Stop telling me how to get rid of the garlic smell on my hands

Frequently a post saying something like "this is the best method to remove the garlic smell from your hands" will pop up in my news feed. I never click on those posts. Not only do I not want to remove the odor, I would be open to a perfume that smells like garlic when it is thrown into hot butter.… read more

It’s pumpkin spice season, but it doesn’t feel like it

Starbucks released its seasonal drinks, including the famed Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL), on August 24. While the flavors scream autumn, the weather does not in most people living in the US. Part of this discrepancy stems from the fact that Starbucks has pushed up the release date since the PSL debuted 20 years ago in October, 2003. As the years… read more

August 2023 New Cookbook Review

August starts up our busiest time for cookbook releases so be prepared to start adding titles to your wishlists. Soon I will be preparing the 2024 Cookbook Preview which I usually post in September, but until then the 2023 Cookbook Preview Listing is being kept up-to-date weekly. In May we announced that we have connected the EYB database to ckbk’s library of… read more

Hotpot Queen – Review & Giveaway

When Hotpot Queen contacted me about trying their products, I said yes! Lately, I am all about kits that make cooking just a little easier. Be sure to enter our giveaway below to win a HotPot Queen Pantry Gift Box open to US Members only. Sichuan hot pot soup base (川式清油火锅底料) What is Hot Pot? Hot pot is a flavorful… read more

Jamila Robinson to head Bon Appétit and Epicurious

The Philadelphia Inquirer's assistant managing editor for food and culture, Jamila Robinson, has been tapped to lead Condé Nast magazine Bon Appétit and its companion website Epicurious, the newspaper announced earlier today. Robinson has been with the Inquirer since 2020, first as its food editor and then as an assistant managing editor. She will be replacing veteran book editor Dawn… read more

Food news antipasto

First up this week is a fun little quiz to test your knowledge of pantry staples. It starts off pretty easy by asking what are the ingredients in pesto, but it gets more difficult after that. There were some foods I hadn't encountered, although because it's multiple choice most answers become clear even if you don't have a jar of… read more

Malta – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of Malta: Mediterranean Recipes From the Islands by Simon Bajada. Malta: Mediterranean Recipes From the Islands is a richly photographed cookbook which takes you to the captivating archipelago between Sicily and the North African coast, with 70 recipes showcasing the country's vibrant Mediterranean cuisine. Many empires have influenced the Maltese kitchen over… read more

In the bag: how packaged salad took over the supermarket

If you time-traveled back to the 1970s and told the average supermarket shopper that 50 years hence there would be entire supermarket aisles devoted to bagged salad greens and kits, and that twenty percent of all vegetable sales would be spent on salads, you would probably be met with skepticism. At that time you would have been hard pressed to… read more

Arepa Cookbook Giveaway & Quick Bites

Enter our US/CA/UK giveaway to win one of two copies of Arepa: Classic & Contemporary Recipes for Venezuela's Daily Bread by Irena Stein. The author has an event scheduled and it is shared on our Calendar. Arepa: Classic & contemporary recipes for Venezuela’s daily bread by Irena Stein shares over 50 recipes celebrating Venezuela’s irresistible and most popular street food: the… read more

The celebrity endorsement

As I was scrolling through Twitter today, an advertisement featuring chef Gordon Ramsay appeared in my feed. Ramsey was extolling the virtues of Triscuit crackers, something the chef has been doing since February, according to AdWeek. The advertising campaign "features Ramsay as his authentic and unfiltered self and celebrates the wholesome but crunchy things in life that are full of… read more

Angel hair pasta is back

I was puzzled when I saw the tweet from Eater stating that angel hair pasta was making a comeback. "Had it ever really left?" I wondered. As I discovered, this is only because I live with an angel hair fanatic: every time I ask what pasta he would like to accompany the sauce I plan to make, the answer is… read more

August 2023 EYB Cookbook Club Summary

Each month we offer at least four cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. This month we cooked from our favorite titles, blogs and online recipe sources. For past EYB Cookbook Club summaries, #EYBCookbookClub will pull up an archive of our club’s activities. Please note our announcement document shared in the club shares all our options (including those in the past). You will… read more

The rise of the orange yolk

When I was growing up I had the luxury of eating only farm fresh eggs because my grandmother raised chickens. Of course, when you're a child you do not recognize the luxuries you have; I wanted to get the pure white eggs from the supermarket that didn't have pieces of straw and dirt (and worse) on them. Now I would… read more

Food news antipasto

As if people in the US didn't have enough to worry about with oppressive heat in multiple locations, hurricanes AND an earthquake in California, and tornados in the South and Midwest, now we have to be careful about foamy, exploding watermelons. What's next, locusts?! If you are the kind of person who will take a chance on a foamy watermelon,… read more

Taste Canada releases shortlist for 2023 awards

Now in its 26th year, Taste Canada Awards / Les Lauréats des Saveurs du Canada has announced its shortlist of cookbooks vying for a coveted culinary writing award. Seventy-six cookbooks entered the competition, written by authors from across Canada. The shortlist narrowed the competition to 41 entries, featuring authors from six provinces. The winners will be announced at the Taste… read more

September 2023 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary

As our members know, each month we offer several cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. There are other fun cookbook clubs around the interwebs and we’d like to highlight those for those members who might want to cook or bake something other than our choices.  We want to get this information out to you so you can prepare… read more

Bake it Better cookbook preview, author events, recipes, EYBD Previews, and More

The beginning of cookbook season has snuck up on us, once again. Cookbooktober (August through November) is the most wonderful and busiest time of the year. This week, I would like to point out a few authors who will be on tour this autumn and give you a quick preview of a new baking book that you must know about.… read more

Putting a lid on it

Kitchen storage is a source of endless fascination and often frustration for people who love to cook. Most of us are not blessed with enormous kitchens that have bespoke cabinets to house anything and everything imaginable, nor do we have picture-perfect cookware or bakeware sets where all the pieces conveniently stack or fit together like Russian nesting dolls. The vast… read more

All about induction

My first exposure to induction cooking occurred way back in 1995. The company I worked for at the time had previously ventured into selling appliances but rather quickly decided it was not a good fit for its business model. A few odds and ends remained on a clearance rack in one of the company's retail stores, and among those was… read more

Echoes of kitchens past

The Roma tomatoes in my garden are going gangbusters right now, despite highly variable weather this summer. The bounty led to an early canning session that resulted in six pints of whole tomatoes. As I prepared the tomatoes by coring, scalding, and peeling, my mind's eye flashed back several decades to the times when I "helped" my grandmother with her… read more

Baking Yesteryear Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US giveaway to win one of two copies of Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s by B. Dylan Hollis. As soon as I read about this book, I knew I was going to love it and when I finally got my hands on it - it was a done deal. My only complaint… read more

Yiayia: Time-perfected Recipes from Greece’s Grandmothers

Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of Yiayia: Time-perfected Recipes from Greece’s Grandmothers by Anastasia Miari. Anastasia is also the author of Grand Dishes: Recipes and Stories from Grandmothers of the World ckbk published in 2021 which was inspired by her own Greek grandmother. Yiayia is Greek for grandmother. In her second book, Yiayia: Time-perfected Recipes… read more

Food news antipasto

How old is too old to bake? Minnesota's Marjorie Johnson believes there is no upper age limit, because the spry 104-year-old is busy baking up a storm. She will be entering baked goods into the Minnesota State Fair later this month, something she has been doing since the 1970s. She has racked up scores of blue ribbons and hopes to… read more

Debunking the myth of a ‘national’ dish

Occasionally we post an article about the (often dubious) origin stories that go hand-in-hand with a particular region or country. One example is the story of pavlova, in which two countries - Australia and New Zealand - both claim ownership of the dish. James Beard award winner Anya von Bremzen looks at origin stories like this in her latest book, National… read more

Do you make the ‘orphan recipes’ in cookbooks?

A white book opened to see the blank inside pages, on a white background
Food writer Bee Wilson recently posed a question to readers on her blog, asking if they were more or less likely to make a recipe in a cookbook where some recipes have photos and others do not. She called these 'orphan recipes' and feels that they are overlooked by most people because they lack an accompanying image. Wilson thinks she… read more
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