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”
Comfort in an Instant is my way of cooking. I am sole caregiver to a blind husband who has a sporadic hunger button. Either slow cooking or instant meals are my thing.
Also Now and Again. Once I find a meal hubby likes I tend to go there often. I don’t want to forsake healthy and tasty for fast or slow. Used to love cooking but don’t seem to have the time now.
I have to admit your cookbook “Bread, Toast, Crumbs is my favorite. Second favorite is the Bread in 5 minutes a Day!!! You can tell I love bread!
I love Smitten Kitchen cookbooks!
I get many cookbooks at the swap shack at our local recycling center. So many cookbooks cast aside from Grandmothers all over our area. I love to rescue them and cook the recipes they have marked and made many times over their years.
Living in London, I fell in love with Nigella Lawson’s “How to Be a Domestic Goddess,” source of my favorite brownie recipe and several scrummy savory pie ideas. Also on the dessert front, David Leiobovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop” is the go-to for obsessed ice cream makers. Otherwise, Ina Garten never lets me down. Her “Parties!” book is full of easy recipes for entertaining and even every day meals. And I love Heidi Swanson’s “Super Natural Every Day.”
I love Ina Garten’s cookbooks for gift giving as they are well tested, fairly straightforward, and have broad appeal.
Love every cookbook by Ina Garten
I love all of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbooks. They are great to cook from and great for gifting.
Love Ina and all of her beautiful cookbooks!
Most of my cookbooks are favorites at some time in my life. Christmas cookbooks in December, fresh vegetable cookbooks in summer, and muffin cookbooks for breakfast treats. But the book I go back to time and time again is “Heart of the Home” by Susan Branch. Warm, inviting and filled with recipes that comfort the soul and taste wonderful
I love Ina Garten her panzenella is our go to salad for holidays and parties. It’s the one salad the kids will fight over to take leftovers home. My second favorite is her cranberry pie I make it every Thanksgiving. I could go on. I just want to try more of her recipes.
The book I would give is Sister Pie. Because who doesn’t love pie! The book I would love to receive is Comfort in an instant, as I just got an insta pot
count me in
I just love cookbooks, it is not the same reading them on tablets. Nothing like holding a book.
Greg Atkinson’s Pacific Northwest cookbooks make great gifts no matter where you live because his stories attached to each recipe are as wonderful as the food.
Going back a ways but I still have such great luck with the Silver Palate cookbooks. In particular, the Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook has just some fantastic recipes and I feel like they stand the test of time. These days, I will also go to any Ina Garten cookbook or her blog.
I would love to have Ina Garten’s Cook Like a Pro, Ina makes such delicious recipes. Also love Genius Desserts I love to bake, so I have a few cookbooks for baking on my list. I would also love Cooks Illustrated new cookbook and America’s Test Kitchen The Cake Book. I am not greedy so if Santa brought any of these cookbooks I would be forever grateful.
I love everything “Skinnytaste”!
I use several cookbooks, but one that I go to often is Ina Garten’s, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I also like Classic Sourdoughs by Wood and Wood. I’ve been experimenting with sourdough lately.
The are so many wonderful favorites but at the moment loving Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat. It’s an education in science and art and a joy to read! Every recipe I’ve made from the book has simply been wonderful. An absolute gem and highly recommended!
I love to give The Joy of Cooking to a bride to be and of course The Barefoot Contessa. If someone’s got a bit of experience in the kitchen, Smitten Kitchen is wonderful! My collection is still growing after 47 years of marriage and cooking!!!
I love gifting and telling people about Bravetart. It is so much fun to learn about all of the different desserts and treats, plus they are delicious to eat.
I’d have to say my old Fannie Farmer is my favoritw IO make your no knead bread all the time and hope I win tour cookbook as I think it may become a favorite thanks so much for all your recipes
For the younger generation (my children are 19, 20, and 21 yr old twins) it’s Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook. Lots of vegetarianism right now and that cookbook holds our family favorite spinach & cheese calzones! Classic. Also, the ricotta cheesecake is divine.
Any ina Garten cookbooks are my favorite. I have most of her cookbooks. I find that Ina approaches homecooks with busy lifestyles and creates no fuss, make ahead dishes. Her recipes comes out delicious and taste like a lot of effort were put into them.
Count me in!! But I think I want to add to my previous post—One of my first cookbooks I had ever bought was “Vegan Cooking for Carnivores”—and till this day, I still use the tips for the pantry items to always have on stock! This book is awesome, and has great recipes that my total carnivore family loves!
The cookbook I have gifted the most- particularly to recent grads just starting out in the own kitchens is How To Cook Without A Book – by Pam Anderson. Someone gave me this right after my eldest daughter was born – and I’ve been giving it to people ever since. This book taught me the fundamentals of searing, roasting, saucing – so much more. Yes, there is butter in everything- yes when I first started to cook with it my husband and I gained about 10 lbs (of course that could have been from all the exhaustion eating we were doing) I still use her techniques – and I adore this book.
I love to bake so my favorite cookbook is the “Baking Bible.”
Meera Sodha’s Made in India is probably my most frequently used cookbook. Never has a recipe from that cookbook not been totally satisfying. I have also recently been intrigued by OJAS A Cookbook by Nira Kehar but I am not cooking from that book until I understand more about myself, my signs, and my dosha(s).
Sprouted Kitchen’s Bowl+Spoon foreeever. Love bowl food!
My fav is The Feast Nearby because of the touching essays and simple recipes.