Cookbook Love

Cookbooks, cookbooks, cookbooks! Don't you just love cookbooks? Cookbooks have come a long way over the years. Today's cookbooks are a feast for the eyes. Don't you just love flipping through the pages of a beautiful cookbook? Recently, I got three new cookbooks.

A Look At My Favorite Cookbooks

Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That? is the third Ina Garten cookbook I have. I also have Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics and Barefoot Contessa at Home. The Barefoot Contessa cookbooks are beautifully photographed and have easy to follow recipes. I also follow the Barefoot Contessa show on the Food Network to better understand how the recipes are prepared.

Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes will take you on a culinary trip through Italy while sitting in your favorite chair. Oh, how I dream of traveling through Italy and sampling the regional favorites. That is one trip that is on my bucket list. Do you have a bucket list?

Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe will make your mouth water. It is also chock full of tips for successful baking. I can't wait to get started on replicating the recipes. I'll share the results here, so I hope you'll stay tuned.

These new cookbooks join other favorites.

Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook has helpful pictures and carefully written recipes.
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics has a delicious recipe at every page turn, and Baked has a killer brownie recipe that was voted the best brownie in the United States. I made the brownies and they were delicious. I'll tell you more about them another day.

I like to use Post-It note paper to mark the pages of my favorite recipes. It makes it easy to find the pages. I also like to make comments on the Post-It to remind me of any tweaks I might make to the recipe.

I've been tweaking the Barefoot Contessa's shrimp scampi recipe as you can see by my notes in the picture. I'll share that dish with you in a future post.

Do you love cookbooks, too? Do you have a favorite cookbook I should add to my collection? Please leave a comment if you have a favorite cookbook suggestion. I'd love you hear from you.

Happy cookbook reading! And cooking...and baking...and eating!

Donna

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How to Kill Ants in Your Home

Simple Homemade Ant Bait That Works If you’ve ever had ants show up in your kitchen, you know how quickly a small problem turns into a big one. This simple homemade ant bait uses just three ingredients and works by eliminating the colony, not just the ants you see. No sprays. No guesswork. Just a method that actually works.

How to Make a Perfect Bacon and Eggs Breakfast

In my opinion, the best breakfast consists of two perfectly fried eggs, crispy bacon, and toast made with hearty bread. This bacon and eggs recipe delivers. Bacon and eggs or eggs and bacon? No matter, it is definitely the breakfast you want on those lazy mornings when you have time to relax around the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee or two. The Best Bacon and Eggs Breakfast (This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. When you make a purchase using these links you help support this blog.) How to Cook Bacon and Eggs My technique was learned from my mom, by watching her make our family's breakfast over and over again, year after year. This is a basted egg recipe which means the eggs are cooked in bacon grease. Cooking eggs in bacon fat is easy and takes just a little practice to perfect.

The Best Way to Cook Bacon: Oven vs. Stovetop

How to cook bacon is often hotly debated. Cooking bacon in a pan on the stove has always been an easy go-to method. Cooking bacon in the oven has grown in popularity over time. Are you curious about which bacon cooking method cooks bacon faster, which method produces the crispiest bacon, or which method offers easier cleanup? Those were the primary questions I wanted to answer in this bacon cooking comparison. How to Cook Bacon (This post includes paid links.) Whether you're a breakfast aficionado or just looking for bacon cooking tips for the quickest, crunchiest, and most hassle-free way to cook your bacon, I've got answers. Check out the Oven vs. Stovetop bacon battle and discover the fastest, crispiest, and easiest way to cook bacon for breakfast.

Traditional New England Whoopie Pies

These old-fashioned whoopie pies are soft, chocolatey, and filled with a rich, creamy filling, just like the ones many of us remember. This is a true New England-style recipe. If you’re looking for a true whoopie pie recipe—the kind made in New England with a cooked filling—this is it. Whoopie pies are a beloved treat, a nostalgic dessert that evokes childhood memories and continues to delight today. My mom would make them for us every once in a while. Oh, what a treat to come home from school to a platter of chocolate whoopie pies! This recipe, inspired by traditional Maine-style whoopie pies, comes from my family recipe box. It delivers soft, chocolatey cakes with a rich, creamy cooked filling – no marshmallow fluff needed! The Best Whoopie Pies Recipe (Soft cakes & Creamy Filling) This post includes affiliate links. Whoopie pies are essentially handheld cake sandwiches: soft, round, cake-like cookies embracing a luscious, creamy filling. While their ...

The Best Asian Dipping Sauce You'll Ever Taste

If you're looking for a versatile, easy-to-make Asian dipping sauce perfect for sushi and dumplings, then you've come to the right place. This recipe for the best Asian dipping sauce is perfect for any time you want a kick of delicious Asian flavor. An Asian Dipping Sauce for Sushi and Dumplings Try this if you are looking for a dipping sauce that is a little more flavorful than you typically get with your takeout order. You'll love it with dumplings, too!

Crunchy, Spicy Gingersnap Cookies

An Old-Fashioned Cookie That Always Turns Out There’s something about a good gingersnap cookie that just feels right. Not fancy. Not complicated. Just dependable… and really, really good. These crunchy, spicy gingersnaps are the kind of cookie you make when you want something you know will turn out—and something everyone will recognize and enjoy. They’ve got that classic crackled top, a warm blend of spices, and just enough sweetness to balance it all out. And the best part? They’re easy. No mixer required. Traditional Ginger Snaps Cookie Recipe ( This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated when you make a purchase with these links.) Gingersnaps Cookies This old-fashioned gingersnap cookie is a winner. It's easy to make and will be a favorite in your recipe rotation.

Grandma's Soft and Chewy Date-Filled Cookies

One of the things I can count on as the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons arrive each year is a feeling of nostalgia. The traditional foods we serve at our family's holiday tables can surely bring out all the feels. Now that it is officially cookie season, we should kick it off with an old-fashioned homemade date-filled cookie recipe. This is a soft, tender cookie with dates that is a special, nostalgic, family recipe. An Old-Fashioned Date Cookie Recipe What are old-fashioned date-filled cookies? Old-fashioned date-filled cookies are a nostalgic, soft sandwich cookie featuring two rounds of tender sugar cookie dough with a sweet, homemade date jam filling in the center. This vintage 1930s recipe is a traditional holiday favorite, prized for its soft texture and the perfect balance of buttery dough and naturally sweet dates. This old-fashioned, date-filled cookie was my dad's favorite cookie from his childhood. My dad was born in 1932, so this...

The Ultimate Cinnamon Swirl Bread: A Bread Machine Recipe

Today's recipe will fill your kitchen with an incredible aroma and lots of smiles. It's homemade cinnamon swirl bread made with your bread machine. If you’ve ever struggled to get that perfect cinnamon swirl or ended up with gaps or leaking filling, this method fixes that using your bread machine. Bread Machine Cinnamon Swirl Bread (Soft, Easy Recipe) This post includes affiliate links. This recipe brings together the ease of your trusty bread machine with the deliciousness of a warm, sweet, and perfectly swirled cinnamon bread. Get ready for a slice of pure comfort!

How to Doctor Up Store-Bought Potato Salad

Here's a potato salad time-saver for you just in time for summer cookouts. You'll love how you can transform grocery store potato salad so easily no matter whether you are hosting a BBQ or bringing a side dish for a summer barbecue. There's no judgment here. We don't always have the time to make a potato salad from scratch. Sometimes it is just easier to stop by your local grocery store to pick up a container of store-made potato salad. It's good. It's predictable. It will do. All it needs is a little doctoring. How to Make Store-Bought Potato Salad Better When you need a quick potato salad and have no time to make one from scratch, that ordinary store-bought potato salad you have in your refrigerator can go from blah to amazing in just a few minutes with just a few ingredients. Yes, you can improve store-bought potato salad.

How to Trap and Get Rid of Fruit Flies

If you have fruit flies buzzing around your kitchen, you want them gone—fast. This simple homemade fruit fly trap uses just two ingredients you probably already have, and it works within hours. No chemicals. No special equipment. Just a quick fix that actually works. The Best Homemade Fruit Fly Trap (Works in Hours) Those pesky little buggers can often be brought into your home on the vegetables and fruit you buy. You don't have to tolerate the annoyance. This homemade fruit fly trap is one I have been using for many years, and it works every time.

Just~One~Donna

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