Our Cookbook Section Can Help With Your Thanksgiving!

Still gathering your last minute thanksgiving recipes? Looking for something traditional, but just a bit different this year? Not to worry, here are some of the best recipes from our favorite cookbooks to help you decide what to make  for the holiday.

Kim O'Donnel's Dino Mash from The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook. I made this over the weekend and I won't make any other mash again. It's a wonderful mixture of roasted garlic, creamy potatoes and kale. That's right, kale! Sure, mashed potatoes are near perfect on their own, but trust me, the deep green of kale weaving through an otherwise clumpy white mess is just stunning. It adds the perfect visual oompf and the kale provides a wonderful chewy and hearty texture to the potatoes. (Hey! Check out Kim talking about these potatoes in the Huff Po's Meatless Monday Thanksgiving Project)

The Apple Galette from In My Green Kitchen. This rustic tart is perfect for a small Thanksgiving gathering. It calls for less apples than a pie, so you can forget spending hours chopping and peeling, but it is absolutely beautiful. You lay out the apples in a concentric circle on a buttery pie dough, then fold the dough over the edge of the fruit. Voila! Always a show stopper.

Ina Garten's Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics. I always think a starter salad on Thanksgiving is a wonderful way to begin the big, heavy meal and this salad keeps to theme with squash, cranberries, walnuts and maple syrup. This squashy dish would also be a great stand in for the sweet potatoes, but if you are a sweet potato lover, you should try the Sweet Potato Lover's Cookbook.

Hope these suggestions help fill in some of your Thanksgiving day recipe blanks. Enjoy! (And be careful out there in the snow.)

--Anna, Events

Come Visit Our New Cookbook Space

I have come to love the new Cookbook space. Love it! It feels like there’s room for all those delectable books to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out and sing the siren song of food. And it’s almost like I need to shelve those books closer to my break time because I keep getting hunger pangs … but if that’s the worst of it, then I won’t complain.

New Cookbooks of Note:

*I am still thrilled to continue to showcase the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook by Keller. I would like to see everything in that book reduced (yeah, like a sauce … ) to DVD format, because the images literally jump off the page.





*Recipes from an Italian Summer- sign me up! Can you imagine the thrill of spending a summer in Italy? I’d love it. But instead, still happily, I get to look at the beauteous cover art of this book.




*Trader Joe cookbooks- with one already as a staff pick, you can’t go wrong. Besides, with my two person household, TJ’s knows how to do
smaller-sized meals and keep them delicious and affordable.


*Plus there are some new entertainment books to consider
for spring and summer. What budget you ask? Well, a girl can dream of lavish entertainment for family & friends, right?! Just got in Lulu Powers Food to Flowers, lots of good ideas … including how to do manage your houseguests' breakfast.

So, come visit and stay a spell. There’s that comfy (what would you call it?) bench, and lots and lots of cool bargain books to ingest! And remember, even though I consider myself to be an apprentice in the culinary arts, I am ever eager to be here to help you find just that right cookbook.

Jan

Cookbooks, Calendars, Pet Gallery, etc.