Sometimes I wonder how certain food holidays are created. They seem so specific. Is there an Applesauce Cake Council that demands a day of their own?

Oh, by the way, today is National Applesauce Cake Day! I've never had it, but it sounds quite good. I keep picturing something that is moist and chewy and wet and dry all at the same time. AOL Food actually has two recipes for it, one from The Joy of Cooking and the other from Woman's Day.

Sometimes I wonder how many different recipes there can be for one type of food. We post a lot of recipes here at Slashfood, and while some of the recipes are exotic and complex, some are for very basic foods that we've made and/or eaten hundreds of times over the years. Take Chocolate Pudding for example. If it's basic chocolate pudding, how many different ways are there to make it? I guess it's all in the chocolate you use.

This recipe is from The Joy of Cooking. I have to have it with whipped cream on top. I love that combo of chocolate and whipped cream you get when you sink your spoon in and have a bunch of each on your spoon and put it into your mouth.

More than once, I've been caught saying nasty things about my 1997 edition of the Joy of Cooking. It's not that there's anything inherently bad about that volume, I just happened to grow up with one printed in the early seventies (white dust jacket, turquoise fabric cover) and love that one totally because it is so deeply familiar to me. However, last night I had to swallow all my heartless words, because the '97 version came through for me big time.

Last week I went apple picking. Scott and I picked a full bushel of apples. I've made apple sauce, apple crisp, apples with yogurt, eaten about 15 out of hand and still the box of apples doesn't seem to be visibly reducing. So I went looking for a recipe for a baked good that uses apples. I was hoping for a quick bread or muffin recipe that was low in fat, used several apples and tasted good. And I found it. The muffins came out light, tender and amazingly delicious (ate two as soon as they were cool enough to touch). This one is getting copied down and is going in the file. The recipe is after the jump.

The Joy of Cooking is the most popular cookbook in America for good reason. It been around since the 1930s and, since that time, has instructed millions on how do to everything from boiling an egg to baking a cake in a no-nonsense way. Since its original publication, the book has been reissued several times with updates that attempt to encompass the various culinary changes that have taken place in between book releases. Is the newest 75th anniversary edition just forced nostalgia? Perhaps, but that's why the good thing about cookbooks is that you don't need to discard the old one when you buy a new copy.

When looking for old cookbooks, the choices that some people make seem surprising, opting for Pillsbury's Best 1000 Recipes: Best of the Bake-Off Collection over Julia Child, but the real reason is that the recipes are classic, homey and probably things that your mother made - all of which are huge selling points.

Take a look at some of the new books that explore Southeast Asian cooking.

Terra Madre, an international culinary event held in Italy over the last week, celebrated slow cooking

Dulcinea Rosso Bruno are tomatoes that are best in fall.

Frank Bruni dines at Boqueria and gives it two stars.

Lemons are everywhere right now. Since it's summer, refreshingly sweet and tart lemonade comes to mind right away. So does a lemon tart.

When I originally made this, I was going to use the recipe from Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook, but instead, I went back to my old standard, Joy of Cooking. For some reason, their tart recipe that uses one entire stick of butter and eight egg yolks (yes, eight!) seemed so much naughtier. The one thing I changed was the crust - rather than the usual pastry crust, I used a graham cracker crumb crust, to which I added about 2 tsp. fresh grated ginger. Lemon and ginger seem to be my favorite pairing this year.

The Sacramento Bee compiled a list of the most valued cookbooks in America, based on previous lists and interviews with members of "cooking trades" - which I take to mean caterers and professional cooks. They are definitely some of the best general interest cookbooks that cover everything from breakfast to baking, roasts to vegetables, and excellent books to have, especially if you only have one or two cookbooks. I, on the other hand, have six of the top ten. I'm not going to try to count how many other cookbooks I have.

1. "Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book," first published in 1930
2. "Betty Crocker Cookbook," first published in 1950
3. "Joy of Cooking," first published in 1931
4. "The New Basics Cookbook," first published in 1989
5. "The Silver Palate Cookbook," first published in 1982
6. "The Art of French Cooking," first published in 1961
7. "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook," first published as "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" in 1896
8. "The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook," first published in 1988
9. "The Moosewood Cookbook," first published in 1992
10. "Larousse Gastronomique," first published in 1938

 

Recipes for home cooks tend to be formulated for a specific numbers of diners, usually 2, 4 or 6, which are all fairly common family numbers. Most recipes are easy to double, so you can turn a chicken dinner for four into a meal for eight quite easily. Recipes for entertaining and parties, however, are different. You generally want small or bite-sized portions and need a single recipe that will feed a house or yard full of people. Fortunately, there are several cookbooks on the market that can help you out here by providing you with lots of recipes that a specifically geared towards pleasing crowds. These are some of my favorites. Some are more traditional and some are more current, but all are great additions to home libraries.

• Party Food by Barbara Kafka
• Entertaining by Donna Hay
• Williams-Sonoma Entertaining
• Joy of Cooking: Party Foods and Drinks
• Just a Bite by Gale Gand

This isn't a complete list, by the way. What are your favorite entertaining cookbooks?

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Every year I seem to end up with a bunch of calendars that I don't want, but am forced to use because by the time I get around to shopping for a nicer one, all the stores are sold out. This year, I turned to the internet to find some good foodie options so we can all avoid looking at "More Lighthouses of Maine" or "The OC 2006" for the next 365 days. Not that there's anything wrong with lighthouses, of course, but we can do better.

• Coffee 2006 has great shots of hot drinks in cafes and beans ready for processing.
• Chocolate 2006 Mini Calendar includes interesting facts and quotes about chocolate and the pages are chocolate scented!
• Dog Food Play with Your Food has surprisingly realistic (and adorable) animals made out of vegetables, like cauliflower poodles and strawberry puppies. Also available in mini size.
• The Wine Lover's Daily Calendar is packed with daily wine tips, tastings and trivia, as well as including helpful pairing suggestions.
• The Joy of Cooking Daily Calendar features recipes as well as information on what is in season and cooking techniques. 
• Food Network All Star 2006 Calendar and Cookbook Set includes a wall calendar tribute to New Orleans and a book with the network chefs' favorite recipes. A portion of the proceeds for both the book and the calendar go to charity. 
• And be sure not to miss out on Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade Daily Calendar. Since Slashfoodies are such fans of her work.