The New Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook by Ellen Brown

new cast iron skillet cookbookCast iron skillets are booming in popularity: they’re versatile, they’re relatively inexpensive, and they don’t have the toxic chemicals released by artificial nonstick pans. Though cast iron was the only pan in grandma’s kitchen, the 150 recipes in The New Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook are fresh and updated, from cornbread with Parmesan cheese and sun-dried tomatoes to frittatas, Vietnamese spring rolls, and to-die-for sticky buns.(description from publisher)

Ceviche the Peruvian Kitchen by

cevicheCeviche the Peruvian Kitchen is the first major Peruvian cookbook published for a US audience, featuring 100 recipes from the owner of London’s critically acclaimed restaurant Ceviche.

Flavor-driven and captivating, Peruvian dishes are unique and familiar at the same time. This cuisine combines native ingredients that are becoming increasingly popular in their own right (such as quinoa and amaranth) with Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese techniques and ingredients to create fresh, multicultural gourmet dishes that appeal to America’s ravenous taste for ethnic food.

From sizzling barbecued beef anticucho skewers, superfood salads featuring quinoa and physalis, and piquant ceviche to airy giant choclo corn cakes and lucuma ice dessert, Ceviche the Peruvian Kitchen is the first authoritative cookbook to bring the delicious dishes from Peru’s lush jungles, Andean peaks, and seaside villages to US kitchens. (description from publisher)

Back to Butter by Molly Chester

back to butterWhat if butter and other “banished” foods like eggs, cream, and bacon had the inherent potential to restore our health and well-being–and that of future generations? It’s a pretty good question, isn’t it?

Traditional foods are the real, whole, unprocessed ingredients of our ancestors’ kitchens. These simple foods nourished us for centuries, before modern food processing turned our health upside down. Their value is once again gaining recognition. Traditional foods include: Grass-fed Meats and Wild-caught Seafood Organic, Farm Fresh Produce Pastured, Whole, and Raw Dairy Healthy Saturated Fats and Unrefined Oils Soaked and/or Sprouted Grains, Nuts, Seeds, and Beans Fermented Vegetables and Cultured Condiments Unrefined Sweeteners. Back to Butter explores these topics and more. Beautifully photographed and divided into two parts, Part I teaches you how to stock a traditional foods pantry and offers step-by-step guidance on the techniques and preparation methods practiced in traditional foods–including sprouting, soaking, and fermenting. Part II showcases more than 75 mouthwatering recipes, from main meals to side dishes, desserts, and more,

Learn just how nourishing and delicious it can be to revisit the wisdom of our ancestors and return Back to Butter. (description from publisher)

Sweet Paul Eat & Make by Paul Lowe

sweet paulIt began as a little blog highlighting the recipes and crafts of the Norwegian-born food and prop stylist Paul Lowe. Six years later, Sweet Paul is an online magazine followed by millions and a print quarterly sold nationwide in specialty stores. Praised by the New York Times as “a trove of seasonal delights”, it is turning heads with its easy, elegant food and style-setting aesthetic.

Divided into Morning, Brunch, Noon and Night, with color palettes to match, Sweet Paul Eat & Make includes breakfast dishes like Morning Biscuits with Cheddar, Dill and Pumkin Seeds and brunches like Smoke Salmon Hash with Scallions, Dill and Eggs. For lunch, there’s a super-quick Risotto with Asparagus and for dinner, Maple-Roasted Chicken and a stunning Norwegian specialty, The World’s Best Cake.

Rustically chic craft projects – paper flowers make out of coffee filters, a vegetable-dyed tablecloth and a trivet from wooden clothespins – will captivate even those who are all thumbs. (description from publisher)

The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook by Liz Gutman and Jen King

liddabit sweetsChocolate Mint Meltaways. PB&J Cups. Chai Latte Lollipops. Cherry Cordials, Spicy Pralines, and the cult favorite, Beer and Pretzel Caramels. Plus candy bars-the Twist Bar, the Nutty Bar, the Coconut-Lime Bar, inspired by commercial favorites (Snickers, Twix) but taken to new heights of deliciousness.

Yes, you really can make these sublime treats at home thanks to Liz Gutman and Jen King, the classically trained pastry chefs who traded in their toques to make candy-and now lead the candy-craft movement as proprietors of Liddabit Sweets, the Brooklyn confectionery.

The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook is the perfect marriage of sugar and spice, packed with 75 foolproof recipes, full-color photographs, and lots of attitude. The approachable recipes, offbeat humor, and step-by-step photographs remind us that home candymaking is meant to be fun. The flavor combinations, down-to-earth advice, and easy directions make this the guide to turn to whether making candy for a treat, a holiday, a gift, or a bake sale. (description from publisher)

Plum: Gratifying Vegan Dishes by Makini Howell

plumPlum Bistro, Seattle’s wildly popular vegan restaurant, is known for its delicious and innovative vegan recipes using local ingredients. Sure to please both vegans and meat-eaters, Plum: Gratifying Vegan Dishes from Seattle’s Plum Bistro features Plum’s flavorful, comforting dishes for brunch, soups, salads, entrées, desserts, and more. This photo-filled book features 60 recipes, including Pesto Plum Pizza, Good Old-Fashioned French Toast, Barbecue Oyster-Mushroom Sliders, Fresh Blueberry Shortcake, homemade vegan pasta, and more.

Bring home delicious vegan cuisine with the Plum cookbook! (description from publisher)

Carla’s Comfort Foods by Carla Hall

carlas comfort foodsFor Carla Hall food is a wonderful way to forge connections with and between people. In her delicious new cookbook, Carla’s Comfort Foods, she finds inspiration by going around the world in search of the universal home-cooked flavors of comfort.

Spinning standbys into distinctive new recipes, she combines the beloved flavors of home with the most delectable, enticing spices and tastes of international cuisine. Carla starts with your essential recipe for perfect all-American burgers; from there, you can choose to do them up Persian-style with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce, lime, and fragrant spices; or give them a Vietnamese twist with pickled veggies, scallions, ginger, and cilantro; or take your burgers to Morocco with gutsy spices, chiles, and feta cheese.

Full of Carla’s entertaining stories, the book shows how seasoning can transform any simple recipe. A comprehensive spice and flavor guide lets you chart your own course in the kitchen by turning your favorite go-to dish into a culinary trip around the world. In recipes that reflect her own vivacious personality, Carla takes you from Southern Chicken with Milk Gravy to West African Spicy- Sweet Chicken Stew; from German Double-Mustard Potato Salad to Moroccan Spice-Rubbed Beef Roast to Indian Chile, Pea, and Coconut Chutney; and from Southern Peach Cobbler to Greek Baklava. We all need an aromatic bowl of chicken soup from time to time; with Carla’s Comfort Foods, you can perk it up Italian-style with fresh basil and oregano; or have a taste of India with cilantro, curry, cumin, and turmeric; for a Caribbean treat, make it fragrant with lime, thyme, and cayenne pepper.

From Nashville to Naples to Nigeria, nothing gathers friends and family around the table like the flavors of home. Now you can hug your friends and family with Carla’s incredibly flavorful takes on creamy soups and noodles, fragrant stews and dumplings, and mouthwatering pastries, pies, and tarts. Join Carla for a delicious journey! (description from publisher)

Love Your Leftovers by Nick Lowe

love your leftoversNick Evans runs the popular food blog macheesmo.com, and he came up with a simple yet effective concept for everyday cooking: Create one foundation dish, in decent quantity, when you have the time–perhaps on a lazy Sunday afternoon–and then repurpose it to make other delicious dishes throughout the week. Cooking this way saves time and money and allows busy people to eat well every night.

Love Your Leftovers includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert options as well as a wide range of cuisines. Each main dish will have eight to ten creative recipes for leftovers. So, if you make a Roast Chicken one night, you can then make Chicken Tortilla Soup, Creamy Chicken Pesto Pasta, or Chicken and Dumplings another night. A Flank Steak can morph into Spicy Beef Wontons or Vietnamese Noodle Salad. Spicy Black Beans can become Black Bean Burgers or Crunchy Black Bean Tacos. Love Your Leftovers also features chapters on kitchen and pantry basics and Meal Planning 101, as well as a helpful index of vegetarian and thirty-minute meals. (description from publisher)

From the Wood-Fired Oven by Richard Miscovich

from the wood fired ovenIn the past twenty years, interest in wood-fired ovens has increased dramatically in the United States and abroad, but most books focus on how to bake bread or pizza in an oven. From the Wood-Fired Oven offers many more techniques for home and artisan bakers – from baking bread and making pizza to recipes on how to get as much use as possible out of a single oven firing, from the first live-fire roasting to drying wood for the next fire. From the Wood-Fired Oven offers a new take on traditional techniques for professional bakers, but is simple enough to inspire any nonprofessional baking enthusiast.

Leading baker and instructor Richard Miscovich wants people to use their ovens to fulfill the goal of maximum heat utilization. Readers will find methods and techniques for cooking and baking in a wood-fired oven in the order of the appropriate temperature window. What comes first–pizza, or pastry? Roasted vegetables or a braised pork loin? Clarified butter or beef jerky? In addition to an extensive section of delicious formulas for many types of bread, readers will find chapters on: Making pizza and other live-fire flatbreads; Roasting fish and meats; Grilling, steaming, braising, and frying; Baking pastry and other recipes beyond breads; Rendering animal fats and clarifying butter; Food dehydration and infusing oils; And myriad other ways to use the oven’s residual heat. Appendices include oven-design recommendations, a sample oven temperature log, Richard’s baker’s percentages, proper care of a sourdough starter, and more.

From the Wood Fired Oven is more than a cookbook; it reminds the reader of how a wood-fired oven (and fire, by extension) draws people together and bestows a sense of comfort and fellowship, very real human needs, especially in uncertain times. Indeed, cooking and baking from a wood-fired oven is a basic part of a resilient lifestyle, and a perfect example of valuable traditional skills being put to use in modern times. (description from publisher)

Bacon 24/7 by Theresa Gilliam

baconEven as pork prices rise and the economy fluctuates, consumption of bacon remains steady. The American Meat Institute reports that bacon has an almost cult-like following; the Facebook page About Bacon has more than 10 million Likes. Its sublime savory taste has been endorsed by scientists as well: bacon boasts umami, the seductive “fifth taste” that heightens and rises beyond sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Bacon isn’t just an infatuation–it’s a way of life.

In Bacon 24/7, author Theresa Gilliam and photographer E Jane Armstrong have teamed up to create a fun and current cookbook to feed the need for bacon. They include recipes for every hour, from dawn through dark, as well as info on topics such as how to cure and smoke your own bacon. Drool-worthy photographs highlight dishes such as Pasta Carbonara, Pork Belly Hash with Kale and Sweet Potatoes, and Apple Pie with Bacon Strudel.

Any evening that begins with a Bacon-Infused Manhattan holds the promise of being an unforgettable night. (description from publisher)