The Best Kitchen Quick Tips: 534 Tricks, Techniques, and Shortcuts for the Curious Cook


Cook's Illustrated - 2000
    The tip may call for an odd appliance such as a hair dryer (for smoothing chocolate frosting) or a surprising ingredient such as miniature marshmallows (placed on the ends of toothpicks to hold plastic wrap above an iced cake). You will find practical tricks for peeling tomatoes, chopping garlic, knowing when your steamer is out of water (add marbles to the bottom of the pot) and toasting pine nuts (use a popcorn popper). Arranged alphabetically it takes you through softening Almond Paste to drying Wine Glasses on chopsticks.

The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making


Alana Chernila - 2012
    Come on in, but be prepared—it might not be quite what you expect. There is flour on the counter, oats that overflowed onto the floor, chocolate-encrusted spoons in the sink. There is Joey, the husband, exhausted by the thirty-five preschoolers who were hanging on him all day, and he is stuffing granola into his mouth to ease his five o’clock starvation. There are two little girls trying to show me cartwheels in that miniscule space between the refrigerator and the counter where I really need to be.” In her debut cookbook, Alana Chernila inspires you to step inside your kitchen, take a look around, and change the way you relate to food. The Homemade Pantry was born of a tight budget, Alana’s love for sharing recipes with her farmers’ market customers, and a desire to enjoy a happy cooking and eating life with her young family. On a mission to kick their packaged-food habit, she learned that with a little determination, anything she could buy at the store could be made in her kitchen, and her homemade versions were more satisfying, easier to make than she expected, and tastier.              Here are her very approachable recipes for 101 everyday staples, organized by supermarket aisle—from crackers to cheese, pesto to sauerkraut, and mayonnaise to toaster pastries. The Homemade Pantry is a celebration of food made by hand—warm mozzarella that is stretched, thick lasagna noodles rolled from flour and egg, fresh tomato sauce that bubbles on the stove. Whether you are trying a recipe for butter, potato chips, spice mixes, or ketchup, you will discover the magic and thrill that comes with the homemade pantry.            Alana captures the humor and messiness of everyday family life, too. A true friend to the home cook, she shares her “tense moments” to help you get through your own. With stories offering patient, humble advice, tips for storing the homemade foods, and rich four-color photography throughout, The Homemade Pantry will quickly become the go-to source for how to make delicious staples in your home kitchen.

The Curry Guy


Dan Toombs - 2017
    In other words, Dan makes homemade curries that taste just like a takeaway from your favourite local but in less time and for less money. Dan has learnt through the comments left on his blog and social media feeds that people are terribly let down when they make a chicken korma or a prawn bhuna from other cookbooks and it taste nothing like the dish they experience when they visit a curry house…but they thank him for getting it right.

The Mozza Cookbook: Recipes from Los Angeles's Favorite Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria


Nancy Silverton - 2011
    Award-winning chef Nancy Silverton has elevated that experience to a whole new level at her Los Angeles restaurants Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza, co-owned with restaurateurs Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. A reservation at Mozza has been the hottest ticket in town since the restaurants opened and diners have been lining up for their wildly popular dishes. Finally, in The Mozza Cookbook, Silverton is sharing these recipes with the rest of the world.The original idea for Mozza came to Nancy at her summer home in Panicale, Italy. And that authentic Italian feel is carried throughout the book as we explore recipes from aperitivo to dolci that she would serve at her tavola at home. But do not confuse authentic with conventional! Under Silverton’s guidance, each bite is more exciting and delectable than the last, with recipes such as:Fried Squash Blossoms with RicottaBuricotta with Braised Artichokes, Pine Nuts, Currants, and Mint Pesto Mussels al Forno with Salsa Calabrese Fennel Sausage, Panna, and Scallion Pizza Fresh Ricotta and Egg Ravioli with Brown Butter Grilled Quail Wrapped in Pancetta with Sage and Honey Sautéed Cavolo Nero Fritelle di Riso with Nocello-soaked Raisins and Banana Gelato Olive Oil Gelato In the book, Nancy guides you through all the varieties of cheese that she serves at the Mozzarella Bar in the Osteria. And you’ll find all the tricks you need to make homemade pastas, gelato, and pizzas that taste as if they were flown in directly from Italy. Silverton’s lively and encouraging voice and her comprehensive knowledge of the traditions behind this mouthwateringly decadent cuisine make her recipes—both familiar and intricate—easy to follow and hard to resist. It’s no wonder it is so difficult to get a table at Mozza—when you’re cooking these dishes there will be a line out your door as well.

Healthier Together: Recipes for Two--Nourish Your Body, Nourish Your Relationships: A Cookbook


Liz Moody - 2019
    That changed when she met her soon-to-be-boyfriend and they started cooking nutrient- and vegetable-rich meals. She not only fell in love with food again, but she also discovered that setting goals and sticking to them is easier and more gratifying when paired with someone else. Mincing garlic and sautéing onions together eventually led the couple to marriage—proving that good food really is the universal connector! These 100+ flavor-packed recipes are designed to be cooked and enjoyed by two people, plus they’re all gluten-free, dairy-free, and plant-centered. They include homemade alternatives for all the foods you love to share, such as brunch, takeout, and sweet treats. Indulge in Cardamom Banana Bread Pancakes with Candied Coffee Walnuts, Cornflake “Fried” Chicken, General Tso’s Cauliflower, and Chocolate Tahini Brownie Bites. Pick your partner—near or far—and get ready to get healthy. Praise for Healthier Together

The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out


Angela Liddon - 2013
    Done with feeling sick and tired, she threw out her fat-free butter spray and low-calorie frozen dinners. Instead, Angela embraced whole foods that made her glow from the inside out. But first, she had to learn to cook-and eat-right. Five years ago, Angela started a blog, ohsheglows.com, to spread the word about her journey to health and the powerful transformation that food can make in our lives. Almost overnight, her energy and authenticity attracted readers eager to create their own positive life changes. Today, Oh She Glows attracts millions of visitors every month, making it one of the most popular vegan recipe blogs on the Internet.

Tahini and Turmeric: 101 Middle Eastern Classics -- Made Irresistibly Vegan


Vicky Cohen - 2018
    Add a dash of Spain, a chunk of Lebanon, a splash of Israel, and a hint of America. Blend until smooth and voila! You may end up with a well-mixed identity crisis, but happily you'll get Vicky Cohen and Ruth Fox, amazingly creative and food-mad sisters raised in Barcelona by Syrian-Lebanese Jewish parents. Since moving to the United States about twenty years ago, they have successfully married comforting Middle Eastern flavors with new healthy ingredients. Their site Mayihavethatrecipe.com features their award-winning recipes, and gorgeous food photography, and receives over 110,000 page views a month. In their debut cookbook, Cohen and Fox interpret 101 Middle Eastern dishes in an irresistible--and easy--collection of vegan recipes, creating tempting, healthy dishes that take readers and eaters beyond the conventional and recognizable Middle Eastern staples of baba ghanoush and baklava. Instead, they offer modern, lighter dishes bursting with flavor. Covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between--and complete with tips for what cooking staples and an introduction to some newer ingredients to keep in your pantry--these recipes are perfect for the health-conscious cook who loves the flavors of the Middle East.Written by experienced recipe developers and bloggers, the recipes are free of time-consuming or complicated techniques and are meant to be served on busy weeknights and during casual gatherings with friends. With simple tricks, like substituting spring roll wrappers or pita bread for from-scratch dough, they've made it easy to prepare delicious, exotic food without an all-day affair in the kitchen.

The Essential Mormon Cookbook: Green Jell-O, Funeral Potatoes, and Other Secret Combinations


Julie Badger Jensen - 2004
    This is the perfect source for these hard-to-find recipes you remember from your childhood, such as Christmas Morning Casserole, Pot Roast with Gravy, and Fresh Peach Cobbler. Also included are recipes to feed a crowd, compassionate service casseroles, and a conference-weekend brunch. More than 200 recipes, gathered from four generations of family cooks, are divided by seasons and event in this unique collection of Mormon comfort food.

Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South


Vivian Howard - 2016
    Organized by ingredient with dishes suited to every skill level--from beginners to confident cooks--DEEP RUN ROOTS features time-honored simple preparations, extraordinary meals from her acclaimed restaurant Chef and the Farmer, and recipes that bring new traditions to life. Home cooks will find photographs for every single recipe.As much a storybook as it is a cookbook, DEEP RUN ROOTS imparts the true tale of Southern food: rooted in family and tradition, yet calling out to the rest of the world.Ten years ago, Vivian opened Chef and the Farmer and put the nearby town of Kinston on the culinary map. But in a town paralyzed by recession, she couldn't hop on every new culinary trend. Instead, she focused on rural development: If you grew it, she'd buy it. Inundated by local sweet potatoes, blueberries, shrimp, pork, and beans, Vivian learned to cook the way generations of Southerners before her had, relying on resourcefulness, creativity, and the old ways of preserving food.DEEP RUN ROOTS is the result of those years of effort to discover the riches of Eastern North Carolina. Like The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, and The Taste of Country Cooking before it, this is landmark work of American food writing.Recipes include:Family favorites like Blueberry BBQ Chicken, Creamed Collard-Stuffed Potatoes, Fried Yams with Five-Spice Maple Bacon Candy, Chicken and Rice, and Country-Style Pork Ribs in Red Curry-Braised Watermelon,Crowd-pleasers like Butterbean Hummus, Tempura-Fried Okra with Ranch Ice Cream, Pimiento Cheese Grits with Salsa and Pork Rinds, Cool Cucumber Crab Dip, and Oyster Pie,Show-stopping desserts like Warm Banana Pudding, Peaches and Cream Cake, Spreadable Cheesecake, and Pecan-Chewy Pie,And 200 more quick breakfasts, weeknight dinners, holiday centerpieces, seasonal preserves, and traditional preparations for all kinds of cooks.---Interior photographs by Rex Miller. Jacket photograph by Stacey Van Berkel Photography. Illustrations by Tatsuro Kiuchi.

The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes from Our Italian Kitchen


Frances Mayes - 2012
    Ingredients are left to shine. . . . So, if on your visit, I hand you an apron, your work will be easy. We’ll start with primo ingredients, a little flurry of activity, perhaps a glass of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and soon we’ll be carrying platters out the door. We’ll have as much fun setting the table as we have in the kitchen. Four double doors along the front of the house open to the outside—so handy for serving at a long table under the stars (or for cooling a scorched pan on the stone wall). Italian Philosophy 101: la casa aperta, the open house.” —from the Introduction   In all of Frances Mayes’s bestselling memoirs about Tuscany, food plays a starring role. This cuisine transports, comforts, entices, and speaks to the friendly, genuine, and improvisational spirit of Tuscan life. Both cooking and eating in Tuscany are natural pleasures. In her first-ever cookbook, Frances and her husband, Ed, share recipes that they have enjoyed over the years as honorary Tuscans: dishes prepared in a simple, traditional kitchen using robust, honest ingredients.             A toast to the experiences they’ve had over two decades at Bramasole, their home in Cortona, Italy, this cookbook evokes days spent roaming the countryside for chestnuts, green almonds, blackberries, and porcini; dinner parties stretching into the wee hours,  and garden baskets tumbling over with bright red tomatoes.             Lose yourself in the transporting photography of the food, the people, and the place, as Frances’s lyrical introductions and headnotes put you by her side in the kitchen and raising a glass at the table. From Antipasti (starters) to Dolci (desserts), this cookbook is organized like a traditional Italian dinner.             The more than 150 tempting recipes include: ·         Fried Zucchini Flowers ·         Red Peppers Melted with Balsamic Vinegar ·         Potato Ravioli with Zucchini, Speck, and Pecorino ·         Risotto Primavera ·         Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Sausage ·         Cannellini Bean Soup with Pancetta ·         Little Veal Meatballs with Artichokes and Cherry Tomatoes ·         Chicken Under a Brick ·         Short Ribs, Tuscan-Style ·         Domenica’s Rosemary Potatoes ·         Folded Fruit Tart with Mascarpone ·         Strawberry Semifreddo ·         Steamed Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Sauce   Frances and Ed also share their tips on stocking your pantry, pairing wines with dishes, and choosing the best olive oil. Learn their time-tested methods for hand rolling pasta and techniques for coaxing the best out of seasonal ingredients with little effort.             Throw on another handful of pasta, pull up a chair, and languish in the rustic Italian way of life.

Eating My Way Through Italy: Heading Off the Main Roads to Discover the Hidden Treasures of the Italian Table


Elizabeth Minchilli - 2018
    While she's proud to share everything she knows about Rome, she now wants to show her devoted readers that the rest of Italy is a culinary treasure trove just waiting to be explored. Far from being a monolithic gastronomic culture, each region of Italy offers its own specialties. While fava beans mean one thing in Rome, they mean an entirely different thing in Puglia. Risotto in a Roman trattoria? Don't even consider it. Visit Venice and not eat cichetti? Unthinkable. Eating My Way Through Italy, celebrates the differences in the world's favorite cuisine.Divided geographically, Eating My Way Through Italy looks at all the different aspects of Italian food culture. Whether it's pizza in Naples, deep fried calamari in Venice, anchovies in Amalfi, an elegant dinner in Milan, gathering and cooking capers on Pantelleria, or hunting for truffles in Umbria each chapter includes, not just anecdotes, personal stories and practical advice, but also recipes that explore the cultural and historical references that make these subjects timeless.For anyone who follows Elizabeth on her blog Elizabeth Minchilli in Rome, read her previous book Eating Rome, or used her brilliant phone app Eat Italy to dine well, Eating My Way Through Italy, is a must.

Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables


Joshua McFadden - 2017
    After years racking up culinary cred at New York City restaurants like Lupa, Momofuku, and Blue Hill, he managed the trailblazing Four Season Farm in coastal Maine, where he developed an appreciation for every part of the plant and learned to coax the best from vegetables at each stage of their lives.In Six Seasons, McFadden channels both farmer and chef, highlighting the evolving attributes of vegetables throughout their growing seasons—an arc from spring to early summer to midsummer to the bursting harvest of late summer, then ebbing into autumn and, finally, the earthy, mellow sweetness of winter. Each chapter begins with recipes featuring raw vegetables at the start of their season. As weeks progress, McFadden turns up the heat—grilling and steaming, then moving on to sautés, pan roasts, braises, and stews. His ingenuity is on display in 225 revelatory recipes that celebrate flavor at its peak.

Let's Fix Lunch: Enjoy Delicious, Planet-Friendly Meals at Work, School, or On the Go


Kat Nouri - 2020
    Let's Fix Lunch! makes it easy (and fun!) to prepare meals that are good for you and good for the planet.This eco-friendly cookbook features delicious, waste-free recipes for sandwiches, salads, soups, snacks, and more.An inspiring guide for anyone who wants to do their small part to save the earth, Let's Fix Lunch! makes it simple to create a sustainable, waste-free home.• Easy-to-make recipes for all home cooks• Includes more than 50 simple tips for reducing food waste and plastic use• Features a handy guide to buying in bulk, meal prepping, and food storageThis eco-conscious cookbook is written by Kat Nouri, founder of the beloved, environmentally friendly kitchen brand Stasher.

Binging with Babish: 100 Recipes Recreated from Your Favorite Movies and TV Shows


Andrew Rea - 2019
    For each video, Andrew Rea, a self-proclaimed movie and TV buff, teaches a recipe based on a favorite TV show or film, such as the babka from the classic Seinfeld episode, the beef bourguignon from Julie & Julia, or the timpano from Big Night. This cookbook includes these and other fan-favorite recipes. Some are so delicious that you’ll want to make them for dinner right away, like Bubba's shrimp from Forrest Gump, while others can be saved for impressing a loved one—like the chocolate lava cake from Jon Favreau’s Chef, which the actor/director asked to make during a guest appearance on Rea’s show. Complete with behind-the-scenes stories and answers to frequently asked fan questions, Binging with Babish is a must-have companion to the wildly popular YouTube show.

Five Marys Ranch Raised Cookbook: Homegrown Recipes from Our Family to Yours


Mary Heffernan - 2020
    Rancher. Entrepreneur. Restaurateur. Wife. Mother. Together with her husband, Brian, they own Five Marys Farms and are raising their four daughters--all namedMary--while pasture-raising cattle, pigs, and heritage lambs. Their work ethic is as strong as their commitment to family, and Mary believes in nourishing meals shared together--in their cozy cabin in winter and around the outdoor camp kitchen in summer. In these 75 satisfying, homespun recipes you’ll find something for every meal and mood, including Mary’s favorite beef, pork, and lamb dishes, as well as the secret to her famous sidecars! Evocative photos capture the breathtaking beauty of the ranch, the carefree joy of the girls with their horses, the majestic Great Pyrenees who roam the land, and so much more. Get ready to fall in love with ranch life, hearty recipes, and the Five Marys. Some of Mary’s favorite recipes include: Homemade English MuffinsLoaded Carne Asada NachosWood-Fired Porterhouse Steak with Mushroom- Shallot SauceChili-Rubbed Pork Chops with Charred-Corn SalsaGrilled Lamb Sliders with Tomato Chutney and HavartiCrispy Brussels Sprout Salad with Citrus-Maple VinaigretteCast-Iron Hasselback PotatoesMary’s Lemon-Bourbon SidecarsSweet Drop Biscuits with Grilled Peaches and Cream.