Justine’s recipes are very tempting and the sub title says it all – “create 100+ delicious new meals using pantry staples”. All the recipes can be attempted by anyone as the recipes are clear, use everyday ingredients and even include a shopping list. The photography is excellent as well.
Cooking
The caravan & campervan cookbook by Catherine Proctor
Easy recipes to cook while you are out caravanning using basic ingredients and not take a long time to prepare. I like that at the beginning of each chapter it lists the equipment you will need to cook each recipe. It has given me some ideas for when I am on my next holiday.
A basket by the door by Sophie Hansen
I love the idea of this; ‘Recipes for comforting gifts and joyful gatherings”. Sophie Hansen left Sydney and now lives on a farm in Orange, living the ultimate country life. Perhaps it just wasn’t the right time, but I found the book a little too trendy and beautiful. The food suggested to drop over to a friend in need, seems a little over the top; not as practical as I had expected. Look, the book is full of gorgeous pictures of food, country landscapes, beautiful farm houses and happy people. If I didn’t work outside the home full-time, I might have found this more appealing. I did make the triple ginger loaf, and found the recipe strange, and the result dry (to be fair, she does suggest toasting it and spreading it with butter). I think a lot of people will love this book, but it wasn’t for me.
Stephanie Alexander’s kitchen garden companion : cooking by Stephanie Alexander
Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion Cooking is a handy book when you have an excess of produce from the garden! If you still have some pumpkins left, this is a great spring recipe. Very tasty it was too! It’s so easy to Google recipes these days but it is nice to sit and drool over a lovely recipe book which this is. This is the perfect book for using up the excess seasonal produce.
Sweet by Yotam Ottalenghi and Helen Goh
This is a really beautiful book; gorgeous photography, lovely stories to go with the recipes. There are some showstopping recipes, definitely at the fancier end of the scale, but there are some simple ones as well. The great thing about borrowing cookbooks from the library, is that you can see how many recipes you will actually make before you buy it. I made five recipes while I had the book, and want to make many more, so this is one to buy, or borrow again! I made lemon and poppy seed cake, raspberry and rose powder puffs, the take home chocolate cake, pistachio and rose water semolina cake, and apricot and almond cake with cinnamon topping. I don’t eat sugar, so didn’t taste any, but they were enjoyable to bake, and all went down well with those who did eat them!
The bread and butter project by Paul Allam and David McGuinness
I have had my sourdough starter for years now, and make bread from this book around twice a week. There’s a huge variety of sourdough, sourish dough, and yeasted bread recipes. The photos are gorgeous, and there is lots of information on background and technique information, as well as the recipes.
Slow Cooker Central super savers by Paulene Christie
If you after simple slow cooking recipes with ingredients you will most likely have in the cupboard and fridge, then this is the cookbook for you. The recipes are from everyday people who have done the experimenting and testing on their families. The only downside is that there are no photographs of the food. I look forward to sharing some of the recipes with my family.
Alice’s food A-Z by Alice Zaslavsky
Alice has a great sense of humour and loves her food. Adults will recognise Alice from Masterchef and kids will from her hosting role of Kitchen Whiz. Including fun food facts and some recipes this is a nice introduction to a range of foods – some that will not be so well known to kids such as quince and Jerusalem artichoke. I think kids would enjoy this more if the recipes were centre stage – they could try the recipes and then find out about the ingredients. It will be a good book for adults to share with their kids and explore some great food.
Simply Nigella
Every second recipe I cook in my every day life is a Nigella recipe. I own almost every one of her books. This one however, I borrowed from the library instead of buying, and there is only one recipe that I will use regularly. Has she changed, or have I? I’m not sure, but it just doesn’t grab me. The recipes are a bit “healthier” than those in earlier books – chia pudding, pickled vegetables – but there is a big sweet section. If you have a pomegranate tree, you need to borrow this book, but I prefer Feast, Forever Summer and Kitchen.
rrlreads 