February 2024 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary

January 18, 2024 by
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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

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times

January 17, 2024 by
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Reading the headlines about restaurant openings and closings these days can give you whiplash. One moment we are lamenting all of the closures that happened over the past year, and the next we are cheering the opening of dozens of new eateries. Despite the multitude of stories about the challenges restaurants face, from soaring energy and food costs to ongoing… read more

Is bread and butter the ultimate comfort food?

January 16, 2024 by
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Writing for Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams makes a bold statement, saying there is no better comfort food than bread and butter. After describing a perfect French breakfast of a crusty baguette, still warm from the oven paired with luxurious butter from Brittany. "What is it about bread and butter that hits the spot like nothing else in the world?" Williams… read more

Food news antipasto

January 14, 2024 by
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While those of us in northern latitudes can only dream of luscious, ripe tomatoes, those in Australia, New Zealand, and other Southern Hemisphere countries are entering peak tomato season. SBS Food will help those lucky ducks take advantage of the bounty with a roundup of great recipes that make the most of tomato season. Homemade Samoa-inspired cookies from Food52 We… read more

Gastro Obscura’s favorite cookbook stories of 2023

January 14, 2024 by
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Good cookbooks have well-tested recipes that work. Great cookbooks also tell stories about the food, either personal stories about love, grief, triumph, and despair, or broader stories about the culture and people where the recipe originates. The editors at Gastro Obscura agree, and they regularly feature vignettes about cookbooks - both recent releases and historical volumes. They selected eight of… read more

Beating the cold in the kitchen

January 13, 2024 by
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After a warm start, winter is bearing down on us with full force. A large swath of the northern U.S. is bracing for a winter storm that will bring frigid temperatures and bone-chilling winds. I know this not only because of the weather report, but because the store shelves were nearly empty when I went grocery shopping earlier today. In… read more

Alison Roman’s latest project? A grocery store

January 10, 2024 by
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Alison Roman, viral recipe hall-of-famer, cancel culture survivor, and bestselling cookbook author, has embarked on a new project. No, it isn't the culinary show she's been shopping around since she lost her deal with Hulu, it's a small grocery store in upstate New York. Called First Bloom, the shop opened recently and according to food writer Callie Hitchcock, it feels… read more

Weird advice from vintage entertaining guides

January 9, 2024 by
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empty wineglasses on a tray
When I was a young cook putting together my first small dinner party for friends, I wasn't sure where to begin. The internet was not sufficiently advanced to offer a lot of advice, so I turned to books about entertaining. Although the names of the tomes have been lost in the dusty corners of my mind, I'm reasonably certain that… read more

Food news antipasto

January 7, 2024 by
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Boston-area chef and restaurateur Barbara Lynch, who came under fire last year after workers accused her of abuse, has closed several of her restaurants and is selling others to former employees, according to WBUR. Gone are Menton, Sportello and Drink in Fort Point, and two locations on the South End, The Butcher Shop and Stir, are in contracts to be… read more

Store-bought is fine

January 6, 2024 by
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Ina Garten's famous saying of "store-bought is fine" when offering alternatives to an ingredient she is using in a recipe has reassured many a home cook, including yours truly. Knowing that you can successfully use a shortcut ingredient if you do not have the time or ability to make something from scratch takes some of the stress out of cooking,… read more

Helpful features and tips for using EYB including adding books to the Library; recipes and more

January 5, 2024 by
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Happy New Year! Since we have new Members joining, I'd like to go over a few helpful features in this new year. First, please bookmark this article which is updated each time a new feature is added to Eat Your Books. It can be found on the Home Page as well. A member in the EYB Cookbook Club recently asked… read more

“Grubgate” hits south Texas

January 4, 2024 by
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Food is often political, but usually not in the way that this story illustrates. In south Texas, a former U.S. Congresswoman, who is trying to win back the seat she lost after redistricting changed the district's demographics, has become embroiled in a scandal being called "Grubgate" regarding food photos she posted on her social media accounts. Former Rep. Mayra Flores… read more

The best meals of 2023

January 3, 2024 by
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Scrolling through my favorite food sites this week I encountered many posts about the best meals the writers ate last year, or some variation on that theme. Restaurant critic Jay Rayner gathered his notes from the sundry meals he ate as part of his job and put out a list of culinary highs and lows from 2023. The entire GoodFood… read more

Making the most of holiday cooking gifts

January 2, 2024 by
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I'm sure many of us received food, cooking, and/or cookbook related gifts for the holidays. It's pretty easy to know what to do with food gifts (yum!), but sometimes kitchen tools or equipment require us to seek out some assistance. If you received an air fryer as one of your gifts, you can head over to The Guardian for a… read more

New Year’s food intentions

January 1, 2024 by
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I have written about New Year's food resolutions before, but I am not a fan of the term "resolution" because it sets a person up for failure if they don't meet the resolution exactly. Instead, I prefer the term "intention" because it more accurately reflects how I approach the situation: this is what I would like to try in the… read more

Counting down the top recipes of the year

December 30, 2023 by
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With the end of the year comes retrospection, and food websites are no exception. Every other post in my feeds is a countdown of the most popular or most saved recipes from different websites. I am sharing some of these lists because it's always interesting to see what others are cooking - sometimes inspiration will strike. We'll start off with… read more

Italy by Ingredient, Recipe Kit Box & Class Giveaway

December 30, 2023 by
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Enter our US giveaway below to win an Italy by Ingredient prize package which includes a copy of Italy by Ingredient, a kit from Casa de Case that features one of the recipes from this title and a 1-hour private online class with Viola (date and time to be mutually agreed upon). Italy by Ingredient: Artisanal Foods, Modern Recipes by… read more

What’s going on with butter?

December 28, 2023 by
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Every year since the early 2000s, I have made multiple batches of English toffee to give away during the holidays. For only the second time ever in this time span I encountered total toffee failure: the emulsion split, leaving me with a grainy caramel sitting in pools of fat. I chalked up the outcome to rushing the process and/or stirring… read more

Batali attempts a comeback

December 27, 2023 by
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Back in October, Mario Batali resurfaced on Instagram and hinted at a comeback with a message that said "virtual events coming soon." This week, Batali made good on his announcement, hosting a livestreamed, $50 per person cooking demo last week that featured cacio e pepe and bucatini all' Amatriciana. Batali hosted the show from his home in a tiny Michigan… read more

A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China and Not China (But Still Really Chinese) – Cookbook Review & Giveaway

December 27, 2023 by
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Enter our US/CA giveaway below to win one of three copies of A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China and Not China (But Still Really Chinese) by Kevin Pang and Jeffrey Pang and America's Test Kitchen. A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China and Not China (But Still Really Chinese) by Kevin and Jeffrey Pang and America’s Test Kitchen… read more

Chef and author Bill Granger has died at 54

December 26, 2023 by
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Today we learned the sad news that Australian chef, television presenter. and author Bill Granger died on Christmas Day at the far too young age of 54. His family reported that he passed away peacefully, with his wife, Natalie Elliott, and three daughters, Edie, Inès and Bunny, by his side. According to the New Zealand Herald, it is believed that… read more

The surprising history of gingerbread

December 24, 2023 by
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Since food news has been thin this week, I am skipping the usual antipasto and instead featuring a holiday classic: gingerbread, a hallmark of the holiday season. While gingerbread in cookie or cake form traces its ancestry back hundreds of years, decorated gingerbread houses are much more modern, according to a deep dive into the history of gingerbread by Anne… read more

Kitchen product trends for 2024

December 23, 2023 by
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Now that we know the food trends (or lack thereof) for 2024, let's turn our sights to the kitchen product trends. In the past few years we have moved from Instant Pots to air fryers to home composting machines, so what is the next big product on the horizon? Food and Wine makes their predictions on which items are going… read more

The best books of 2023 by the experts

December 22, 2023 by
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Who knows cookbooks better than the owners of specialist cookbook stores? They stock and sell thousands of cookbooks and because their stores are focused on food and drink books, they are true experts. They read the books, cook from them and then share their knowledge with their customers. When shopping for cookbook gifts this holiday season, please think about supporting… read more

2024 food trends: anything, everything, and SPAM

December 21, 2023 by
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After perusing several articles proclaiming to know what the food trends for 2024 will be, I found it amusing that despite millions (perhaps billions) of dollars spent on consumer surveys, AI development, and statistical analysis, the predictions seem to hold as much weight as a restaurant fortune cookie. A prediction of "personalized tastes, global cuisines, as well as nostalgia and… read more
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