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The first year that my parents were married, my grandmother (my mom's mother-in-law) gave her a stack of cookbooks. She was a little insulted at the time, but came around quickly, learning to depend on the Joy of Cooking that was the centerpiece of the gift. From that time on, my mom has been convinced that cookbooks make good holidays gifts and often turns to them (or picture frames for some reason) when she isn't quite sure what to get someone. Personally, I always love getting a new cookbook, so I've never had a problem with this.
If the person on your list doesn't already have it, the Joy of Cooking makes a great gift because it is versatile and can answer just about any cooking question you throw at it. Although I love my 1970's version dearly, I'm really starting to be swayed by the latest edition.
The original Moosewood Cookbook is great for the folks who need frugal, healthy recipes. It's the book I turn to most often for soup inspiration.
If you've got new vegetarians on your holiday list, consider getting them a copy of The New Laurel's Kitchen. It is my resource for cooking with grains and beans and it has never let me down in that department.
I'm of the opinion that a kitchen is not complete without a copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, particularly if it's the one that is a looseleaf binder (that feature makes it really easy to use because it lays flat on the counter).
In the eighties, home cooking got substantially more gourmet and the Silver Palate Cookbook is in large part responsible for that. Besides, no cook's repertoire is complete unless they know how to make Chicken Marbella.
Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking is another really good one for vegetarians as well as anyone who is trying to incorporate more whole grains and really healthy foods into their lives. Every recipe I've tried from this book has turned out really well and tasted amazing.
Marion Cunningham is one of my favorite cooking and food writers and I often turn to my squat little paperback edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook when I'm looking for homey food inspiration. This is another that is quite definitive and is a great one to have, especially if you're trying to keep your cookbook collection relatively small.
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin isn't exactly a cookbook. It's a collection of essays that all happen to include recipes. The beauty of this book is that as you read the essays, you'll be compelled to leap up, head to the kitchen and start making whatever she was writing about. In that way, it's a very effective cookbook.
The last two books, which are not pictured, are The Way We Cook by Sheryl Julian and Julie Riven and the Frog Commissary Cookbook. The Way We Cook is a great, beautifully imaged book that will make your mouth start to water. The Frog Commissary Cookbook comes out of a couple of now-defunct restaurants in Philadelphia that were known for their amazing soups, salads and quiches. All the recipes are in this book and it's a great one to have on hand.
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12-10-2007 @5:10PM LeisureGuy said... I took a cut at a cookbook that deconstructs cooking into the component tools, foods, techniques, and the like with the idea that the reader can then create his/her own menus and cooking style. Cooking Compendium; or, Cooking Deconstructed. http://www.lulu.com/content/1538066
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12-11-2007 @4:08PM bdw said... I just suggest SOAR to everybody I know, or actually, like. I used to have about ten or twelve feet of cookbooks on my shelves, plus a couple of crates of Gourmet and Bon appetit magazines. Now I only have seven cookbooks.
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12-10-2007 @6:43PM ann marie said... laurel's kitchen was my first cookbook
then came the tassajara bread book and the Farm Cookbook.
i was such a hippie
the last cookbook i got which i found the other day in a bargain bin at national wholsesale liquidators is the Meat Lovers Cookbook For Gals Who Love Their Meat.
times change
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12-11-2007 @2:44AM alosha7777 said... thank you so much marisa for posting this!
I went to B&N the other day for the first time in years (I'm a total online shopper) and looked through their entire cookbook section and still wasn't satisfied. I will note some of your recommendations for sure! I already have an amazon saved list for "when I can afford it" and order every time with new fiction, cookbooks, whatnot. I will add these ones I don't have on there, which is all but one. :)
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12-11-2007 @7:48AM Diane said... I have half-a-dozen Moosewood cookbooks and the last one I would recommend is the original, primarily because it is NOT healthy by today's standards, being full of recipes heavy in the cheese department, and frankly, more complicated than they need to be. Mooswood Restaurant (MR) Cooks at Home, MR Low-Fat Favorites and MR Daily Special are more recent and have much healthier, easy-to-follow recipes. I also like Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison--lots of great veg cooking basics there. For more advanced Veg cooking, try Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant or the Greens Cookbook.
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