Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites: A Cookbook

Of course what I love most about this beautiful book is the food styling/photography and Perelman’s friendly, funny introduction to each recipe (the book is a lot like her website). I also love that she “spied a reference to a smeteneh kuchen online” and got so excited, only to find that it was a reference to sour-cream coffee cake, not her website :)

Of the ~100 recipes, I’d eat almost all of them if offered to me; I’d order perhaps half of them if on a menu at a restaurant; and I marked 17 to prepare myself.

Loved this book. With color photos of all the recipes and a short anecdote explaining how each recipe came into being, this was a mouthwatering, entertaining cookbook. I kept it on the kitchen counter and read whenever I had a minute. I found myself saying "I'll just read one more" when I really should have been making dinner or leaving for an appointment. The book was entertaining and motivating, even for those recipes I know I'll probably never make. This was a library book....until I actually buy it I will have to be satisfied with subscribing to Deb's newsletter from her website www.smittenkitchen.com which also has amazing looking recipes.

Deb Perelman's post-child cookbook is more savory than sweet, which is a bit sad for me as our taste in savory is not compatible. She's still very funny, though, and a lovely person, so I enjoyed the read and then just waited until the sweets section before heading to the kitchen. Those oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are a triumph and making the coffee cake upside down a stroke of genius - why haven't I thought of that before? Head over to her website if you want to try out a few recipes before committing to a book - and remember to read the comments, it's quite chatty over there.

nonfiction/cookbook
beautifully photographed, mouthwatering recipes (I am a big fan of her broccoli salad, not included here)-- though not very allergy friendly.

There are lists of gluten-free and vegan recipes included at the back of the book, but oddly they don't show the page numbers, so you have to look them up again in the index in order to find them. There's no way to easily pick out which recipes are vegan or gluten free without scrutinizing the ingredients list or referring to the indexes in the back--not a big deal for most folks, but those who are mindful of food allergies will have an easier time just using an internet search.

Checked this out from the library and barely made a dent - there are SO MANY recipes in all categories. Everything looks delicious but perhaps not as minimally labor-intensive as she says...

I love her blog, but I can't imagine making these recipes for "every day."

So happy to have this cookbook in my collection!