The Cookbook Junkies

My Tastebook review for Baking with Less Sugar by Joanne Chang can be located here.   So that you have all the information  you need, there are a few corrections involving the weight measurements for dates that can be found at the Flour site here.  Lastly, Oprah.com has shared a few of the book’s recipes and they can be found here.

 

I have an extra copy of this lovely book for one of you.  Please leave one comment on this post for a chance to win. US addresses only and a random winner will be chosen on May 8th.  Good luck!  Random Number Generator Picked #15 – Karen Fender!

 

 

Seven Spoons by Tara Brady, a well respected food blogger from Canada, contains over 100 of her best recipes. There are unique recipes, engaging essays and gorgeous photography that Brady’s readers have grown to expect.

 

 

My Best Biscuits, Dipper Eggs with Cheese-Fried Toast Soldiers, Roasted Peaches with Glazed Sesame Oats, Blackberry Buttermilk Whole Grain Scones are a few of the enticing recipes from the Breads and Breakfast section. The Lunchs Chapter is chock full of midday meal recipes – including Mushrooms and Greens with Toast, a Burger Treated Like a Steak and more.

Soups, Starters and Snacks is my one of my favorite chapters with Celeriac Soup with Green Horseradish Oil, Pickled Strawberry Preserves, Blitzed Ricotta with Peas, Hard Cider Gougeres, Halloumi in Chermoula, Garlic and Cilantro Laccha Paratha, Pakora (Indian Vegetable Fritters) and Vietnamese-Inspired Sausage Rolls.

The Suppers Chapter contain such gems as Lemon Bucatini with Roasted Kale, Bee-Stung Fried Chicken, Za-atar Chicken and Roasted Vegetable Salad, Five Spice Steak; while Vegetable and Sides hold Brussels Sprout and Hazelnut Salad, Olive and Orange Cauliflower, Mind Changing Okra, Confetti Rice, Baked Irish Mash, and Roasted Carrots with Harissa Aioli and Dukkah.

Sweets, Treats and Sips serves up Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookies, Caramel Apple Pie, Walnut Cherry Oat Butter Tart Pie (oh my), Coconut Kheer with Bronzed Pineapple, Blood Orange Stout Cake, Whiskey Self-Saucing Pudding Cakes, Plum Macaroon Cake and more.

I am very excited about cooking through this book full of unique and tasty dishes.

GIVEAWAY:   Please leave a comment on this post by May 6 if you would like to win a copy of this book.   US addresses only.  A random winner will be chosen on that day.  Good luck! Random Number Generator chose #59 — Jill Kalish – congratulations!

 

 

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and if you are looking for gift ideas to show that special woman in your life how much you love and appreciate her, do I have some suggestions for you!  First off, what better gift than providing her with a custom cookbook showcasing her personalized recipe collection.   TasteBook, a wonderful site, that I contribute to as well as love to browse myself for recipes and information, offers professional custom cookbooks.  Not only is this a wonderful gift idea, but a fantastic way to preserve your family recipes for future generations.

The custom cookbooks are priced at $34.95 for a 50-page book with the option to add additional recipes at any time, pricing can be found here.   TasteBook is offering one of my readers a chance to win a custom cookbook. Please see the end of the post for more information on the giveaway.  Mandy has also provided us with some wonderful tips to help you while creating your custom cookbook which I have inserted at the bottom of this post.

To find out more about ordering a custom cookbook, click here.   Now through May 20, 2015 TasteBook is offering 10 percent off your TasteBook Orders using code MOM2015 and free ground shipping when you order 3 or more TasteBooks.  Why not order also order for birthdays and the holiday season to take advantage of this promotion?

It is no secret my favorite gift (besides cash) is something cooking related.  If you are still  searching for the perfect cookbook to give as a gift this Mother’s Day, check out my Spring Round Up post as well as TasteBook’s site to gather some ideas for cookbook giving.

Some of my top cookbook picks would be The New Midwestern Table, Mastering Pasta, The Baking Bible, The Food of Taiwan, Extra Virgin, The Larousee Book of Bread, Food52 Genius Recipes and Breakfast. One of these titles is a great gift but add a pasta maker, banneton basket, perfect pie plate, dough whisk, Ebelskiver pan (great book on Ebelskivers here and here) or a gorgeous wooden spoon and you have an incredible gift for the special person in your life.

Nutella stuffed chocolate Ebelskivers were made for breakfast recently and were based on this recipe.  Make mom a batch and give her a pan so she can make her own!

If you are hosting a Mother’s Day breakfast, brunch, or dinner and are looking for recipes and inspiration; or are looking for entertaining tips and recipe ideas for a memorable and hassle-free gathering — the TasteBook Blog is a wonderful resource.

Another great Mother’s Day cookbook gift idea is Soul Food Love.  This book delivers a healthful look at soul food cooking from mother-daughter literary duo Alice Randall & Caroline Randall Williams.  It chronicles four generations of cooking and eating in the Randall’s black American family. The first eighty pages covers the history of the Randall family including their struggles with food issues and health concerns.

The remaining 130 pages contain recipes such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Chicken, Vegetable and Wild Rice Stew and Spicy Pepper Chicken.   Warm Onion and Rosemary Salad, Red and Black Bean Burgers, Red Bean and Brown Rice, Oakwood Bean Loaf and Poet’s Pot Pie offer us tasty, filling vegetarian options.   The recipes for Peanut Chicken Stew and Poet’s Pot Pie are linked above to the Tastebook site and are reprinted from Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family. Copyright © 2015 by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams. Photographs copyright © 2015 by Penny De Los Santos. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.

 NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:  TasteBook is offering one of my readers a copy of Soul Food Love, a TasteBook tote bag and a Custom Cookbook “TasteBook” of your own recipes!  I wish I could enter! This offer is available for US and Canadian addresses only.  To enter, please leave a comment on this post telling me about the best gift you have received for any occasion (or no occasion at all).  A random winner will be chosen on May 5th.  Good luck!  RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR PICKED #29!  Judy Pike Proud Krist — Congratulations!

Tips from Mandy for compiling your custom cookbook:

Whether you’re considering making a TasteBook for yourself like I did, or creating one as a gift for Mother’s Day, here are my top tips and insights about the process:

Joining

First things first: Sign up as a member (it’s free). This gives you access to building your own cookbook and uploading your recipes. Plus, you can search and save recipes already on the site provided by TasteBook, as well as community recipes from other members.

Uploading

There’s no getting around it: You’ll have to manually type in and upload the recipes. I know, I know. But the good news is that everything can be done in one form, and if you have the recipe in an email, you can simply copy and paste the text right into the new recipe form. It’ll format the ingredients and number the steps for you.

Photos

I decided to take photos of the dishes for my TasteBook, but it’s not required. You can choose to leave the photo field blank or, like many members do, add a personal touch by using family photos. Just make sure the photo is yours—no borrowing from the internet or a published work by someone else!

Privacy

When adding a new recipe in the recipe form, you’ll see two boxes right above the green “Save” button on the bottom right: “Not for Sale” and “Make Private.” Checking the first means your recipe will be searchable by other members, but they cannot add it to their own TasteBooks. The second option enables you to make your recipe completely private. No one else can see it but you. (A good option if a particularly goofy family photo accompanies a recipe!) If you want other members to see your recipe and possibly add it to their own TasteBooks, leave both boxes unchecked.

Gifting

If your book is going to be a gift, make sure to check that option when the cookbook is in your cart. This way, you can add a special note, in addition to the dedication page inside the book. You can also ship multiple copies of your book—a great option if your TasteBook contains family recipes, which you can then give to all of the mothers in your family.

FAQs

Before you start building your own cookbook, I’d watch this speedy 30-second video. It gives a nice overview of what a TasteBook is and how it looks. Then, head to the Cookbook Studio page. On the left-hand side of the page, you’ll see a section that says, “Create a Cookbook.” I found the details listed under “Pricing & Specs” and “Shipping Info” extremely helpful to answer basic questions (how much, when can I get it, all that good stuff). If you find yourself needing help along the way, head to this FAQ page. It’s chockfull of pointers that’ll help you get to where you need to go!