Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking


Michael Ruhlman - 2009
    Why spend time sorting through the millions of cookie recipes available in books, magazines, and on the Internet? Isn’t it easier just to remember 1-2-3? That’s the ratio of ingredients that always make a basic, delicious cookie dough: 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, and 3 parts flour. From there, add anything you want—chocolate, lemon and orange zest, nuts, poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, almond extract, or peanut butter, to name a few favorite additions. Replace white sugar with brown for a darker, chewier cookie. Add baking powder and/or eggs for a lighter, airier texture. Ratios are the starting point from which a thousand variations begin. Ratios are the simple proportions of one ingredient to another. Biscuit dough is 3:1:2—or 3 parts flour, 1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory flavors with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream and strawberries or sausage gravy. Vinaigrette is 3:1, or 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, and is one of the most useful sauces imaginable, giving everything from grilled meats and fish to steamed vegetables or lettuces intense flavor. Cooking with ratios will unchain you from recipes and set you free. With thirty-three ratios and suggestions for enticing variations, Ratio is the truth of cooking: basic preparations that teach us how the fundamental ingredients of the kitchen—water, flour, butter and oils, milk and cream, and eggs—work. Change the ratio and bread dough becomes pasta dough, cakes become muffins become popovers become crepes. As the culinary world fills up with overly complicated recipes and never-ending ingredient lists, Michael Ruhlman blasts through the surplus of information and delivers this innovative, straightforward book that cuts to the core of cooking. Ratio provides one of the greatest kitchen lessons there is—and it makes the cooking easier and more satisfying than ever.

Nourishing Meals: 365 Whole Foods, Allergy-Free Recipes for Healing Your Family One Meal at a Time: A Cookbook


Alissa Segersten - 2012
    Popular blogger Ali Segersten and functional medicine expert Tom Malttere are a team devoted to teaching their children--and readers--the importance of living a whole foods lifestyle. Nourishing Meals makes it easy and fun with dishes that burst with flavor, such as their Cherry Pecan Salad, Butternut Squash and Pinto Bean Enchiladas, Chipotle-Lime Roasted Chicken, and Banana Coconut Cream Pie.Every recipe in the book is free of the most common allergens: gluten, soy, eggs, and dairy, as well as refined sugar. And these dishes are designed to appeal to everyone, including vegan, vegetarian, seafood, and meat-eaters. In addition to wonderful food, Ali and Tom offer easy, doable steps to help you change your family's health, tips for making the transition easier, and ways to get the kids excited about wholesome foods. They map out the best foods and recipes for every stage of having a family, from pre-conception and pregnancy through each year of a child's life. And they explain in accessible terms what makes their recipes so effective for achieving optimal health. Originally self-published with an avid following, this edition will feature more than 30 new recipes, and many of the original recipes have been updated. This new edition will also include 100 beautiful all-new food photos featured in two inserts.With an easy, tasty recipe for every day of the year, it's never been simpler to adopt a healthy, whole foods lifestyle!

True Roots: A Mindful Kitchen with More Than 100 Recipes Free of Gluten, Dairy, and Refined Sugar


Kristin Cavallari - 2018
    And now, with True Roots, Cavallari shows you that improving the way you eat doesn't have to be difficult--a clean and toxin-free diet can and should be fun, easy, and enjoyable. She learned the hard way that dieting leads nowhere good, and that a clean lifestyle is the ticket to feeling and being healthy.So how does Kristin eat? Organic as much as possible, wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, fresh fruits and vegetables, and nothing white--no white flour, sugar, or salt. She avoids anything heavily processed and anything that has been stripped of natural nutrients. She maintains a lifestyle free of toxic chemicals and is passionate about creating delicious and hearty food from real ingredients. She wants her food to be true, as close to its natural state as possible.Her recipes--green banana muffins, bison and veggie kabobs, and even zucchini almond butter blondies--are proof that a healthy lifestyle isn't boring or bland. Feed yourself real food and see how much better you feel, both mentally and physically.

Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table


Jenny Rosenstrach - 2012
    Even when they work long days. Even when their kids' schedules pull them in eighteen different directions. They are not superhuman. They are not from another planet.With simple strategies and common sense, Jenny figured out how to break down dinner—the food, the timing, the anxiety, from prep to cleanup—so that her family could enjoy good food, time to unwind, and simply be together.Using the same straight-up, inspiring voice that readers of her award-winning blog, Dinner: A Love Story, have come to count on, Jenny never judges and never preaches. Every meal she dishes up is a real meal, one that has been cooked and eaten and enjoyed at least a half dozen times by someone in Jenny's house. With inspiration and game plans for any home cook at any level, Dinner: A Love Story is as much for the novice who doesn't know where to start as it is for the gourmand who doesn't know how to start over when she finds herself feeding an intractable toddler or for the person who never thought about home-cooked meals until he or she became a parent. This book is, in fact, for anyone interested in learning how to make a meal to be shared with someone they love, and about how so many good, happy things happen when we do.

Rise and Shine: Better Breakfasts for Busy Mornings--with 75 recipes everyone will love


Katie Sullivan Morford - 2016
    Katie Morford has the key to a quick and easy for weekdays, slow and luxurious for relaxed weekends—you can turn your morning into an exercise in good nutrition and great taste. You'll find breakfasts that can be eaten at the table (Egg-in-a-Nest Pesto Pizzas), at the bus stop (Strawberries and Cream Spoon Smoothies), or on the run (Milk and Cereal Bars), all healthy alternatives to cold cereal and prepackaged bars that even picky eaters will love. Rise & Shine is tailor made for busy families who want to do mornings just a little bit better. It's a toolkit of ideas and inspiration to make a nourishing breakfast not only doable, but delicious.

Coconut Oil for Beginners - Your Coconut Oil Miracle Guide: Health Cures, Beauty, Weight Loss, and Delicious Recipes


John Chatham - 2013
    Now, coconut oil is finally gaining widespread recognition for its proven ability to help with weight loss, improve hair and skin health, and provide a delicious alternative to bad saturated fats in the kitchen.COCONUT OIL FOR BEGINNERS is a comprehensive how-to guide on using coconut oil in every area of your life, from your beauty routine to your cooking.Learn how to use coconut oil to boost immunity and fight the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer's and heart disease.-Cook dozens of delicious recipes that replace bad saturated fats with this flavorful, nutritious alternative.-Discover scientific research on the anti-aging and stress relief properties of coconut oil.-Create glowing, soft hair and skin with easy DIY beauty applications.-Use coconut oil to lose weight, increase your metabolism, and improve your thyroid function.

The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments


David Lebovitz - 2007
    Fragrant vanilla, toasted nuts, and spices. Heavy cream and bright liqueurs. Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. Every luscious flavor imaginable is grist for the chill in The Perfect Scoop, pastry chef David Lebovitz’s gorgeous guide to the pleasures of homemade ice creams, sorbets, granitas, and more. With an emphasis on intense and sophisticated flavors and a bountiful helping of the author’s expert techniques, this collection of frozen treats ranges from classic (Chocolate Sorbet) to comforting (Tin Roof Ice Cream), contemporary (Mojito Granita) to cutting edge (Pear-Pecorino Ice Cream), and features an arsenal of sauces, toppings, mix-ins, and accompaniments (such as Lemon Caramel Sauce, Peanut Brittle, and Profiteroles) capable of turning simple ice cream into perfect scoops of pure delight.

Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating


Gail Simmons - 2017
    Gail Simmons is a beloved figure in the food world who has been a popular judge on Top Chef, the number-one rated food show on cable television since its inception. In Bringing It Home, Simmons shares her best recipes and food experiences. From her travels, exploring global flavors and keeping detailed diaries, to her Top Chef culinary adventures with the world's most notable chefs, she is always asking: "How can I bring this dish home to my own kitchen?" Her goal is to make fabulous recipes using accessible ingredients and smart, simple cooking techniques for successful family meals and easy entertaining. From Bloody Mary Eggs to Christmas Brisket Fried Rice; from Summer Vegetable Salad with Charred Lime Vinaigrette to Banana-Cardamom Upside Down Cake with Salty Caramel, there is a recipe for everyone in the family. Simmons also shares ingredient tips, cooking techniques, and many informative "Snippets," as well as personal and behind-the-scenes stories that will appeal to fans and food lovers everywhere.

The French Laundry Cookbook


Thomas Keller - 1999
    The most transformative cookbook of the century celebrates this milestone by showcasing the genius of chef/proprietor Thomas Keller himself. Keller is a wizard, a purist, a man obsessed with getting it right. And this, his first cookbook, is every bit as satisfying as a French Laundry meal itself: a series of small, impeccable, highly refined, intensely focused courses. Most dazzling is how simple Keller's methods are: squeegeeing the moisture from the skin on fish so it sautées beautifully; poaching eggs in a deep pot of water for perfect shape; the initial steeping in the shell that makes cooking raw lobster out of the shell a cinch; using vinegar as a flavor enhancer; the repeated washing of bones for stock for the cleanest, clearest tastes. From innovative soup techniques, to the proper way to cook green vegetables, to secrets of great fish cookery, to the creation of breathtaking desserts; from beurre monté to foie gras au torchon, to a wild and thoroughly unexpected take on coffee and doughnuts, The French Laundry Cookbook captures, through recipes, essays, profiles, and extraordinary photography, one of America's great restaurants, its great chef, and the food that makes both unique. One hundred and fifty superlative recipes are exact recipes from the French Laundry kitchen—no shortcuts have been taken, no critical steps ignored, all have been thoroughly tested in home kitchens. If you can't get to the French Laundry, you can now re-create at home the very experience Wine Spectator described as “as close to dining perfection as it gets.”

My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes)


Luisa Weiss - 2012
    The Julie/Julia Project. In the early days of food blogs, these were the pioneers whose warmth and recipes turned their creators’ kitchens into beloved web destinations. Luisa Weiss was working in New York when she decided to cook her way through her massive recipe collection. The Wednesday Chef, the cooking blog she launched to document her adventures, charmed readers around the world. But Luisa never stopped longing to return to her childhood home in Berlin. A food memoir with recipes, My Berlin Kitchen deliciously chronicles how she finally took the plunge and went across the ocean in search of happiness—only to find love waiting where she least expected it.

Wintersweet: Seasonal Desserts to Warm the Home


Tammy Donroe Inman - 2013
    Wintersweet encourages readers to make use of fresh, local ingredients for warming seasonal desserts. While summer farmers' markets are always overflowing with ripe produce, there's plenty to be had from November to March: squashes and pumpkins, parsnips and carrots, apples, pears, citrus of all types, and feel-good ingredients like nuts, cheese, and chocolate.The fresh and rustic recipes in Wintersweet push the envelope of traditional winter desserts like pumpkin or apple pies with such delicacies as Pear Cranberry Clafouti, Spicy Prune Cake with Penuche Frosting, Tangelo Sorbet, and Goat Cheese Cake with Dried Cherry Compote. Each chapter is devoted to different ingredients, ranging from Persimmons, Pomegranates, and Cranberries to Citrus, Cheese, and Dried Fruits, allowing readers to experiment with new and exciting ingredients for complex and delicious flavors. They taste even better when they can be found near your own backyard; Donroe provides resources for finding the best local farmers' markets and agricultural centers near you. Perfect for holiday gatherings or to warm the belly on a cold night, Wintersweet is the perfect dessert companion to make the year's coldest season a bit more festive.

Everyday Food: Great Food Fast


Martha Stewart - 2007
    And you want lots of choices and variations—recipes that call for your favorite foods and take advantage of excellent (and readily available) ingredients. In the first book from the award-winning magazine Everyday Food, you’ll find all of that: 250 simple recipes for delicious meals that are quick enough to make any day of the week. Because a change in weather affects how we cook as much as what we cook, the recipes in Everyday Food are arranged by season. For spring, you’ll find speedy preparations for main-course salads, chicken, and poached salmon that minimize time spent at the stove; summer features quick techniques for grilling the very best burgers and kabobs as well as no-cook pasta sauces; for fall, there are braised meats and hearty main-course soups; and winter provides new takes on rich one-dish meals, roasts and stews, and hearty baked pastas. Finally, a chapter on basics explains how to make year-round staples such as foolproof roast chicken, risotto, couscous, and chocolate sauce.Designed in a contemporary and easy-to-read format, Everyday Food boasts lush, full-color photography and plenty of suggestions for substitutions and variations. With Everyday Food, even the busiest on-the-go cook can look forward to meals that bring freshness, nutrition, and a range of flavors to dinner all week long.

Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making


James Peterson - 1991
    This revised and updated edition on sauces includes a 32-page insert with 100 colour photographs, new chapters on Asian sauces and pasta sauces, a section on wine and sauce pairing, and expanded sections on lighter, healthier sauces, such as infused oils and chutneys.

Indian for Everyone: The Home Cook's Guide to Traditional Favorites


Anupy Singla - 2014
    --Publishers Weekly, starred reviewOnly have room for one go-to book for Indian home cooking on your shelf? This is it. --BooklistIndian for Everyone is the third book by Anupy Singla, by far her most stunning and comprehensive offering yet. Singla is America's favorite authority on Indian home cooking, and her expertise with delicious, healthful recipes has endeared her to fans everywhere. This new book opens up the true simplicity and flavor of Indian food for anyone, regardless of dietary restrictions or familiarity.Singla's recipes feature popular favorites, regional specialties, and--unlike any other Indian cookbook--alternative preparation styles for every recipe. Included are quick-and-easy adaptations for making a meal vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free, or even in the slow cooker. Beginners appreciate the book's step-by-step instructions, while veteran home cooks now have a reference point for family favorites, including little-known instructions and standard cook times.With deeply personal, detailed stories behind these recipes, readers see how healthy cooking connected Singla's family through many generations and disparate cultural heritages. More than the next great Indian cookbook, this is the next great American cookbook -- sure to become a staple of every family's collection.

Healthy Cooking for Two (or Just You): Low-Fat Recipes with Half the Fuss and Double the Taste: A Cookbook


Frances Price - 1997
    Healthy Cooking for Two (or Just You) by Frances Price offers:* More than 200 creative, low-fat recipes for today's smaller households* Unique two-column recipe format for hassle-free preparation* Tips on shopping for one or two, and streamlining your kitchen* Full nutrient analysis with every recipe* Special chapter of delicious, no-fuss menus* Plenty of 30-minute recipes-- plus meatless meals, divine desserts, tip-packed boxes and more