Kitchen Lit

“This new frontier in my kitchen is about having the freedom to have fun and to spread my cooking wings…but it’s also about appreciating that some things never need to change…” Ree Drummond. The Pioneer Woman Cooks The New Frontier is a great cookbook. It has a wide variety of recipes that use many different cooking vessels from a skillet to an instant pot or a dutch oven. Some of the recipes are a little healthier and some are indulgent. It gives you the best of both worlds. This cookbook has quickly become a staple cookbook in my kitchen and I enjoy making the recipes.

“I learned that you don’t bake a pie with your hands, you bake it with your heart. It requires the essential ingredients: a dash of hope, a cup of courage, a little spice, and some good friends to share it with in the end,” Jenna Hunterson. A few years ago for my birthday we went to see Waitress the musical on Broadway. At the time Katharine McPhee was in the lead role. It was an amazing show! I was so excited to see they were selling a cookbook and immediately bought it. Since I grew up baking and it is my first love – these recipes speak right to my heart. The recipes…

“I still eat everything I want to; I’m just careful about how much I eat and when I eat,” Bobby Flay. When first reading through this cookbook I marked so many recipes that I want to try – making it almost impossible to narrow it down to two to try for my review. The recipes I tried are tasty and healthy. The ingredients are easy to find and the directions are pretty clear. It is great to have a cookbook that offers healthy meals that are truly delicious as we have all tried some healthy recipes that are terrible. I liked that the nutritional information is listed as well.

“Dinnertime also happens to be the one time of day that home cooks struggle with the most!…But when it comes to churning out dinner several nights a week, I’ve learned through the years that I just can’t fake it till I make it, or things start to get boring and lifeless really fast,” Ree Drummond. If you were to ask me today which cookbook I use the most – hands down it would be The Pioneer Woman Cooks Dinnertime. I love all the recipes in the book and especially the freezer food section. It is really helpful to have meals on hand that are quick to cook and really tasty when you don’t…

“Inspiralized is what your meal and you become – a healthy and inspired version of the original,” Ali Maffucci. The recipes are really easy to understand and straight forward. Any home chef would be able to follow along. I have used both the KitchenAid stand mixer spiralizing attachment and a regular spiralizer for these recipes – both work well. You can also make these recipes using store bought spiralized veggies in the fresh or frozen section to save a little time.

“You’ve got all the directions and if you can read, you can cook” Julia Child. One of the most talked about and featured cookbooks is Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child with Louisette Berthole & Simone Beck. Julia is well known for her cooking show, “The French Chef.” I was very excited to try new recipes from this set of cookbooks. The recipes are very detailed and must be read multiple times before cooking and before shopping. I would recommend following the French tradition of “mise en place,” which is prepping all of your ingredients before you start so you don’t run into a place in the recipes where you…