers, rhubarb, strawberries, tomatoes, and watermelon
ORANGE: apricot, butternut squash, carrots, clementines, kumquats, mangoes, nectarines, papaya, peaches, persimmon, pumpkin, and yams
YELLOW: banana, corn, lemon, pineapple, pomelo, squash blossoms, and yellow onions
GREEN: green apples, artichokes, asparagus, avocado, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, celery, cucumber, edamame, fava beans, fennel, green beans, honeydew, kale, kiwi, leeks, lime, peas, spinach, swiss chard, watercress, and zucchini
PURPLE and Blue: blackberries, blueberries, eggplant, figs, plums, purple cabbage, purple grapes, red leaf lettuce, and red onion
WHITE: bosc pears, cauliflower, coconut, endive, garlic, jicama, mushrooms, parsnips, potatoes, and turnip

“Entirely welcoming… beautifully illustrated… imaginatively organized.”—The Wall Street Journal

“…Ripe treats produce to the same sense of naughty decadence usually associated with cupcakes and cocktails. Paired with Rule’s awesome recipes, bite-sized essays, anecdotes and kitchen tips are Paulette Phlipot’s glam photos…”—The Huffington Post

“If Skittles hadn’t already trademarked the slogan “taste the rainbow,” we would be nominating it for Ripe…”—Serious Eats

“There are over 150 photographs in [Ripe], with about 75 recipes. “Lavishly illustrated” does not even begin to describe it… This is a book to flip through and to savor, season by season, as colorful fruits and vegetables parade into your kitchen. It is a beautiful guide…"—TheKitchn.com

“A browser’s mouthwatering delight, with gentle humor and appeal for cooks looking for specialty recipes with adventurous flavor combinations.”—Library Journal

“Enjoy this color-coded journey through the world of produce, from bananas to pomelos. Explore new twists on fruits and vegetables, and combinations of ingredients to jolt awake your taste buds…”—Kiwi magazine

“Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables by Cheryl Sternman Rule, with fabulous color photos by Paulette Phlipot, is organized in a uniquely inviting and liberating way—by color. Cheryl figures that most of us know that we should be eating more fruits and veggies, and most of us understand why. So, her intent is not to preach about a peach, but to use Mother Nature’s vivid paint box to spark your imagination. The photos alone will make you reach for that dark red head of radicchio, green-leafed bok choy or orange-hued papaya…"—BookPage

“Rule, a noted food writer and blogger, offers a lovely and gorgeous tribute to vegetables and fruits everywhere in this unusual cookbook… Chock-full of delectable photographs that whet the appetite, this collection will tantalize and educate on the many appealing ways vegetables and fruits can nourish and sustain.”—Publishers Weekly

Rights: Running Press, World