12 Days of Cookbooks (!!!) — Chatting About The Season’s New Books with Margaret Roach
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♬♬♬ It’s the most wonderful time of the year… ♬♬♬
I hum this to myself a lot: When my first CSA arrives in June. When the first good tomatoes all but fall of the vine in early September. When snowflakes the size of golf balls drop from the sky. AND, most of all, when it’s time to talk about cookbooks with my friend Margaret Roach, the master gardener behind A Way to Garden
Last year, we talked about all-time favorites, the first books we ever owned, and the ones with the most besmirched pages. This year, we’ve kept our chat to the latest crop: the fall and winter 2018 cookbooks, and we hope our chat might give you some ideas for gift giving this season. Rest assured, there is something for everyone — the bakers, the boozers, the pie lovers, the pizza lovers, the Ina fans, the Dorie fans, the gadget collectors, and more.
Read the transcript or listen here.
I have not had a chance to cook from all of the books we discussed, and there are many others I haven’t even had a chance to page through yet, namely Emily: The Cookbook, which is #1 on my Christmas wishlist—Santa, hope you’re reading. That said, I have cooked from a number of the season’s new books, and I’ve included some notes below.
ALSO, Margaret and I are each giving away 12 cookbooks (!!!). To enter, leave a comment below: tell me what your favorite cookbook is for gifting (or just your favorite) and a little bit about why. Now, go double your chances to win by copying your comment into the comment box over at Margaret’s website.
Starting Monday Dec. 3, 2018, we’ll each draw one random winner a day through Dec. 14th. Here’s the order of the 12 Days of giveaways. The list will be updated daily to reflect the winner.
- Season: UPDATE: Winner is Cara Priddy
- Everyday Dorie UPDATE: Winner is Frank Wilk
- Israeli Soul: UPDATE: Winner is KARA P.
- Cooking with Scraps: UPDATE: Winner is Katherine Hubbard
- Sister Pie: UPDATE: Winner is Renee D
- Cook Like a Pro: UPDATE: Winner is Jo Kurdzeil
- Genius Desserts: UPDATE: Winner is Susan Rode
- Skinny Taste One and Done: UPDATE: Winner is Amy Olmsted
- All About Cake: UPDATE: Winner is Marie Guiles
- Milk Street Tuesday Nights: UPDATE: Winner is Sarah Bach
- Comfort in an Instant: UPDATE: WINNER is Michelle Swift
- Now and Again: UPDATE: WINNER is Paulina Muratore
One entry per person. Entries end at midnight Thursday, Dec. 13, before the final drawing. U.S. only. Good luck to all.
Category #1: Weeknight-ish/Everyday Cooking
Cook90: On January 1st 2016, David Tamarkin of Epicurious resolved to cook more — to cook 3 meals a day for an entire month — an experiment he called “Cook90”. In the end, he emerged a better, faster, and healthier cook, and he has since inspired hundreds of thousands of others to take the challenge. His cookbook, Cook90, outlines exactly how to do it: recipes, strategies, meal plans, and more.
Category #2: Global Flavors
Category #3: Baking
Category #4: Nose-to-Tail
Waste Not: Learned about this one through Margaret and her podcast with Top Chef star Tiffany Derry. Waste Not is a new cookbook from the James Beard Foundation and a campaign of anti-food waste advocacy spearheaded by that organization.
Now and Again: The latest from Julia Turshen, who believes a complete meal doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive, that leftovers can lead to inventive/fun cooking, and that gathering people around the table for a meal is a good thing. Organize both by season and menu — a brunch or an easy Thanksgiving. Helpful tips about what can be made ahead of time. Each menu is followed by a section called “It’s Me Again,” which offers a few recipes for using the leftovers.
And last but not least:
Rebekah Peppler’s Apéritif: For Francophiles and beyond, Apèritif offers recipes for both classic and modern French cocktails, along with French-inspired bites and hors d’oeuvres.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
740 Comments on “12 Days of Cookbooks (!!!) — Chatting About The Season’s New Books with Margaret Roach”
I would love to gift or get Now & Again! I have her first cookbook and love all of the recipes, but I especially appreciate all of the tips, tricks, variations, etc that she includes.
My favorite cookbook – the one I’ve made more recipes from – is Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen. I love cooking, but I have multiple back injuries which makes it hard to stand in place for long. Many days I’m not even able to cook, so I love having leftovers. The reason I like this cookbook is that the recipes are so flavorful, yet don’t requires a lot of time or ingredients. Even if I had no problem cooking often I’d still love this book.
Dorie’s Cookies is my favorite to give – everyone loves the recipes and it’s beautiful!
I’m loving everything Milk Street. I believe Mr. Kimball has found his cooking soul through his newest endeavor. Every recipe I’ve tried has been amazing!!
Oh wow, these look amazing! I’ve given Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem as a gift a few times now — it’s beautiful to thumb through and read even for non-cooks, the ingredients aren’t difficult to shop for or prepare, and of course, the recipes are phenomenal. Funnily and unexpectedly, as of six months ago, I live in Jerusalem — perhaps it’s even more appropriate now.
“Hungry for More” is my go to cookbook for the moment. Fun to read and great recipes too.
What a gorgeous array of cookbooks! I have my eye on “Israeli Soul.” This kind of food just speaks to me.
Always hard to pick a favorite, but right now I’m really enjoying “Plenty.” I have gifted the Mark Bittman “How to Cook Everything. . .” books many times over the years, especially for people just starting to cook, etc. Also an older cookbook with some surprisingly good recipes and a fun read about American farmers is Loomis’ “Farmhouse Cookbook”
The Love and Lemons cookbook is beautiful and inspires me. And anything by Ina Garten is always a winner. This is such a fun giveaway idea!
I love Ina and Dorie!
My favorite cookbook to give away is Dishing Up Maine, partly because I like to give people from away a taste of Maine, and also because it highlights tasty recipes from some of our Downeast restaurants and cuisine.
Count me in on your book give away-what a fun contest for an ardent cookbook reader. (And thank you to Margaret Roach for sending me to you site-a new read for me!)
This is quite a variety full of creative recipies.
Gordon
Oops-your site!
So many wonderful books to choose among. One of my favorites to peruse is Cold Spaghetti At Midnight by Maggie Waldron. Thanks for sharing so many good ideas.
I’m giving my assistant at work Cooking with Jamie as a wedding gift soon – it’s probably the cookbook I’ve made the most things from, and they’ve all been great, especially the birds – seems hard to go wrong with anything in there!
I’ve been editing down my cookbook collection — nowhere near as large as Alexandra’s but it’s outgrown its allocated space. Now it’s on a one in, one out regime. My current favorite is “Cook This Now” by Melissa Clark. I really like the What Else section that follows each recipe.
Such great reading and learning during the snowy New England winter…
I’m not sure I want to say it’s my “favorite” but I’ll commit to this being the book I seem to *consult* the most frequently: Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything. It seems that no matter what I’m trying to find, he’s covered it: Whether it’s cooking temperatures, seasoning ideas, and just general info on “basics” of literally “EVERYTHING.” Companion volume How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is comprehensive, too!
Love any of Dorie Greenspan’s baking books!
Wow – Dorrie Greenspan, Christopher Kimball, Yotam Ottolenghi and Melissa Clark! All favoirites. I can sure make room for this collection of classics in my kitchen!
I can’t pick one favorite cookbook. Winning this giveaway would be fantastic!
Israeli cooking interests me greatly.
This year I have purchased as gifts Ina’s new cookbook and “waste not”. Two very different cookbooks for two very different cooks. I’m excited about the globalization trend. I can cook peasant food from almost any country and have cooked this way for years. Glad to see cookbooks catching up!
So hard to choose. Isn’t that true of many cooks? This time of year, the baking books draw me in, but I love them all. Don’t have an Pressure cooker or Instant Pot, but I still enjoy reading about the meals cooked in them. Ali’s book is already used a lot, especially her bread recipes. Yum. Rose Levy Berenbaum is another inspiration for her precision.
Apple Lover’s Cookbook by Amy Traverso. It starts with an encyclopedia of apple varieties and follows with great sweet and savory dishes.
They all interest me – I too have many many cookbooks – but no where near 550! Would love the one pot recipes, cooking with scraps, oh STOP I’d love any one of them! Thanks for sharing.
Favorite cookbook is Amish Cooking published in 2977 by Pathway Publishers. Great baking and stew recipes in here.
Usually an Ina cookbook – she shows fabulous recipes with easily accessible ingredients
Keepers: Two Home Cooks Share Their Tried-and-True Weeknight Recipes and the Secrets to Happiness in the Kitchen by Kathy Brennan. Also, right now, How to Instant Pot by Daniel Shumski because it holds your hand if you are new to learning how to use it. And I still go back to Silver Palate after -what?-30 plus years. Mine is falling apart but loved, like an old stuffed animal!