I love reading blogs, the internet, and Pinterest for recipe inspiration, but there’s something about standing in my kitchen getting smeary chocolate fingerprints on the pages of a cookbook that will never go out of style.
Lately, here are a few I’m loving:
Joy the Baker’s book, 100 Simple & Comforting Recipes
I feel like I am sitting in Joy’s kitchen when I read this book and that we’re long lost gal pals. Not only are the recipes and photography great, but her story-telling is fabulous. If you like your cookbooks with a side of story (and butter and sugar), this book is for you.
I met Joy and she is every bit as sweet, funny, and witty in person as she is on her blog and in the book and is just so darn endearing.
Lindsay Landis of Love and Olive Oil’s book, The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook
A cookbook dedicated to eating raw (egg-free and safe) cookie dough. Need I say more?
Her photography is spectacular and I also gushed about this book in this post.
Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi. A more complete book review is here.
The book is not for those who are looking for quickie recipes, basic recipes, things you’ve seen, done, or tried before. The recipes are adventurous, both in terms of time needed to devote to them and also in terms of pairing ingredients you likely never have.
Potato chips in cookies, ingredients that you likely have not worked with such as liquid glucose, or techniques like creaming butter and sugar for at least 7 minutes when making cookies are things found in this book. I view this book as culinary inspiration despite it not necessarily being “practical” if you only have 20 minutes to spare in the kitchen.
Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks’ book, Super Natural Everyday: Well-Loved Recipes from my Natural Foods Kitchen. I rediscovered this book after putting it down for over a year. Straightforward recipes that focus on using real ingredients, natural ingredients.
There are no marshmallows and no red dye #40 in anything Heidi makes. She is vegetarian and cooks with eggs and butter, and there is plenty of focus on beans, lentils, whole grains, natural, seasonal, organic, locally-sourced ingredients. She makes you want to fall in love with squash blossoms from the farmers market and fava beans all over again.
Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites’ upcoming book, Focus on Food Photography for Bloggers.
Although it’s not a cookbook per se, anything by Matt is a must-read and I can’t wait. I adore his wit, humor, kindness, and the life-changing day I spent with him.
Helene Dujardin’s of Tartlette’s book Plate to Pixel. This is a book that I put down, pick up, come back to, re-read, re-read ten more times, and have been letting it “marinate” for the past year and a half. It’s singularly the best book to date I’ve ever read on food photography and food styling. I cannot recommend it highly enough and wrote more extensively about it here.
I’m extremely excited about the release of Jenny Flake of Picky-Palate’s book, The Picky Palate Cookbook. Jenny is such a sweetheart and she’s a mom, a fellow SoCal blogger, and makes the most amazing desserts.
If you think I have a sweet tooth, Jenny’s desserts are full of Oreos, marshmallows, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and butter. Yes, I love them all. No doubt the photos will be wonderful as Matt Armendariz was the photographer.
Lori Lange of The Recipe Girl’s book is coming out later this year. Lori is a fellow San Diego and mom, and I am so excited for her book. She has such an extensive collection of recipes (2500+) on her blog and I can’t wait to see what she came up with for her book. Matt did her photography and I am sure it’s stunning.
Gaby has a book coming out about avocados.
My dear friend Alison Lewis of Ingredients, Inc. has another book coming out.
There are so many books I am excited to get my chocolate fingerprints all over that I can hardly wait.
What are your favorite cookbooks? Any cookbooks you’ve always wanted but haven’t bought or are excited to purchase?
There are classics that never go out of style (think Joy of Baking) and then there are new books that come onto the scene that fill a gap that you never knew existed. I love those books.
I also will forget about a cookbook put a cookbook down for a month or two, or a year, or even longer sometimes and then come back to it. The recipes, ideas, techniques are new again, all over.
I have more books than I have time to cook and let’s face it, I’m cooking for a family of 3, not 13.
I did a Cookbook Reviews post ages ago and have tried to keep it somewhat updated in case you like books as much as I do.
Do you use cookbooks? Old-fashioned with paper and pages or digital?
I do have a few digital copies of cookbooks that I can read from the Kindle app on my iMac that I downloaded. As I said in the opening of the post, real books that I can hold in my hands and thumb through the pages will never lose their appeal.
Enjoy your weekend!
The winner of the Adonia Greek Yogurt Giveaway is CJ at Food Stories
Believe it or not, one of my favorites is the Weber Big Book of Grilling. So many marinades, sauces, ideas for sides, besides just the meat. And for that, it is a great resource on different cuts, cooking techniques and temperatures, etc.
What a great bunch of bloggers’ cookbooks to share, Averie! It’s amazing how some food bloggers reach for the stars and make their dreams a reality! It’s wonderful of you to support them, too. Have a happy weekend!
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I would love that cookie dough cookbook. Right up my alley! I have tons (like 2 packed shelves) of cookbooks at home. My favorite is the King Arthur Flour’s All-Purpose baking cookbook. I have probably made 30 things from that book and each dish is amazing. I also have binders filled with recipes I clip from magazines or print from my favorite blogs. I think I could make one different recipe every day and be set for life.
I definitely need to get Joy’s book. Love the Milk Bar book, but that definitely is a bit time consuming :) A time and a place for everything!
I’d say my favorite go-to is Rocco DiSpirito’s Now Eat This. Great, easy recipes that are healthy without sacrificing an ounce of flavor!
I would have never guessed that about Rocco’s book…great info!
And yes the Milk Bar is great but…not an “everyday” book as you know :)
cookie dough lovers? THAT’S YOU! lol I’m with you on the magic of using a cookbook to create things. My favorite is going back to some of my oldest cookbooks and having to pry open the pages that are stuck together with honey or tomato sauce… May sound gross, but just shows how much love I have for each and every book!
I think it’s awesome you have books that are that well loved! :)
I was wondering where my copy of that cookie dough book went and then a friend from my old old house in arizona called me on Sunday. He said that it was delivered there! So, it’s on its way to me now.
I have a huge cookbook collection that I cull every now and then, but you are right – there is just something about a real book. Same goes for reading fiction. I can read a few Kindle books in a row, but then I need to switch it up and read a real book. ;)
I knew you got the Kindle and I think they’re great (I just don’t have one) but was wondering if you like real, paper cookbooks or kindle/digital when it comes to cookbooks. And you’re going to love the cookie dough book! (not GF though, as written)
You might now believe me… this is so shameful…. but I do not own ONE cookbook. So crazy. I have a few on my wishlist though, so hopefully I’ll be starting a nice collection soon. I did recently purchased Food Blogging for Dummies by Kelly Senyei which I’m really loving right now. So many wonderful tips!
And Averie… if/when you publish your first cookbook, I know that would be my fave!
Oh I remember hearing that Food Blogging For Dummies book was coming out…glad to hear you like it. And no, I cannot believe you don’t own a cookbook?!!!! NO WAY!
love my girl SprinkleBakes!!
I love her too! Did a give away for her book last week!
I love using good old fashioned paper cook books- I have just had a good sort through and got rid of a bunch, because the collection had expanded a little too much… made some space for a few new ones; Plate to Pixel is definitely on my list of books to buy, even though I don’t even photograph food! More and more nowadays I print recipes off the internet…there are just too many amazing food blogs out there!
When’s your book of sweet treats coming out ;-) ?? I would love that!
Btw, just noticed one of your smoothie creations featured in the Crazy Sexy Life newsletter, which just arrived in my inbox :-) Congrats xxx
Oh I need to go check on the newsletter. Thanks for LMK I’m in there. My contact there said it would be going live today but it had slipped my mind :)
I use cookbooks and I love them but they should have nice pictures so I can see how my end result will look :)
pics are SO important!! they can make or break if I will actually make a recipe or not!
I love cookbooks but almost never actually use a recipe as written. I just love the ideas and creativity. And when are we going to see your pretty face on the cover of one???
I love getting ideas from them too and it’s almost impossible for me to follow a recipe, exactly.
It’s funny, I was just talking to a co-worker about cookbooks recently. She was saying how she thinks cookbooks are becoming obsolete because of the ready availabilty of recipies in blogs and on the internet. I said I sure hope cookbooks stick around for the long run…they’re a treasure that can passed down for generations. Seeing notes made in the margins of cookbooks made by my grandma and my mom will always make me smile.
My favorite cookbooks are the series by Isa Moskowitz & Terry Romero…Vegan cupcakes take over the world, Vegan cookies invade your cookie jar, and Vegan pie in the sky. I can’t wait to explore the ones you’ve listed here, too!
Happy Friday!
Seeing notes made in the margins of cookbooks made by my grandma and my mom = YES, that’s the best feeling to see those old handwritten notes!
so many great books to think about. I don’t have any of these. the food styling books sound really interesting. thanks for the reviews.
I own maybe 5 or 10 cookbooks, but I haven’t used any of them in months! :-( I’m excited for Jenna’s book, too.