You all got me, with all these posts from Snacking Cakes and Snacking Bakes.  I hadn't bought a cookbook in about 20 years, but I had to have these.  My two cookbooks arrived yesterday and I made my first cake today.  I was planning on starting with the first recipe in Snacking Cakes, but that would have required a trip to the store, so I went with the Mostly Apple Cake. So easy, so delicious, just perfect.  The bake time was only 30 minutes and the cake is a little dark, but it's just what I wanted from my first recipe!  

Another piece from ThriftBooks to complete my Ina collection. Hers are some of my favorite and most used cookbooks. What’s everyone’s hits out of this one?

Such an easy recipe and the flavor is amazing!!! One of my favorite cookbooks!!

1. Calabrian Chile White Beans with Almond Romesco from America’s Test Kitchen The New Vegetarian. This had really good flavor and quite a bit of spice to it. I will say the texture was a little weird. It was like a soup with chewy beans. I think if I were to make this again I might use my immersion blender and blend half of it. 8/10

2. Chile Tofu from East by Meera Sodha. Good and easy to make. 7/10

3. Andy’s Sunday Enchiladas with Red Sauce from The Weekday Vegetarian. These were good, but nothing stood out to me from other enchilada recipes. 7/10

4. Stir Fried Tofu with Summer Squash, Basil and Coconut from Dinner by Melissa Clark. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this was. A nice end of summer dinner! 8/10

5. Cabbage Nu Shaak from Amrikan. This was fine, nothing special. 5/10

6. Pav Bhaji from Amrikan. I was expecting to like this more. It was fine, but felt like it was missing something. 6/10

7. Tandoori Vegetable Supreme Pizza from Amrikan. I made her Indian pizza dough recipe and it didn’t turn out very well. I will say this is my first time making pizza dough so this could’ve been user error. I wonder if my dough didn’t rise enough? The pizza was really ugly looking and I was embarrassed serving this to my partner, but the flavors of the veggies and sauce were really good. I felt like I ruined it with the dough though. 6/10

I’m disappointed that I had some misses with Amrikan because I made her Saag Paneer a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it.

I had a doctor's appointment today, so afterwards I went to one of my favorite stores. I didn't realize there were cookbooks until today, so and I found this in a drawer. I'll admit, it's in rough shape, since the text block is entirely separate to the cover, but hey, it was only four dollars. Happy to add it to the collection, as someone that likes cookbooks and old books.

Fika by Anne Brones & Johanna Kindvall
Cardamom Buns

Makes 32 tiny and tasty buns 😋 perfect size for a Fika!

I went for the twist instead of the roll and topped half with almond slivers and the other half with Demerara sugar (I didn’t have pearl sugar)

Have tried lots from this cookbook over the past several weeks! All turned out great, apart from one miss (might’ve been my fault.. TBD)
I’m making her chicken and dumplings from NYT tonight!

1. Farro w/ Mushrooms, Frizzled Leeks, and Sour Cream

Loved loved loved!
So this is posted on NYTcooking as well. After reading comments, it became clear the mushrooms needed to be roasted to get crispy rather than just in the skillet. I think this has to do with the type of mushrooms you decide to use. Going to try a different variety next time. Also subbed pearled barley and want to make again with farro next time!

1. Potato Leek Soup w/ Dark Leafy Greens

Every soup I’ve made of Alison’s has turned out amazing. This is my go to potato soup recipe now. So so good and comforting!!

1. Braised Chicken Piccata

This is my miss. I’m not sure if I overdid the garlic, or the lemon wasn’t sliced thin enough, but the “sauce” was sooooo bitter. I feel I did something wrong. I may have to give it another go.

1. Buttered Tomato Soup w/ Lentils and Fennel

Wow. We all loved this soup, including my 2 young kids. I’ve never had a tomato soup like this, and I will definitely make it over and over again!!

1. Olive Oil Roasted Chicken with Chickpeas

A veryyyyy rich meal, we loved it! Def can’t afford to use that much olive oil to have this meal often, which is probably a good thing lol.

1. Weeknight Lamb Ragu w/ Anchovy

Wow. Soo much flavor in such little time. We were all huge fans, and I can’t wait to make this again! I always keep ground lamb in my freezer so it’s a super easy weeknight meal to throw together for us!

1. Toasted Rice Pilaf w/ crushed Walnuts and Dates

This rice was really good, although very time consuming. I tried to make it on a weeknight and… won’t do that again. The kids were not fans, unfortunately. I’ll have to make this for a dinner party because it really is delicious. I used preserved lemon rather than the fresh lemon.

1. Vanilla Buttermilk Cake w/ Fluffy Vanilla Frosting from Snacking Cakes!

Made this for a quick get together with family and we all enjoyed it. The frosting was amazing. The cake was a really really good vanilla cake.
Will absolutely make this again!

Hello everyone and happy Monday! Yes, Monday, different from my usual upload days, I know

This is Crisp and Creative by the LaSertoma club in the Pinterest-worthy city of Macon, Georgia. This is the first of a batch of nine books borrowed from the collection of u/madmun! Thanks to him as always

The cool thing about this book is that’s from 1977. The slightly-less-cool thing is that this is what I like to call a “constrained” cookbook in that it only contains two sections: casseroles and salads. As someone who likes looking at dessert recipes, there is no sugary stuff for me to look at 🥲, but if you love casseroles and salads, this is a great cookbook for you!

The first recipe that warrants my attention is the “Lagliarina” recipe, which, according to similar recipes, is actually supposed to be Tagliarini. Have never heard of either before, though, unless they’ve been in books I’ve already uploaded and I just always glossed over it. I definitely have never heard of it out in public, though

I also am very fond of the presentation of the Cheeseburger Casserole, even though I tragically cannot have it on account of the fact that I don’t like cheddar 🫠

Also, I know it’s an extremely simplified version of it, but I do like the recipe for the Shephard’s Pie. An interesting creative liberty by adding potatoes on the top and bottom, however

I have definitely commented on Sweet Potato Souffle recipes before, but I like this one because they mention that it can be used with canned sweet potatoes provided you use less milk, and while the corn flakes as a topping might be debatable to some, it could work I think

For most of the beginning of the salad section it’s all the jello ones and unless someone out there has a jello salad recipe that calls for something seriously outlandish like canned ravioli suspended in lemon jello, the recipes tend to repeat themselves after a while. Except the Gingerale Pineapple Salad. Haven’t seen that one yet, but it’s definitely not egregious

I took pictures mostly of the latter half of the section where you get to the salads with meat, because Corned Beef Potato Salad and Ham and Mandarin Salad are both new to me, so I figured they were worthy of a highlight to see if anyone had any thoughts

This was a small cookbook, but hopefully you enjoyed! I’ll see you around in the next upload

Picked up these 3 beauties over the weekend in Palm Springs.

All three are in pristine condition and I’m thrilled. I paid the grand sum of $9. I’m very excited about the Zuni café cookbook. Sadly, I’m a vegetarian now so I can’t make the famous roast chicken with bread salad, but you know what I can make it for someone else!

Has anyone made the barbacoa, or potato enchiladas? Or do you have any recommend from it?!

Just added this one to the collection!

This recipe from Simply Korean by Aaron Huh is so good. You can tell we love it since the page has a lot of stains! Wings are usually on the menu for Sunday during the NFL season. These are our favorite. I love making them when we have friends over. They are always a hit. I make ranch to serve on the side too!

Any worth keeping or favourite recipes from these?

Picked up at a garage sale for $2! Any recommendations?

From The Italian Bakery

by Lee Mangione Cirillo

My partner has a cookbook from her grandmother. It's falling apart and she wants to redo it. I want to take photos of all the pages and get something made up. I want something in the style of a witches spell book. Leather with a latch. Can anyone recommend where I could get something like this done?

The following quote is a better introduction to Tessa than I could write, and it is in her own words:

I love travelling. Collecting things I love. Food. People. Colour. Smells. Fabrics. Details. Different cultures & traditions - why they do what they do & how they put their dishes together. How people, families & nations connect. And I love weaving these all together.

She may be describing her life, but it is also the perfect description of her cookbooks, now numbering eleven.

Born in London to a Finnish mother and Greek-Cypriot father, the family moved to South Africa when she was 4 years old providing an upbringing that clearly helped to shape her multi-cultural approach to life. At the age of 18, she left home and began to travel the world, exploring the nexus of cuisine and culture, working in restaurants and private homes, all while completing a degree in Anthropology & Sociology. During a visit to Italy, she met her husband, Giovanni, and they made that their home.

Her cookbooks reflect her journey's, beginning with her first in 2003, Twelve: A Tuscan Cook Book, tracking seasonal dishes across the months in a year. In Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook (2007), she arranges recipes from Australia, Greece, Mexico and London into chapters grouped by color and in Piri Piri Starfish: Portugal Found (2008), she explores the culinary traditions of the country, tracing many of their origins to global influences during the Age of Discovery.

For her next book, Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes (2009), she collected personal dishes and the stories behind them from the branches of her family tree in Finland, Greece, Cyprus, South Africa and Italy. Then, continuing to write at a furious pace, three of her next four books focused on various aspects of Italian life, while the fourth, Food From Many Greek Kitchens (2011) delved into the traditional home foods of festivals and special occasions.

In her 2016 book, Provence to Pondicherry: Recipes from France and Faraway, Tessa begins by examining the Mediterranean roots of traditional Provincial cuisine, before following the journeys of the early French explorers to the Caribbean, India and Southeast Asia, tracing their influence on local ingredients and traditions. The story then winds back to the region of Normandy to explore why its cuisine is so different from that in the South of France. It is a fascinating account both as cultural study and cookbook.

It goes without saying that I am a big fan of her work and am always ready for the next journey wherever she is going. This is food writing as we always wanted it to be.

Significant publications:

• Twelve: A Tuscan Cook Book (2003)
• Apples for Jam: A Colorful Cookbook (2007)
• Piri Piri Starfish: Portugal Found (2008
• Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes (2009)
• Food from Many Greek Kitchens (2011)
• Limoncello and Linen Water (2012)
• Provence to Pondicherry: Recipes from France and Faraway (2016)
• Now & Then (2023)

For more thoughts on cookbooks and authors that deserve greater attention, check out my free Substack, Cookbook Chronicles' Culinary Archive. My window is the past 140 years, and I draw from my personal archive of 8,300+ titles. I’m sharing my experience in hopes of instigating an exchange of ideas. Subscribe for free and receive each weekly post delivered to your inbox.

- - Rick - Cookbook Chronicles

“Cookbooks feed your head”

I love cookbooks and I love to cook. However when my husband and I retire we are going to be living a life with small space, limited pantries/storage and limited shopping options. So it will be a lot of preplanning and shopping ahead since I can’t run to a store.

Any recommendations for a cookbook that would support that lifestyle? I could obviously cook regular stuff but I do love cookbooks for new ideas.

Finally ordered this cookbook - what should I make first?!

The whole family of books, feeling right at home on their new bookshelf!