November 2018 Cookbooks

Gordon Ramsay's Healthy, Lean & Fit by Gordon Ramsay

I read an article awhile back that Gordon Ramsey's wife threatened to leave him if he didn't lose weight. While that's not mentioned in this book, he does talk about how he let his crazy schedule get in the way of a healthy life. Now he makes exercise a priority and works to make easy, healthy meals. I didn't know that he and his wife are both marathon runners and have even completed the Ironman triathlon! I did like how the book is organized, but I didn't find a ton of recipes I wanted to try. There was a lot of seafood which I can't eat too. Overall, it was good and did have a lot of healthy lifestyle tips throughout the book.

Cooking Scrappy: 100 recipes to help you stop wasting food, save money, and love what you eat by Joel Gamoran

I love the idea of this cookbook, but there just wasn't a lot of recipes I wanted to try. Joel Gamoran taught cooking classes at Sur La Table and saw how many scraps were left over that would have been put to use in a commercial kitchen. Some of the ideas are obvious, but some seem odd like making apple butter from apple cores - as someone who makes apple butter every year that just seemed like it wouldn't work. Also, as a gardener my kitchen scraps don't go to waste - they get composted. I liked the idea, but wasn't super blown away by the recipes.

Milk Street Tuesday Nights by Christopher Kimball

I wasn't familiar with Milk Street, but apparently it's a cooking school, TV show, radio show, and magazine! In this cookbook Kimball focuses on quick, weeknight meal ideas. I like that the cookbook is divided by how you cook, not by meal. So there are chapters on Fast, Faster, Fastest (how quickly the meal is ready), sides, salads, pizza night, etc. The recipes are globally inspired, so there is a lot of variety of dishes. I found a few things I'd like to try, but there were a lot of seafood dishes which I can't eat and I'm not a super adventurous/global eater, so this wasn't the best cookbook for me. But, if you are looking for more quick and easy meals there are a LOT of recipes in this book.

Homemade Christmas by Yvette Van Bowen

These "Home Made" cookbooks are always beautiful to look through. This is a collection of holiday/winter recipes. There are also lots of beautiful photographs to go along with the recipes - both photos of food and also of holiday scenes. The first few chapters are about prepping for holiday parties/cooking, even one about "christmas stress-relief tips." I also liked that at the end there is a section of menus created from the recipes in the book. Definitely a unique cookbook with lots of recipes I'd like to try.

Cook Like a Pro: recipes and tips for home cooks by Ina Garten

I don't normally watch Ina Garten, but I did recently see one of her shows with recipes I wanted to try, so I figured I would check out this book. While she did give some tips, there definitely weren't as many "pro tips" as the title would imply - there was a page at the beginning of each chapter and some sprinkled in throughout the recipes. Overall, there just weren't that many recipes I wanted to try from this book. Maybe it would be better for a more beginner cook.