Recent reading... cookbooks

You know how much I love to collect cookbooks.  Most stay on my shelves to help research tasty but inexpensive meals.  Others make their way to New England for Stephanie and Elisabeth to try out (at age nine, Elisabeth is already a good cook!).

I thought I'd share a few favorites I've tried recently.  Oh, and as I've said before... thank you SO MUCH to anyone who enters Amazon through the blog's widget.  It does help me feed my habit purchase a few good books to read.  ;)

A cookbook that I had preordered with credit and arrived this week is Where Women Cook Celebrates!.   This is a fabulous book from the people who publish the magazines Where Women Create and Where Women Cook.  How could it not be with articles about and recipes by such favorites as Ree Drummond, Molly Wizenberg, Serena Thompson, Susan Branch, Fifi O'Neill and many more.

The book is a feast for the eyes (I wish Amazon was set up to show you the inside of the book!).  It will definitely be one that I keep handy to peruse on long winter nights.  Not to mention, although there are only two or three recipes for each person, most of them look like recipes I'd love to try already.

One of the features is Angie Dudley (Bakerella) explaining how to make cake pops... in color... with pictures.  :)  I highly recommend this book, it would make a perfect Christmas gift for the person who loves cookbooks (and/or cooking bloggers!).

I found Williams-Sonoma Family Meals: Creating Traditions in the Kitchen on the clearance shelves at Tuesday Morning.  You can look inside it on Amazon.  I tried to explain it to Stephanie and the only thing I could think of was it is something like the River Cottage Family Cookbook (which we both own).

It is FULL of colorful pictures, making it a beautiful book to read and the instructions are kid friendly.  It is not a cookbook which has you open a can of this and a box of that.  The recipes are "from scratch" and even includes information like gardening and what fruits-veggies have the most pesticides. 

I've enjoyed reading it and it is definitely on my list for "long winter nights" reading.

A precious friend sent me a couple books for my birthday, one of them being Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood (the other about saving money on grocery shopping and it is in my stack to be read soon).  I loved Trisha's first cookbook and have really enjoyed this one, too.

When interviewed about this book, she laughs about making bacon its' own food group and about how much cheese is in the recipes... which is what makes it GREAT.  But there are healthy recipes, too.  I have her monkey bread muffins marked to try soon and her country quiche.  This is also the cookbook where she gives the recipe for homemade tahini sauce.  Love it!

Another book I've been perusing this past week is one of my favorites.  It currently sits in the front of my red wire container in the kitchen (where I keep the recipe books I'm using the most right now).  Susan Branch's Autumn book has to be brought out and displayed this time of year.

I have enjoyed this cookbook for many autumnal seasons.  It is fun to read as are all of Susan's books and it has really good recipes.

I've also been perusing recipes in magazines... it's the cooler air!  (Although we are in the midst of another hot spell!)  Now I am off to have cheese, crackers, and an apple for dinner... no, really.