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The Cookbook Club meets in person on the third Thursday of each month (Sept – June). Each participant should pick a recipe from the chosen book, prepare the recipe at home, and bring the dish on the day of the meeting for a potluck! For more information, or to RSVP, please contact: jlee@minlib.net.

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook: Recipes and Wisdom from an Obsessive Home Cook
by Deb Perelman

September 17

With the same warmth, candor, and can-do spirit her award-winning blog, Smitten Kitchen, is known for, here Deb Perelman presents more than 100 recipes—almost entirely new, plus a few favorites from the site—that guarantee delicious results every time.

More information about this book.


The Feel Good Foodie Cookbook: 125 Recipes Enhanced with Mediterranean Flavors
by Yumna Jawad

October 15

During her childhood in Lebanese communities in Sierra Leone and Michigan, Yumna Jawad grew up eating home-cooked meals and learned time-saving shortcuts from her mother to prepare traditional, Middle Eastern recipes. As an adult, she started her blog Feel Good Foodie to make healthy cooking easy and helped fuel the “Baked Feta Pasta” trend that took over the internet. Now, in her first cookbook, she shares many more unfussy, healthy meals that are enhanced by Middle Eastern flavors.

More information about this book.


Modern Jewish Cooking: Recipes & Customs for Today’s Kitchen
by Leah Koenig

November 19

From a leading voice of the new generation of young Jewish Americans who are reworking the food of their forebears, this take on Jewish-American cuisine pays homage to tradition while reflecting the values of the modern-day food movement. In this cookbook, author Leah Koenig shares 175 recipes showcasing fresh, handmade, seasonal, vegetable-forward dishes.

More information about this book.


Baking with Less Sugar: Recipes for Desserts Using Natural Sweeteners and Little-to-No White Sugar
by Joanne Chang

December 17

Trust Joanne Chang—beloved author of the bestselling Flour and a Harvard math major to boot—to come up with this winning formula: Minus the sugar equals plus the flavor. The 60-plus recipes here are an eye-opener for anyone who loves to bake and wants to cut back on the sugar. Joanne warmly shares her secrets for playing up delicious ingredients and using natural sweeteners, such as honey, maple syrup, and fruit juice.

More information about this book.


Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat
by Chrissy Teigen

January 21

Maybe she’s on a photo shoot in Zanzibar. Maybe she’s making people laugh on TV. But all Chrissy Teigen really wants to do is talk about dinner. Or breakfast. Lunch gets some love, too. Salty, spicy, saucy, and fun as sin (that’s the food, but that’s Chrissy, too), these dishes are for family, for date night at home, for party time, and for a few life-sucks moments (salads). You’ll learn the importance of chili peppers, the secret to cheesy-cheeseless eggs, and life tips like how to use bacon as a home fragrance, the single best way to wake up in the morning, and how not to overthink men or Brussels sprouts. Because for Chrissy Teigen, cooking, eating, life, and love are one and the same.

More information about this book.


Sweet Home Café Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking
by Albert Lukas, Jerome Grant, and Jessica B. Harris

February 18

Since the 2016 opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, its Sweet Home Café has become a destination in its own right. Showcasing African American contributions to American cuisine, the café offers favorite dishes made with locally sourced ingredients, adding modern flavors and contemporary twists on classics. Now both readers and home cooks can partake of the café’s bounty: drawing upon traditions of family and fellowship strengthened by shared meals, Sweet Home Café Cookbook celebrates African American cooking through recipes served by the café itself and dishes inspired by foods from African American culture.

More information about this book.


Bobby at Home: Fearless Flavors from My Kitchen
by Bobby Flay

March 18

Welcome to Bobby’s, where powerhouse flavors rule the day. In his most personal cookbook yet, Bobby shares over 165 bold, approachable recipes he cooks at home for family and friends, along with his well-earned secrets for executing them perfectly. Everyday favorites–from pan-seared meats and hearty pastas to shareable platters of roasted vegetables, bountiful salads, and casual, homey desserts–go bigger and bolder with Bobby’s signature pull-no-punches cooking style.

More information about this book.


The Pepper Thai Cookbook: Family Recipes from Everyone’s Favorite Thai Mom
by Pepper Teigen

April 15

Whether she’s frying up a batch of her crispy-garlicky wings for John’s football Sundays or making Chrissy her favorite afternoon snack—instant ramen noodles with ground pork, cabbage, scallions, and cilantro—Pepper Teigen loves feeding her famously fabulous family. Through these eighty recipes, Pepper teaches you how to make all her hits. You’ll find playful twists on Thai classics, such as Fried Chicken Larb, which is all crunch with lots of lime, chile, and fish sauce, and Pad Thai Brussels Sprouts, which bring the fun tastes and textures of pad thai to a healthy sheet of pan-roasted vegetables. And there are the traditional dishes Pepper grew up with, like khao tod crispy rice salad and tom zapp hot and sour soup.

More information about this book.


Lidia’s Favorite Recipes: 100 Foolproof Italian Dishes, from Basic Sauces to Irresistible Entrees
by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

May 20

In Lidia’s Favorite Recipes, you’ll find a fresh take on more than 100 of Lidia’s signature and irresistibly reliable dishes. From the classic sauces to the delicious desserts, these recipes have been revised and updated to be more concise and clear, but just as soul-satisfying as ever. With new information about the affordability, seasonality, and nutritional value of the ingredients, this book shows there is no question why these dishes are the easiest and most enjoyable to bring to the family table for your most memorable moments.

More information about this book.


Big Vegan Flavor: Techniques and 150 Recipes to Master Vegan Cooking
by Nisha Vora

June 17

With more than two million devoted fans online, Nisha Vora has become the trusted source for exceptional vegan recipes for the home cook. That’s because of her “flavor first” philosophy. It’s an approach she’s honed nearly a decade creating plant-based dishes that just plain taste amazing, labels aside. Now she’s created an essential, comprehensive guide that codifies the principles of plant-based cooking for the first time, from how to coax the most out of your ingredients and how to understand essential flavor pairings, to how to achieve impossible-to-resist, must-have-more textures and embrace the myriad ways vegetables can be enjoyed: roasted, caramelized, braised, pampered in bold marinades and umami-rich sauces, and so much more.

More information about this book.