I have been a HUGE fan of the Smitten Kitchen blog for ages. So when she came out with a cookbook, I immediately bought it. I love her photography and her writing. How can you not like a woman who tells you how to cool things off more quickly, so that you can eat them sooner? Or who says you can save the leftovers and then quips, "good luck with that" (meaning, of course, that you will eat every last bite in the next 20 minutes—and I did indeed). I admit that I expected a rehashing of most of the recipes that were already on the blog, but I wanted to support Deb Perelman and thank her for her wonderful work, with some of my American dollars. I was pleasantly surprised to find that over 85 percent of the book contains all new recipes. It is one of the only cookbooks I have ever bought where I have made almost the entire book since buying it and every recipe has been a success. Every single one. That NEVER happens (at least to me). The recipes are written in a very clear, straight forward manner and every recipe has a photo, which is HUGE for visual learners like me. They are all family friendly, which is big if you have picky kids. Even some of the recipes I thought the kids might not go for, they loved. If I could only recommend one cookbook this year, this would be it.
Pictured below (from left to right and top to bottom / titles are not exact): cream crackers; coffee toffee; pancetta, white bean and chard pot pies; gazpacho halibut; short ribs; chocolate hazelnut crepe cake (this one is labor intensive but AMAZING); arborio rice pudding (from the blog, not the book); olive oil grapefruit pound cake; and fig and sea salt challah. All SO yummy. I wrote about the coffee toffee, the pot pies and the pound cake on Deconstructed Kitchen (recipes included).
