My Favorite Cookbooks Right Now
/Be still my cookbook loving heart! Ugh why do I love cookbooks so much?? Something about reading them and getting lost in the recipes (and especially in the stories that lead up to the recipes) gets me every time. As Lucinda Scala Quinn said on her instagram, “For as long as I remember I’ve taken a few hours each week to read from my cookbook library—both new ones and old favorites. Scanning the digital food universe is good too. But Nothing quite compares to the deep, thorough, collective braintrust a good cookbook can impart.” An ideal night to me is picking a cookbook from my shelf, getting a blanket and some dark chocolate, and reading it on the couch. When I first get a cookbook, I read it from cover to cover! Then I decide what I will cook in it. I usually will cook from the same book for at least month at a time (sometimes making the same recipes week after week) and I also keep a stack of my current books on the lazy susan on my kitchen table. I’m actually thinking about doing a “Cookbook Club” on the blog where I highlight a cookbook and share the recipes I made all month! I would LOVE to know your favorite cookbooks!! Please let me know in the comments below!
1. What’s Gaby Cooking: Everyday California Food by Gaby Dalkin- These are in no particular order but I am mentioning this one first because I have been cooking from it constantly! What makes this book so good to me is how approachable the recipes but also how it instantly makes me feel Calfornia-ish and summery. This food is what I would have thought California food to be like as a kid who grew up in Florida and thought California was some kind of distant fantasy land that I would never get to go to (I still try to remember those feelings of before I visited CA and how cool I thought it was!). The other thing that makes this book a favorite is the amount of sauces there are and how they can transform any boring/quick weeknight recipe you make into something special. Also to be noted- I love following Gaby and her hubby on instagram.
WHOA. I counted and I have made/loved over 30 recipes! I have never made as many recipes from a book as this one!! Going through the book again reminded me of the ones I still need to make too!
2. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and her second book Smitten Kitchen Everyday by Deb Perelman. Deb Perelman is my idol (right up there with Ina Garten). She spends her days in her tiny NYC kitchen turning subpar dishes into ones she knows can be amazing. I religiously check her blog looking for the newest recipe to be published. She is by far my favorite food blogger so naturally I am a huge fan of both of her cookbooks. Last year I was a part of the Food52 Cookbook Club on facebook (I am still a member of the club but stopped cooking with them) and the first month I did it, the new SK book was the monthly choice and omg there are so many good ones! Her recipes are perfected and very reliable and just overall delicious. Highly recommend!
3. Date Night In by Ashley Rodriguez. Omg I love Ashley so much and her life in the PNW and her family and just everything else about her!! Reading this book brings feels of nostalgia towards her marriage and family and it seeps into your mind and makes you dream about your future. When I dig into her cookbook I imagine my life in 5-10 years with older kids and more independence and being able to do real “Date Night In” nights with Craig. The concept of this book is so dreamy to me. I honestly have barely cooked anything out of it. I think I have made 2 or 3 recipes (the brownies with peanut butter frosting which I have famously substituted cookie butter for are to die for) but keep going back to read it and also keep it stowed away for when I’m ready for it. I have been reading her blog and following her instagram for YEARS. Here is my favorite blog post of hers that again gives me hope: Traveling with Kids.
4. Food52 Genius Recipes by Kristen Miglore. This book is SO COOL. If you don’t already know about this book it has famous chefs/restaurants genius recipes all collected in one place. This book makes a great gift for someone who loves to cook. It has a lot of the chefs I’m featuring on this post in this one book! Marcella Hazan, Nigella Lawson, Deb Perelman, Ottolenghi, ABC Kitchen, Toro Bravo, Tom Colicchio, Rao’s, Julia Child, Melissa Clark, Alice Waters, Momofuku, and Dorie Greenspan are just a few of my favorite cameos in the book. I know when I make something from this book it’s going to be delicious and a crowd pleaser (even Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Butter & Onion with barely any other ingredients in it than listed in the name).
5. Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines. Normally I wouldn’t cook with velveeta cheese, cream of mushroom soup, or premade bags of rice but this cookbook is an exception. Not only do you get another way of looking inside Joanna’s life but you get her recipes that she feeds her family and they are all DELISH. I have a few staple recipes from this book that are now “my recipes” (such as the after school banana bread). It’s also beautiful to look at (duh). I really enjoy reading all the stories in this book!
6. Cravings by Chrissy Teigen. When I tell people this is one of my favorite cookbooks I feel like I have to follow it up with an explanation since most people just know Chrissy as a model who is hilarious on instagram/married to John Legend. In reality she is a major foodie and loves cooking!! Her cookbook is actually incredible!! The recipes are SO good and her mom even contributes some authentic Thai recipes from their family! I have made at least a dozen recipes from Cravings. I love her second book Cravings: Hungry for More too!!
7. Mad Hungry Family by Lucinda Scala Quinn. I went through a long period of time where I was obsessed with Lucinda and only cooking from her books. I love them all. She has 3 sons and lives in NYC and is constantly doing insta stories of her recipes from her own books that are literally falling apart from daily use. I feel like I was meant to live in NYC because the thought of cooking out of a tiny apartment in the middle of a crazy city seems so charming to me. Lucinda’s recipes all have a backstory and are family friendly and hearty. She also has a big pantry section where I have adopted one of my favorite meals- her Black Beans and Rice, which is so notably made that it feels special and not so simple. My other favorites from her collection are Mad Hungry Cravings and Mad Hungry: Feeding Men & Boys.
8. The Meatball Shop cookbook by Daniel Holzman & Michael Chernow. While I’m on an NYC kick I had to mention this one. This book is particularly important to me because in it is “my meatballs” and “my sauce” recipes. I gave links to these recipes on my Before Baby Food Plan post. They are the absolute best and super easy. I like the other recipes in the book (“my chicken meatball” recipe is also from here) but the only other one I’ll mention is the Brownie Cookies!
9. Dining In by Alison Roman. Another NYC based chef/cookbook. If you haven’t heard of Alison’s famous/viral cookies, these are a must try. Even Deb did a post for the Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies on her blog. Again, this book makes me feel like I’m living in New York City but a part of the cool crowd that you only see in movies or on instagram. There are so many fun recipes in here that I want to make for dinner parties (when my kids are a little older!).
10. Ottolenghi: The Cookbook. No list would be complete without mentioning Ottolenghi’s books. I have every single one of them and they are all divine! My favorite is Jerusalem. I used to be in a cookbook club with some friends and we did this book one month and it was all so delicious! Ottolenghi and his partner Sami Tamimi come up with best recipes. I’m dying to go to one of his restaurants in London one day.
11. Aloha Kitchen: Recipes from Hawai’i by Alana Kysar. This is one of my newer books in my collection but I read it cover to cover. It gives me all the feels of being on vacation and the author does a great job of staying true to Hawai’i. Some of Craig’s favorite foods are Hawaiian- he loves plate lunch and especially macaroni salad and these recipes did not disappoint. I can’t wait to cook more from this one!
12. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. I had to include one classic cookbook and this is definitely my favorite. I found my copy at a used book store in Portland, OR. My life goal is to become an Italian grandma and this is the book I will use and memorize one day. The recipes are so short and simple but taste so good and demonstrate authentic Italian techniques. If you go to Italy and have a memorable dish I bet you can look in the index of this book and find it to make at home. One of my favorite dishes from Florence was tagliatelle with gorgonzola sauce and of course this is in Marcella’s classic book. We also make big batches of her bolognese sauce and freeze it for an extra special weeknight dinner.
13. BONUS: I had to include a special thing that Samini Nosrat created with her cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat: A Collection of 20 Prints. This is the best deal for art in your kitchen! I was looking for prints that I could affordably frame for our kitchen and came across this set of 20 prints for only $15! They are beautiful and such a steal!
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