Grist by Abra Berens is a welcome addition to my kitchen cookbook shelf because it is such a useful guide to cooking with legumes, seeds, grains, and beans. I think Grist can be considered a companion to her earlier book Ruffage (published in 2019; review here), and just as Ruffage is part memoir, part cookbook, so is Grist. Here the home cook is invited to follow along with Berens as she demonstrates, through her recipes, how crucial Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Grist”
Tag: Chronicle Books
Book Club Tuesday: Baking for the Holidays
Baking from a cookbook is like completing a trust fall — the home baker putting all their trust in the author. If an author has done their job well then, the home baker will come up with beautiful results. Many of us feel tentative as we look through baking books at Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Baking for the Holidays”
Book Club Tuesday: Mango and Peppercorns
Not all food-related journeys happen in cookbooks. One of my favourite cookbook-adjacent genres is the food memoir. An inverse of the cookbook, a food memoir follows a life throughout the chapters and, each of these chapters is accompanied by related recipe(s). In the recently published food memoir, Mango and Peppercorns, Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Mango and Peppercorns”
Book Club Tuesday: The Flavor Equation
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”
The Eatworthy Books of 2020
For my 2020 year-end round up I opted to write about all the cookbooks of that year instead of picking just a few for a gift guide (likely why this is being posted in January -ha!). Summing up a whole year of cooking isn’t like choosing a “Best of” list either, I find myself Continue reading “The Eatworthy Books of 2020”
Book Club Tuesday: Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower
As promised, my last cookbook review of 2020! Part of me feels that this is a case of “saving the best for last” and, what I will tell you is that this might be the longest I’ve had a book before writing Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower”
2020 Cookbook Roundup: Baking Edition
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”
Book Club Tuesday: 100 Cookies
I don’t think it was until I boxed up that first batch of treats to give to my neighbours that I baked from Sarah Kieffer’s latest book, 100 Cookies, that I realized what has been bothering me. Being a pandemic year notwithstanding, I missed being able to connect to people through food. When my Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: 100 Cookies”
Book Club Tuesday: Tartine – A Classic Revisited
Cookbooks are the great equalizer — no need planning expensive trips to destinations with new or notable food experiences because if that place everyone loves has a cookbook then you can make (or bake) your own fun! While I visited Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Tartine – A Classic Revisited”
Book Club Tuesday: Every Day is Saturday
Unlike the Dowager Countess of Downtown Abbey, we all know exactly what a weekend is! From it’s first blush on Saturday morning with a coffee and the newspaper to it’s late-night frenzy on Sunday when things are being organized for the week ahead. Weekends often mean we Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Every Day is Saturday”