Category: Books

This culinary-school-in-print will up your kitchen game

by Maria

A Once Upon a Chef cookbook review: a review of Once Upon a Chef, the Cookbook by Jennifer Segal.

It’s gorgeous out; life is crazy; why does everything happen at once?

Those are the thoughts that keep cycling through my mind this week. If you have any answers, ideas, or a pool I could swim in, email me immediately.

The crowning news of this loony week is that Once Upon a Chef, by my incredible author Jenn Segal, hit The Washington Post bestseller list!!

I am throwing all the confetti! And then promptly moving out so I don’t have to vacuum it. I’ll live outdoors from now on.

If you haven’t yet jumped into the beautiful + achievable world of Jenn’s recipes, here’s a handy Once Upon a Chef cookbook review, which I shared with my pals at The Kitchn.

This Culinary-School-in-Print Will Up Your Kitchen Game

This Once Upon a Chef cookbook review was originally published on The Kitchn.

once upon a chef cookbook review
(Image credit: Courtesy of Chronicle Books; Photography: Alexandra Grablewski)

Here’s a dream many of us have had: Quit that desk job, sign up for culinary school, run off to Paris (Rome is okay, too), and cook for a living alongside a ragtag team of chefs who form love interests, friendships, and rivalries around dinner service. It’s Grey’s Anatomy, but for people who prefer mise-ing to medicating.

Of course, many of us don’t actually want to live this dream — I want to share my counterspace like I want to share my toothbrush — but I do want to have that friend who did it and who’s going to tell me all the juicy bits later, so I don’t have to stand in a cold kitchen for 11 hours slicing onions and calculating my debt-to-income ratio.

 

Click here to keep reading this review on The Kitchn!

 

5 quick links for the week

  1. My favorite piece of the week on publishing. I love seeing these real-life case studies.
  2. Would you want a cookbook subscription like this?
  3. Sigh, I love them all.
  4. Are you for or against all things Chip and JoJo? And did you hear about this?
  5. Want to read more women? Start here.

What we’re eating this week

once upon a chef cookbook review

Because I already get too many free books in my job, I’m supremely picky about which books I’ll actually fork over money for. But after two years of eyeing it (no joke), I finally turned my $35 in for a copy of Food52’s A New Way to Dinner. And oooh, I love it. I’m now using 40% less of my brain trying to contort five recipes into five weeknights, and on a Saturday morning, that is like a mini-vacation.

(Just after this picture was taken Pepper scribbled out my meal plan and wrote “HOTT DOOGZ PLZ.” She is such a bad dog. And a below-average speller.)

Monday: Chicken Cutlets with Charmoula from page 62 and beet salad from my brain. (Wouldn’t that be a great rap song? Beat salad from my brain!)

Tuesday: Grain Salad with Asparagus, Baby Turnips, Feta, and Preserved Lemon Dressing from page 61. Life hack: simplify your cooking by leaving out, like, half the ingredients from a recipe. It works wonders?

Wednesday: Low Maintenance Fish Tacos from page 85, which were truly so low maintenance there was no way for me to butcher the author’s intent by getting lazy.

Thursday: Lasagna! Sans recipe, plus so much extra cheese.

Friday: The Charmoula Quesadillas from page 65, which meet all my criteria: easy, cheesy, and… I guess I only have two criteria.

Cheers!

This is the best middle eastern cookbook right now

by Maria

The best middle eastern cookbook right now–this is the best middle eastern cookbook of 2018, full of delicious middle eastern recipes to kick off your spring.

It’s finally(sort of) warming up here in DC, and I’m getting the itch to grill and get outside and remember what Vitamin D on my skin feels like.

Pepper has been a little droopy lately, too, and she keeps threatening to report us to the ASPCA if we don’t let her roll around in the mud at the dog park. (Dogs are so entitled these days. Ugh. Millenials.)

best middle eastern cookbook 2018

Has it been warming up in your corner of the country yet? Do you have any tips for how to discipline a willful dog? Do you want a free dog?

To kick off our downhill ride into spring and VEGETABLES (glory, glory), here’s your cookbook review of the month. I have a feeling you’ll like it, because last I checked, we all needed the next Ottolenghi to teach us how to spruce up our produce bins.

And hey, if we’re staking the bold claim that this is the best middle eastern cookbook right now, we’ll need you all to weigh in, too!

If You Love Ottolenghi, This is the Cookbook You Need in March

best middle eastern cookbook

What’s the sign of a great cookbook in 2018? You don’t know what shelf to put it on.

Does Shaya by James Beard award-winning chef Alon Shaya go next to the Israeli cookbooks? Or next to Marcella Hazan, since Shaya also owns two Italian restaurants, Domenica and Pizza Domenica? Or should we slide it next to Brock? Shaya’s empire is in New Orleans, after all, and there’s a hard-to-resist recipe for red beans and rice on page 197.

My advice? Time to change the way you organize that cookbook shelf.
That’s because the food in Shaya is Southern-Italian-Israeli, and that makes complete sense as soon as you crunch into your first bite of za’atar fried chicken.

 

Click here to keep reading this article on The Kitchn!

 

For more cookbook reviews and tips, keep reading:

instant pot cookbook beginners

best cookbooks for cooks who love travel

how to start a cookbook club easy

best keto cookbook

What I’m Reading This Week

Book Towns Are Made for Book Lovers (Sarah Laskow for Atlas Obscura): Nothing gets the heart going like finding an adorable bookshop when you’re on vacation, right? I’m already daydreaming about our trip to Cook the Books in Auckland next week and doing my best bookish rain dance to summon a few other cute shops in New Zealand.

best middle eastern cookbook

Gone Girl’s gone, hello Eleanor Oliphant: why we’re all reading ‘up lit’ (Hannah Beckerman for The Guardian): I’m so happy to see that the pendulum’s swinging the other way and books about community and kindness are back in after the Gone Girl era. Yes, it’s because I’m wimpy, but I also think the crazy-twist-you’ll-never-guess thing was getting a little tired. What do you think? Were you getting tired of dark and suspenseful, or are you still on the hunt for the next Gone Girl?

How to Decide Which Exciting Story Idea to Write Next (Kristen Kieffer of Well-Storied): “Have a hundred thrilling story ideas rumbling around in your brain? Choosing which of those many ideas to write next can seem impossible — especially when you’re of unsure which idea best aligns with your aims and abilities as a writer.”

How Did Salt and Pepper Become the Soulmates of Western Cuisine? (Natalie Jacewicz for NPR’s The Salt): I’ve always wondered why pepper became the go-to seasoning. (H/T to Dianne Jacob for first sharing this in her excellent newsletter.)

What We’re Eating This Week

I’m still cooking, happy as a clam, from Once Upon a Chef by Jenn Segal. I’ll be reviewing the book in my April column for The Kitchn, but here’s a sneak peek at what I’m testing and turning cartwheels over:

Monday: Did I mention that I love the Persian Kofta recipe in OUAC? Did I mention that I made it twice in one week? Did I mention that I have no regrets and if someone doesn’t stop me, I’m going to make it again this weekend? Have we talked about these things?

Tuesday: Guys, I made TOMATO SOUP. I don’t even like tomato soup. But then I read Jenn’s recipe for it and my wheels started turning…maybe if it were homemade, maybe if the tomatoes were roasted, maybe if it had a perfect kick of heat… And then BOOM. Transformed into a tomato soup lover. What’s next? Eggplant? (Stay away from me, vile nightshade.)

once upon a chef cookbook review

Wednesday: Jarrett’s think tank is co-hosting a Virginia is for Happy Hour Lovers event at Jack Rose, which means I don’t have to cook and I don’t have to be the one doing the public speaking. So dinner will be deviled eggs and gin eaten standing in a corner. I am very, very excited.

Thursday: The Segal Steakhouse Burgers from OUAC, which have a super secret (read: not secret, but v. clever), technique for recreating juicy, tender steakhouse burgers at home. I guess you’ll have to wait until April’s column for the big, groundbreaking reveal…(ha ha!).

Friday: It’s Friday. Why don’t you figure out what’s for dinner? (Oh, you’re making gin and deviled eggs? You have good taste.)

c&b is on vacation!

Jarrett and I will be stomping around New Zealand for the next two weeks, so things will be a little quiet around here. But I do have a free cookbook giveaway and one of my most popular articles coming your way while we’re gone–keep an eye out and follow along on our NZ adventures on Instagram! (There will be bookshops.)

Cheers!

Affiliate links may be included in this post, which at no cost to you, helps support my work. Thank you for your support!

The best Instant Pot cookbook for beginners

by Maria

This is the best Instant Pot cookbook for beginners, including being the best Instant Pot cookbook for all levels and the best Instant Pot cookbook with pictures! 

Current scene as I type:

best instant pot cookbook beginners

(Teddy and Peppy are best friends.)

I was at the IACP conference all last weekend, and I had so much fun catching up with old friends and authors and agents and editors. But boy, is it nice to be home.

I have a theory that publishing people are half book-people, half people-people. We love talking to each other about books, but we also need to time to recharge and read quietly. So now that I gabbed up a storm last weekend, let’s cue the quiet reading!

Today I have for your reading pleasure the February installment of my Kitchn column, What to Read and Cook Next. And spoiler alert: it has my pick for the best Instant Pot cookbook for beginners.

It also has the recipe for that Instant Pot Whole Chicken I won’t shut up about. It also tells you which Instant Pot cookbook for beginners you actually need, since the options are overwhelming right now. And yes, it also has weird Lord of the Rings jokes and a brief moment of questioning our place in the cosmos. Since I know you were wondering.

There’s all of that and more, right this way! (How could you resist?)

The Best Instant Pot Cookbook for Beginners + What To Cook From It

instant pot cookbook beginners

There are two kinds of people in this world: the gadget minimalists and the gadget maximalists. That simple designation will define how you feel about America’s hottest new appliance: the Instant Pot.

(Have you heard of it? Of course you have.)

In just three years, the Instant Pot has reportedly sold more than 5 million units, and only 107 of them went to this woman. Yet this little electric pressure cooker seems to bring out all of our strongest opinions: we love it, we hate it, we question our place in the cosmos now that it’s here.

Click here to keep reading this article on The Kitchn!

What I’m Reading This Week

Welcome to the Post-Text Future (The New York Times): Coolest journalism package of the year? Coolest journalism package of the year.

The literary editors whose latest manuscript is their own (Andy Martin for The Independent): I don’t know that it’s a new thing that editors are writing their own books, but I do love this look at three new books coming from some of the in-house editors we work with.

The story behind Costco’s $1.50 hot dog deal (Elizabeth Licata for The Kitchn): My entire childhood on a bun. I love this way, way too much.

3 Signs Your Book Cover Design Misses the Mark (Leisha Petrovich for The Write Life): Book covers are so important. I know we know this, but how do we act on it? Here are 3 ways to start, and here are the 3 most common mistakes I see on book covers, dug up from my own archives.

What We’re Eating This Week

I was having so much fun gabbing, sipping wine, and cheering for Stonesong’s three wins at IACP that I didn’t get any food. At a food conference. So at 10 pm, I was eating cold Sbarro slices in Penn Station, like a very sad person.

But this is a new week, and I am on to better things! Here are my prospects:

Monday: Whipped up a nice little split pea soup using just what we had on hand and Milton’s from the freezer. Felt legit again.

Tuesday: We ate Pizza Hut. I am so sorry. (Narrator: she wasn’t.)

Wednesday: Okay, reforming my ways, take two! Sunshine lentil bowls, which are both delicious and Instagrammable. 12/10.

Thursday: Debating between the Linguine with Chili Oil and Capers or the Quick Sausage Sugo from Back Pocket Pasta. Leaning toward the Sausage Sugo since it means I could use my Sweet Precious. (Inside joke for all you column-readers out there!)

Friday: We have ground moose from a generous friend, so moose burgers and something with Brussels sprouts that I would like someone else to figure out for me.

Saturday: Our dinner/cookbook club meets again! I wrote about why cookbook clubbing is the best kind of clubbing for The Kitchn recently, but it all boils down to this: on Saturday, all my favorite people will be feeding me fried chicken, mac and cheese, and beer. That makes me a very happy person.

Cheers!

Affiliate links may be included in this post, which at no cost to you, helps support my work. Thank you for your support!

This is the best keto cookbook for beginners

by Maria

A review of the best keto cookbooks on Amazon, plus which one is the best keto cookbook for beginners–perfect for anyone just starting the low-carb, high-fat lifestyle of the ketogenic diet! (This post may contain affiliate links.)

Happy February!

Well, sort of. February is always a grim month—it’s cold; it’s gray; it’s dark; it’s cold. It’s the month when I most want to hide under the covers with a novel. (I’m reading this now!) And it’s the month when I most want to pile on the comfort food, yet there’s still that pesky January healthy-eating thing going on.

Jarrett and I were flattened with the flu all of last week, and we were such sad sacks that barely anything got done. But the two bright spots in the week were this:

  1. Jarrett achieved his lifelong dream of having an op-ed published in the print Wall Street Journal! (Can I go stage-mom for a second and say how bursting with pride I am!?)
  2. My new cookbook column on The Kitchn debuted! My pals at The Kitchn generously invited me to write a monthly cookbook review column for them, and anyone who’s ever heard me monologue about cookbooks knows I couldn’t resist.

We’re calling the column What To Read & Cook Next, and each month, I’ll select one of the bestselling cookbooks on Amazon, investigate why everyone’s been cooking from it, and point you to that one recipe that will change your game in the kitchen.

Here’s an excerpt from this month’s column, where we talk about the best keto cookbook for beginners:

The best keto cookbook for beginners + a fat ball recipe

best keto cookbook

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