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 knowing the science behind things, so I really love anything by Alton Brown. Also “The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science”, everyone is getting that this year.
I also like to gift local cookbooks from either the churches or schools, sometimes you can find some very charming recipes in them.
Six Seasons is my new go-to for gifting. I really feel like it changed my vegetable game and I want others to experience that as well. My CSA scaries have disappeared thanks to key turnip, rutabaga, and kohlrabi recipes!
I love Dining In by Alison Roman – the recipes are super easy and kids love them!
Of “new” cookbooks I’ve used Alison Roman’s “Dining In” the most this year. Heidi Swanson’s “Supernatural Cooking” has become a classic I continue to reach for.
My current favorite is Half Baked Harvest by Tieghan Gerard. Original recipes that inspire me to cook.
Food 52 Genius Desserts
I got a copy from the library, so I know I need to own it.
I want to try every recipe here.
Thank you!
I constantly pull out Fermented Vegetables by Shockey.
My favorite cookbook is called Good Dinner Babe…..a homemade compilation of all our favorite family recipes, referred to often with love by me and my grown up children and grandchildren.
I love giving Forest Feasts by Erin Gleeson because she is a local author. It’s a fun, artsy cookbook.
I admit to being a collector of cookbooks – I love cooking my way through them. My all time favorite is one of the first cookbooks I ever had. My mother gave it to me. Craig Claiborne’s “Kitchen Primer.” It helped me learn the basics and the recipes are so delicious that I still make many of them years later!
Good Friends, Grear Dinners by Susan Costner
The Food Lab, anything by Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Peter Reinhart, and King Arthur.
Thug Kitchen offers fun irreverent easy vegan recipes.
Thank you for the suggestions!
Picking one is a hard decision. It depends on who’s receiving the gift. Every Day Dorie, Genius Desserts, Milk Street Tuesday…would be at the top of my gifting list. I’m also giving, Bread Toast Crumb this year!
For great baking recipes, I love Huckleberry, and have given that as a gift. And Bobby Flay’s Brunch book has so many good dishes.
My favorite cookbook is Melissa Clark’s Dinner: Changing the Game. 90% of what I cook is dinner and that’s the only section I use in most cookbooks. Having a huge cookbook with only delicious dinner ideas is perfect. I especially love her flavors.
Every year that Ina Garten comes out with a new cookbook, I would get it for my mother and she would get it for me. ‘The Barefoot Contessa” was my mother’s favorite show. A few years ago she became very ill and required full time care givers. Her favorite caregiver Stella was from Ghana and also fell in love with Ina. When “Cooking with Jeffrey” came out I gave a copy to my mother which she then gave to Stella. My mother passed away last year, but I will carry on and send a copy of “Cook Like a Pro” to Stella, and buy one for myself.
Simple by Ottolenghi inspires me to get creative while still saving time in the kitchen. I love all his recipes.
Count me in! I am not a great cook, but love to read cook books and I guess pretend I will be someday. Particularly interested in the Skinnytaste One and Done as I have an Instapot and have used it only to cook rice thus far.
I love to give Julia Turshen’s books Small Victories and Feed the Resistance!
Mad Hungry is my all time favorite cookbook for giving and keeping! The recipes are simple but flavorful; my husband and I come back to this cookbook often.
I’ve been using “Comfort in an Instant” and loving it, but I’ve been eyeing “Genious Desserts” for months now. Hoping to find it under my tree…
Moosewood cookbook. My first cookbook ever. It had me started cooking.
My favorite cookbook is Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen by Deborah Madison. I love her cabbage soup recipe, but all of them are really good.
I love gifting those easy to read, easy to follow, easy to love books like Smitten Kitchen. There’s something for everyone in them, and they quickly become favorites and lifesavers!
I have gifted the Oh She Glows cookbooks by Angela Liddon. My friends and I constantly use her recipes.
For older cookbooks I love The Silver Palate cookbooks. My new favorite truly is Bread Toast Crumbs! I am trying to cook my way through it! It was given to me by my great friend, Susie. Thank you for this giveaway. I’m excited to check out these new cookbooks!
I love to give Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs. It is a wonderful tutorial about mastering skills — from basic to complicated, and every recipe is a classic.
My favorite cookbook is the church’s cookbook from my childhood. My mom gave it to me and it always reminds me of her when I pull it out.
These all look amazing, I am a self professed cookbook maniac and wasn’t even aware of a few of these, thanks for the offer and heads up!
I love anything that Ina writes. She does such an amazing job of testing all of her recipes. I know without a doubt that they will be delicious and full proof.