I spend a lot of time reviewing artisanal, unique and conscious cookbooks on this site. Here are three cookbook gifts worth giving this holiday.
1. Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East & Beyond by Sabrina Ghayour.
This wonderful new cookbook is filled with recipes I want to make — tonight. Iranian-Born Ghayour’s beautiful new cookbook is a compendium of flavorful, just short of exotic recipes from the regions near the Southern and Eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The book keeps calling me back to it and the list of Mezze recipes alone make me want to throw a cocktail party. Finally, the stunning photos make this cookbook a delight to peruse. We shared a recipe from the book not long ago. Check it out here!
2. Thug Kitchen by Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway.
Despite the controversy over whether Thug Kitchen is implicitly or explicitly racist, this cookbook is good, not-so-clean fun. Thug Kitchen is a plant-based cookbook that embraces an “Eat Like You Give A F*ck” attitude. “The cookbook was born out of an anonymous website that received praise and promotion from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Saveur magazine. It’s known for using harsh language that sounds more like it’s coming from young black kids, rather than the white Hollywood-based couple, Michelle Davis and Matt Holloway, who actually wrote the book. “I gotta say, I love this cookbook, but not maybe for your grandma.”
3. Good and Cheap by Leanne Brown.
On a tight budget this year? Anyone can download this free cookbook and enjoy its many wonderful healthy recipes that can be made for $4 a day. Brown wrote Good and Cheap as part of her graduate program in Food Studies at New York University and believes that sharing the power of cooking is the whole point of the Good and Cheap project. Because the book is under a Creative Commons license, you are free to use the recipes however you like so long as you give Brown credit and you don’t make money off her work. Bottom line: Good and Cheap‘s price tag is not the best thing about it; the recipes, photos and spirit are. Download the PDF, print it out and give a copy to someone you love or to yourself. You can also buy a printed copy for $13.50; the book is a 176-page softcover, sized 8.5″ square. Shipping within the US is included.
Why I still send Christmas cards — and why you should too
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/12/why-i-still-send-christmas-cards-and.html