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 give my mom an Ina Garten cookbook almost every Christmas! My favorite too!
Favorite cookbook I received as a gift (but have not passed on the favor yet, oops!) was Lucky Peach’s 101 Easy Asian Recipes. Great for a post-grad kitchen.
Anything from The Barefoot Contessa cookbooks because her recipes just work. I never have to do a test run. I like them all but her Paris one is probably my favorite.
It’s not a pure “cookbook” but Kathleen Flinn’s “Kitchen Counter Cooking School” is a favorite for the stories and the quintessential recipes, in plain language. She changed my cooking basics for the better!
Ina Garten’s arborio rice cakes made me a fan of her cookbooks. I am also intrigued and interested in the waste not movement. Fingers crossed and mouth watering.
I’m all about preserving right now, and I think everyone else should be too! So I would be gifting any one of the cookbooks by Marisa at Food In Jars.
❤️Bread Toast Crumbs-Alexandra Stafford ! Easy peasy tasty breads and recipes!
Julia Child – Mastering the Art of French cooking. I enjoy (and my husband) the basic principles of this cookbook. We pick out one recipe week to make for our Sunday dinner
I love love love to gift the vanilla bean baking book by Sarah Kieffer. Not only is it stunning, it’s a perfect compilation of classics with extra elegance that puts each recipe over the edge. It makes you feel like you’re a professional baker without being intimidating.
I love cookbooks! Hard to pick a favorite but The first Smitten Kitchen and Half Baked Harvest are well used!
I love PLEASE TO THE TABLE by Anya Von Bremzen, my go to in the winter, to revisit some of my childhood favorites. I also use NOURISHING TRADITIONS by Sally Fallon. These are the books I use all the time, I have many more, reading cookbooks is a favorite thing to do.
I’ve given the What’s Gaby Cooking book to a couple of brides this year. Fresh and fun food with beautiful photography to boot!
For when I am in the mood for some nostalgic comfort food (especially in this season), I go to the Amish and Mennonite cookbook. I grew up in the suburbs near Amish country and their baked goods and simple, savory dishes with Dutch and German influence instantly take me back!
Last year I gave Bread Toast Crumbs ;). This year it’s going to be Platters and Boards.
My go-to gifting cookbook is Ottolenghi & Tamimi’s Jerusalem. The recipes are solid and the more we can diversify our home cooking repertoires the better!
Six seasons. I love that it’s veggie forward and it is broken up seasonally.
Super Natural Everyday is a favorite. My friend has this book and I spent sometime looking through it while visiting her. Most of my recipes I try now our from the web. I would love any of these cookbooks!
My favorite to give to beginner cooks is The Best Recipe by Cooks Illustrated because it is so comprehensive.
The Happy Pear by David & Stephen Flynn – wonderful vegetarian and healthy recipes which still feel indulgent, taste wonderful and are achievable for the average cook.
I’ve been eyeing “Platters and Boards”, because who couldn’t use ideas and recipes for putting together a stunning spread for friends. Also, Ottolenghi’s “Sweet” because the flavors sound so interesting and the book looks beautiful…. Both of these would be a gifts I’d give friends (myself included ) I tend to go for baking books myself ! I’m also eyeing “Sister Pie” because pie is my favorite!
Can I give myself a gift?
Food52 Desserts!
Love Soup by Anna Thomas—— every soup is so amazing in this book. And, if you are trying to make vegetables a priority, it’s the one book you should have. Soup is comfort– there’s a peaceful rhythm in making it and a joyful satisfying end in eating it. I make it, eat it, freeze it, pull it out when I need something tasty, take it for lunch and some nights just make it to calm myself down. This book is one of my most used books– and it hits all my soup buttons listed above.
It’s so hard to choose a favorite; but this week being Hannukkah, my treasure is Molly O’Neill’s New York Cookbook. David the Latke King’s recipe has made me very popular for 25 years. I’m a Utah girl, but my Long Island friends say my latkes are the best they’ve had. Shonna Valeska’s Challah recipe has had the same response. God bless Molly O’Neill!
Rosie’s All-Butter, Fresh cream, Sugar-packed Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg.
Oh she glows – It introduced me CASHEW CHEESE SAUCE *drool*
I love gifting Dorie’s Cookies and Smitten Kitchen.
Where to start …. Everday Dorie for the inspiration. Sister Pie because it sounds as good as her story, Season ; because I already live Indian. And Comfort in an Instant because I think Santa bought an Instant Pot !!
My favorite cookbook and the one I go to again and again is The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook!
I’ve gifted so many books over the years but given my ability to convince the most skeptical person to buy an Instant Pot I’d love to give Melissa Clark’s Dinner In An Instant to all those who bought one.
I’d vote for ALL ABOUT CAKE because I’ve been to MILK BAR in NYC, and the cakes are amazing.