Happy National Cookbook Month!

A few of my favorite cookbooks

Oct 19, 2023

There really is a monthly celebration for every topic under the sun. As a book enthusiast, I was delighted to learn that even cookbooks get a whole month dedicated to their deliciousness.

Some people read them strictly for recipes, others for the stories behind the recipes.

More often than not, I end up winging it in the kitchen. We have a wonderful CSA box from Good Box Organics that arrives each Thursday and we create meal plans from whatever happens to be in the box. Sometimes we’re feeling culinarily inspired to create and other times we rely on cookbooks.

These are my standard go-to books. Keep in mind, I have two athletes in the house and one is a vegetarian and I tend to eat pretty vegetable forward. In our twenties, I remember my husband and I used to spend hours and hours making elaborate meals in the kitchen, but between hockey practice and our two new foster dogs (yup, you read that right!) we want fast and filling. And if it can be repurposed into a second meal, even better!

I’ve been following Deb Perelman’s blog since the kids were toddlers! Her meals are filling and feel like comfort food. She incorporates lots of veggies, “asparagus blanketing a pizza; ratatouille dressing up a sandwich; cauliflower masquerading as pesto.” And this meal on the cover: poached eggs on a bed of fresh tomatoes in biscuits is a divine weekend treat!

Maybe there isn’t a more apt moment to be eating from this cookbook. Ottolenghi was born in the Jewish west side of Jerusalem and Sami Tamimi on the Arab east side. The book has over 120 recipes all packed full of flavor. We made this roasted chicken in fennel, arak and clementines a few days ago.

Eat Like You Give A F*ck by Thug Kitchen is full of tongue-in-cheek and quippy asides and the recipes are delicious! And full of veggies. Roasted beer and lime cauliflower tacos, pumpkin chili. Grilled peach salsa. I should have eaten before writing this post.

I LOVE a one pot meal. And slow cooker meals and pressure cooker meals (we make beans almost daily in the pressure cooker.) If I’m being honest, I bought this cookbook because the cover art reminds me of one of my favorite artists, Milton Avery. But inside, it gets even better. This vegetarian cookbook has over 200 recipes including Persian Noodle Soup, Carrot & Sesame Pancakes; Crispy Butter Beans with Kale, Lemon & Parmesan; Quick Squash Lasagna; Saag Aloo Shepard's Pie, to name just a few.

Grand Central Market is a staple of the downtown Los Angeles area. And it’s conveniently located near The Broad Museum and The Last Bookstore, one of my favorite independent bookstores in the city. At Grand Central Market, you’ll find a host of amazing food stands offering so much variety and this cookbook does the same with chefs offering a favorite recipe or two from their menus such as From Horse Thief BBQ's Nashville-Style Hot Fried Chicken Sando to Madcapra's Sumac Beet Soda to Golden Road's Crunchy Avocado Tacos,

This book, The Indian Slow Cooker, is a great way to get protein into my veggie kid through beans and lentils and tofu. The slow cooker is my jam: you set it, forget about it and come home to a delicious smelling house and cooked food.

I would remiss to leave out this little ditty by Paul Hollywood. We are avid The Great British Bakeoff watchers here. These recipes go against all of my rules about being simple and fast. These require concentration and exactitude. I am not great at either of these things, so our results often end up wonky. No Paul handshakes for me, but they still taste good. Fun fact: we used to have two hamsters named Paul and Prue. Paul was bonkers.

So these are my favorites, now tell me about yours below!

(Please note that the titles link to my affiliate Bookshop.org shop that helps support me as well as independent bookshops.)

Books Are My People

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