Spring Cookbooks 2014

SO many cookbooks, so little time! Below you’ll discover new spring publishings, as well as some from the past season that I’ve enjoyed cooking from and leisurely reading before bed. Enjoy this session of Spring Cookbooks 2014! 

Back To Butter by Molly Chester & Sandy Schrecengost

Have you ever thought about how different the diet of our great-grandparents was? You’ve probably heard the phrase, “if your grandmother wouldn’t recognize the ingredients, don’t buy it”, and it’s one to live by. In Back To Butter, you’ll be guided towards a more wholesome diet, one that your ancestors ate and one packed with ingredients that have been shunned over the past decades: butter, eggs, full-fat dairy, and meat. Rediscover how whole foods can improve your health with gorgeous recipes, pantry guides, and basics like how to make your own creme fraiche, yogurt cream cheese, nut butter, and more.

Book of Buns by Jane Mason

If you’re a bread lover like myself, this new book by Jane Mason (author of another favorite called All You Knead Is Bread), is the book for you. Take a trip around the world through the bun recipes Jane shares in this book. Not only will you find recipes, but she makes sure to show you step by step guides in making the basic bun shapes. Travel to Greece with a recipe for Bastounakia, to China with a recipe for Char Sui Bao, to the UK with a recipe for Hot Cross Buns, and more!

First Prize Pies by Allison Kaye

One of my personal goals this year is to bake more pies and this book by Allison Kaye is holding my hand and guiding me towards a life with more pies. Called “Brooklyn’s Sweetest Baker”, Allison has recipes for every occasion from The Kentucky Derby to St. Patrick’s Day and everything in between. On my list of pies to make in May: Buttermilk Chess, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Toasted Coconut Cream, Mint Julep Cream, and Nutella Pie. Not only are the recipes in this book written in a gorgeous, helpful voice, the photography, done by Tina Rupp, is out of this world!

Great Food Jobs 2 by Irena Chalmers 

During my time at the Culinary Institute of America, I had the pleasure to take a Gastronomy class with Mrs. Chalmers and it changed the way I connected with professors. She’s passionate about the food industry, specifically about connecting people to their dream jobs and that’s just what her second book in her Great Food Jobs series does! Love the Boston Red Sox and social media? She’ll connect you to being their social media manager. Adore art museums and baking desserts? She’ll link you up to working at an in-house bakery in a museum in NYC! Whether you want to work in retail, art, design, science, technology, history, culture, or ANYTHING else that has to do with the food industry, this book is the inspiration you need!

Haute Dogs by Russell Van Kraayenburg 

Although I’ll be doing a full review and giveaway for Memorial Day, I wanted to get this book on your radar now, since it might become THE book of the spring/summer season. Packed with delicious recipes for hot dogs, buns, and condiments, it’s basically all you will need during grilling season. My favorite chapter of the book has got to be the South and Central American dogs, that include: El Completo, Colombian Pineapple Dog, Loaded Guatemalan Meat Dog, and Ecuadorian Street Dog!

Italian Kitchen by Anna Del Conte 

Don’t have the cash to fly to Italy for a gastronomical trip of a lifetime? Spend less than $20 on this book and recreate some of the best, most traditional recipes of Italy with some modern twists that appeal to the most contemporary of home cooks. The photography in this book, by Jason Lowe, is fabulous and will make you want to dive into bowls of cool antipasti, fresh pastas, creamy risotto, and dolci!

Mediterranean Cooking by Pamela Clark 

One of the cuisines I’d like to learn more about is the food of the Mediterranean and I think this is the book to help me meet that goal. Sure, my love for olives, lemon, garlic, chickpeas, and fresh seafood is there, but I need help on the recipe front. Clark writes a book that’s simple to follow and recipes that are classic recipes to enjoy with family and friends. Not too complicated, yet true to the area, this book is packed with 150 gorgeous color photographs that accompany the gorgeous food. Even more so, I’m excited to bake from the Mediterranean dessert chapter!

 

The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson

There comes a time when you fall in love with a cookbook and I think I’ve fallen in love. The Forest Feast is not just a cookbook, but a work of art! The recipes aren’t typed up in Times New roman, but a mix of handwritten notes and a typewriter style font, which gives the book a personal touch. Simple vegetarian recipes from her cabin in the woods, Gleeson knows how to not only create gorgeous recipes but evoke a sense of hospitality and creativity in your everyday life.

The New Southern Table by Brys Stephens 

A creative way to index recipes in a cookbook always gets me, and Stephens categorizes his recipes by the following: okra, field peas, squash, collard greens, rice, corn, sweet potatoes, lima beans, peanuts, pecans, figs, peaches, and watermelon. All Southern ingredients that have been revisited and reimagined, there recipes in this book will have you salivating! Recipes like Grilled Oysters with Spicy Sweet Corn Salsa, Sweet Potato Sorghum and Rum Flan, and Peaches with Pecan Mint Pesto are a couple of recipes that I’ll be making this summer!

 

Fresh from the Farm by Susie Middleton 

Written by local farmer, Middleton lives on the island of Martha’s Vineyard and her latest cookbook is a story of her farm, her recipes, and her love for the island. I’ve met her on various accounts and her sweet demeanor makes me want to invite myself over for lunch! I’ll be fully reviewing and cooking from this book this summer, but if you’re a lover of all this fresh, farm to table, and Martha’s Vineyard, this book needs to go into your cart!

 

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Thank you to the following publishers for sending the above review copies: Fair Winds Press, Stewart Tabori & Chang (Abrams), The Taunton Press, Sterling Epicure, Beaufort Books, Quirk Books, and Ryland Peters & Small. Even though these cookbooks were provided without charge, I was not monetarily compensated and all opinions are my own, as always!