Many thanks to all our members

December 31, 2012 by
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We just wanted to take some time out to thank all of our wonderful members from around the world. We're blessed by your  contributions, enthusiasm, and, perhaps most of all, your shared conviction that cookbooks and sharing food provide a center around which home, family, friends, and the entire global community can joyfully revolve. Happy New Year everyone and bring… read more

Computers may help (replace?) chefs create new recipes

December 30, 2012 by
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We thought this article from NPR provides ample food for thought as we head into the new year. In Computers May Someday Beat Chefs at Creating Flavors We Crave, NPR profiles an IBM food-computer project, "Culinary creativity isn't just about coming up with something novel. Varshney and his colleagues are hoping to make a computer that will be able to… read more

Good luck meals for the new year

December 28, 2012 by
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One of our favorite blogs, Sandy's Chatter, has a fun entry today. She takes a global survey of good luck meals that people cook to start the new year. We were aware of the classic Southern good luck dish with black-eyed peas (Hoppin' John), but we didn't know that one reason for this choice - and a common theme shared… read more

10 ways to identify a good restaurant

December 27, 2012 by
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As New Year's Eve approaches, it may strike many as a good time to try out a new restaurant - bring in the new with the new. Here's an informative list we found at the Amateur Gourmet that may help: 10 Signs You're in a Good Restaurant. We've added a few of our own comments, but also check out the article for… read more

Celebrating leftovers

December 26, 2012 by
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According to The Guardian, food's latest hot trend may be leftovers.  First, however, we need to expand the definition of leftovers. Leftovers are not just food that has been cooked and not eaten, but the food parts that are discarded before even being cooked. According to the article, there are multiple reasons why we have chosen to discard leftovers (and,… read more

These food quotes impart wisdom in just a few words

December 24, 2012 by
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The attraction of quotes is how truly wise just a few words can be. In that spirt, here are some of our favorite food quotes from a list - compiled by Buzz Feed - of the 24 Best Quotes Ever About Food: Everything you see I owe to spaghetti - Sophia Loren The most remarkable thing about my Mother is that… read more

The best time-saving tips of 2012

December 22, 2012 by
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The Kitchn is running a series of "Best of 2012" articles, and we particularly liked this one, Homemade in a Hurry: 15 Time-Serving Tips. From coring a head of lettuce in 3 seconds, to four ways to soften butter, to quickly peeling fava beans, to freezing smoothie ingredients in muffin tins, this list truly has something to help everyone.  And we'd like… read more

Best of the Best Cookbooks of 2012

December 20, 2012 by
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... and the winner is Jerusalem  by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi After last year's tie for first place, this year we have a very clear winner.  For the second year running Yotam Ottolenghi takes the crown, this time with his restaurant partner Sami Tamimi. We amalgamated 214 Best Cookbooks of 2012 lists from TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Websites, Blogs and Booksellers across the… read more

3 food & drink apps for your consideration

December 20, 2012 by
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Food- and drink-related apps are becoming better and better. Here are three that have been singled out in the press recently that we thought you might be interested in: The Kitchn recently published, This New Italian Cooking iPad May Be the Best We've Seen. They introduce it with "If you're looking for a clever yet easy-to-understand Italian cooking app, we… read more

10 Books for Giving

December 20, 2012 by
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What makes a cookbook good for giving? Well, it's a little different from what makes a cookbook good in the kitchen.  First of all, looks are more important. It has to have great design, and feel like a quality production - something worth the shiny paper it's wrapped in (that usually, though not always, means hardback).  It has to be good to… read more

Well-meaning but disastrous kitchen experiments

December 19, 2012 by
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The Guardian has an amusing story this week, When kitchen experiments go wrong. It's an equal-opportunity article, since it includes a number of stories about well-known chefs, male and female, as well as home cooks. As they write, "It's when we tend to make the most effort in feeding our loved ones, and beyond the perils of the still-frozen turkey… read more

Making it and giving it.

December 18, 2012 by
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Like everybody else, I've had a hard time moving on since Friday.  It's the least cheery Christmas I can remember - yet there are still trees to trim, Santas to impersonate, huge meals to prepare. Meanwhile, the searching-for-gifts time is almost over, about to give way to the giving-of-gifts.  "Some of us" (meaning me) have trouble facing the crush of… read more

The year’s most embarrassing live TV food moments

December 18, 2012 by
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We're fans of Monty Python, which we can still catch at occasional odd hours on TV, and in that tradition we thought we'd bring you this list from the Braiser of "The 11 Most Disasterous Morning Show Cooking Segments of 2012." Some of them have reached notoriety already, such as the infamous scene of Paula Deen groping Matt Lauer who… read more

The best food books, but not cookbooks, of the year

December 17, 2012 by
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There are numerous lists this time of the year - best gifts, best cookbooks, best holiday recipes but nothing like the EYB master list - Best Cookbooks of the Year - which we'll be publishing imminently. In the meantime, we thought we'd tease you a little bit with a short version - a compilation of some of the most interesting… read more

Why we eat what we eat – a new blog presents a unique viewpoint

December 16, 2012 by
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In a recent Huff Post Food blog, Why I Don't Read Your Damn Food Blog, Stephanie Stiavetti details quite clearly what makes a bad food blog. What made this article particularly interesting was to compare the faults she lists (poor writing, too much advertising, bad photography, uninteresting writing) with a new food blog that we ran across recently and, frankly,… read more

2012’s worst cookbooks and lowest culinary events

December 14, 2012 by
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We recently found two articles that are, admittedly, out-of-tune with seasonal jollity, but still worthy of notice for committing culinary sins, including being remarkably tone-deaf, excessive, and hypocritical. May we recommend everyone on this list contemplate their New Year's resolution list carefully. First up is Esquire's Worst Food Moments of 2012. From deep-fried butter ("the worst use of butter since… read more

Determining if baking soda and baking powder are dead

December 13, 2012 by
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During this heavy baking season, here are ways to tell if the baking powder and baking soda you're using are still healthy and active: For baking powder, stir 1/4 teaspoon into 1/2 cup of very hot water. The powder will immediately bubble if it's still usable. For baking soda, do the same thing as for baking powder,  but add 1/4 teaspoon of… read more

Led by Bobby Flay, star chefs argue for a gender-neutral Easy Bake Oven

December 12, 2012 by
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We'd be remiss if we didn't alert our readers to the latest viral controversy, since it reflects on the way many of us may have enjoyed our first cooking experiences. Apparently, an eighth-grade girl has petitioned Hasbro to offer Easy Bake Ovens in more colors than just pink, backing up her request with a widely viewed You Tube video of… read more

Culling time

December 11, 2012 by
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I hate to say it, and I hate even more to do it, but it's time to weed out the library again.  I do it twice a year or so, and last time I failed so spectacularly that after the weeding was "done," I still couldn't even get the new batch of books onto shelves. I've tried (apparently with limited… read more

Preventing smoke alarms from going off without disabling them

December 11, 2012 by
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We'll confess this posting is a little personal. Having forgotten that a) the windows are now closed, and b) how much smoke a steak on a cast iron pan can generate, we spent a lot of time a few days ago running around disarming all the smoke alarms in the house. And we'll admit we haven't gotten them back up,… read more

Are vegetable or bean chips that much healthier than potato chips?

December 10, 2012 by
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With the holiday season, there are more parties and more snack foods. In that context, It's been fun watching the proliferation of "healthy" chips in the snack food aisle. After all, it's been drilled into us that potato chips are bad for us, so it seems to make sense that kale chips, black bean chips - indeed anything not labeled… read more

The Gift that Keeps on Giving!

December 9, 2012 by
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It's that time of year when the gift lists are prepared and the inevitable "What do you want…?" questions start. If you have friends or family members who love to cook from great recipes - consider giving them an Eat Your Books gift voucher to help them organize their recipe collection.  Here are a few suggestions for the perfect gift… read more

Ten rules for the best-ever hot chocolate

December 9, 2012 by
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If our friends down in the southern hemisphere will excuse us, we're going to concentrate today on how to make  the ultimate winter comfort beverage - awesome hot chocolate. We've reviewed the possibilities, and this list from Buzz Feed Food, 10 Commandments of Awesome Hot Chocolate, strikes us as taking absolutely the right approach. The article explains the full reasoning… read more

Controversial N.Y. Times critic speaks out

December 7, 2012 by
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A few weeks ago we, and most of the food world, noted that The New York Times food critic, Pete Wells, had written one of the snarkiest reviews ever about Guy Fieri's Manhattan restaurant. While everyone granted it was really funny, and no one actually  defended the restaurant (except for Fieri who responded with a media blitz), a consistent criticism leveled… read more

Mint confusion: spearmint vs. peppermint

December 6, 2012 by
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Peppermint is a popular holiday flavor - where would we be without candy canes? And spearmint can also be a popular candy flavor  - think gum. Most of us would  regard these two flavors as quite different, yet most recipes just call for "mint." So which type should you use? And which flavor do you get when you buy undifferentiated… read more
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