Joy and Cooking: The Cookbooks of 2022

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”

Book Club Tuesday: Good & Sweet

When a copy of Brian Levy’s Good & Sweet arrived in the mail, I felt leery about the subject matter. To be honest, I am tired of the narrative of sugar being unhealthy – has there ever been a time when someone ate sugar because it was healthy? I find that these narratives set up sugar as a false opposite – while refined sugar is “bad,” books go on to convince home cooks of the Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Good & Sweet”

Book Club Tuesday: Cake & Loaf

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“…when we sat down in that coffee shop and laid out our bakery dreams to each other, they were really about creating a space we wanted to go to every day. To build something that would address as many of the systemic issues we had seen in our own bakery jobs as possible. A place to foster creativity and feminist ideals. A business that would give more than it would take from the community and that centred sustainability in all its decisions. The results have not always been what we intended, and we are still learning how the systems in which we operate affect our biases and how we can continue to be better. It has been a financial challenge. Trying to operate in an effectively non-profit way in a capitalist system is fraught with compromises and disappointments. Luckily, we are resourceful folks and have had the honour of working with many amazing people over the years, so we feel like we have won the life lottery.” (4)

Over a decade ago, Nickey Miller and Josie Rudderham opened the brick-and-mortar version of Cake & Loaf in Hamilton, Ontario and now, they have a newly published cookbook (of the same name) to share with home bakers. I’m new to the Cake & Loaf world but as I read through the introduction, I learned that Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Cake & Loaf”

Book Club Tuesday: Fabulous Modern Cookies

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To us, cookies are the most approachable of all desserts. (9)

What Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin say in the introduction to their latest book, Fabulous Modern Cookies, is absolutely true! Of all the desserts, cookies are the most approachable. Thinking back to when I was little, one of the first things that I baked with my mom were cookies, and this is the case with my own daughter. It’s about having fun and enjoying the results. I remember that when Katie and I made animal crackers, hers weren’t that great looking, however, Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Fabulous Modern Cookies”

Book Club Tuesday: Your Daily Veg

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I am part of a vegetarian family: my husband has been a vegetarian for over twenty years, I joined along almost 12 years ago, and my daughter was born into it 8 years since. When my daughter was born, I wondered what vegetarianism would look like for her? When I became a vegetarian, the cookbooks at the time were very faddy and, what I really longed for was good food: plain and simple. Sometimes I feel that calling food “vegetarian” is like adding a Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Your Daily Veg”

Book Club Tuesday: A Good Day to Bake

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When Benjamina Ebuehi spoke these simple words – “just for the fun of it”– during a recent online talk hosted by The Book Larder (watch here), she summed up the reason to bake from her books. To be grateful for and take joy from the act of baking and creating moments for yourself and for others. In her latest book, A Good Day to Bake, Ebuehi offers Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: A Good Day to Bake”

Book Club Tuesday: Grist

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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”

Book Club Tuesday: Mumbai Modern

Processed with VSCO with f2 presetAs we ate this meal together, I was reminded of why we were really gathered here. The food, the laughter, and the tears were for my mother. She had just passed away. And this meal tasted as if my mum had made it. Tears flooded my eyes as a lifetime of memories, triggered by this food, rushed to my head and heart. Fourteen years ago, I had no way of knowing this was just the start of my food journey. (11)

Reading these words from the introduction to Amisha Dodhia Gurbani‘s Mumbai Modern: Vegetarian Recipes Inspired by Indian Roots and California Cuisine, it shows how deep the connection to food can be. It brings us together to nourish us and, food ties us to so many things — the crucial one being our memories. Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Mumbai Modern”