December 2018 New Cookbook Review

It’s the most wonderful time of the year but a much calmer time for cookbook releases. Truthfully, the hustle and bustle of the last few months is somewhat missed but also a relief from the rush. I welcome the time to enjoy some of the new cookbooks, bake and return to normal work days.

I’ve been spending time preparing promotions, working on a preview of what is coming for 2019 and gearing up to start my holiday baking. Speaking of baking, did you catch our Holiday Cookie post where members shared their favorite family recipes? 

But before I get to our cookbook summary, a few housekeeping reminders for new members:

• Be sure you have checked out our new EYBD Page which has been updated to include many holiday incentive orders as well as new pre-order titles.
• My 2018 Gift Guide was published earlier this month and my Best Cookbooks of 2018 can be found here.
• Have you entered all our giveaways? If you have any trouble entering the contests, see our step-by-step help post. Just a reminder – you do not need to be a paid member to enter our contests. We have a special forum post where I post the links to expired promotions that provide the winners that Rafflecopter has chosen. This post is in addition to my email notifications.
• Have you joined our cookbook clubs? Read our latest summaries and come have fun with us while we cook and bake from new selections each month. We offer blast-from-the-past favorites and online recipe options so that everyone can participate. December’s Cookbook Club summary will be posted soon.
• Have you been enjoying our and ? Find out more information on this new exciting feature here and be sure to look for these buttons throughout our posts.
• If an author has events on our calendar, please look for “Events” link at the end of each blurb. (None for this month’s books but please note Jamie Oliver will be at the 92nd Street Y in January!
• Lastly, each Sunday, I compile a listing of Kindle cookbook deals and I update that post throughout the week when additions are made and/or deletions.

Now let’s talk about this month. Check the blog frequently as promotions are planned for many titles and be sure to follow us on social media (buttons on right lower side bar on the home page – photo right). If you would like to order any of these titles, using our affiliate links (right beneath the social media buttons) or the button on the book details page, will help to support EYB and our indexing efforts (as well as help us to include worldwide options in some promotions). Most of our titles are released in multiple regions and worldwide sellers such as Book Depository make more of these titles available to more members.

I have been tagging books as EYB Picks: USA Pick, UK Pick, Canada Pick, Australia Pick, and New Zealand Pick. These search links will direct you to books that are favorites. I will continue to add these designations as I come across beloved titles or new additions to the library.

US

Feel Good Comfort Food: 100 No-Fuss, Low-Cost Recipes by Georgia Johnson shares 100 plus recipes that use six easy-to-find ingredients or fewer. Also included are the author’s helpful tips and suggestions for nurturing weeknight meals.

Sourdough: A Complete Guide and Recipe Book by Riccardo Astolfi is a title being released in the US and Italy about the pleasure of baking your own bread using natural sourdough and healthy ingredients.

My Greek Table: Authentic Flavors and Modern Home Cooking from My Kitchen to Yours by Diane Kochilas presents a companion to her Public Television cooking-travel series with this lavishly photographed volume of classic and contemporary cuisine. Inspired by her travels and family gatherings, the recipes and stories Diane shares celebrate the variety of food and the culture of Greece. Her Mediterranean meals, crafted from natural ingredients and prepared in the region’s traditional styles as well as innovative updates to classic favorites cover a diverse range of appetizers, main courses, and desserts to create raucously happy feasts, just like the ones Diane enjoys with her family when they sit down at her table.

Flavors of California: Cooking with Tommy Bahama by Rick Rodgers contains hundreds of mouth-watering recipes, plus beautiful imagery, storytelling and tips to create new soon-to-be favorites and signature dishes alike. The casual reader can browse the rich photography and highlights of the region. We hope to bring you a promotion on this stunning book soon.

Cook It in Your Dutch Oven: 150 Foolproof Recipes Tailor-Made for Your Kitchen’s Most Versatile Pot by America’s Test Kitchen teaches you how to put your Dutch oven to work every day in many different ways. Turn out practical yet fun weeknight meals made entirely in one pot, such as Rigatoni with tomatoes, bacon, and fennel; Chicken pot pie with spring vegetables; and Lamb meatballs with orzo, tomatoes, and feta. A Dutch oven is ideal for impressive roasts and braises and it can go seamlessly from stovetop to the oven and maintains steady heat to ensure food cooks perfectly. The enameled surface makes it easy to create flavorful food without burning. Staub has an incredible sale going right now – the 4 quart cocotte is under $100. 

Radiant: The Cookbook by Mafalda Pinto Leite helps us to discover the unadulterated, exquisite flavors and healing magic of whole foods. With a passion for kitchen alchemy using ingredients that will make you positively glow, chef and nutritionist Malfalda Pinto Leite will show you how you have everything you need to be beautiful right here, right now.

Comfort Food Shortcuts: An “In the Kitchen with David” Cookbook from QVC’s Resident Foodie by David Venable is the latest collection of recipes from the beloved QVC star, each with a full-color photo, that save on time but not on flavor. Here you’ll find lots of time-saving supermarket shortcuts, including new ways to use cake mixes, flatbreads, bottled sauces, seasoning packets and more. Plus you’ll find clever ideas for using an air fryer, pressure cooker, slow cooker, blender and other common kitchen appliances for faster and easier cooking for everything from small bites and brunch, to soups, salads, entrees, special occasion beverages and desserts.

Danielle Walker’s Eat What You Love: Everyday Comfort Food You Crave: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Paleo Recipes by Danielle Walker shares 125 recipes for comforting weeknight meals. Featuring hearty dishes to start the day, on-the-go items for lunch, satisfying salads and sides, and healthy re-creations of comfort food classics like fried chicken, sloppy Joes, shrimp and grits, chicken pot pie, and lasagna, plus family-friendly sweets and treats, this collection of essential, allergy-free recipes will become the most-used cookbook on your shelf. With meal plans and grocery lists, dozens of sheet-pan suppers and one-pot dishes, and an entire chapter devoted to make-ahead and freezer-friendly meals, following a grain-free and paleo diet just got a little easier.

Dessert First: 100 Plant-Based Recipes by Amanda Marie delivers recipes for those who have food allergies or simply want healthier alternatives to their favorite desserts. Most of the recipes here only take a few minutes to prepare, yet they’re bursting with flavor and nutrients. so you can feel energized instead of sluggish. All of these recipes were invented with love and care. Impress yourself and treat your friends and family to delicious memories.

Slow Cooker Sunday: Leadership, Life and Slow Cooking w/ CEO and Chef, John Legere by John Legere – for more information on this book see Darcie’s post.

Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food by Ann Hood is a collection of personal essays and recipe. From the author’s Italian American childhood through singlehood, raising and feeding a growing family, divorce, and a new marriage to food writer Michael Ruhlman, Ann has long appreciated the power of a good meal. Growing up, she tasted love in her grandmother’s tomato sauce and dreamed of her mother’s special-occasion Fancy Lady Sandwiches. Later, the kitchen became the heart of Hood’s own home. She cooked pork roast to warm her first apartment, used two cups of dried basil for her first attempt at making pesto, taught her children how to make their favorite potatoes, found hope in her daughter’s omelet after a divorce, and fell in love again―with both her husband and his foolproof chicken stock.

Avocaderia: Avocado Recipes for a Healthier, Happier Life by Alessandro Biggi and Francesco Brachetti and Alberto Gramigni shares innovative and wholesome recipes for living your best avo life, from Brooklyn’s Avocaderia, the world’s first avocado bar.

Fit Men Cook: 100+ Meal Prep Recipes for Men and Women―Always #HealthyAF, Never Boring by Kevin Curry shares 100 easy, quick meal prep recipes that will save you time, money, and inches on your waistline helping you to get healthy on your own terms from the fitness influencer and creator of the #1 bestselling Food & Drink app, FitMenCook.

Simply Good Food by Neil Perry is part of our EYBDigital Program, buy the book before the promotional period ends you will receive digital access to the full book on EYB. For more information on EYBDigital see our EYBD Page and for more information on this book, please see our promotion to enter to win a copy.

I Heart Kosher: Beautiful Recipes from My Kitchen by Kim Kushner shares 100+ essential recipes, techniques, tools, and tricks for preparing delicious kosher meals with ease. This inspiring cookbook offers simple, straightforward, go-to kosher recipe ranging from quick dinners to slow-simmered main dishes, party fare, and freezer-to-table specialties for every meal and any occasion, with busy families in mind. 

Duck Season: Eating, Drinking, and Other Misadventures in Gascony–France’s Last Best Place by David McAninch is a delicious memoir about the eight months the food writer spent in Gascony – a deeply rural region of France virtually untouched by mass tourism – meeting extraordinary characters and eating the best meals of his life.

Flavors of Africa: Discover Authentic Family Recipes from All Over the Continent by Evi Aki shares traditional Nigerian dishes the author grew up enjoying, as well as typical eats from all across the continent. She introduces customary recipes from each of Africa’s different regions, including meals from Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Angola and more, all of which she collected with the help of relatives and family friends. 

Korean Paleo: 80 Bold-Flavored, Gluten- and Grain-Free Recipes by Jean Choi, a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and the founder of What Great Grandma Ate, shares “Paleo-fied” versions of authentic meals from her family’s cookbook. These include gluten-, dairy- and grain-free takes on classic Korean dishes like Bibimbap (a savory steamed rice and marinated vegetable dish), Bulgogi (tender barbequed beef), Quick Kimchi (a traditional spiced-vegetable side), plus so much more.

Mastering the Art of Sous Vide Cooking: Unlock the Versatility of Precision Temperature Cooking by Justice Stewart will teach us how incredible one bag meals can be, from determining time and temperature controls, to seasonings and how to properly seal your food to achieve jaw-dropping, perfectly cooked meals. Your food will be cooked to perfection and infused with so much flavor, your family and friends will be amazed.

Colossal Cookies: 100 Outrageously Oversized Treats That Change the Baking Game by Wendy Kou elevates a classic treat with a decadent and supersized approach. When the author’s boyfriend tried to limit her cookie intake to one, she found a loophole: make that one cookie equal to the size of ten. Since then, Kou has been baking treats big enough to share with a crowd. Think the size of a single layer cake but with the chewy consistency of a soft cookie. These massive cookies are a fresh and accessible approach to desserts made for sharing, with the same wow-factor as cakes but none of the pressure. 

Low Carb Express: Cut the Carbs with 130 Deliciously Healthy Recipes by Annie Bell previously published in the UK has been released in the US this month. Here the author offers a speedy update to this diet, revolving around fresh seasonal ingredients. Every recipe lists the carbohydrate and protein values and can be made in 30 minutes or less.

Well Being: Recipes and Rituals to Realign the Body and Mind by Danielle Copperman previously published in the UK has been released in the US this month. With over 200 food recipes and 30 beauty recipes, Well Being is divided into time-specific sections, taking you through the day from morning to evening, with each section offering harmonizing practices and recipes for specific feelings, moods and situations. With tips on food and mindful living, Danielle guides you through simple rituals such as breathwork (Pranayama), meditation and yoga postures, and offers delicious, all-natural recipes such as Date, Almond and Orange Blossom Bircher, Cassava Bagels and White Bean Carbonara as well as basic pantry staples such as Almond Cashew Mayonnaise, Kombucha and Sauerkraut.

UK

Leon Fast Vegan by Rebecca Seal and Chantal Symons and John Vincent contains more than 150 recipes, divided into three sections. The book kicks off with The Main Event, with easy recipes for everything from breakfast and brunch to sharing plates, via quick suppers and slow-cooked one-pot dishes. Part two, On the Side, features sauces, dressings, nourishing side dishes and scrumptious breads, and part three, Sweet, gives vegan options for desserts and cakes.

Tom Kerridge’s Fresh Start: How to Cook Amazing Food at Home by Tom Kerridge shows you how to be the boss in the kitchen and eat well every day, thanks to more than 100 brilliant recipes to give you and your family a fresh start. 

Dirty Vegan: Proper Banging Vegan Food by Matt Pritchard delivers vegan food he has created for certain groups of people with specific nutritional needs – a women’s rugby team, OAPs, teenagers and emergency services (mountain rescue) on his television programme. He examines the science behind the ingredients, such as egg alternatives, and cooks 2-3 recipes per episode.

The Royal Chef at Home  by Darren McGrady was previously published in the US last year and is being released in the UK this month. McGrady, former personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana, has curated and created delicious, easy recipes that will add an elegant touch to any meal without requiring hours of laboring in the kitchen.

Meat: The Ultimate Companion by Libby Travers and Anthony Puharich is not just a meat cookbook. It is designed to walk you through the topic from the eyes of the farmer, the butcher, and the best cooks; helping you with the questions you might want to ask before you buy your meat. Over 110 recipes showcase the major cuts and draw on cuisines and chefs from around the world. Lavishly photographed and illustrated, it is sure to become a modern classic and a requirement for every kitchen.

Special Guest: Recipes for the Happily Imperfect Host by Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe is a gentle guide to turning easy basic fare into something of a celebration. For when you want to say to your friends with their spouses and ten small children, ‘Why don’t you stay for lunch?’ without hating yourself afterwards. Learn the lesson of ‘one splendid thing done well’ without regard to the hundred other things, and call the day a success.

Kindness & Salt: Recipes for the Care and Feeding of Your Friends and Neighbors by Ryan Angulo and Doug Crowell shares more than 100 recipes for the dishes and drinks that draw passionate fans from around the corner and around the globe to their Brooklyn restaurants. This title was released last month in the US.

AU

Fervor, A Journey Through Australian Native Food by Paul Iskov gathers together the best recipes from the author’s rovingdining experience with stories by Robert Wood and photographs by Chris Gurney. 

Grilled: Delicious, Easy to Prepare Recipes to Grill or Barbecue by The Australian Women’s Weekly will expand your barbecuing repertoire beyond that a couple of snags (sausages) on the barbie, and impress your guests with everything from fresh seafood to great vegetable sides, with loads of practical tips to get the most out of your alfresco dinning.

Modern Australian Vegan: The Simple Guide to Going, Being & Staying Vegan is the perfect companion in your journey toward a plant-based diet. With expert guidance from Australian accredited dietitian and nutritionist Lucy Gwendoline  Taylor, you’ll be able to adopt a vegan diet in the healthiest way possible.

#VeganLife The Ultimate Collection of Deliciously Inspiring Vegan Recipes by The Australian Women’s Weekly caters to every food need or mood. Start the day with a vegan omelette or bircher muesli. Active types will find snacks for pre and post workouts. There are salads and wraps for when you are on the go, fast fixes to get dinner to the table in less than 30 minutes, and weekend and seasonal recipes. Treats are covered with vegan versions of fast food favourites that are a match for the original.