Here's why I love cookbooks and think they are worth buying and giving, even as our little black box devices can call up recipes lickety split. When I buy a cookbook I spend a few weeks cooking only from it. I read the front parts and the back parts and I don't flip straight to recipes. Why? Because the reason a publishing house spent tons of hours and dollars in printing and editing and testing this beauty is because this person is good at what they do. Better than me for sure, can't say about you. Either way, if you read a cookbook and shop its recipes and cook them for a few weeks, you will grasp more deeply how to cook. Because this chef has developed a noteworthy system of cooking that people find delicious. There's never one single way to learn to cook, but me - I buy cookbooks and then cook from them. I've done my best to collect ones you'll love - let me know if I'm missing any, will ya? read@prairiepathbooks.com
Cookbooks
Sandy: This book is perfect for a foodie in your life - maybe you! Most lovers of food know of the Berkeley chef Alice Waters who almost literally created the restaurant farm-to-table movement with her unalterable insistence on fresh-grown and sourced ingredients. Not only is her restaurant Chez Panisse famous, she’s created educational gardening programs for schools across the country and penned and cooked her way to over a dozen cookbooks. This is her story seen through the eyes of her only child, Fanny. It is tender but true, and packed with recipes and art-worthy photographs. I loved it - and you and your foodie will too. The perfect WOW gift.
Swaddled in dish towels and set inside a huge salad bowl, newborn Singer (co-author, with Waters: My Pantry, 2015) was a regular visitor at Chez Panisse, her mother’s famed Berkeley restaurant, while Waters conferred with the manager or tasted dishes. “I don’t remember this, of course,” Singer writes, “but I feel like my disproportionate love of salad might have something to do with my early kitchen cribs.” Singer’s charming narrative, interwoven with Lacombe’s painterly black-and-white photographs, bursts with sensuous descriptions of tastes, fragrances, and textures as she recounts her “very rich and full and just a little bit unconventional” young life. Her remarkable school lunches featured greens with vinaigrette, kiwi in orange juice, and garlic toast that her classmates coveted. At home, even breakfast was transcendent: “a perfectly soft-boiled blue Araucana egg, with a marigold-hued liquid center into which I would delight in plunging buttered toast ‘soldiers.’” Instructions for making this dish, along with 59 other recipes—her mother’s garlicky noodle soup, her grandfather’s special pancakes, and, not surprisingly, several salads—add delectable details to the colorful narrative. Singer’s culinary adventures with her parents took her to the south of France as well as on a research trip of France’s great restaurants and wineries and because neither parent spoke French, Singer, who went to a bilingual French school, served as official interpreter at age 9. Waters, who has been the subject of much media attention and multiple books, including her own memoir, Coming to My Senses (2017), is lovingly portrayed throughout Singer’s book.
Sandy: This cookbook is perfect for right now, whether you're having a few over for gathering as we're allowed during this coronovirus era, or just making great food - easily! I mean, if you're making a sandwich - why not make her tuna & hummus version? All you need is tuna (in olive oil please), celery, onion, a lemon, mayo and dijon. Pickles or cornichon if you have it, and salt and pepper - duh. She uses store-bought hummus (all praise INA) but gives a recipe for it in case you have chickpeas and tahini on hand. Our Ina does value yummy breads, but use what you have ya know? For our Cooking Demonstration on this cookbook we served to y'all Ina's Chunky Blue Cheese & Yogurt Dip, Roasted Rosemary Nuts, Jeffrey's Roast Chicken, Ultimate Grilled Cheese and Old Fashioned Banana Cake. I promise - you'll dog-ear every page.
Canal House's Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer are home cooks writing about home cooking for other home cooks. From a lifetime of making dinner every single night, they've edited their experience down to the essentials: 300 simple and genius recipes that reveal the building blocks of all good cooking, and are guaranteed to make you a better cook.
Each chapter of Cook Something helps you master a key ingredient or powerful technique, moving from simple (a perfect soft-boiled egg, and how to make it uncommonly delicious) to ambitious (a towering chocolate souffle). Recipes for salad dressings, sauces, braises, roasts, meatballs, vegetables, and even perfect snacks and sweets help novice and experienced cooks alike reach for the perfect dish for any occasion. Inside, you'll find:
Cook. Cook something. Cook something for yourself. Cook something for others. It will satisfy you more than you know.
- Game Day: MACO (Mac and Cheese Taco) with Guacamole, Banoffee Cream Pie in a Mug, and Beergaritas
- Awards Season: Chicken Satay, Edamame Dumplings, and Easiest Champagne Drink Ever
- Cinco de Mayo: Spicy Pigs, Sweet Quesadilla Bites, and Grapefruit-Jalapeño Margaritas
- Thanksgiving: Turkey with Cranberry on Mini Pumpkin Muffins, Mashed Potato Popovers with Mozzarella, and Tipsy Turkey Martinis
- Christmas: Mini Grilled Cheese with Fontina and OTTO Black Truffle Honey, Baked Italian Mini Doughnuts, and Italian Eggnog Each party theme comes with a festive Snacktivity that turns your favorite foods and toppings into an eye-popping set piece (think frittata bar, soup-sipping station, DIY grilled cheese party). Mary also offers up Big Stories to get the conversation flowing, a Party Calculator to plan how much to buy and prep per guest, and advice for stocking your Party Closet so you can quickly turn a casual drop-by into a fabulous time. Whether you host get-togethers once a week or once a year, this handy guide has all you need to eat, drink, and be, well, Mary. Praise for Mary Giuliani and The Cocktail Party "All-encompassing but never fussy, clever but never pretentious, Mary's approach to food and entertaining is warm and familiar without ever sacrificing on quality and sophistication."--Ariel Foxman, editorial director, InStyle "Mary pulls it all together with effortless panache, and all I can ever remember the next day--besides the fact that I drank too much--is how delicious everything was and how much fun I had."--Jonathan Van Meter, author and contributing editor, Vogue and New York
Guided by a sense that winter is the season for seasonings-from ginger, garlic, and rosemary in Mixed Winter Squash Provencal to the cilantro and walnut crust on a dazzling Roast Rack of Lamb-this gifted cook and author provides dishes that are even gutsier than her summertime favorites. She pays special attention to the late harvest, helps cooks make the most of fall fruits and vegetables, offers chapters on winter grilling and cooking over the hearth.
More than 300 recipes range from bracing drinks for the first sign of autumn to glorious spring dishes for an Easter celebration. Warm Tomato Pie. Wild Rice, Mushroom, and Oyster Bisque. Pasta with Gorgonzola and Spinach. Plus Scallops in Sweet and Hot Lime Sauce, Deviled Beef Ribs, Broccoli with Toasted Hazelnuts and Pancetta, Sweet Potato Pancakes, Pumpkin Bread Pudding, Chestnut Mousse Cake, and Christmas Truffle Tart. Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club's HomeStyle Books. 112,000 copies in print.
- Pesto Risotto with Cherry Tomatoes
- Classic Matzo Ball Soup
- Easy Weeknight Chili
- Lemon Chicken With Garlic + Olives
- Pimento Mac + Cheese
- Chipotle Pork Tacos
- Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cake Innovative and practical, Comfort in an Instant sets the gold standard for flavor, quality, and convenience.
"Garten has kicked things up a level, this time encouraging readers to try more ambitious recipes that are still signature Ina: warm, comforting, homey."--Chicago Tribune NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review - Food Network - Food & Wine - PopSugar - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Country Living - The Feast - Eater - The Kitchn - Delish In this collection of foolproof recipes, Ina brings readers' cooking know-how to the next level by answering questions, teaching techniques, and explaining her process right in the margin of each recipe--it's as if she's in the kitchen by your side guiding you through the recipe. When you make her Cauliflower Toasts with prosciutto and Gruyère, she shows you the best way to cut a cauliflower into perfect florets without getting them all over the kitchen (from the stem end, with the head turned upside-down!) and when making her Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs, Ina shares a fantastic tip for keeping your stovetop clean (roast the short ribs in the oven rather than browning them in a pan on the stove!). You'll discover dozens more ingenious tips and shortcuts throughout, such as how to set up an elegant home bar, how to peel two heads of garlic quickly, how to use a paring knife to create a pro-worthy pattern on her decadent Chocolate Chevron Cake, and the key to making unbelievably creamy Truffled Scrambled Eggs (add the eggs to the skillet before the butter melts--who knew?!). Both beginners and advanced cooks will love this book filled with new dishes that will become part of your repertoire and practical cooking advice that will give you more confidence in the kitchen. Your friends and family will be so impressed!