I mostly check out cookbooks from the library but purchased What To Cook and Pizza Night and I'm glad we're in agreement that they are mainstays! Will be referencing this post in the future for recipe ideas and library checkouts 😊
Great, I’m happy to hear it’s helpful! It’s so awesome when libraries have the selection to let you try everything out before you buy. It saves so much heartache.
Just stumbled on this comment, what a lovely way to start my day!! I also love library cookbooks so I especially appreciate being moved into the purchase pile :):)
Thank you, Robynne! I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed your newsletter this year. It is so hard to be honest when writing cookbook reviews, and you do it beautifully. I bought Kismet after reading your review, it's been such a fun addition to my library. I'm making the Harissa Party Wings tonight and the Not-Just-for-Chanukah Latkes tomorrow. Happy New Year!
I would love to read a Robynne review for The Ambitious Kitchen Cookbook. I've been flitting between buying / not buying it for a while (my library doesn't offer it + hasn't had adequate requests) and trust your reviews!
I’m so glad you enjoy the reviews and thanks for the feedback! A full review of the book would be fun, and maybe I could get around to it this summer.
My thoughts as of this moment are that I use it quite a bit for breakfast/snacky things, but the main dishes generally require more time and input than I have on a weeknight. They have all tasted good, though, so if you are not in a time-constrained season of life they could be great for you.
i love your description and your categories! as fellow cookbook lover ( in Belgium) i haven’t had yet most of the cookbooks you mention but it made me truly curious to discover! i’m now mentally making my own best of :)
Great! A “best of” is such a fun snapshot of a year for me. Mine changes dramatically all the time as mine and my family’s needs and preferences change.
I had to make the olive oil cake from My Italian Kitchen after reading your review. It’s currently in the oven and the house smells heavenly. I was disappointed, however, to see that the recipe was not written with weight measurements. That’s usually a skip for me, but I decided to give it a try and weigh my ingredients and note them for the next time. I’ve had this book for a while but haven’t cooked from it and now I realize it’s because there were no weights measurements included (at least in the U.S. version). I wish it was automatic for publishers to include metric weight measurements in the U.S. Fewer dishes, more consistency in recipes… Rant over. I cannot wait to taste the cake. Thank you for all of the reviews.
Thank you! After reading this I checked if my local library had Fast Family Food but unfortunately they don’t have it. I placed a hold for Family Comforts instead. Are there any other books in the “feeding a 1-year-old + adults” category that you recommend?
Of the books I checked out this year, Pizza Night was the one that found a permanent place in my kitchen.
Those are definitely by top baby/family books. There’s a few others but they have some limitations in my opinion.
There’s one chapter in America’s Test Kitchen The Complete Baby and Toddler Cookbook that has some ideas. It’s not extensive, but it is instructive on how to approach meals for everyone if you’re just learning.
Feeding Littles & Beyond has an entire visual index of how to serve each recipe in the book to a baby and is also meant for the whole family. The book definitely falls into the category of—in my house—unnecessary dietary restrictions. My kids didn’t love the flour-free muffins/pancakes, for example.
That’s about the extent of “full family” baby books I’ve tried.
In the pure baby category, I like Jenna Helwig’s books. I could always get them through my library from Hoopla.
I hope that helps!
For what it’s worth, I often did just season things after cooking or cooked sheet pan meals so I could separate out components.
I have 5 of these but haven't fully dug into all of them, so thanks for the reviews! I picked up and put down Cooking in Real Life when it first came out, but maybe I need to check it out from the library and give it another look. :)
I think it needs a little time. It’s very simple in a way that can seem a bit boring at first but then ends up working out because of the same simplicity. (At least for me.)
Thanks for the deep dive! Super helpful! (I also don’t know which direction to go: purge or buy more? I regret every time I purge but really have NO more space 😬)
I mostly check out cookbooks from the library but purchased What To Cook and Pizza Night and I'm glad we're in agreement that they are mainstays! Will be referencing this post in the future for recipe ideas and library checkouts 😊
Great, I’m happy to hear it’s helpful! It’s so awesome when libraries have the selection to let you try everything out before you buy. It saves so much heartache.
Just stumbled on this comment, what a lovely way to start my day!! I also love library cookbooks so I especially appreciate being moved into the purchase pile :):)
Thank you, Robynne! I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed your newsletter this year. It is so hard to be honest when writing cookbook reviews, and you do it beautifully. I bought Kismet after reading your review, it's been such a fun addition to my library. I'm making the Harissa Party Wings tonight and the Not-Just-for-Chanukah Latkes tomorrow. Happy New Year!
Thank you, that is so kind of you to say! And I am so grateful for your support. I hope the wings and latkes were excellent.
I would love to read a Robynne review for The Ambitious Kitchen Cookbook. I've been flitting between buying / not buying it for a while (my library doesn't offer it + hasn't had adequate requests) and trust your reviews!
I’m so glad you enjoy the reviews and thanks for the feedback! A full review of the book would be fun, and maybe I could get around to it this summer.
My thoughts as of this moment are that I use it quite a bit for breakfast/snacky things, but the main dishes generally require more time and input than I have on a weeknight. They have all tasted good, though, so if you are not in a time-constrained season of life they could be great for you.
i love your description and your categories! as fellow cookbook lover ( in Belgium) i haven’t had yet most of the cookbooks you mention but it made me truly curious to discover! i’m now mentally making my own best of :)
Great! A “best of” is such a fun snapshot of a year for me. Mine changes dramatically all the time as mine and my family’s needs and preferences change.
I had to make the olive oil cake from My Italian Kitchen after reading your review. It’s currently in the oven and the house smells heavenly. I was disappointed, however, to see that the recipe was not written with weight measurements. That’s usually a skip for me, but I decided to give it a try and weigh my ingredients and note them for the next time. I’ve had this book for a while but haven’t cooked from it and now I realize it’s because there were no weights measurements included (at least in the U.S. version). I wish it was automatic for publishers to include metric weight measurements in the U.S. Fewer dishes, more consistency in recipes… Rant over. I cannot wait to taste the cake. Thank you for all of the reviews.
Yes, I especially love weighted measures for reducing dishes!
I hope the cake turned out well for you.
It was fabulous. And it gets better as it sits. I love that.
Wow thank you!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for a such a thoughtful and useful book 😊
Thank you! After reading this I checked if my local library had Fast Family Food but unfortunately they don’t have it. I placed a hold for Family Comforts instead. Are there any other books in the “feeding a 1-year-old + adults” category that you recommend?
Of the books I checked out this year, Pizza Night was the one that found a permanent place in my kitchen.
Those are definitely by top baby/family books. There’s a few others but they have some limitations in my opinion.
There’s one chapter in America’s Test Kitchen The Complete Baby and Toddler Cookbook that has some ideas. It’s not extensive, but it is instructive on how to approach meals for everyone if you’re just learning.
Feeding Littles & Beyond has an entire visual index of how to serve each recipe in the book to a baby and is also meant for the whole family. The book definitely falls into the category of—in my house—unnecessary dietary restrictions. My kids didn’t love the flour-free muffins/pancakes, for example.
That’s about the extent of “full family” baby books I’ve tried.
In the pure baby category, I like Jenna Helwig’s books. I could always get them through my library from Hoopla.
I hope that helps!
For what it’s worth, I often did just season things after cooking or cooked sheet pan meals so I could separate out components.
I have 5 of these but haven't fully dug into all of them, so thanks for the reviews! I picked up and put down Cooking in Real Life when it first came out, but maybe I need to check it out from the library and give it another look. :)
I think it needs a little time. It’s very simple in a way that can seem a bit boring at first but then ends up working out because of the same simplicity. (At least for me.)
Thanks for the deep dive! Super helpful! (I also don’t know which direction to go: purge or buy more? I regret every time I purge but really have NO more space 😬)
My shelves are also full and my elegant solution is floor stacks. So I probably should be leaning in the purge direction—but I’m not ha!
Glad to hear I’m not alone in this problem, though.
Great—and helpful—write-up! Thanks.
Thank you!