I am meant to be posting another review for a different book, but I’ve come across a cookbook that’s too good not to share. Two weeks ago, I was preparing to bake my daughter’s birthday cake and, we did as we always have done – we looked through my cookbooks to see which cake she’d like. I had recently picked up a Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Coco Cake Land”
The success of Smitten Kitchen should be a surprise to no one. Since 2006, when Deb Perelman started her blog, her inviting tone and delicious recipes have engendered confidence and trust in her readers. From the beginning, Perelman began writing about her experiences as a home cook and, it’s from this place that she connects with people. She understands her audience – people who are Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Smitten Kitchen Keepers”
There’s something undeniably attention-grabbing about a “Best of” list. 2022 is ending and, people want to know about the noteworthy cookbooks. This year I’m going to try something a little different – not quite a gift guide, yet not a “Best of” list either. Where I want to go with this post is simple – help home cooks find a little joy in their kitchens. Joy is what moves me forward and, it’s never steered me wrong when I’m talking about cookbooks (it was one of the favourite parts of my conversation I had with Lindsay Cameron Wilson on her The Food Podcast this year (link here). However, my joy may not necessarily be someone else’s joy because we all have our own personal set of criteria concerning joyful kitchen experiences. So, through the next 8 sections, I’ll briefly discuss some of the books that stood out to me this year. For any books that I’ve already reviewed, I’ll add a link so that you can visit that review for more information. There will be books I haven’t reviewed yet but still deserve a mention. Continue reading “Joy and Cooking: The Cookbooks of 2022”
There is something so touching about Bonnie Stern’s work. Is it her earnest desire to help home cooks find their way in the kitchen or impart personal stories we can all relate to? With well over a dozen cookbooks to her name, Stern has become a trusted companion in many Canadian kitchens. Even during the pandemic, I would take Friday Night Dinners off the shelf to browse the recipes, remember all the good family meals I had enjoyed with hopeful feelings of more to come. And it’s from the Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Don’t Worry, Just Cook”
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about joy — the kind of joy found in cooking delicious food or time spent with a wonderful cookbook. Although I have yet to visit a Mandy’s Gourmet Salads (and it’s important to note that since my review (click here) of their first cookbook — Mandy’s Gourmet Salads — back in the summer of 2020, they’ve Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: More Mandy’s”
Packing a lunch is like giving a present, whether it’s to your future self, a child or someone special, being able to make a lunch and pack it up with love is a beautiful thing. This isn’t to say that when this “beautiful thing” returns in the evening, empty containers ready to be washed, I’m enjoying myself a bit less. I prefer the making to Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Lunchbox”
As Australian food writer Alice Zaslavsky states in the introduction of her new cookbook, In Praise of Veg, “This hefty tome is my tribute to the wonderful world of veg”(8) Her enthusiasm for cooking with vegetables is readily apparent — Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: In Praise of Veg”
What really amazed me when we would visit Ontario to see our grandmother is that, during the summer, there was such an abundance of fruits and vegetables available. The amazing part was that all these green and white cardboard baskets, bursting with the freshest produce around, all came from Ontario. Growing up in Alberta, in a farming family, the growing zone and climate was drastically different. There were no lush stone fruits and even Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Peak Season”
What does it take to get people home cooking again? Well, if we look at 2020, it was the situation that brought people back into their kitchens to bake and make, fostering their starters along the way. For some of us home cooking is Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Ottolenghi Test Kitchen — Shelf Love”
Much of what cooking means to me has to do with joy — with the food, recipes, the process, and the final reveal as you plate the food and set it on the table for people to enjoy. Part of the delight is feeling grateful for the fact I can cook and have ingredients to do so. I think this is one of the reasons why I am drawn to Mary Berg and her cookbooks. And it’s not just me either — my daughter adores Mary Berg. For Katie, it began with Mary’s first television show Mary’s Kitchen Crush and then that love Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Well Seasoned”
Recipes & Stories
Taking the Hell out of Healthy
Just another WordPress.com site
Healthy Vegetarian Recipes.
Shipshape Eatworthy 