It’s been a long time since I’ve done a Quick Look Books booklist, and this one all about cookbooks is coming at you just in time for the ultimate cooking (and gift-giving!) season: the holidays!
Y’know, Tarlets, sometimes I’m quite surprised that I run a blog. I’m pretty sure that some of my closest family and friends are surprised, too!
If you knew me back in “the day,” I eschewed most forms of technology…mostly because I failed at successfully operating them. Although I’ve embraced website posts, social media, SEO, e-mail marketing, etc, over the past 1.5 years, this familiarity with and reliance on the digital way of life is completely unlike me.
As you know, I read a lot of books. What I bet you don’t know is that…all of them are print books; there’s not an ebook among them.
I’ve been known to shout “Print Books For Life!” when entreated to give ebooks and/or audiobooks a try, and I’m the proud NON-owner of any kind of ebook reader. I’ve even turned down free ARCs because they were only available in ebook format. I firmly believe that I will never give up reading print books.
That said….I’ve kinda slipped a bit when it comes to recipes. It’s so easy to Google recipes these days, and so many print magazines and newspapers make their recipes available online. For free. As a result, I would say that my biggest collection of recipes comes from ones I’ve scrounged up online, either from the aforementioned sources or from other food bloggers that I follow.
However, I still boast an impressive collection of printed cookbooks. I started collecting cookbooks when I first began cooking in my teeny, tiny, shared apartment years ago, and, while I’ve thinned the herd over the years, there’s still a core group of cookbooks I turn to when I need something that will knock someone’s socks off.
Here’s my list of cookbook recommendations that (wink wink, nudge nudge) make the perfect gifts for any foodies on your holiday gift list this year!
While Taste of Home doesn’t follow the latest food or diet trends, it does contain a myriad of recipes for easy, basic, and delicious food. Many of my core dishes for everyday cooking and holiday entertaining come from here. I lugged this 600-page sucker home from a Book Expo America giveaway years ago, and it definitely qualifies as one of my best cookbook finds!
Think of Taste of Home as your cooking and baking bible. Recipes run the gamut from appetizers and soups, to side dishes and main courses, to all different kinds of desserts. All the dishes are from home cooks, so they’re easy to make and family approved. This catch-all cookbook can be the backbone of your best, most reliable recipes, and, since it’s been around for generations, you might be making recipes that your mother and grandmother made when they were first learning how to cook.
Taste of Home also contains measurement help, food prep and cooking advice, and food-buying tips, all of which are immensely helpful for the amaetur chef.
You may remember me waxing poetic about All Cakes Considered in my Man Catcher Cake post. Author Melissa Gray is the one who gave the world this fantastic cake, but she didn’t stop there. This cookbook contains a slew of other delicious cake recipes, as well as a few cookie and bar treat recipes.
All desserts are listed in order of easiest to make to most challenging. And, even the “challenging” ones aren’t that difficult; they’re just the most labor-intensive recipes that require a little more time and effort than, say, a simple pound cake. Whatever your occasion, this cookbook has a cake recipe for it. Trust me.
I’ve made about half the recipes in All Cakes Considered, and one of these days I’ll get around to making the remaining half. I’ve made Black Walnut Cake, Brown Sugar Pound Cake, and Dark Chocolate Red Velvet Cake to resounding success, and several recipes in this cookbook have been the basis for numerous other recipes I’ve developed, like Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake.
In addition to great recipes, All Cakes Considered shares plenty of fantastic baking tips that will ensure your cakes turn out beautifully. I often credit this cookbook as teaching me how to bake. Gray also talks about the fun of bringing in treats for your co-workers, which I love because this is something I regularly do. Whether they know it or not, my colleagues are guinea pigs for most Tart recipes.
This next cookbook covers all things sweet and savory, serving up delectable and authentic teatime recipes. Given I’m a huge Anglophile who loves to take tea every chance she gets, Tea and Crumpets has been a great way to bring a little British teatime action to my home when I can’t get across the pond.
Need some tea sandwiches or savory tartlets? How about a traditional Victoria Sponge or Bakewell Tart? Maybe a wildly impressive St Honore with Roses and Raspberries? This gem of a cookbook has got you covered with the basics found at a casual cream tea, to the jaw-dropping delicacies that grace the most exclusive tearooms in London. Additionally, Tea and Crumpets abandons the time-honored French/English rivalry and includes recipes for French pastries and other delicacies served in Paris tearooms. Oh la la.
I’ve made numerous tea breads and pastries from this cookbook, and both my Blueberry Almond Scones and Cheese Scones were inspired by its basic scone recipe. As a fun bonus, Tea and Crumpets tells you about many different tea rooms in the UK and France that you can (and should!) visit, and provides recipes for some of their signature dishes.
This favorite cookbook of mine is actually a healthy cookbook. I know, I know. Try not to faint with shock.
Reduced calorie recipes are not something you’ll usually find in my kitchen, and that’s because most “lightened up” recipes I find taste, honestly, like crap.
Not recipes from Marlene Koch, though. This genius woman uses amazingly smart substitutions that take away a lot of calories without sacrificing any of the flavor. For reals. I’ve made countless recipes from her cookbook — Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwiches, Sticky Lemon Chicken, Shrimp Scampi — but my favorite has to be her Cincinatti Chili recipe, which I regularly trot out during football season and for Super Bowl parties.
If you’re looking for classic recipes that taste great with about half the calories of what you’ll find in other cookbooks, or even in restuarants (quite a few “copycat” dishes in here!), look no further than Eat More of What You Love.
What? I’ve already put a cake cookbook in this post? Too bad. You’re getting another one. Because you can never have too much cake.
Southern Cakes contains completely different cake recipes than All Cakes Considered, if you can believe that — so, really, one can make a LOT of cakes.
I picked up Southern Cakes while on my honeymoon in New Orleans; the simple title and the alluring cover image of a Coconut Cake called to me from across the gift shop room. Needless to say, it rapidly became one of my favorite cookbooks. One of my main reasons for buying this cookbook is its recipe for Hummingbird Cake — which is perhaps my favorite cake of all time — but I’ve also made its Fabulous Caramel Cake, Mississippi Delta Jelly Cake, and Oatmeal Cake, all to rave reviews.
Whenever I need a fancy, show-stopping cake that is shockingly easy to make, I turn to Southern Cakes. And, you should too.
*****
Some parting words about cookbooks in general: I find that most people don’t own printed cookbooks anymore, and I think that’s a little sad. For me, there’s nothing more relaxing than nursing a cuppa tea and flipping through my cookbooks at the kitchen table, searching for culinary inspiration. I love turning the floury, sugary, lightly stained pages, which are often filled with scribbled notes in the margins: “perfect as is!” or “bake only for 10 minutes, not 15, to get a chewy texture!”
My cookbooks contain not only recipes, but memories of what I’ve cooked, baked, and fed to the people I love, and that’s something I rarely get from online recipes. I urge you to keep at least one printed cookbook in your kitchen, for sentimental reasons and so much more!
Cookbooks also make wonderful gifts for the chef or baker in your life, so keep this list handy for birthdays, weddings, housewarmings, and holidays!
