Italian by Carla Capalbo (I bought this in the bargain section of Borders, I think it was $5. It was probably the thousandth Italian cookbook I bought. All the previous ones sucked. This one is awesome! Seriously, every single recipe I’ve tried in it has been amazing. I had probably tried 30 different meatball recipes before trying the one in here…all were just wrong. This one is so good, I make 5 times the recipe and freeze them so we always have them around. Eggplant Parmesan recipe in here is also to die for.)
Vegetables by James Peterson (I have a box of organic veggies delivered every week and it’s really opened our minds to new veggies. The problem is I don’t always know what to do with those new veggies. This is a big, thick cookbook just about vegetable recipes. It’s great. Even the most obscure veggie has a whole whack of recipes. I use the index a lot in this one.)
How to Cook Everything by Bittman (Sorta like the Joy of Cooking for the younger set. More progressive recipes. Everything is in here. GREAT reference for cooking and baking. I use the index in this one a lot as well.)
The Healthy College Cookbook by Nimetz, Stanley and Starr (This was the 3rd cookbook I ever owned, and I actually bought it while still in college. It is now really old, covered in food and dog eared. It’s a great one. All the recipes are incredibly easy, use super simple ingredients that everyone has on hand, healthy and it makes small portions. One of Bryan’s favorite dishes of all time, which we’ve named “Bryan Chicken”, came from here.)
The Soul of a New Cuisine by Marcus Samuelsson (If you’ve ever tried to find recipes for Ethiopian food, you know how difficult that can be. There is exactly one cookbook in all of Amazon about Ethiopian food, and it is poorly written and most of the recipes don’t turn out right. This one was written by acclaimed chef Marcus Samuelsson who was born in Ethiopia and adopted by a Swedish family at age 3. He is a big deal chef in NYC, known for his Swedish food. He wrote this book, which is about African food in general but heavy on the Ethiopian, while “getting back to his roots.” I tried several dishes for Thanksgiving this year and they all turned out incredibly well–as good as in Ethiopian restaurants. Injera is very difficult to make and usually requires days of fermentation and flour that is tough to find in the US, but his recipe streamlined the process and used readily available ingredients. AND, it was good!)
Colorado Cravings by Gail Riley (OK, I don’t know that you’ll be able to find this one on Amazon, but it deserves mention. It was written by the owner of this Inn where we live, and where we happen to have had our after party after our wedding. Brunch is included with your stay, and I was blown away at how good it was the next morning. If you’ve ever tried to find yummy, easy, different breakfast recipes, you know how hard that can be. And the best part about these is that since they’re from a busy Inn, most can be prepared the night before. I tried out a couple recipes this weekend for breakfast and WOW. So incredibly good and easy and different. Makes me want to have a brunch party sometime soon.)
