Food waste is down due to pandemic eating and cooking

Coronavirus safety measures have drastically changed the way most of the world shops, cooks, and eats food. Not only are people making more food at home, they are also embarking on baking adventures and have even created a shortage of home canning supplies. One change that has been a positive one is that people are wasting less food than before.… read more

Cookbook Tidbits #3

Previous Cookbook Tidbits can be located at the link provided. These blurbs are about notable books that perhaps were not given adequate representation in my monthly review or inform our members about new to me books that just came to my attention. Melting Pot: Stories and Recipes from a Chinese American Daydreamer by Samantha Mui was released independently in August. I… read more

100 Cookies – Hardcover Cook Baking Box Giveaway

In June, I shared with our members one of my favorite subscription box services Hardcover Cook. I've been assisting Monique as her baking consultant. She is a fellow cookbook lover and I love baking. This week HCC announced the first baking box as well as the fall box selections and other special offerings! I recommend signing up for HCC's newsletter… read more

Food news antipasto

Audiobooks are wonderful to listen to during a commute or while relaxing on vacation, but have you ever listened to an audio cookbook? A recent tweet from Abrams Books touting the audiobook of Michael Ruhlman's latest release, From Scratch, says that "listening to audio cookbooks can be a great way to learn how to be a better cook without getting… read more

To all the bowls I’ve loved before

I recently received a sales catalog from a famous cookware store. There is nothing at the moment that I need in my kitchen, but that didn't stop me from leafing through the pages. One item in particular captured my attention. In a page titled "Fall Color Refresh" were sets of melamine mixing bowls in three different colors. At first I… read more

Do you like your recipes poetic or practical?

Some recipe writers conjure words like the best poets or lyricists, others are matter-of-fact and straightforward in their prose. Most people have a preference for one type of recipe over another, and Leite Culinaria's David Leite and Renee Schettler are no exception. The two each make the case for their preferred method of recipe writing. Renee lands in the poetic… read more

Bon Appétit names new editor-in-chief

Bon Appétit magazine, still reeling from racial discrimination accusations against its former editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport and against the magazine itself, just named its new editor-in-chief. Parent company Condé Nast selected book-publishing veteran Dawn Davis for the EIC role. She will preside over the glossy magazine and its online and video outlets, plus the content of Epicurious, Healthyish and Basically. Prior… read more

A dog-gone good idea

Today is International Dog Day, a celebration of all things canine. The day started in the US in 2004 by Animal Welfare Advocate and Pet Lifestyle Expert, Colleen Paige, and according to the official website, it "celebrates all breeds, mixed and pure and serves to help galvanize the public to recognize the number of dogs that need to be rescued… read more

The British Baking Cookbook Giveaway and USA Pans

Enter our US giveaway to win one of three copies of The British Baking Book: The History of British Baking, Savory and Sweet with one grand prize winner receiving a set of USA Pans for all your baking needs! This title was published in April of this year in the UK under the title Oats in the North, Wheat from… read more

August 2020 New Cookbook Review

August came in a hurry and the month is on its way out just as quickly. There are a decent number of tempting books for us this month although still less in quantity than normal for August. A few of my favorites include: Simply by Sabrina Ghayour, Amboy by Alvin Cailan, Maenam by Angus An, and 100 Cookies by Sarah… read more

Sweetness to go (or delivered)

The pandemic has changed the way millions of people worldwide are eating. Many people accustomed to eating out for some (or all) of their meals suddenly had to shift gears and cook at home. While the transition has not been seamless, most people have adapted to the situation and home cooking hasn't been this robust for decades. Baking is another… read more

Spice support: bay leaves

Although my grandmother had very few herbs and spices in her cooking arsenal, she always had a jar full of large dried bay leaves. These leaves were used in long-simmering soups and stews, carefully fished out prior to serving. The herb intrigued me since it was the only one using entire leaves that I experienced until I started cooking on… read more

Fairytale Baking

Today, I posted on my social media about a cookbook that I was drawn to again: Fairytale Baking: 75 Enchanting Recipes Inspired by Snow White, Hansel & Gretel, and Other Classic Stories by Christin Geweke. This book is so dreamy that a post for our members is warranted. When I first received this book last year, I was impressed by… read more

August 2020 EYB Cookbook Club Summary

Each month we offer at least four cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. This month we’ve been cooking from the following titles: Main Selection: Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking by Toni Tipton MartinBaking Selection: The Cake Bible by Rose Levy BeranbaumOnline Option: Australian Gourmet Traveller (online recipes) or Mary Berry (online recipes)Plant-based Option: Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry For… read more

Food news antipasto

The era of free wine tastings in Australia may be coming to a close. The pandemic nixed wine tastings for months, and now that wineries are able to reopen, many owners say they will never go back to the era of free tastings. Complimentary wine flights are a cornerstone of Australian cellar door visits – but as wineries reopen, they… read more

An ode to the cutlet

What can perk up a boring chicken breast, accommodate almost any type of meat, and even make a bland vegetable the star of the show? Cutting it in thin pieces, breading it and shallow frying it to a rich golden hue. Over at Taste Cooking, Anna Hezel waxes poetic about this in a piece titled "Consider the cutlet." Whether you… read more

Galette to the rescue

Traveling during a pandemic can be an exercise in anxiety, but sometimes duty calls. Likewise, cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, difficult in the best of times, is made worse during this stressful time. I have made a cross-country journey due to the untimely passing of someone close to me, and find myself trying to make comforting food in a place… read more

This week: Mil hojas; Great British Chefs; cookbook giveaways and previews

While preparing the two Great British Chefs promotions earlier this week, I spent time poring over the Great British Chefs site especially the desserts! For this week's featured online recipe, I chose the GBC Mil hojas which spurred me on to learn more about this particular Latin American dessert. Pomegranate & rosewater mille-feuille Milhojas ("thousand sheets") are a Latin American… read more

James Beard Foundation cancels 2020 awards

The James Beard Foundation's annual Chef and Restaurant Awards were initially scheduled to be announced at a gala event in Chicago. After postponing that event and announcing a virtual event, the JBF has effectively cancelled the 2020 awards. In a press release, the JBF said that the choice to withhold announcing winners this year "comes as restaurants continue to suffer… read more

Quick Bites: Anne Willan

Earlier this month, Anne Willan's latest Women in the Kitchen: Twelve Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat, from 1661 to Today was published. Anne Willan has more than 50 years of experience as a cooking teacher, author, and culinary historian. The founder of famed French cooking school La Varenne, Anne was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s… read more

Are chefs embracing nonstick pans for home cooking?

While avid home cooks stock their cupboards with a rainbow of Le Creuset, gorgeous glowing copper pans, and high-dollar triple-ply cookware, restaurant kitchens contain more utilitarian pots and pans, usually plain stainless or aluminum pans. You rarely see a nonstick-coated pan in a restaurant, and chefs often exhort home cooks to get rid of their nonstick cookware, claiming that it… read more

The Great British Chefs Electronic Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our worldwide giveaway to win one of three ebook copies of the Great British Chefs: 120 Recipes from Britain's Best Chefs by Great British Chefs. In my previous post today, I shared information about the Great British Chefs (GBC) website where you can search by recipe name or recipe type or find all the recipes of your favorite chef. Our EYB Library has indexed Great British… read more

The Great British Chefs Vegetables – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our worldwide giveaway to win one of three copies of Great British Chefs: Vegetables: 40 Seasonal Recipes From the UK's Most Exciting Chefs by Great British Chefs. On my honeymoon many years ago, I fell in love with London. Everything about the city spoke to me from exciting new places to shop (grocery store fanatic here) to the cuisine.… read more

KitchenAid mixer trivia

My vintage KitchenAid stand mixer has made countless batches of cookies, cakes, and other items. Even though I have a newer and larger KA, I drag out the old one for nostalgia's sake from time to time, and used it for a small batch of cinnamon roll dough earlier today. As I was scrolling through my news feed this evening,… read more

Making do in a pinch

It has always been vexing to find out you are out of a critical ingredient just after you start making a dish, but with the pandemic throwing off shopping routines, it's even more disconcerting. That is why knowing what items you can substitute for others is more important than ever. We have occasionally covered this topic here, including a post… read more
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