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 love Ina Garten so I’m so looking forward to Cooking Like a Pro!
Tartine is my all time favorite cookbook. I also love Dorie Greenspan’s cookie book. I feel like everyone can enjoy these books.
The most recent book I gifted was actually Bread Toast Crumbs. Thanks for good book!
My favorite cookbook is any one of the old Betty Crocker cookbooks.
I love all things Israeli
It’s difficult for me to pin a single favorite gifting book, but I have noticed a tendency for choosing cookbooks that relate to a persons family history and heritage. I’ve noticed lots of people love filling in the recipe gaps of their passed down family favorites.
I love reading cookbooks, cover to cover. So my favorite is always changing – usually the one I am currently reading and enjoying. This month it is Forage, Harvest, Feast by Marie Viljoen. I love that you and Margaret do the cookbook discussion as well as the new soups segment.
I would gift any one of Ina Garten’s cookbooks. She is a goddess!! Thanks for the chance xoxo
I love. Cookbooks sooooo much, thank you!
My favorite cookbook to gift for new cooks is the Americas Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It has the range of your basic Betty Crocker-type basic cookbook, and I’ve found many family favorites in that book (Blackberry Cobbler, Beef Pot Pie, Pot Roast, etc)
Moosewood Cookbook is my favorite for gifting. I have loved every recipe that I have tried from it.
You can’t go wrong gifting anything Ina Garten has written…people love her books…A recent cookbook i have enjoyed is COMING HOME TO SICILY.. by Fabrizio Lanza…interesting to read about cooking from the region and the stories behind the process
I, too, love cookbooks. The newest is always my favorite–don’t know how I’d pick a favorite from all my favorites! So currently I’ve been taken with 2 new Instant Pot cookbooks (currently fascinated with my Instant Pot learnings too): The Essential Mexican instant Pot Cookbook by Deborah Schneider and Instantly French by Ann Mah. PS I love following your conversations with Margaret Roach!
My favorite cookbooks are anything by Ina Garten. I have her entire collection, except for Cooking for Jeffrey and Cook Like a Pro. And, of course, I will get those at some point (soon, I hope), too. I cook from her books almost every night. My Christmas gifts to neighbors this year have been her Chocolate Truffles. Thank you for the great discussion with Margaret about cookbooks!
I love anything Ina!
As an “almost” vegetarian I still go back to my first vegetarian cookbook by Mollie Katzen, The Moosewood Cookbook.
love the review!
Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is great for new cooks, first kitchen,
Have had Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts for years, and use it for many favorrites.
Gift books generally depend on the taste of the recipient.
I need all the help I can get, any cookbook would be most appreciated!
I’ve given Alana Chernila’s A Homemade Pantry as a gift several times. It’s such a fun and approachable gateway to making things I used to think had to be purchased! I can’t wait to check out some of the books on your list-thanks!
My favorite cookbooks have always been baking books, but one of my all time favorites is the Blueberry Hill Cookbook which is a short drive from where I live in Vermont. It was my first cookbook and I still use it more than 40 years later!!
My mother-in-law loves Ina Garten so I’ve one to her!
I love Nigel Slater’s book Tender because of it’s beauty and simplicity.
My first cookbook I received 38yrs ago, also a wedding gift from my college roommate. Many folded pages and notes inside tell my story of how I evolved as a cook for my large family! “The Joy of Cooking” by Irma Rombauer.
Your selections are so much prettier!
So many cookbooks make great gifts that it’s hard to choose one–but for general gifting, anything by Ottolenghi works well; for baking, I’m a fan of giving Rose Levy Beranbaum’s books.
Count me in~
I love cookbooks especially ones that are a great read as well, I have one for you not on your list, ” The Immeasurable Place” food and farming from the edge of the wilderness recipes from Hell”s Backbone Grill, by Blake Spalding & Jennifer Castle Lavinia Spalding.
Can’t wait to read many of the books you both have been talking about!
More cook books? Yes, please!! I’m a bit of a cook book collector so I’ve given away many to friends over the years. But since my oldest is going off to college in fall 2019, I gave her The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book – an old stand by that everyone’s mom has (right?) and whose recipes I have memorized. I intend to give her The Joy of Cooking (an other old stand by) and The New Basics Cook Book. I’d love some more for my collection.
So many books to choose from–it can get paralyzing when you only have a budget for one, so it’s great to hear from enthusiasts who have sifted through the batches! Thanks!
My favourite cookbook for gifting is ANY of Tessa Kiros’s 10 cookbooks. She is fabulous, and her cookbooks are like beautiful travel diaries that whisk one away on a trip through culture and food! The perfect getaway for foodies who can’t actually get away!