So, the holidays are over, and surely most of us have had our fill of all kinds of great foods, highly caloric or just seasonal and really good. But now it’s January, and we all still have to find nourishment. Where to find inspiration?

How about cookbooks? Did anyone else get a cookbook for a gift this season? Maybe it’s just me (like my family thinks I can use some help with cooking, perhaps?), but I often receive a cookbook as a gift at the holidays. This year, my cousin sent me a wonderful cookbook from Gloucester, Mass., where she spends summers (during the school year, she’s a linguistics professor.)

It’s the Fishermen’s Wives Cookbook, which in Gloucester is very meaningful. For anyone who’s visited there (or read [click here] “The Perfect Storm”, or seen the movie), you know this is a real seafaring community with a long history of families waiting for fishermen to return from the sea. The Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association was formed in 1969 and has been very active raising money to help families left behind by those lost at sea, and working to affect legislation that will help conserve New England fishing grounds and heritage. The cookbook is part of their fundraising activity.

The book is a hard cover with full color throughout, so not your usual spiral-bound fundraising variety. The “wives” come from a range of ethnic backgrounds, but the author (Susan Pollack) identifies them as being from “Sicilian-American, Portuguese, Irish and Newfoundland cultural traditions.” While not all the recipes include seafood, many do, and what’s better than eating lighter in January?

Some of the recipes are: Mediterranean Swordfish Steaks, Shrimp Salad or Lobster; Marinated Tuna Steak; Mussels in Marinara Sauce; Calamari Trizzano; Manhattan Clam Chowder; Tuna a la Porticello; Stuffed Fillet of Sole Rolle; Beer Batter Fish G. Lovasco Style; Salmon Pie; Seafood Chowder. Want some seafood yet?

There are also lots of Italian specialties, like ricotta cheesecake (which my cousin’s mother made all the time when we were kids - it’s fantastic, light but smooth and tangy with lemon brightening the flavor), pizzelles, biscotti, breakfast stratta and focaccia.

This is a great cookbook to inspire some January cooking. Has anyone else been inspired, by a holiday gift, to try some new recipes?

For more info on the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives, and their cookbook, go to their (click here) web site.