A couple of years ago, a book called Just Married and Cooking was published. The couple was cute and camera-ready, though I thought the recipes were nothing special and I didn't keep the book.  But it seemed like a milestone in the blog phenomenon - husbands and wives blogging and publishing together.

Since then that trend has only accelerated.  Perhaps the most well-known example is that of Shauna James Ahern (aka "Gluten-Free Girl") and her husband chef Daniel Ahern, whose Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef achieved such popularity last year. In this year's follow-up, Gluten-Free Girl Every Day, the chef is demoted to a "with" credit, but  the book remains very much about their partnership and mutual inspiration.

The Aherns, to all appearances, have already "made it" with their publications.  But for many of today's blogging pairs, a book is just a starting point - a venture which, with luck and some excellent publicity, may in time lead to a self-sustaining business.  In the meantime, at least one spouse keeps up their day job.  The Sprouted Kitchen's Hugh Forte is a photographer (his terrific pictures are definitely responsible half the appeal of the book), while Sara Forte helms the stove.  Lindsay Landis and Taylor Hackbarth of Breakfast for Dinner specialize in crafts and web design. 

And the latest title to cross my doorstep comes from husband-and-wife bakers Allison and Matt Robicelli of Brooklyn's Robicelli's Bakery.  (There are so many boutique bakeries in Brooklyn I'm beginning to think they deserve their own story.)  They bake together, raise their kids together, swear (lots) together, and now they've got this book.  It's not out till October, but I'm already looking forward to its foul-mouthed launch.

Does the couple that blogs and cooks together, stay together?  Hard to say - all of these books were published in the last two years, so it's early days.  But you can be sure they'll have a tasty time trying, and a 1.5-pound,100-recipe souvenir at the end. 

Before Saturday, I had never once made panna cotta, I'm embarrassed to admit.  I'm not sure why, since I basically can't say no to a custard of any kind.  Maybe it's because I'm never quite sure the gelatin will set, or I'm afraid there will be rubbery lumps.

At any rate, the recipe caught my eye because of the buttermilk more than anything else, and it was placed on the menu for Saturday night.  After tripling the recipe and penciling in the scaled amounts on the page (I never take risks with this, after one too many scaling-in-my-head disasters), I went to work.  I bloomed the gelatin in cold liquid.  I warmed the gelatin in warm liquid.  I mixed and strained the custard.  I put it in the fridge.

I looked around.  Where was the rest of the work?  Where were the remaining 30 minutes of sifting and mixing and scraping and folding?  Could this really be a dessert?

It seems as though we're seeing a small flurry of no-bake books.  Whether it's because folks have taken a sudden dislike to their ovens, or because the gluten-free movement has spurred a greater awareness of flour-free thickeners, I don't know.

All I can tell you is that it took exactly one bite of that buttermilk panna cotta (which wasn't even from a no-bake book) for me to convert.  The same held true for the other 16 in our party.  In 10 minutes there was just a small remnant left.  My friend Allison and I scraped the leftover bit into a ramekin and stuck it in the fridge, and within another 10 minutes, that too was gone.

You can think of your latticed pies, your torched crème brûlées, your strudels and puffs as badges of courage.  Maybe you're like me, with forearm burns from many years of leaning in - into an oven.  It's not that I'm not proud of those scars, and it's not that I'll refuse to work a laminate dough for the rest of my life.

But I gotta say, it's summer.  And for once, maybe it's OK to take it easy - you don't have to take the heat, and you don't have to get out of the kitchen.

If there's one kind of a cookbook I can't resist (and goodness knows there's more like a dozen kinds I can't resist),  it's a book about weeds.  Every time I try to put a book about weeds on the Give Away pile, it's like an invisible force tugs my hand back and puts the book back on the shelf.  It's almost as hard as eradicating burdock, plantain, dandelion, sorrel, creeping charlie, chickweed, lambs-quarters, and Queen Anne's lace from my vegetable beds.

This season there seem to be an unusual number of foraging books from small presses like Quirk, Storey, and Cico.  They have differing levels of commitment to providing recipes (Backyard Foraging has hardly any, for example ),but all have appealing reference sections.  They tell you what part of the plant to pick and when to pick it and what looks similar but should be avoided at all costs, and often they offer the Latin names too, delighting the heart of every true geek.

I think of these books as kind of the opposite of those whimsical-cupcake books, which turn the obviously edible - butter and sugar and flour - into something that looks like you shouldn't be able to eat it - puppies or zombies or that sort of thing.   These are things that seem as though you shouldn't be able to eat them - acorns, hostas, stinging nettles.  And yet you can.

  I guess the real danger is now I'll start feeling like I have to save the weeds for cooking, too.  Poor garden!  I just hope I can bring myself to weed out the beds more ruthlessly than the bookshelves.

Every month Susie Chang reviews new cookbook releases and notes trends in the United States. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook."  And for our non-U.S. members, Jane and Fiona provide similar reviews for new U.K., Australia, and New Zealand releases.

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Taken overall, cookbook selections are looking curiously scant for May: few major names (the teachers, the chef-owners, the major media food writers) are releasing books, and there are no doorstop references (except for maybe Bon Appétit's big grilling book) in the works.  There are strangely few greenmarket books and only a few summer entertaining/cocktail books, although as usual there's no slacking in the barbecue department.  Either the spate of summer books we saw in March is all we're getting, or a delayed spate will surprise us after Memorial Day… 

 

Bacon Nation: 125 Irresistible Recipes, by Peter Kaminsky and Marie Rama:  Publishing a bacon book may be like shooting fish in a barrel, but one can't blame folks for wanting it published by Father's Day.

 

  

 

 

 

Fish Market: A Cookbook for Selecting and Preparing Seafood, by Kathy Hunt  : No summer is complete without a seafood primer, and Hunt's book is the latest effort at demystifying the catch.  I haven't seen it yet, so can't say whether it offers a sustainability angle (like most fish books in recent years).

  

 

 

River Cottage Veg: 200 Inspired Vegetable Recipes, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: Hard to believe that just a decade ago people simply thought of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as someone who knew how to cook offal. The River Cottage publishing juggernaut continues with its most healthful selection yet. This book has previously been published in the UK as River Cottage Veg Every Day.

 

 

 

 

Prophets of Smoked Meat:  A Journey Through Texas Barbecue, by Daniel Vaughan and Nicholas McWhirter:  More a documentary than a cookbook - and an interesting gift for those who want to read about barbecue, not just eat it.

 

 

 

 

 

Bakeless Sweets: Pudding, Panna Cotta, Fluff, Icebox Cake, and More No-Bake Desserts, by Faith Durand: Part of this summer's turn-off-the-oven trend, by Kitchn executive editor Durand.

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True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home by Emma Christensen: Another book from the Kitchn!  and right on top of the current craze for crafting your own drinks. 

 

 

  

 

Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen, by Edward Lee:  Not just smoked things and pickled things - an internationally inflected book in which the definition of Southern cuisine expands to include curries, adobos, kal bi, and miso.  (This is a Korean "Lee,"  not a scion of Robert E. or Matt and Ted.)

  

 

 Salt Block Cooking: 60 Recipes for Grilling, Chilling, Searing, and Serving on Himalayan Salt Blocks, by Mark Bitterman:  This has to be included if only because having a book devoted to a single trendy ingredient usually marks the apex of the trend.  Will that be the case for pink Himalayan salt (commonly known as "rock salt")?

 

 

  

 

Crackers & Dips: More Than 50 Handmade Snacks by Ivy Manning : Why buy crackers when you can so easily make your own with whole-grains and no preservatives? There are recipes for gluten-free crackers as well as a whole chapter of dips for pairing.

 

 

  

 

 

 

The New Wine Country Cookbook by Brigit Binns : A love letter to California's Central Coast wine country.  Wine-friendly and wine-inclusive recipes showcase the best the region has to offer.

 

 

  

 

 

The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook by Tracey Medeiros: Small, independent farms are the lifeblood of Vermont's agriculture - here the best are profiled and their produce used in rustic-yet-refined, Vermont inspired recipes.

 

  

 

 

This month's trends:

Ice cream sandwiches, not baking (that is, baking without turning on the oven), DIY beverages (especially sodas)

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And here are the new arrivals from the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand:

 From the U.K.:

 

Perfect Host, by Felicity Cloake: A Guardian columnist (and winner of "Food Journalist of the Year") produces a guide to stress-free and fun entertaining - after-work, weekends, picnics, seduction, every different occasion is covered.

 

 

  

 

Elizabeth David on Vegetables, by Elizabeth David:  A collection of the best recipes from the celebrated British cookbook author, published to commemorate the centenary of her birth.  This is the first time these life-time's worth of vegetable recipes from the culinary legend have been published in one book.

 

 

    

 

Chocolat, by Eric Lanlard:  Master Patissier Eric Lanlard shares more than 100 of his favourite recipes that use the ingredient he loves the most - chocolate. Eric has been twice winner of Continental Patissier of the Year but the recipes are not just for pastry wizards - there are simple-to-make bakes and sauces as well as show-stopping party pieces.

 

  

 

The Only Recipes You'll Ever Need, by Tony Turnbull:  A novel concept from the Food Editor at The Times.  Take the standard ingredients/styles of cooking that most people cook every night and present 4 alternative ways to prepare them. He uses 60 different ingredients/dishes and has 4 variations for each, so 240 recipes in total.

 

 

 

 

And from Australia & New Zealand:

Not Quite Nigella by Lorraine Elliott:   From passionate home cook to Australia's most popular food blogger, Not Quite Nigella  is the go-to internet destination for hundreds of thousands of food lovers from around the world. This is the story of Lorraine's journey revealing the pitfalls, triumphs and challenges of becoming a full-time food blogger, and shares the best of her new-found wisdom: the secret to winning a man's heart through food, the key to baking perfect macarons, tips on hosting unforgettable dinner parties, and how to create a successful blog. 

 

 

  

Baked: Treats for Breakfast, Lunch and Tea  by Dean Brettschneider:  Known as the Global Baker, Dean shares the recipes and tricks of the trade from his wonderful bakeries that he has established in Shanghai and Singapore.  Taking inspiration from all corners of the globe, Dean terms his baking as New World style. His recipes encompass what his bakeries are about - simple and stylish and include delectable treats for breakfast, lunch and dinner and anything in between.

 

 

 

 

The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet - Recipes on a Budget: by Manny Noakes & Peter Clifton:  The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet has inspired thousands of Australians to lose weight and improve their overall health. This brand new collection of more than 135 recipes shows you how to eat well without breaking the bank or compromising on quality or nutrition

 

    

The Bookery Cook  by Jessica, Georgia and Maxine Thompson:  The Thompson sisters - Jessica, Georgia and Maxine created a blog, thebookerycook.com, to celebrate their love of food. Instead of photographing their chosen dishes, they made contact with artists all over the world, who supplied dedicated artworks, in a huge variety of styles and media, to illustrate the recipes. This book will appeal to lovers of art as much as lovers of food. 

 

 

  

The Original Lebanese Cookbook  by Dawn, Elaine and Selway Anthony: The Original Lebanese Cookbook, published in 1978, was the first authentic and comprehensive book of Lebanese cookery ever published outside of Lebanon and is back in a beautiful new edition. The collection of 150 Lebanese recipes passed down from mother to daughter for generations, includes favorites such as Kibbi, Tabbouleh, Hoummus and Baba Ghannouj and a generous selection of meat-free and dairy-free meals.

 

 

The "good enough" cookbook is a concept that's come to me over my years of reviewing cookbooks.  It sounds a little churlish (think of Obama's "likeable enough" comment and the uprorar that caused..), but it's not.  In fact, a few of my favorite cookbooks started out as "good enough" cookbooks.  It's an idea that's helped me make sense of why certain cookbooks have a basic appeal, at least for me.

"Good enough" cookbooks are everywhere once you start looking.  They might be ethnic, or single-subject, or personality-driven, or none of the above.  They're about average length (100 recipes, plus or minus). They've got nice photographs for at least some of the recipes, and good design overall.  They're priced at $18-25 for a paperback and $30-35 for a hardcover. 

The recipes are usually one page long, give or take, and in the "Something with something and something" format - or shall we say, "A with B and C," where A is a familiar component, like spaghetti or roast chicken or lamb chops or baked eggplant. B and C are the elements which render it distinctive.  Sometimes one of them is a little bit exotic, but usually not both. "With hazelnuts and currants" or "with arugula and cranberry" or "with balsamic vinegar and marjoram" or "with bacon and kumquats".

My theory is that it's often the B and C that make you buy the cookbook, or not.  Are they ingredients you personally like? But haven't before thought of trying together?  Is the A something you make pretty often anyway, like pasta or muffins or burgers or salad?  Well, then, you may have a book that's pretty hard to resist.

For me, "good enough" cookbooks play out over time.  Some of them end up visiting the kitchen more and more often - especially if they're EYB-indexed! -  till they become favorites.  And some end up being not good enough (or not exciting enough, or not original enough) after all. 

But now that I think about it, what's "good enough" for me might not be the same as what makes a cookbook "good enough" for you (incidentally, I also have a known weakness for Baskerville-family typefaces, especially in recipe headers).  What criteria reliably make you look again at a new cookbook and wonder if you have a home for it on your shelves?  What basic features appeal to you again and again?

I'm a bit late with this week's post, mostly because I've been up to my ears in the summer cookbook roundup.  It was an exciting batch of books, but what struck me especially forcefully this time round was the predominance of outstanding single-subject books (both in the top 10 and the shortlist).

It's not that single-subject books have been scarce over the last several years.  Publishers know that people like them, and some, like Robert Rose, Inc., specialize in them.  But I had thought that the wide availability of online content, the democratization of expertise, the dominance of Youtube would all mean that people would look to other media to learn, say, all about ice cream sandwiches.  And as for recipes, I would have thought that except for us here on EYB, with our searchable libraries, most of the world simply would just Google them.

Maybe that's still true.  All I can say is that in today's single-subject cookbooks, recipes are just the beginning.  They're packed with great reference information, sidebars, chart, fantastic photographs (often with step-by-step illustrations).  They've got histories, cultural context, sometimes even personal anecdotes.

Can you get all that stuff online for free?  Of course you can, but you'll have to hunt around.  And you won't be able to immerse yourself in the subject, or flip back and forth between pages, or browse it on the beach.  In other words, all the things we love about books - the sheer amount of value packed into one appealing, portable package - are what make single-subject books so irreplaceable.

What single-subject books do you love?  And are there some subjects you'd rather turn to the internet to educate yourself about?

With Mother's Day fast receding into the rear-view mirror, I thought it would be interesting to look more closely at a phenomenon which seems to be especially noticeable this year:  cookbooks by those whose parents are better-known than they are.

April brought Old-School Comfort Food, by Alex Guarnaschelli - the daughter of Maria Guarnaschelli, the cookbook editor (most famously of the controversial 1997 Joy of Cooking).  Having established herself as an executive chef (restaurants Butter and The Darby) and TV food personality, the younger Guarnaschelli produced a cookbook with none of the flaws of restaurant cookbooks: although the recipes are mostly not new, the book itself is accessible, direct, nicely-produced, and - perhaps unsurprisingly - well-edited.

Also last month came Daphne Oz's Relish: an Adventure in Food, Style, and Everyday Fun.  Oz - the daughter of the famous Dr. Oz - is a cohost of "The Chew" on ABC - is making a bid for lifestyle gurudom.  So her recipes (there aren't that many of them) focus on easy food - pasta, salads, grains - and are interspersed with tips on applying your mascara, developing a fitness routine, and how to tell a "confidant" from an "acquaintance".

Perhaps the most striking of all is the just-published Batali Bros. Cookbook, a slender tome the size of a picture book, written by Mario Batali's Benno (16) and Leo (14).  The latter and greater half of the book are recipes by the big M himself - the abundant, authentic-spirited Italian fare we're used to seeing from him.  The first half, however, is entirely written by the sons, and the recipes are no more than what most might think their teens up to handling: French toast, scrambled eggs, meatballs, pasta.  They're written with charm ("Though the best meatballs are in italy, these will come very close.")- and indeed, that these boys chose to write a cookbook at all is disarming.  But if their father weren't who he is, it's hard to imagine the book would have been published.

With the exception of this last case, children of celebrities generally mention their parents as little as possible, clearly hoping to be judged on their own merits, their recipes, their talents.  (A sentiment I can understand.  When I was an academic book editor, I never wanted anyone to think my position came from my dad's status as an art publisher.  And he never mentioned to anyone that his dad was at one time the premier of China.  In neither case did our fathers have anything to do with launching our careers, other than providing a stable middle-class upbringing.)

Nevertheless, these books provide a fascinating glimpse of how parents' career choices can affect their kids'- and maybe, possibly, down the line, be eclipsed by them.  

You know those "suggested menus" offered by many cookbooks?  Where they tell you what goes with what, from starters to salads to mains to sides to sweets, and what wine you should serve with what?  And often they have a picture to go with it - of the whole beautiful spread, sometimes being elegantly nibbled by an octet of attractive people whose clothes are conspicuously cooking-stain-free? You know, those menus?

Maybe it's just that I'm a cantankerous old mule, but: I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.  Here's an example of a menu in Heather Christo's Generous Table, which was published approximately 5 minutes ago:

• Cauliflower soup
• Asparagus Walnut Pesto Linguini
• Halibut en Papillote
• Lemon Tart with an Almond Shortbread Crust
• Coconut Sorbet 

Now let me be clear - I have nothing against Heather Christo or these really quite-delicious-looking recipes.  I just don't like having someone put them together for me.  When I see a previously-composed menu, I feel:

• Exhausted: Even though I'm not afraid of making multi-course meals, somehow seeing somebody else's menu all tied up in pink ribbons only emphasizes for me the amount of work it's going to take to pull it off, especially because it's usually printed across from some posh-looking table setting which itself took an hour to set up.
• Like a Groupie: I can totally understand worshipping a cookbook author so fervently that I want to cook every recipe in their book.  But do I honestly want to reproduce, bite for bite, the very menu that was served to that author's lucky friends, knowing that even if I pull it off, it can only aspire  to be being as good as the original?
• Resentful : Who has time to plot and plan a five-course meal?! (OK, in point of fact, five course meals- or at any rate, five-dish meals happen pretty regularly when my friends get together.  But we all pitch in, is the point, so that even if half of us are stuck late at soccer practice or drama rehearsal, stuff will get made and shared.)
• Uncreative :  Maybe I want to follow a few recipes to the letter.  But isn't it my job to figure out what goes with what, and what's right for the occasion and my guests and the time of year? With 128,788 recipes at my fingertips, isn't it the least I can do to pick and choose what we're going to eat?

Needless to say, feeling pressured by the menus in a cookbook that  I may have received for free in the first place is, as my son would say, a First World Problem. And after all,nothing's stopping me from cherry-picking any recipe I like from anywhere and putting as little or as much effort as I like into it.    But I can't help but wonder if there are better souls than I - less neurotic, more ambitious, less easily distracted - who follow those menus to the letter, never losing their good humor in the process.

If you know one, let me know - and tell me when to show up for dinner.  I'll be there, contributing a bunch of flowers, and nothing else.   

Less than two weeks till Mother's Day, and we're entering the "spring bump" - next to the year-end holidays, it's the second-busiest time of year for cookbook publishing and cookbook sales. (Which is why my developer timed the launch of my cookbook-rating app, CookShelf - just out! - for now.)

And that makes me think...if, like so many people, you're giving someone a cookbook for Mother's Day, what qualities do you look for in that cookbook?

You don't want to it to be a book that says "Go back to the kitchen where you belong and make me some food!" so maybe you don't want a cookbook whose title includes the words "...Cook for a Crowd".   You don't want a book that seems self-serving, like "100 chocolate brownies your family and friends will love".   And you definitely don't want a book that says Mom could stand to lose some weight.  That rules out every diet book there is.  

So what does that leave us?  Well, quite a lot actually:  big, beautiful coffee-table books, cute little books to take to a beach house, books with gorgeous pictures you can almost taste.  By category, here's a few to consider:

Books that are good for reading: Melissa Clark's books are both practical and entertaining to read.  And the chicken romances - The Fresh Egg Cookbook, and Chicken and Egg are irresistible for backyard poultry aspirants.  The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper is maybe the ultimate browse book, for interesting trivia and quotations and sidebars and anecdotes. And Canal House Cooking is ravishing to look at.

Books that are whimsical: I'm a sucker for cute books, like Sweet Gratitude and The Secret Lives of Baking (although this latter, I have to tell you, is not the best for cooking from).  Kitchen and Co. is whimsical in content, Full of Flavor is graphically  whimsical, and The Silver Palate is awash in whimsy from cover to cover.

Books from far away:  A cookbook can be a virtual voyage to faraway cultures - and so much more affordable than an airline ticket!  The Mediterranean books are especially good right now - send Mom on a culinary journey with The Food of Spain or Jerusalem or Arabesque.  Heading further east, Every Grain of Rice is a tremendous value.

Books that are useful: Authoritative, reference cookbooks are gifts that keep on giving for years - like Grow Cook Eat (for vegetable gardeners) or The Apple Lover's Cookbook (all about apples) or  Veganomicon (tons of vegan recipes).

Books that party:  Sometimes, Mom doesn't feel like cooking at all.  So, pick up Porch Parties and a bag of ice and bring her a cocktail while she's lying in her hammock, reading the extremely entertaining Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz, or The Drunken Botanist.

What books do you think make the best gifts - or, to put it another way, which would you most like to receive?

Every month Susie Chang reviews new cookbook releases and notes trends. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook."

We're arranging for similar roundups like Susie's for books published in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but until we formally launch those, we'll still be noting new arrivals and providing brief descriptions.

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The pace is picking up! With May's usual cookbook explosion just around the corner, we're seeing the first grilling and gardening books (no doubt soon to be followed by canning and preserving books). A few last comfort-food stragglers sit side-by-side with fun cocktails and various pleas to eat lighter and faster.

 

Family Table: Favorite Staff Meals From Our Restaurants to Your Homes (Michael Romano & Karen Stabiner):  The famed restaurateurs share recipes for "family meal" - easy enough for the home kitchen, tasty enough for the front of the house.

 

  

 

It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes that Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great (Gwyneth Paltrow): The actress continues her bid for transformation into a lifestyle guru - watch out for incoming sniper fire!  

  

 

 

The Drunken Botanist (Amy Stewart ): The perversely delicious sequel to Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs.

 

 

 

 

Mad Hungry Cravings: 173 Recipes for the Food You Want to Eat Right Now (Lucinda Scala Quinn):  Yet more recipes for the tasty, calorific standards everybody loves.

 

 Home Made Summer (Yvette van Boven): The third "Home Made" installment is maybe less labor-intensive than its predecessors, but copious oven treats will raise the kitchen temperature.

 

 

What's for Dinner?: Delicious Recipes for a Busy Life (Curtis Stone): You might have thought that Curtis Stone's previous books were the easy, weeknight ones, but this one really is.  This time he really means it.

 

 

 

 Gluten-free Girl Every Day (Shauna James Ahern):  A welcome, more laidback sequel to Ahern's chatty, restauranty debut cookbook, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef.

 

 

 

Cooking for Two (America's Test Kitchen):  All-new recipes from the test kitchen, sized to fit exactly two.

 

 

Wicked Good Burgers: Fearless Recipes and Uncompromising Techniques for the Ultimate Patty (Andy Husbands, Chris Hart, and Andrea Pyenson): Just in time for grill season, a team of Boston-based food notables fires it up.

 

 

 

The Fresh 20: 20-Ingredient Meal Plans for Health and Happiness 5 Nights a Week (Melissa Lanz): The successful online meal planning, created by working mom, Melissa Lanz, now shares how to create 5 simple, healthy and homemade dinners each week using just  20 fresh, seasonal ingredients. 

 

 

 

Old-School Comfort Food (Alex Guarnaschelli ): The Manhattan chef and daughter of a redoubtable cookbook editor shares what she knows about stick-to-the-ribs food.

 

 

 

Vinaigrettes and Other Dressings: 60 Sensational Recipes to Liven Up Greens, Grains, Slaws, and Every Kind of Salad (Michele Anna Jordan):  Making the salad you know you're supposed to eat anyway a whole lot less boring.

 

 

The New Persian Kitchen (Louisa Shafia): Non-elaborate, non-time-consuming Persian food at last!

 

 

 

 

VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health (Mark Bittmann)  Not only does Mark Bittmann know how to cook everything, he knows how to make you lose weight, too!

 

 

Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist (Tim Federle): Well, OK, it's just a romp, a fun summer cookbook.  But who can resist a title like that?

 

 

 

This month's trends:

Food trucks (Eat St., New York A La Cart), cooking in cupcake and muffin tins, camping cookbooks, and food histories to bring to the beach (Taco USA, Extra Virginity)

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And here are the new arrivals from the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand:

 From the U.K.:

After publishing four regular cookbooks, the popular fast food chain Leon now produces four short specialized books on: 
Breakfast & Brunch 
Brownies, Bars & Muffins
Smoothies, Juices & Cocktails
Soups, Salads & Snacks

 

John Whaite Bakes, by John Whaite:  The winner of the 2012 Great British Bake Off shares his best recipes for every day and every mood.  If you are feeling down or happy, in love or heartbroken, John provides the perfect recipe for you.

 

 

 

 

Patisserie at Home by Will Torrent:  Rising star in the world of pastry, Will Torrent guides you with step-by-step techniques to produce perfect French pastries.

 

 

 

And from Australia & New Zealand:

Everlasting Feast by Lauraine Jacobs:  Favourite recipes and stories of a life in food come together in a beautiful cookbook by one of New Zealand's best-known food writers and great friend of EYB.  Lauraine shares 100 of her favourite recipes and cooking tips that tell the fascinating stories of her life in food, including her time as food editor of Cuisine magazine and as the first international president of the IACP.

 

 

 

 

At My Table  by Chelsea Winter:  Hearty, mainstream New Zealand recipes from 2012 MasterChef New Zealand winner.

 

 

 

Karen Martini Collection by Karen Martini: A wonderful compilation of 170 of Karen's most enduring recipes from her popular cookbooks  Where the Heart is,  Cooking at Home, and  Feasting. The recipes reflect Karen's own inimitable style of simple accessible cooking and her food philosophy based on fresh produce and big flavours. 

 

 

 

Cook with Love by Pete Evans:  A compilation from another popular Australian author, Pete Evan's has chosen 150 of his favourite recipes from his cookbooks. Divided into chapters on breakfast, lazy lunches, family meals, food for entertaining, fish and seafood and more. Cook with Love provides tips and advice for both novice and experienced cook.

 

 

The Green Kitchen by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl:  David and Luise's Green Kitchen Stories blog has a cult following and inspires people around the world to cook super-tasty, healthy vegetarian recipes using only natural ingredients.  Over 100 recipes from their everyday life, along with some simple tips on how to get a more varied and greener pantry.  They have found food inspiration from all over the globe, including from their Scandinavian heritage.  This book is published as  Vegetarian Everyday in the USA.

 

From India: Food Family and Tradition by Suba Mahadevan and  Kumar Mahadevan:  From the talented chef behind Sydney's most iconic Indian restaurants, Abhi's and Aki's. Kumar Mahadevan weaves a full array of recipes with the unique tale of his family's journey from India to Australia. This book offers a full range of traditional curries, contemporary seafood dishes and interesting vegetarian meals.