How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories and Places


Diana Henry - 2018
    Planning a menu is still her favourite part of cooking.Menus can create very different moods; they can take you places, from an afternoon at the seaside in Brittany to a sultry evening eating mezze in Istanbul. They also have to work as a meal that flows and as a group of dishes that the cook can manage without becoming totally stressed. The 24 menus and 100 recipes in this book reflect places Diana loves, and dishes that are real favorites.The menus are introduced with personal essays in Diana's now well-known voice- about places or journeys or particular times and explain the choice of dishes. Each menu is a story in itself, but the recipes can also stand alone.The title of the book refers to how Italians end a meal in the summer, when it's too hot to cook. The host or hostess just puts a bowl of peaches on the table and offers glasses of chilled moscato (or even Marsala). Guests then slice their peach into the glass, before eating the slices and drinking the wine.That says something very important about eating - simplicity and generosity and sometimes not cooking are what it's about.

Bon Appetempt: A Coming-of-Age Story (with Recipes!)


Amelia Morris - 2015
    It was also a revelation. Both delicious and damaged, it seemed a physical metaphor for the many curious and unexpected situations she's found herself in throughout her life, from her brief career as a six-year-old wrestler to her Brady Bunch-style family (minus the housekeeper and the familial harmony) to her ill-fated twenty-something job at the School of Rock in Los Angeles. As a way to bring order to chaos and in search of a more meaningful lifestyle, she finds herself more and more at home in the kitchen, where she begins to learn that even if the results of her culinary efforts fall well short of the standard set by glossy food magazines, they can still bring satisfaction (and sustenance) to her and her family and friends. Full of hilarious observations about food, family, unemployment, romance, and the extremes of modern L.A., and featuring recipes as basic as Toasted Cheerios and as advanced as gâteau de crêpes, Bon Appetempt is sure to resonate with anyone who has tried and failed, and been all the better for it.

Koreatown: A Cookbook


Deuki Hong - 2016
    Koreatowns around the country are synonymous with mealtime feasts and late-night chef hangouts, and Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard show us why with stories, interviews, and over 100 delicious, super-approachable recipes.      It's spicy, it's fermenty, it's sweet and savory and loaded with umami: Korean cuisine is poised to break out in the U.S., but until now, Korean cookbooks have been focused on taking readers to an idealized Korean fantasyland. Koreatown, though, is all about what's real and happening right here: the foods of Korean American communities all over our country, from L.A. to New York City, from Atlanta to Chicago. We follow Rodbard and Hong through those communities with stories and recipes for everything from beloved Korean barbecue favorites like bulgogi and kalbi to the lesser-known but deeply satisfying stews, soups, noodles, salads, drinks, and the many kimchis of the Korean American table.

Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook


Yotam Ottolenghi - 2018
    Each dish can be made in 30 minutes or less, with 10 or fewer ingredients, in a single pot, using pantry staples, or prepared ahead of time for brilliantly, deliciously simple meals. Brunch gets a make-over with Braised Eggs with Leeks and Za'atar; Cauliflower, Pomegranate, and Pistachio Salad refreshes the side-dish rotation; Lamb and Feta Meatballs bring ease to the weeknight table; and every sweet tooth is sure to be satisfied by the spectacular Fig and Thyme Clafoutis. With more than 130 photographs, this is elemental Ottolenghi for everyone.

Tea with Bea


Bea Vo - 2011
    Now you can enjoy Tea with Bea in your own home with these easy-to-follow recipes. Cookies & bars are made to enjoy with a cup of tea. Be it lavender shortbread or double chocolate chip cookies, there’s something here to fill the cookie jars. Imagine afternoon tea and what spring to mind are traditional English Scones & Small Cakes. Bea provides the ultimate scone recipe and other sweet fingerfood, such as French macarons. When teatime calls for something special, turn to the Tarts chapter. With recipes for two types of dough, and golden whisky pecan custard pie and key lime pie, you won’t be stuck for ideas. Bea’s key to cake success is a handful of failsafe recipes that she can always rely on. The Cake chapter is devoted to staple recipes which can be embellished or layered to create the dazzling ideas in the Special Cakes chapter. And when only a Cheesecake will do, you’ll find plenty of choice here—from the simple to the sublime.

Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-changing Egg Farm - from Scratch


Lucie B. Amundsen - 2016
    His entire agricultural experience consisted of raising five backyard hens, none of whom had yet laid a single egg.   To create this pastured poultry ranch, the couple scrambles to acquire nearly two thousand chickens—all named Lola. These hens, purchased commercially, arrive bereft of basic chicken-y instincts, such as the evening urge to roost. The newbie farmers also deal with their own shortcomings, making for a failed inspection and intense struggles to keep livestock alive (much less laying) during a brutal winter. But with a heavy dose of humor, they learn to negotiate the highly stressed no-man’s-land known as Middle Agriculture. Amundsen sees firsthand how these midsized farms, situated between small-scale operations and mammoth factory farms, are vital to rebuilding America’s local food system.   With an unexpected passion for this dubious enterprise, Amundsen shares a messy, wry, and entirely educational story of the unforeseen payoffs (and frequent pitfalls) of one couple’s ag adventure—and many, many hours spent wrangling chickens.

Martina's Kitchen Mix: My Recipe Playlist for Real Life


Martina McBride - 2018
    Growing up on a farm in Kansas, Martina began helping in the kitchen at an early age, preparing fresh-from-the-field ingredients at her mother’s side. Meals and stories were shared daily around the table. It’s a tradition she continues with her own family as often as she can because real life is what’s worth celebrating. In this gorgeously photographed cookbook, readers will find more than 100 simple and satisfying recipes that entice with fresh, seasonal ingredients and downhome flavor. Whip up her family favorites like her mother-in-law Flavia’s Deviled Eggs, husband John’s Bacon-Wrapped Olives, or her go-to Grilled Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Sauce and Slaw. Mix things up in your own kitchen by following Martina’s inspired ideas to feed a handful or a houseful.

Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends


Eva Longoria - 2011
    Here is the food Eva loves to eat, and the recipes in Eva’s Kitchen trace her life story, taking readers on her culinary journey—from the food she was brought up on to the recipes inspired by her travels abroad to the dishes she serves during casual nights at home.Having grown up on a ranch with every meal based on what was in the family fields, Eva believes, like so many of us, that good cooking relies on local, fresh, easy-to-find ingredients. In Eva’s Kitchen, she teaches readers essential cooking skills and she sprinkles in the histories and traditions behind her favorite dishes, including personal stories and anecdotes that capture the warmth, humor, and joy of her most memorable meals.In her first cookbook, Eva welcomes you into her kitchen, offering 100 of her favorite dishes—many of which are family recipes collected over the years—all fused with her passion for cooking. She also shares memories of her Texas ranch upbringing, her very first cooking adventures, vacations overseas, nights in with her girlfriends, and last-minute pre–red carpet meals. Inspired by her heritage, Eva highlights the essentials of great Mexican cooking, Texas style—with her family’s recipes and techniques for making the world’s best tamales, homemade tortillas, Spanish rice, and Pan de Polvo (Mexican pastry), to name a few. She also offers dishes from a variety of international cuisines, from Latin American to Italian and French, inspired by her globe-trotting travels. A taste of Lemon Dover Sole whisks Eva to a tiny hotel-restaurant she once visited on a trip to Normandy; the recipe for Cannellini Beans with Crushed Red Pepper was a souvenir from a trip to Florence; kimchi adds a kick to her Spicy Roasted Brussels Sprouts, a Thanksgiving staple; and Yellow Squash Soup with Lemon brings her full circle, back to her family’s vegetable garden in Corpus Christi. With full-color food photographs, intimate portraits of her family and friends, and a glimpse into Eva’s home and her lesser-known domestic side (family first, acting second, she says), Eva’s debut cookbook will entice her loyal fans and inspire home cooks to broaden their culinary horizons and create memorable meals for the people they love.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen


Lucy Knisley - 2013
    The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe—many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions.A welcome read for anyone who ever felt more passion for a sandwich than is strictly speaking proper, Relish is a book for our time: it invites the reader to celebrate food as a connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth, rather than an enemy, a compulsion, or a consumer product.

Pull Up a Chair: Recipes from My Family to Yours


Tiffani Thiessen - 2018
    Each episode showcased her classic-with-a-twist recipes and knack for hosting a good time. For three seasons, Tiffani’s fans were able to fall in love with her all over again. Now, in Pull Up a Chair, readers can bring home Tiffani's delicious food and warm hospitality. The 125 recipes in this debut cookbook are the kind that bring people together. Whether it’s Stuffed French Toast or her husband, Brady’s Favorite Short Rib Enchiladas for family-friendly meals, Curried Deviled Eggs or Boozy Date Milkshakes for special-occasion treats, or Mom’s Cream Cheese Pie—because you can’t forget dessert! With recipes and tips for pleasing the pickiest of eaters, feeding a crowd or pulling off a party in your PJs, plus gorgeous photography, Pull Up a Chair will be the book that fans and avid home cooks alike will want to include in their collection.

Baking: From My Home to Yours


Dorie Greenspan - 1980
    The 300 recipes will seduce a new generation of bakers, whether their favorite kitchen tools are a bowl and a whisk or a stand mixer and a baker’s torch.Even the most homey of the recipes are very special. Dorie’s favorite raisin swirl bread. Big spicy muffins from her stint as a baker in a famous New York City restaurant. French chocolate brownies (a Parisian pastry chef begged for the recipe). A dramatic black and white cake for a "“wow” occasion. Pierre Hermé’s extraordinary lemon tart.The generous helpings of background information, abundant stories, and hundreds of professional hints set Baking apart as a one-of-a-kind cookbook. And as if all of this weren’t more than enough, Dorie has appended a fascinating minibook, A Dessertmaker’s Glossary, with more than 100 entries, from why using one’s fingers is often best, to how to buy the finest butter, to how the bundt pan got its name.

Cuba!: Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen [A Cookbook]


Dan Goldberg - 2016
    Brazen, bold, and colorful, Cuba is a country that pulses with life. Fascinated by its people and their endlessly delicious home-cooked cuisine, friends Dan Goldberg and Andrea Kuhn have been visiting this magnetic country, capturing its passion and vibrancy, for the past five years. Dan, an award-winning photographer and Andrea, an acclaimed prop stylist and art director, along with renowned food writer Jody Eddy, bring the best of Cuban food to home kitchens with more than 75 meticulously tested recipes. From Cuban-Style Fried Chicken and Tostones Stuffed with Lobster and Conch, to Squid-ink Empanadas and Mojito Cake with Rum-Infused Whipped Cream, this book offers a unique opportunity to bring a little slice of Cuba into your home and onto your plate.

The Adventurous Eaters Club: Mastering the Art of Family Mealtime


Misha Collins - 2019
    Hot dogs. Macaroni and cheese. These are just some of the greatest hits we offer kids at mealtime.Misha and Vicki Collins totally get it. When their son West was a toddler, he began refusing anything that wasn’t bland and beige. At first, they succumbed, anything to end the mealtime battles. But with sinking hearts they realized fruit snacks and buttered noodles weren’t just void of nutrition, they were setting him up for a lifetime with a limited palate and a reliance on convenience foods.So, as a family, they decided to lean into what they love best—adventure—and invited their kids to be playful and exploratory in the kitchen. Now, in The Adventurous Eaters Club, Misha and Vicki share how they created a home where mealtime doesn’t involve coercion or trickery, and where salad, veggies, fresh soups, and fruit are the main course. Combining personal anecdotes and practical tips with over 100 creative, delicious, whimsical recipes little hands can help prepare The Adventurous Eaters Club offers readers all the support, encouragement, and practical advice they need to make lifelong adventurous eaters out of their kids.

Peace, Love, & Barbecue: Recipes, Secrets, Tall Tales, and Outright Lies from the Legends of Barbecue


Mike Mills - 2005
    These 100 recipes will enable anyone with a grill to achieve champion barbecue flavor right in their own backyard. The selection features Mills' own secret concoctions and treasured family recipes as well as choice contributions from his pitmaster friends, and it covers all manner of barbecued meat and fish, sauces and dry rubs, as well as the sides, soups, and down-home sweets that complete any great barbecue feast.With its folksy, fun-loving tone and its unique insider's take on a hugely popular--and deeply American--subject, this volume will appeal to barbecue lovers, food mavens, and cooks of all stripes.

Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship


Isabel Vincent - 2016
    Thinking she is merely helping Edward’s daughter--who lives far away and has asked her to check in on her nonagenarian dad in New York--Isabel has no idea that the man in the kitchen baking the sublime roast chicken and light-as-air apricot soufflé will end up changing her life. As Edward and Isabel meet weekly for the glorious dinners that Edward prepares, he shares so much more than his recipes for apple galette or the perfect martini, or even his tips for deboning poultry. Edward is teaching Isabel the luxury of slowing down and taking the time to think through everything she does, to deconstruct her own life, cutting it back to the bone and examining the guts, no matter how messy that proves to be.