A good cookbook offers an invitation in which home cooks are asked to try recipes and immerse themselves in the scents and flavours of someone else’s food, stories, and traditions. I’m sure it could go without saying — food is deeply personal and, cookbooks which are rooted in personal experiences tend to be Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: My Shanghai”
Let me tell you a story: when I was a kid, my mom would take my sister and I to her hometown so that we could spend the summers with my grandmother and all her extended family. My mom grew up in a charming little village in Ontario cottage country and the summers we spent there are some of the best summers in my memory. Down the road from my grandmother’s house was the two-story, white clapboard house that she grew up in, and it was where her unmarried sisters and brothers continued to live. Each morning my sister and I would Continue reading “Book Club Pi(e) Day Edition: The Book on Pie”
Torta della Nonna by Emiko Davies — literally translated as “Grandmother’s Cake” — is a collection of classic Italian baking recipes. I have written before about the comfort that familiar recipes offer and, in the case of Emiko Davies’ latest book (a compilation of dessert recipes from her earlier Italian cookbooks — Florentine, Aquacotta, and Tortellini at Midnight — review here), she offers many Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Torta della Nonna”
I used to wonder what drew people to baking. To me, it always seemed like an effort reserved for special occasions — but, in recent years I’ve begun to recognize the comfort and kindness found in baking. There is a feeling of comfort found in a familiar recipe and the way that it scents the house in Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: One Tin Bakes”
In my last review, I looked at how Claire Saffitz’s Dessert Person worked to give home bakers more confidence by offering recipes and explanations that improved home bakers’ skills and techniques. Her positive affirmation: I am a Dessert Person really connects to the notion that anyone can become a baker through practice. Looking at what happens in home kitchens Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: The Flavor Equation”
Baking, like anything else in life, is a skill acquired and developed through practice. I used to say when asked, “I can cook but I’m definitely not a baker!” because it always Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Dessert Person”
More so than any other year (maybe even ever!), 2020 is the year that I have baked my heart out. And this isn’t because of the pandemic or lockdown either. At the end of 2019, I found myself with Continue reading “2020 Cookbook Roundup: Baking Edition”
Whether people are trying to make choices based on the environmental impact of their cooking or their changing dietary needs, choosing to eat more plants is more common now than it was when Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Scandinavian Green”
There is no one way to approach cooking or baking with kids. Being in the kitchen with my daughter reminds me of when I used to be a primary school teacher — there were certain hands-on activities that would make me feel anxious Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Kid in the Kitchen”
Â
Looking at the cookbooks released this autumn, there is a definite trend towards flavour — there’s Ottolenghi Flavor by Ixta Belfrage and Yotom Ottolenghi, Nik Sharma’s Flavor Equation, Bob Blumer’s Flavorbomb, James Briscione and Brooke Parkhurst’s Flavor for All, and Dan Kluger’s Chasing Flavor just to name a few. I think this flavour odyssey is about making the most with what we have to cook with and being able to identify ways to enhance the flavour of a dish whether it’s through the use of particular techniques, ingredients or both. Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Ottolenghi Flavor”
Just another WordPress.com site
Healthy Vegetarian Recipes.
Shipshape Eatworthy 