January 2024 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 recipe from any cookbook, magazine, blog or online option: 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… read more

JBF announces semifinalists for restaurant and chef awards

Today the James Beard Foundation announced its slate of semifinalists for its 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards. Nominees will be announced on Wednesday, April 3 and winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on Monday, June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (The cookbook award winners will be announced a few days prior to the… read more

Celebrate National Pie Day

“There is a mystery inherent in a pie by virtue of its contents being hidden beneath its crust.”Janet Clarkson, Pie: A Global History. Today, for reasons I shall never understand, is National Pie Day (I believe the logical choice for the day is March 14). Regardless of why this date was chosen, I am happy to join in the celebration. I love pie so… read more

The top 100 most popular cookbooks owned by EYB Members

In Darcie's Food News Antipasto yesterday, she mentioned The Zuni Cafe Cookbook as being one of the top books on Members' bookshelves. A Member thought it would be interesting to learn which books are "tops" in our Library. This information is easy enough to find: Go to Books, Filter by Popularity and there you have it. But I thought it might… read more

Food news antipasto

While some recent celebrity chef deaths have come at ages far too young, the news about the passing of chef and author Ronald Kinton reflects a long life, well-lived. The chef and author died in December at age 102. In a tribute, University of West London culinary ambassador Michael Coaker said: "Ron, along with Victor Ceserani, was a particular inspiration… read more

A New Way to Bake – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of A New Way to Bake: Re-imagined Recipes for Plant-based Cakes, Bakes and Desserts by Philip Khoury. Philip Khoury is an award-winning pastry chef known for his innovative and delicious creations made from plants. Originally from Australia, he started his career at Quay as an apprentice pastry chef (2012-2013), one… read more

Wok for Less – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/CA giveaway to win one of three copies of Wok for Less: Budget-Friendly Asian Meals in 30 Minutes or Less by Ching-He Huang. Ching-He has events as follows: a virtual class at Milk Street Kitchen on February 1st (cooking for the New Year) and on March 13th at Topping & Company (Bath location). Ching-He Huang is a Taiwanese-born… read more

Looking backward for inspiration

As each year ticks by with a bevy of new cookbook releases, it amazes me that so many of them continue to be fresh, exciting, even groundbreaking. I excitedly bookmark recipes that I can't wait to try, to add to an ever-growing list. However, this doesn't mean that the older cookbooks on my bookshelves are relegated to being dust collectors.… read more

EYB is now accessible and translatable, recipes, EYBD Previews and more

We have been busy, busy, busy here at Eat Your Books. I have been helping Jane gather the data for the Best of the Best lists (which will be posted shortly), gathering PDFs for new 2024 titles, setting up Previews and other tasks. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to do a promo since the new year, but have… read more

What’s the best way to store knives?

Consumers spend billions on home organization every year. It might be part of their New Year's resolution to get more organized, or spurred by an organizing expert like Marie Kondo, but whatever the reason, people buy a lot of stuff just to store their stuff. Kitchens are no exception to this rule, as companies like The Home Edit offer countless… read more

EYB is now accessible and translatable

We have added a very cool tool to EYB that improves the usability of the site for our members with disabilities. Click the new green symbol at bottom left of your screen and see all the options - specific accessibility profiles like blind, color blind, dyslexia or ADHD can be selected and the site will adjust accordingly. Or you can… read more

February 2024 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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
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