Everyday Systems

In the post about Other Good Diet Books That Work With The No S Diet, Reinhard wrote the following:

I think I'm going to stick with this.

Although I'm rather fond of this, too.

Reinhard

So now that we know his favorite cookbooks, I wonder what everyone else's are.

Mine are:

1. The Barefoot Contessa cookbooks She has a new one coming out in the fall. I made her Engagement Roast Chicken for dinner today. Very good. While there have been some recipes I didn't particularly like, none has ever been a cooking failure.

2. Pam Anderson's (no, not that Pam Anderson!) How to Cook Without A Book. I like the master recipe/technique with variations. Some of her recipes in The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great follow that format as do some from her column in USA Weekend.

I'm also fond of the Create Your Own Recipe (aka Cooking Without Recipes) feature in Fine Cooking magazine. I like it better in the magazine than online.

3. Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine/cookbooks/TV show/blog. There's also an Everyday Food series on PBS.

4. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I'm not as fond of his Kitchen Express, though I like the idea. I like his Bitten blog.

Then there are blogs. I get recipes I use the most from the following:
Simply Recipes I'm surprised at how often this one comes up when I google something I'm looking for.

Kalyn's Kitchen Don't care about the fact that everything is South Beach friendly -- there are some good recipes there.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks Half of her recipes have been a big success for me. The other half...not so much. There have been a few that my family has said "don't make this again." Some have been cooking failures -- the recipe just didn't work. Those that are good are very, very good. I've made very few of her dessert recipes.

I'm not fond of her cookbook. Most of the recipes are from the blog. The two I tried that were new weren't successful with my family. One of her recipes is the only thing I've ever cooked that after one bite went directly to the trash and we ordered takeout.

One thing I've learned: if I find a recipe somewhere and don't make it within a week or so (with some exceptions), the likelihood of me making it at all is slim.

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman is my favorite cookbook by far. Not only are there a ton of great recipes, there's a ton of technique to help you navigate recipes from anywhere.

I'm also a big fan of finding recipes online, but they have to be from a source that's proven itself reliable. Some of my favorites are http://www.101cookbooks.com, http://orangette.blogspot.com, and http://www.thekitchn.com.

The Company's Coming series is my favourite. I grew up cooking out of those books. Online I like www.allrecipes.com

I really love allrecipes.com. I find a lot of good recipes there!

My favorite cookbook is Eating Well: Healthy in a Hurry. http://www.amazon.com/EatingWell-Health ... 0881506877 Eating Well is also a great web site. I've gotten lots of healthy recipes from there.

Oh! I forgot one -- Clara's Kitchen. I really do like that cookbook.

On a semi-related note...

Top-selling cookbooks of 2008

1 Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics by Ina Garten (640,000 copies)

2 Martha Stewart's Cooking School (317,992)

3 Giada's Kitchen by Giada De Laurentiis (301,663)

4 The Taste of Home Cookbook (264,343)

5 The Best Life Cookbook by Bob Greene (245,000)

6 Yum-O! by Rachael Ray(243,470)

7 Paula Deen's Kitchen Wisdom and Recipe Journal (170,000)

8 Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (156,000)

9 Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano (129,000)

10 Joy's Life Diet by Joy Bauer (128,000)

In the same year, Katie Lee Joel's Comfort Table sold about 33,000 copies. To quote The New York Times: "not a runaway success, but a showing respectable enough to guarantee a follow-up." The follow-up hasn't sold that well.

My guess is that Pioneer Woman's cookbook will be #1 for 2009


Taste of Home is the best selling food magazine. It outsells all others combined.

My go-to cookbook is a 3 ring binder with plastic sheet protecters that has tried and true favorites. Some are old family recipes, some are from AllRecipes.com, Taste of Home and various blogs, some are recipes I've requested from friends.

The most battered professionally published cookbook in my collection is probably Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites. I was a vegetarian for 10 years during my teens to mid-20s and used that one a lot. There are still a number of recipes that I use from there.

I've been using Stephanie O'Dea's Make It Fast, Cook It Slow at least once or twice a week for the past several months. While my family hasn't liked every recipe I've tried from the book, there are many keepers. I'm making 2 batches of her Butternut Squash soup right now, actually. I especially appreciate that it is gluten-free since my MIL & my DD's best friend both have celiac disease. O'Dea's blog, which has many of the recipes from the book, is great too.

marygrace wrote:How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman is my favorite cookbook by far.

Thanks, marygrace! I've ordered a copy on the strength of your recommendation.

I like the original Cranks recipe book, a reprint of which is still in print in the UK:
Cranks recipe book, London: Orion, 1993.
Some of the main courses are a bit dated now, but the soups are really good.

Another favourite, Truly Italian by Ursula Ferrigno, is out of print, as is From Anna's kitchen by Anna Thomas.

What I use most, though, is the BBC Food website. This is great for finding recipes which incorporate multiple obscure veg box contents. I'm not sure whether it is available outside the UK:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/advanced_search.shtml