December 2025 EYB Cookbook Club Summary

December 16, 2025 by
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Each month we allow posting in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club from any cookbook, magazine or blog and we also offer one featured cookbook -most months. We hope that sharing our favorite recipes will help our Members discover new cookbooks and recipes to try. Also please see our January 2026 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary which is now organized by location and includes… read more

Food news antipasto

December 14, 2025 by
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I spotted several gift guides and ideas as I was checking on food news, and thought I would share a few highlights: Nordic Ware has gifts for the Bundt lover and more, Saveur has a limited edition cookbook featuring holiday cakes. The New York Times has a list of 24 gifts for people who love food, and Food & Wine… read more

That’s a wrap

December 13, 2025 by
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Plastic packaging is on nearly every food you can buy these days. It is difficult - almost impossible, in fact - to avoid it. Aside from the environmental impact, the plastic does little to improve the food. It only minimally keeps it from spoiling, and in some cases it leaches chemicals into the food. But what if the wrap around… read more

January 2026 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary

December 12, 2025 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 world and we’d like to highlight those for those members who might want to cook or bake something other than our choices.  I will update this post as clubs make their additional choices. Something that has… read more

The 2026 flavor of the year, as predicted by McCormick

December 11, 2025 by
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The spice company McCormick, in part of its annual report on dining trends, has predicted that black currant will be the breakout flavor of the coming year. They also predict that 'little luxuries' will continue to be popular, and say that black currant goes hand-in-hand with that trend. Last year, the company named ají amarillo as the flavor of 2025. McCormick dispatched… read more

Chocolate on the chopping block

December 10, 2025 by
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It's no secret that chocolate, like so many food items, has been getting increasingly expensive. Cocoa plants are highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Add to that labor issues, tariffs, and an infection carried by mealybugs, and you have a crisis. Manufacturers have to pivot as the cost of their key ingredient continues to rise. Some companies have… read more

They don’t make them like they used to

December 9, 2025 by
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My husband and I collect vintage appliances, but not just for display, we use them on a regular basis. The oldest electric appliance we have dates to 1915, the waffle maker shown below. We have non-electric items as old as 1868 (a Howe treadle sewing machine). Beyond the beauty of these items, we appreciate how well they work - in… read more

Food news antipasto

December 7, 2025 by
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Jamie Oliver is not a quitter. Six years after he had to shutter his Italian restaurant chain's UK locations, he is bringing Jamie's Italian back with a new partner. The new iteration of the restaurant is backed by Brava Hospitality Group, which hopes to revive the chain. The first location will be located in London’s Leicester Square. Despite the obstacles… read more

Winter is meant for baking

December 7, 2025 by
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The farther you get from the equator, the longer your winter gets. For those of us who live many degrees away from zero degrees latitude, finding a hobby is crucial to dealing with the long, cold nights and short, slightly less cold, days. For some of us, baking is that hobby. There are several reasons why it makes sense to… read more

Welcome to soup season

December 4, 2025 by
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A polar vortex parked itself over the northern US and is stubbornly refusing to more. Those of us who live in northern states are now bracing for an entire month of subzero temperatures, snowstorms, and bone-chilling winds. Therefore, I hereby declare this to be soup season (with apologies to our Members in the Southern Hemisphere, where soup may be the… read more

Tis the season for baking

December 4, 2025 by
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When I published the Holiday Gift Guide and Giveaways! this weekend, I forgot to share my "cookie making gift tins" that I put together for my grown nieces and nephews. Each tin contained piping bags and tips, cookie cutters, a bench scraper, an icing spatula, two gift boxes and tags with ribbons, chocolate chips, decorations including McCormick Candy Cane finishing… read more

Cooking? There’s an app for that

December 3, 2025 by
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The CookShelf app (details below) - which is getting better by the day - is far from the only food app available. NYT Cooking, The Guardian Feast, Delish, and others have introduced apps in recent years, and more are on the way. Why are so many recipe websites adding apps? Adweek's Mark Stenberg has some theories about the trend. I… read more

The Splendid Table turns 30

December 2, 2025 by
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I cannot believe it has been a decade since I went to the 20th anniversary program for The Splendid Table. At that time, Lynne Rossetto Kasper was still hosting the radio broadcast, which debuted in 1995. Kasper received numerous accolades for her work on the show, including two James Beard Foundation Awards. Francis Lam (also a James Beard Award winner)… read more

Food news antipasto

December 1, 2025 by
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I hope our US Members had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We start with some good news for the world of food safety. Scientists at Ohio State University have found a new way to combat salmonella bacteria that contribute to foodborne illness. The researchers identified antimicrobial peptides from probiotic strains that inhibited the growth of salmonella in chickens. While this needs to… read more

Holiday Gift Guide and Giveaways!

November 30, 2025 by
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I am sorry for getting this gift guide up a bit late, we have been busy, busy, busy. Be sure to check out my roundup of holiday, entertaining, and baking cookbooks for gifting ideas. A few will be mentioned here again. Sour House inspires people to bake more sourdough bread by creating thoughtfully designed baking tools and inviting people to… read more

Loving the leftovers

November 30, 2025 by
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Thanksgiving is in the books, and you have probably had a turkey sandwich with the leftover bird. While many people live for the leftovers, I find it a struggle to use everything up in a satisfying way. There are many articles about ways to use up extra turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes but most are rehashing the same recipes the… read more

A brief history of the American kitchen

November 28, 2025 by
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With so much emphasis today on kitchens as the beating heart of the home, it can be difficult to imagine a time when they were relegated to cramped quarters at the back of the house, or even to another building altogether (if you had the means). Now kitchens are central - both figuratively and literally - to the way we… read more

Encouraging words on Thanksgiving Eve

November 26, 2025 by
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I can't believe it has been six years since I wrote about the first Thanksgiving in a decade where I was not hosting. The main reason for that 2019 situation had to do with a health condition that I had hoped would be resolved in time for the next holiday. I was so disappointed that my friends (who are my… read more

Thanksgiving ruined? Maybe AI is to blame

November 25, 2025 by
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Lots of people use generative AI tools like ChatGPT to find answers to their questions, including their food questions. Food bloggers are noticing fewer visitors to their sites as more people turn to AI for recipes, sometimes with disastrous results. As reported in Bloomberg, many of the AI recipes are replete with errors or contain AI images that are impossible… read more

Food news antipasto

November 23, 2025 by
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We just learned of the passing of Skye Gyngell, the first Australian woman to be awarded a Michelin star. Gyngell helmed several popular London-area restaurants and cafes. She was also a cookbook author, writing four cookbooks from 2008 to 2016. Many chefs and food writers posted remembrances about Gyngell, with Jamie Oliver thanking her for "all you did to inspire… read more

November 2025 New Cookbook Review

November 23, 2025 by
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The year is almost over and it has been a very busy one for cookbook lovers. I prepared a simple roundup of holiday, entertaining, and baking cookbooks that may help you plan your holiday meals and baking. Our 2026 Cookbook Preview Post has been published and will be updated with additions and revisions as the months go by – and go by… read more

A new way to cupcake

November 22, 2025 by
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Cupcakes are finding their way back from being abandoned after the early 21st century cupcake craze sparked by bakeries such as Magnolia Bakery in New York City. What's not to love? They are individually portioned (making serving a breeze), can be cute as a bug, and offer as many flavor combinations as you can dream up. They bake quickly, usually… read more

November 2025 EYB Cookbook Club Summary

November 22, 2025 by
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Each month we allow posting in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club from any cookbook, magazine or blog and we also offer one featured cookbook -most months. We hope that sharing our favorite recipes will help our Members discover new cookbooks and recipes to try. Also please see our December 2025 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary which is now organized by location and… read more

Who needs a flaky pie crust?

November 22, 2025 by
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Milk Street's Christopher Kimball had a Reddit AMA session earlier this week. Kimball solicited questions on his favorite food holiday (Thanksgiving), asking Redditors to "get the conversation (argument) started!" He was ready to opine on topics such as cutting fat into flour for making pie crusts, the right way to brine your turkey, and his favorite dinner roll recipe. Rose Levy… read more

A roundup of holiday, entertaining, and baking cookbooks

November 20, 2025 by
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Every year I am caught by surprise at how fast the holidays come around. I am working on a gift guide (with giveaways), but wanted to do a fast roundup of holiday books for our Members. This summary includes entertaining, baking and cocktail titles. I have included some popular books below as well as some more recent books and recently… read more
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