Being home is a great time to explore the websites and blogs of some of Livingston Public Library’s Cookbook Club’s favorite authors. The sites are filled with daily recipes and archives, video tutorials, utensil recommendations, and tips and tricks for the kitchen. Here are some authors we have really enjoyed:
Love & Lemons By Jeanine Donofrio
Jeanine Donofrio’s blog began in 2011 (the Library also carries her two cookbooks: Love & Lemons and Love & Lemons Everyday) and is a mainly vegetarian blog with absolutely stunning photography by her husband, Jack Mathews Her recipes contain everyday ingredients that you will find in most kitchens, easy step-by-step instructions, as well as a lot of helpful tips. Cookbook Club participants raved about the cookbook and all of the dishes we created were stellar. We highly recommend her website and her books have been well reviewed on the New York Times and Bon Appetit, which called her cookbook, “One of the loveliest cookbooks we’ve ever seen.” The blog has been featured in Food & Wine, Food 52, Refinery29, SELF Magazine, and Oprah Magazine, among others. Love & Lemons was named Readers Choice Best Cooking Blog by Saveur Magazine in 2014 and won a Saveur Editor’s Choice award in 2016.
If her blog resonates with you as much as it has the Club, you can also subscribe to her blog and receive an email whenever a post becomes available.
Christopher Kimballs’ Milk Street By Christopher Kimball
Christopher Kimball is famous American chef, formerly of America’s Test Kitchen. Several years ago, he began Milk Street, which is not only a series of cookbooks, which are available at the Library, but also includes a cooking school, podcast, magazine, as well as a radio and television program. Milk Street describes its philosophy as, “Let’s stop doing things in the kitchen that made sense in the 19th century but not in the 21st. Milk Street travels the world to bring you the very best ideas and techniques with no lists of hard-to-find ingredients, strange cookware, or all-day methods to slow you down”. (Retrieved April 9 2020, from https://www.177milkstreet.com/about)
The site is chocked full of inspiring recipes and photography. Cookbook Club thoroughly enjoyed all the recipes we created from Milk Street and Milk Street Tuesday Nights. We highly recommended taking the time to explore the website and trying out a recipe or two.
The Smitten Kitchen By Deb Perelman
Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen creates fantastic recipes from a tiny kitchen in NYC. This was Cookbook Club’s second tested title and it was a smashing hit with all of our participants. Her recipes focus on comfort foods, such as breads and cakes, as well as ingredients that can be combined in several minutes to create appetizing dishes.
We highly recommend her site, whether you are looking for an easy banana bread recipe, soup, or dessert. Visit today! You view how-to videos and can also join her newsletter which comes out every Monday, which includes recipes such as:
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat By Samin Nosrat
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is about mastering the four elements of cooking. (She also has a 4-part mini series of the same name on Netflix. Watch the trailer here). Samin is often referred to as the next great teaching chef. Her cookbook has won the following awards and accolades: 2018 JAMES BEARD GENERAL COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR • 2018 FORTNUM & MASON DEBUT COOKBOOK • 2018 IACP COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR • 2018 IACP JULIA CHILD FIRST BOOK AWARD • SUNDAY TIMES FOOD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017
Her enthusiasm is infectious, as well as her passion for understanding the four elements of cooking and seasoning food. She is delightful to watch and we highly recommended her recipes. She is also the Eat columnist at The New York Times Magazine.
King Solomon’s Table By Joan Nathan
Joan Nathan is known for her vast knowledge of Jewish cooking and is the author of eleven cookbooks. Livingston Public Library chose recipes from her latest work, King Solomon’s Table. We were overwhelmingly pleased with the results. Nathan is a frequent contributor to The New York Times. Her other cookbooks include: Jewish Cooking in America and The New American Cooking, both of which won both James Beard Awards and IACP Awards.
King Solomon’s Table is available to borrow from Livingston PL’s OverDrive service. Enjoy her recipes online too!
-Melissa Brisbin, Associate Director