• Eat Your Books

  2007 James Beard Award Winner

  See Susie's review of this cookbook at NPR Kitchen Window

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Buttermilk pancakes with hazelnut butter

  • sarahcooks on October 26, 2010

    I thought I didn't like hazelnuts, but this recipe changed my mind! Beautiful taste, but I would recommend leaving the butter out of the fridge unless you make it way ahead of time. The pancakes were nice and fluffy, but I prefer eggy ones.

• Ricotta pancakes with melted raspberries

  • sarahcooks on September 30, 2010

    I made these with homemade ricotta and they were seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten. The raspberry sauce is great, but it's also like gilding the lily - just plain they have such a wonderful subtle taste and the texture is so interesting, I ate way way too many.

• Proper scrambled eggs

  • sarahcooks on October 26, 2010

    I made these in a cast iron pan and they were the best I've ever eaten. Of course, how could they not be with that much butter in them? I couldn't bring myself to add the butter at the end too, for all that I wanted to try the recipe as written.

• English muffins

  • louie734 on April 13, 2020

    This recipe worked perfectly and was so easy. Due to the great flour shortage (COVID-19), subbed the stone-ground flours in a half-half blend for the all-purpose called for in the recipe. At first the dough was sticky, requiring a few spoonfuls to allow for that knead - but hardly required any correction after an overnight rise. Fork-split, nooks & crannies galore!

  • louie734 on June 12, 2023

    I love this recipe. The overnight refrigerated rise makes the timeline leisurely, and the finished product is super satisfying and freezes great. This time I used some rye and whole wheat flour for about a third of the all purpose; the result is lovely. Don't forget the salt like I did; boy are these bland without it - sprinkling salt on my split muffins when toasting is necessary, but silly.

• Summer minestrone

  • sarahcooks on September 28, 2010

    I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out pretty nice - the corn was a surprisingly good addition. My husband hates half the vegetables in it but he really liked it, so that's a good recommendation. I thought it was odd that there wasn't any garlic in it, and it also took much longer than I anticipated to clean and chop all the vegetables. And it made way more than 8 generous servings.

• Butternut squash and roasted apple soup

  • bching on September 06, 2025

    So good; as far as I'm concerned, there is no other squash soup.

• Broiled rib-eye steaks with Gorgonzola butter

  • louie734 on January 07, 2014

    This method for grilling rib eyes without a grill worked just great.

• Simple pork tenderloin

  • Cheri on December 04, 2012

    We really liked this one. It is easy, and totally doable on a weeknight. I was roasting some cauliflower also, so I roasted at 425 deg for 30 minutes. This was ideal timing in my oven. Definately repeat. I made no other changes, just followed recipe.

  • louie734 on January 07, 2014

    Ok, tried this one again (in January I made this and all the breading fell off). This time I used cheap, store-bought breadcrumbs the texture of dust. What a difference! The breading stayed on! So don't get fancy and break out the panko or homemade breadcrumbs. And keep it to a thin coating. Also: it never takes me only 5 minutes total to brown nicely on all sides. After browning nicely, I figured I was almost cooked the whole way through, and halved the oven time to 15 minutes. Pork was 155-160, pink in the middle, melt-in-your-mouth. Took about 15 minutes of active work from package to mouth.

  • TrishaCP on August 20, 2022

    This had a really nice flavor. I agree that 30 minutes cooking time is too long.

• Linguine with burst tomato sauce and fried eggs

  • Emily Hope on September 11, 2011

    This is a simple and quick pasta that's good for a weeknight, not mindblowing, but I like the addition of the anchovies to the sauce. Made with whole wheat pasta (probably not the best match for this sauce, but that's what we do these days!) With a raw kale salad on the side.

• Linguine with tuna

  • LittleTex on October 29, 2020

    Easy and good. I added a little tomato paste to the sauce. It's also good with a little heavy cream added. I found the amount of sauce the recipe makes better suited to half a pound of pasta rather than a pound.

• Smothered steaks

  • louie734 on January 24, 2014

    These are just delicious. Tender steak in a rich onion-mushroom gravy. Our grocery store sells flat-iron steaks in a single slab, each weighing 1-2 pounds. The recipe calls for '6 flat-iron steaks, about 2 lbs'. This directive caused us to purchase an embarrassment of steak the first time around. Plan on pounding, then cutting the meat into portions. Also, 2 large onions thinly sliced took forever to cook - the pan that was the right size for the braise was way too crowded to sauté the onions. Whether making a half recipe, or the whole thing, consider using only 1 large onion. Serve with something to soak up the gravy - a baked potato was good.

• Sweet sausage with melted escarole

  • mirage on October 09, 2010

    Use very good sausages. Cooked a while longer than recipe noted. Lovely flavor.

  • louie734 on March 26, 2013

    Surprisingly, my greens-hating husband loved this. He even ate it cold the next day for lunch. Who knew? (I knew I would love it, and I did.)

• Lasagna with greens

  • lisari on April 07, 2025

    I use 1 lb. spinach, crushed tomatoes & no boil noodles. My go-to lasagna.

• Broccoli (or cauliflower) cooked forever

  • louie734 on February 17, 2013

    I used half the olive oil and it was just fine. Leftovers were indeed as delicious as he indicates.

• Cabbage and noodles

  • louie734 on January 07, 2014

    Oh, yeah. This is comfort food to the max. (A quicker version of the one in Radically Simple.)

• Roast carrots

  • louie734 on March 17, 2016

    This has been our favorite side dish all winter. The 2 of us easily polish off a pound of carrots cooked this way. Wine can be substituted with almost any liquid if you don't have an open bottle; I've used about 3 T water spiked with 1 T of any decent vinegar.

• Fried eggplant

  • louie734 on June 17, 2020

    Great instructions for a basic recipe. The thickness is perfect. No salting/resting before breading, lets you know when you can pause, and that you can make ahead. And we do, reheating in the toaster oven when our pasta and sauce is ready, topping with some mozzarella if we like. This time I played fast & loose: after flouring, dumped the remaining seasoned flour in with my breadcrumbs and added a hefty tablespoon of nutritional yeast where I normally would use parmesan. This fry was the crispiest yet!

• Grandma's greens

  • Cheri on April 02, 2011

    Serve this as suggested in notes over rustic bread lightly toased and spread with some gorgonzola cheese for lunch. Can use any cooking greens. A grilled sausage on the side is also nice.

• The simplest cooked greens

  • Cheri on June 25, 2011

    We love this. Served over rustic bread spread with gorgonzolla - WOW. Nice compliment to grilled sausages.

• Broiled tomatoes

  • louie734 on January 07, 2014

    We really like this easy, no-brainer of a side dish. Great alongside scrambled eggs and fried ham. Or really, anywhere you need a shot of red and aren't in the frame of mind for tomato salad.

• Dandelion salad

  • Emily Hope on October 20, 2013

    A good version of the classic dandelion bacon salad. My only changes were to saute the garlic just a bit, and put the dressing in the hot pan (after sautéing the bacon) to heat it up. Even better with some garden tomatoes added, kind of like a slightly bitter (in a good way) salad version of a BLT.

• Tender greens with strawberry vinaigrette

  • louie734 on June 06, 2021

    Simple yet glam, perfect for bringing to an early-summer potluck. Steeping the berries and onions marries the salad perfectly - berries are softly, juicily seasoned, vinegar sweetens, and onions mellow. Though it really didn't need it, I added sliced radishes, a few cherry tomatoes, and candied nuts (but the additional sweetness wasn't needed; next time I'll just toast em).

• Smoked trout pate

  • louie734 on January 03, 2015

    Made this for a Christmas day appetizer with 2 cans of TJ's smoked trout. Decreased the amounts by about 1/3 since that's about the weight of the trout. DELICIOUS. Made it in the food processor by blitzing all the ingredients, then adding the trout and pulsing till almost smooth, but not quite. Served with pickled celery (smitten kitchen) and club crackers. This got gobbled up.