When I was in elementary school, I remember getting assigned a project once regarding favorite foods. We had to select a favorite food, write a paragraph or two on why that food was our favorite, and then create a three-dimensional model of our food, art class-style, out of construction paper. I declared that my favorite [...]
By Sam Zien Wiley, $19.95, 256 pages If you love shows like 30-Minute Meals, you will love Sam the Cooking Guy: Awesome Recipes & Kitchen Shortcuts. Gourmet meals are not always feasible especially if you are living a fast-paced lifestyle; I kid you not, 20 minutes or less was all the time I needed to [...]
By Marlene Koch Running Press, $29.95, 442 pages The premise of this cookbook is two-fold: 1) offer healthier recipes, and 2) base many of them on popular favorites from chain restaurants. While the draw to recreate these foods might seem appealing, it also lulls creativity. The opening two chapters of Eat What You Love don’t [...]
By Running Press, Editor Running Press, $22.95, 480 pages In collaborating with chefs or foodies, the unanimous answer to my question of “what ingredient can’t you live without?” is cheese. This dairy product is a staple component of many award-winning dishes worldwide and brings people from different social classes and cultures to one table. Cheese [...]
By Anne Sheasby Duncan Baird, $9.95, 128 pages What’s the difference between a blah sandwich and one that oozes with flavor? Or the difference between bland frozen fish and a fillet that’s tender in your mouth? Sauce. “A good sauce can provide the finishing touch to many dishes, complementing and enhancing the flavor of the [...]
By Sheridan Warrick University of California Press, $21.95, 272 pages The Way to Make Wine is a brief but detailed introduction to the world of at-home winemaking, for both the novice and more experienced winemaker. In fifteen brief chapters—the first ten focused on the basics and necessities of at home winemaking—the last five dedicated to [...]
By Paul Gayler Jacqui Small, $14.95, 144 pages British chef Paul Gayler cooks up an appetizing array of 68 burgers in his latest culinary adventure, Burgers: From Barbecue Ranch Burger to Miso Salmon Burger, and demonstrates that the classic burger doesn’t have to beef up to be tasty. With a heavy focus on the inventive, [...]
By Sarah Marx Feldner Tuttle, $27.95, 160 pages Sarah Marx Felder was writing for a food magazine when she decided on a whim to quit her job, sell her house, and move to Japan to write a cookbook. Setting aside a mere two years for the task, by the time her journey was over, she’d [...]
By Sur La Table and Janet Fletcher Andrews McMeel Publishing, $35.00, 304 pages Sur La Table and Janet Fletcher are my newest green heroes for their recently released cookbook Eating Local. The ingredients found locally in my county are the primary stars of my cooking and it thrills me to no end that I am [...]
By John Ferrell Andrews McMeel Publishing, $27.99, 195 pages Quintessential Southern cooking, the focus of Mary Mac’s Tea Room, is in the limelight of this unusual cookbook. In operation since 1945 under several owners, the tradition never changed. The recipes are simple with a small number of readily available ingredients. They are well-written, easy to [...]
By Mary Engelbreit Andrews McMeel Publishing, $16.99, 224 pages “If my family had to depend on me for food, they would starve to death in a really cute kitchen.” Mary Engelbreit has become famous for her artwork, but it appears cooking is not among one of her talents. So to create her cookbook, she asked [...]
By Michelle Roy Kelly and Andrea Norville Adams Media, $12.95, 266 pages An uninspired attempt to capitalize on vampire fever. Get ready to jump on the über-popular vampire bandwagon with Love at First Bite, which touts itself as “The Complete Vampire Lover’s Cookbook.” While at first it might seem that this book fills an obvious [...]
By Peg Bracken Grand Central Publishing, $22.99, 206 pages Fifty years ago, cookbooks were not the plentiful item they are today. Housewives who panicked each evening about what to fix for dinner relied on mothers and mothers-in-law (however unapproachable), or friends who were also strapped for ideas. Then came Peg Bracken and her I Hate [...]
Pretty much everyone has a soft spot for Southern food. Whether it’s fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, mac and cheese, or congealed salad (more commonly known as jello salad to many), nearly everybody will confess to liking the good old-fashioned comfort food that can be found in abundance in Southern states. Even I like Southern [...]
By Rosalind Creasy Tuttle, $24.95, 208 pages Rosalind Creasy is one of the leaders in the edible landscaping movement, and her latest cookbook, Recipes From the Garden, is another welcome addition to any foodie’s library. This book is full of meal ideas that will appeal to meat-eaters and vegetarians alike, with an exciting array of [...]
By Jeanette Hurt and Jaclyn Stuart Alpha Books, $16.95, 256 pages Like many novice wine tasters, I must admit that this growing popularity of wine and food pairing has been quite intimidating. Jacyln Stuart and Jeanette Hurt have done a thorough research on wine itself, food that goes along with or against the wine, food [...]
