CookShelfI've been reviewing cookbooks for some 12 years now. Every once in a while, I write a critical review. It doesn't happen terribly often - maybe 2 or 3 times a year, a small fraction of the total. There's a reason bad…
Nigellissima arrived last week. My first thought was: What am I going to do with another Nigella cookbook? And my second thought was: Forget that! what am I going to do with another Italian cookbook? If your library is…
Those of us tapping away in icebound offices are dreaming of the spring getaway...and for many of us, that means a mainland vacation. For me, as no doubt for many others, that means thinking hard about what we're going…
Every once in a great while, I enjoy putting down my silicone spatula, closing whatever brand-new, promising cookbook I'm reviewing this week, and having a look to see what everyone else is cooking from. It's especially…
The other day, I had a rare spare moment in the afternoon, after practicing piano with my 6-year-old. She'd been especially coöperative, and I didn't have to start dinner yet. So I cast my eyes about for a book and my…
Today, with a lot of groaning and creaking, I got back on the treadmill for the first time since Christmas. It had been a rough stretch - first the slow cooker broke,, then the mixer bowl, then the sewing machine, and…
What makes a cookbook good for giving? Well, it's a little different from what makes a cookbook good in the kitchen. First of all, looks are more important. It has to have great design, and feel like a quality…
Like everybody else, I've had a hard time moving on since Friday. It's the least cheery Christmas I can remember - yet there are still trees to trim, Santas to impersonate, huge meals to prepare. Meanwhile, the…
I hate to say it, and I hate even more to do it, but it's time to weed out the library again. I do it twice a year or so, and last time I failed so spectacularly that after the weeding was "done," I still couldn't even…
Ah, for the love of baking...There are those of us who love to cook, and those of us who love to bake, and those of us who like to do both, right? I'm one of the latter. Even though bakers and cooks are supposed to have…
On NPR yesterday evening, a reporter was speaking with an independent bookstore owner. What was selling? "Cookbooks," the owner replied. Coffee table cookbooks, the kind that never see the inside of a kitchen or the…
Poivrade artichokes. Veal kidneys. Gilt-head bream. Mastic crystals. These are a few of the ingredients I've seen as I page my way through hundreds of cookbooks on my long, slow path to holiday roundup. And, though I…
