if i were gifting a cookbook to a friend (and a giveaway!)...

01.03.2014

image by Callie

this series is turning out to be pretty fun for me. i love thinking of different suggestions for possible cooking scenarios. there is a long list of post ideas on my phone. by the way, am i the only one who does that? lots and lots of lists on your phone? just wondering.

one of the most difficult parts of getting ready to move our family across the pacific had nothing to do with packing up an entire house. it had nothing to do with going through toys and clothes and downsizing. it wasn't even really hard to leave our home of 8 years where we had brought home all but one of our babies from the hospital. for me, the most difficult part of getting ready to move was having to edit my cookbook library. 

it was painful. embarrassingly so. much to jon's dismay, i couldn't part with my collection of gourmet magazines. (they're not in print anymore for goodness sake!) but i was able to separate myself from some of the many cookbooks i'd collected over the years. to help ease the pain of the task i decided to have some good friends come by and choose the cookbooks they knew they would use from the ones i decided to leave behind. i somehow felt better knowing that they would be in homes of people i loved. it's almost crazy that i still think about them. i know. but nothing about an obsession makes much sense, does it?

except when it comes to deb perelman. she's a self-described obsessive home cook. and we are all the ones who get to benefit from said obsession. i don't remember having been so excited about a cookbook to be released. for some reason i wasn't very familiar with her blog, but the cookbook was another story. 

once i got it in my hands it changed me. it made me bake again! i worked in a pastry kitchen during college and i loved it. but i always said that my time there got all my baking out of me. turns out i was wrong. deb's whole lemon bars, buttered popcorn cookies, cranberry crumb bars, gooey cinnamon squares, brownie roll-out cookies, grapefruit olive oil pound cake, blueberry cornmeal butter cake, olive oil ricotta cake and chocolate hazelnut crepe cake snapped me out of my baking hiatus. i made every single one of these recipes within the first week of owning this treasure trove. makes me happy thinking about it.

cookbooks make a great gift too. for a friend or spouse who loves to cook. for newlyweds or a sibling who's trying to learn to cook more. or maybe just a gift for yourself. i love receiving new cookbooks. and they really are a bang for you buck. most cookbooks coming out today have over 100 recipes! that's a lot of knowledge and time and testing and stories. there's always good stories in a good cookbook. so today, here are some suggestions if i were gifting a cookbook to a friend...

the smitten kitchen by deb perelman would be at the top of my list. it's definitely for more experienced cooks though. so keep that in mind.

for more of a beginner cookbook looking to find their way in the kitchen? kitchen confidence by kelsie nixon looks like a winner. i remember watching her on the next food network star and then a little more on kelsey's essentials. she's hosting a fun dinner at orson gygi the night before alt summit in salt lake this year. i'd be there in a heart beat if i could.

is your friend a baking enthusiast? well this is the perfect cookbook for them. milk bar by christina tosi. she's turned the pastry world upside down in the best way possible. i've made her cornflake-chocolate chip-marshmallow cookies, grapefruit pie and banana cream pie. each one is laborious and all of them are worth every ounce of effort.

i kind of don't like the word "foodie". it sounds strange. but if you have a friend who falls under this category then here's the perfect suggestion for them. a couple of our friends actually gifted it to us one year...ad hoc at home by thomas keller. the story of this restaurant is fascinating. and that same couple made us the brined pork tenderloin from this same cookbook one night. one of the best meals of my life.

does your friend prefer more home-style, traditional meals? then the america's test kitchen family cookbook would be a perfect fit. i think of this as the betty crocker cookbook of this generation. it even has a similar red cover.

one last suggestion...i gained my love and appreciation for simple but surprising food from ina garten. i think the book i've cooked from most in my own kitchen would be her first cookbook published in 1999, the barefoot contessa cookbook. you know how some people have that one book they read that made them realize they wanted to be a writer? well that's what this cookbook did for me. it made me realize i wanted to be a cook. a good home cook.

so there you go my friends! and since there haven't been very many posts during the holidays i'm making this one a giveaway as well! to be honest, i had all of you in mind with this list. lots of different cooks with varied levels of experience and interest and a cookbook for each of you. so you get to choose which cookbook you'd like to receive if you win!

to enter, just leave a comment letting me know which cookbook would suit you best. easy, yeah? head over to instagram and facebook to find more ways to enter as well. the winner will be announced on monday morning. good luck you guys!

and p.s. to receive a couple extra "if i were..." menu ideas and secret recipes every month that i only share via email click here.