Book Club Tuesday: The Vegan Week

Cooking for my family seems like a breeze now compared to when my daughter was a toddler, and I was trying to figure out what to make for meals. Although I’m a vegetarian now, I didn’t grow up as one and, I found that once my daughter was born, I wasn’t sure how to be one. Sure, I knew I wasn’t going to feed her animal-based dishes, but I realized that my husband and I had a vegetarian diet that consisted of tofu, cheese, and pasta (with some frozen pizzas thrown in for good measure) — light on the “vege”, heavy on the “tarian”. While I was trying to figure out Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: The Vegan Week”

Book Club Tuesday: Home is Where The Eggs Are

After writing a couple of hundred posts about cookbooks, I’ve learned a lot about myself. Of all the personal insights, the most crucial one: joy. I want to read it, make it, bake it, feel it, and serve it to people so that we can all experience it. Sometimes joy is in the heart of the beholder — not every author or every cookbook lends itself to these joyful musings. But, as I’ve found with Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Home is Where The Eggs Are”

Book Club Tuesday: Don’t Worry, Just Cook

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”

Book Club Tuesday: Green Kitchen – Quick + Slow

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If David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl at Green Kitchen Stories have a cookbook coming out, then I’m always here for it! From the beginning of my site, I started sharing my experiences with cooking and feeding my family because, there are no better conversations than the ones about cookbooks. Cookbooks feed us, sure, but they also tell stories and connect us to Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Green Kitchen – Quick + Slow”

Book Club Tuesday: Snacks for Dinner

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Inspiration often presents itself in the unlikeliest of places, and for Lukas Volger, the inspiration for his latest cookbook, Snacks for Dinner, happened while on vacation in California. He and his husband, Vincent, went for lunch at a friend’s home and what started with an assemblage of things — cheese, cut vegetables, dips, salads — ended up being a Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Snacks for Dinner”

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: Food52 Big Little Recipes

Processed with VSCO with f2 presetBack in December 2021, I needed a refresh. While I enjoyed being in the kitchen and cooking for my family, there were times I felt burnt out and lacking inspiration. So, when I tuned in to watch a virtual event hosted by the Book Larder, it was the conversation between Hetty McKinnon and Emma Laperruque that had me intrigued. One of the first things Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Food52 Big Little Recipes”