Penzey's One

Stocking up at my local Penzey's outlet, I ran across their new publication, Penzey's One. Subsequent Internet searches have turned up virtually no mentions of this publication, either here, or in the WWW as a whole, or even on Penzey's web site, but it does have its own web site: http://penzeysone.com/cgi-bin/one/index.html. I purchased volume one, issue two, 2005. It says it is published 6 times a year, so a new issue should be coming out soon, I think.

The cover picture is a beautiful presentation of Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, Nu Ro Mian. Inside is mostly recipes, pictures and brief profiles of the people who contributed them - mostly amateur cooks, it seems. The ads are all for Penzey's. There are some features, of sorts. One is a "One Town" section that features Boston, including a very brief intro, and then lots of recipes from and profiles of, people from Boston; the "One World" feature is about someone's trip to Malaysia (I could not tell exactly who wrote it, but I think it was either Bill or Pam Penzey), with recipes and pictures; the "One Life" section profiles Lisa & Louie Danegelis who have a catering company in Milwaukee; "One Name" features recipes from people named Chris (for the Chirstmas issue), and goes over the cute line for me.

The recipes are indexed, they include nutritional information for them, and the pictures look good. Even if I were only to make the Malaysian Oxtail Soup, it would be worth the $4.95.

When I would go visit the Bride's family on the farm, they always had copies of Country Living magazine and it's sister publications in the reading room. Most of it was too cloying to handle, but I always enjoyed scanning the recipe section, which was mostly contributions from readers and often included brief bits of info on the contributors. The recipes tended to include far too much Cool Whip to be useful, but a few were good and I ended up trying those out.

Seems like Penzey's One is meant to be an entire magazine like those sections - contributions and information from regular folks. They even ask for contributions of old stuff from people's kitchens, with notes on their history to be used in the pictures. Kitschy, I guess, but amusing.

Based on the letters to the editor, it seems they profiled a same sex couple in the first issue to the objection of some readers. Bill Penzey did not back down - good for him.

In addition to the enjoyment of the recipes, there could be some chance for fame, if you want to contribute some recipes and see if you can be profiled.

Has anyone else seen this & tried the recipes?

I've seen One advertised in the Penzey's mailorder catalogue. They were hyping it pretty hard prior to launch. I keep expecting to see it at Borders, etc. None so far. I get the catalogue for the recipes so haven't seen the need for an "expanded" edition. It sounds worth a look; if someone can publish Veranda magazine then there's certainly room for a Penzey's.