3/28

A Few Favorites

Book Club, Food, Window Shopping
By Emma Chapman

Great cookbooks to check outAs you could probably guess, I am completely obsessed with cookbooks. I love reading them. I love cooking from them. And I LOVE geeking out over the food photography. Just for fun I thought I’d share a few new (or new to me) cookbooks I’m into right now.

1. The Forest Feast was a book that was gifted to me by my mother for my birthday a few months ago. The photography and food styling is stunning, the book design features lots of hand-painted and just pretty touches, and it’s a vegetarian cookbook. So basically my mom totally nailed it—I love everything about this book!

2. When I saw Prune on the shelf at Barnes & Noble a couple weeks I go, I got so excited! I loved Gabrielle Hamilton’s (sort of) biography, Blood, Bones, and Butter, and I’ve wanted to check out her New York restaurant (Prune) ever since. I haven’t been able to make it there yet, but at least I have the cookbook. And I must say, the dark pink cover and overall design and, frankly, heft of this book seems fitting for a chef who I think is probably equally intimidating and cool. Can you tell I’m a big fan of Hamilton? I am SO excited to cook some of her recipes soon.

3. If you enjoy step-by-step detailed guides, then you’ll love Baking by James Peterson. A very useful resource for anyone looking to take their baked goods game to the next level.

Food photography4. I love the concept behind The Soup Club Cookbook. It’s sort of a unique approach to writing a cookbook in that it is authored by four friends who teach how to start a successful soup club (raise your hand if you’ll start a soup club with me?!?!), and it has over 150 recipes they’ve created together from their soup club. Fun, right?

5. Afro-Vegan mixes African, Caribbean, and southern American flavors together to create some really unique (and vegan!) dishes. It’s got a lot going on, so if you like truly unique recipes, you’ll love this book.

6. A good friend sent me a couple books last month. Asian Pickles is one of the books she sent me and I loved it immediately. It’s a little bit quirky and filled with pretty photography and inventive flavors.

7. Although this is not technically a cookbook, I guess I’m still putting Skin Cleanse on the list because it’s a new book I recently picked up and have been enjoying so far. I would put my skin on the “OK but probably could be healthier” spectrum of things. I don’t have plaguing problems outside of some dryness in the winter, but I think a reminder that what we put into our bodies manifests itself through out skin and health in general is a good thing. I mean, I can always use a friendly reminder to make healthy choices. But that’s just me. 

If you have any cookbooks (or other books) you’d like to recommend and share with us, please leave me a comment. If you need me, I’ll be in my kitchen trying to pretend I’m Gabrielle Hamilton. xo. Emma

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.

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