Thereâs something so comforting and universal about food, right?
Between the Covers & Cocktails column and Redheadedgirlâs Historical Kitchen, itâs clear that we love talking about edible and drinkable treats with the Bitchery. I also love seeing how each of us at SBTB HQ make use of our cookbooks. For example, Sarah loves the ease of digital cookbooks for their searchability, while Iâm more of a staunch purist. I want to spread them out on my counter and get some grease stains on the pages.
Here are a few of our tried and true cookbook recommendations and what we love making from each one!
Amanda: I recently revved up my cookbook collecting into overdrive, pledging to cook or bake at least one thing a week to limit my takeout orders and as a way of doing something therapeutic for myself.
Cravings by Chrissy Teigen
Iâve talked about my love of this cookbook before and I will never, ever stop. What I like most about this one is the approachable way the recipes are written. Seriously, the book taught me how to make a mean sweet potato gnocchi. Youâd be surprised at how much gnocchi one sweet potato can produce.
The cookbook is also hilarious, which is something I never thought Iâd say in a million years about a cookbook.
My favorite recipes are the Cobb Salad with Honey-Mustard Ranch Dressing. The rub you put on the chicken is so flavorful and can definitely be used for other chicken dishes. The Cheese Guacamole is my go-to recipe for party food and thereâs never any left over. I was also never much of an egg eater, but I cannot get enough of the Cheesy Cheeseless Scrambled Eggs. Low and slow, people! Low and slow! The eggs are pillowy with just a hint of creaminess.
 Dorieâs Cookies by Dorie GreenspanÂ
This behemoth of a cookie book can easily be used as a bludgeoning device. Itâs massive, but man, that chocolate cookie on the cover looks so good, doesnât it? I originally heard about this cookbook when one of my book club members brought Dorieâs famous World Peace cookies to the group. These double chocolate cookies just melt right in your mouth. After eating them, I just had to have the cookbook.
Aside from all the delicious looking cookies inside, I love how thereâs a âsavory cookieâ section called Cocktail Cookies. I havenât made any just yet, but it contains recipes for things like Goat Cheese & Chive Cookies and Parmesan Galettes.
Tequila Mockingbird by Tim Federle
Did you really think I wouldnât include a cocktail book on this list? My love of bookish things and stiff drinks marry perfectly in Tequila Mockingbird.
Because I went to grad school for Publishing & Writing, I met a lot of my friends in Boston through my program. We all try to get together as much as possible, and this book is perfect for us literary ladies. One of the tastiest drinks in the book (and admittedly Iâm biased because I love vodka) is The Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose, which combines mint, frozen lemonade concentrate, and vodka. Itâs so refreshing and the pitcher never lasts long.
Redheadedgirl: I think this is mean-spirited because I canât just choose three. BUT I GUESS I WILL TRY.
The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson
This was a Christmas present (as seen in a recent Historical Kitchen post), and during a recent blizzard, I used it to bake potato bread.
I have at least considered various pot roast seasoning options. Itâs huge, it covers EVERYTHING and then some.
And itâs beautiful!
American Cake (as seen in the Election Cake post) has 250 years of, well, cakes in America. Also beautiful, also so many cakes, so little time!
One of my plans for this year is to get a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share with the intention of preserving a lot of it, so I have Ballâs Complete Book of Home Preserving ( A | BN ). It covers the science of canning and gives recipes that have been tested. It also explains, for example, how long you need to have a specific applesauce in the hot water bath so you donât accidentally die of botulism. (Also itâs pretty.)
Sarah: One thing about cookbooks that arenât digital is that they are often very heavy, and they are also often hardcovers (see part about being heavy). Before we moved, I thinned my collection of cookbooks considerably, taking the total number down from three shelves of a cabinet stacked two-books deep, to one shelf of a closet, stacked in two not-really-that-precarious rows.
When I sorted my collection prior to moving, I went through each one, and stuck a post it on the page of the recipe I used most often from that book. If the book only had one or two post-its, I made a copy of the recipe, scanned that copy into Evernote, and donated the book.
I keep most of my recipes and cooking ideas in Evernote because it can search text in PDFs. When I import scanned PDFs into my Evernote âRecipesâ notebook, I can find them later when I search using the Boolean flotsam of my brain (âchicken bacon biasâ or âdrunk applesâ are two recent examples). I know a few people who use other recipe indexing apps like Paprika or the AllRecipes Dinner Spinner, but I love using Evernote for recipes and indexing.
The cookbooks Iâve kept are ones that I use frequently and for multiple recipes. So my favorites and standby guides are:
The Americaâs Test Kitchen Family CookbookÂ
Itâs huge and durable, and the recipes are in a binder so I can pull out a page and take it with me. I think it’s out of print, but I’ve seen a few new copies for sale online and at used bookstores.
Among my favorites are the Make-Ahead French Toast Casserole with Caramel-Pecan Topping, Pressure-Cooker Chicken Provencal, and the various recipes for drop biscuits and quick breads I use several times a year.
The Best Slow & Easy Recipes
Generally, I do the fall/winter cooking with soups, stews, and braises on the menu, mixed with slow cooker and pressure cooker meals. This cookbook has a number of very good recipes, my favorite being the slow-cooker Beef and Barley Soup.
The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon
Iâm not a vegan 100% of the time, but I try to eat more plant-based meals during the day, and this cookbook is terrific. It was recommended to me by a very lovely friend who then made something from it and served it to me (Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas with Avocado Cilantro Cream Sauce) (Have mercy was it good).
My priorities eating-wise are first to avoid wheat and carbs (stupid PCOS) and then dairy (grumble grumble, sensitive skin), and then to eat as much and as many plants as possible. This cookbook has been a marvelous find, and currently there are 12+ Post-its flagging recipes I either love and have added to our meal rotation, or meals that Iâm planning to try because they look delicious.
Honorable Mention: The Northern Exposure Cookbook: A Community Cookbook From the Heart of the Alaskan Riviera
I have never made any recipe in this out-of-print cookbook, but Iâve read it several times, and kept it despite my cookbook culling rules because of sheer, unfiltered nostalgia. I loved Northern Exposure, up to the point where it got really dumb. (Of course I mentally wrote my own ending and walking through some cloud into Manhattan had exactly nothing to do with it).
Reading this cookbook, even random pages out of order, is like mini-episodes of the show. The characters all comment on the recipes, they argue with one another about the quality of the food itself, and they take turns introducing the different contributions, sometimes grudgingly. I love it every time I look at it⊠and I have yet to actually cook something from this cookbook.
What cookbooks have a permanent place in your kitchen? Tell us what yummy recipes are your favorites to make!
I have both the Star Wars Wookies Cookies cookbook and also the Nancy Drew cookbook. Lol. Those and my Anarchist Cookbook are my prized collections. LOLOL.
I have Alton Brown’s Good Eats books which are great. Part scripts, part BTS stories & part cookbook and chemistry primer, they’re fun to read and he has lots of great recipes.
I like Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ cookbook. It has the best brownie recipe ever, although I change it slightly by using chocolate chips instead of walnuts (I don’t like nuts in my brownies). These are referred to around here as ‘Goddess brownies’ and will spoil you for all other brownies.
Along with my dog-eared, falling apart JOY OF COOKING, the cookbook I use the most is Mark Bittmann’s HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING. His Lamb Curry recipe is one of my favorites.
My go to cookbooks are Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook, and The Moosewood Cookbook. How to Cook Everything is great because he is so calm about everything- if you don’t have this ingredient, try that. It helps calm my perfectionist tendencies. I love his Chicken Adobo, and pretty much everything is good. King Arthur is good for basic pastry, bread, and pancake recipes. Moosewood is a vegetarian cookbook, & my family would cry if I ever lost the quiche recipe (although I think I have it memorized now).
One thing I love about the internet is there are a lot of great resources, with videos!, that make cooking and baking easier – I love the King Arthur Flour cooking blog, and I have recently discovered Sally’s Baking Addiction, which has great recipes & videos.
Any and all of the barefoot contessa cookbooks. I’m not sure I can pick a favorite. Literally everything I have made from her has turned out well, with the exception of the tarragon chicken salad. And that one was my fault because I should have remembered I hate tarragon. Also, surprisingly I have enjoyed the whole 30 cookbook.
I’ve tried twice and determined I hate digital cookbooks. Maybe they’re okay if you have an enormous tablet, but on my little Fire, every recipe is ten pages long, and smearing butter and flour all over the screen while swiping back and forth is a big no for me.
The one that I bought digitally and then rebought in paper is The Model Bakery Cookbook. I’ve only made the croissants so far, but HOLY CRAP, I MADE CROISSANTS! The bragging rights alone are worth the $23. (Digital is still $2.99 on Amazon, if you’re into that sort of thing.) It also contains instructions for sourdough starter, which has been on my must-do list since I read an old Western in which the camp cook was willing to risk everyone’s life to save his sponge-child from a flood or stampede or whatever was going on (I only remember important details of stories, like those pertaining to bread).
I have a stack of cookbooks, but most of them are used for storage of handwritten recipes I stuff inside the covers for safekeeping. đ And I only use recipes for baking. I come from people who painstakingly measure water to boil pasta, but I’m a total eyeballer for meal cooking.
I love Mark Bittman’s books. I learned to cook from his How to Cook Everything and promptly bought How to Cook Everything Vegetarian when I decided to become a vegetarian 8 years ago.
Lately, my spouse and I have been loving Isa Does It. We have yet to find a recipe in there that we do not absolutely love. The Dilly Stew with Rosemary Dumplings is a particular favorite.
A whole lot of cookbooks have come and gone in my life as I will read them like novels, but I have three old faithfuls that have been moved multiple times over the last thirty-some years. I bought The Heritage of Southern Cooking by Camille Glenn years ago which has my go-to recipes for pumpkin bread, cheese straws, and fried oysters. I have spent hours reading her stories and looking at the pictures. I think my Fanny Farmer Cookbook may have been a wedding gift as I’ve had it since I was a newlywed. It is well-worn and my signature fruit cake recipe lives there. A flea market find from way-back, the Super Market Cookbook, (circa 1955) has a bunch of bookmarks for baked bean, frosting, and cake recipes. Nothing too complicated and it has been a great help when we get a vegetable in our CSA share we aren’t quite sure how to prepare!
Let me add How to Eat Supper and How to Eat Weekends by Lynne Rosetto Kaspar and Sally Swift. The first one is quick recipes for after work — the “Weekends” book is more elaborate recipes where you really need to spend some time. Strangely, it is the Weekends book that I use over and over again.
Oh yes, and those World Peace cookies from Dorie Greenspan will Change Your Life.
My current go-to books are “The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook” by America’s Test Kitchen–because I am way more likely to cook if I won’t be eating leftovers for the rest of the week, Alice Medrich’s “Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies” and her “Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts” and “Comfort and Joy: Cooking for Two” by Christina Lane
To keep myself from eating an entire batch of cookies I make the dough, scoop it into cookies, bake 6-12 cookies, then freeze the rest of the dough for later. Not only does it keep my binging, I have easy fresh cookies as needed. (I have a convection toaster oven for just this).
I keep my Joy of Cooking that my mother gave me when I moved into my first apartment. It’s covered in flour and smears, and opens automatically to the recipe for banana bread.
My husband gave me “The Hairy Bikers’ Family Cookbook” one Christmas. I’ve had to write conversions for weight and Celsius into the front and back flyleaves, and annotated all over the recipes. The Millionaire’s Shortbread is my favorite, but their recipe for shortbread pie crust is also amazing.
Smitten Kitchen, How to be a Domestic Goddess, and Silver Palate are my go-to cookbooks. I just got the American Cakes cookbook on Kindle and can’t wait to get baking.
Generally, I prefer my cookbooks in print form. I find them easier to work with especially if spillage or messes occur (which they do – regularly), but American Cakes was a Kindle Deal over the holidays and too good to pass up.
Also, Julia Child is my spirit guide.
To the “love but have never actually baked from” category I add Letty Halloran Flatt’s Chocolate Snowball and Other Fabulous Pastries from Deer Valley Bakery. Written by a skier and the pastry chef – more than that, she planned the baking for more than one of the resort’s restaurants – I’ve read it cover to cover three times and each time I learn something new.
I also love Cooking for a Crowd by Susan Wyler. It is organized by the number of people the menu will serve, from 10 to 40, and includes interesting recipes for each event (sit-down dinner, buffet service, BBQ, brunch) from appetizer through dessert. There is a recipe for sugar cookies – such a simple thing, right? – that are The Best sugar cookies I have ever eaten. Sometimes I look at the recipe and try to puzzle out why this recipe is so much better than all other sugar cookie recipes. The recipe for BBQ pork, something I never imagined could be made at home, is delicious and not particularly difficult.
Smitten Kitchen, Joy of Cooking, America’s Test Kitchen cookbook and Beard on Bread are my favorites. I’ve recently moved and while I haven’t used them yet, they’re out and waiting for me. I love cookbooks but also have a number of recipes I’ve saved online that I’m always going back to.
Writing to ask if anyone has any favorite DASH-compatible (low-sodium, low-fat) cookbooks they can particularly recommend. Most of my face cookies are no-go areas at the moment!
P.S. Meant to say cookbooks, not cookies, but (heartbreakingly) autocorrect isn’t wrong for once đ
As a most-of-the-time vegan, I get a lot of use out of the Oh She Glows cookbook. I also like Peas and Thank You from former blogger Sarah Matheny and it’s follow up, More Peas, Thank You.
The Cake Bible is one of my favorite ever thrift store finds. If you bake cake, it’s invaluable and the flourless chocolate cake recipe is truly amazing.
I am a Barefoot Contessa believer. My favorite of her many cookbooks I own is her first, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.” Parker’s Beef stew, beef bourgenion, Indonesian ginger chicken, outrageous brownies, perfect roast chicken. I make the roast chicken at least twice a month.
Most reached for: Looney Spoons/Crazy Plates/Eat, Shrink, & Be Merry collection. These are easy-peasy, delicious recipes that are perfect for week-night supper. It’s a happy bonus that each recipe has a terribly punny name as well as nutritional information (if you’re the type that keeps track).
My baking goddess is Heather Baird at http://www.sprinklebakes.com. I check several times a week to drool over her gorgeous creations, have hard copies of both available cookbooks, and absolutely adore everything that I’ve tried my own hand at… and that’s been a lot!
Even if you are not Vegan you should get “Vegan with a Vengeance” and The “Veganomicon” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. You will not be sorry. Even if you never try a recipe – and you should because they are incredibly delicious – the books are hilarious. They are FUN to read.
And my go-tos are still the Frugal Gourmet books. I don’t know if we’ll ever know the truth of what went on with his TV show and the allegations against him, but, as Alton Brown says, the recipes are fantastic anyway and you should make them. Cousin David’s Szechuan Chicken and the Roast Chicken with Olives have saved many a dinner for me. In the “Three Ancient Cusines” book there’s an incredible Chinese barbecue sauce recipe that is a family favorite as well.
If you are unfamiliar with the Thug Kitchen cookbooks you should buy one right now. The first one is the best: Thug Kitchen, Eat Like You Give a F*ck. The recipes are just as colorful. My carnivore husband calls these recipes “stoner food” and he is sorta right. They are vegan, but unlike the suggested vegan cookbooks above they do not contain weird ass processed ingredients. Seriously, go to their website now.
Also, if you are avoiding gluten AND dairy you definitely need to check out Minimalist Baker. Waaaaaay better than Oh She Glows (and I have both of those). Minimalist Baker website and Instagram feeds are on fleek too.
(and, of course, my languishing website: http://www.bitchyweekdayvegan.com)
I have two bookcases. One is 80% romance, the other is 60% cookbooks. I have A LOT of cookbooks. That being said, just like romance I have my autobuy authors & never let me down recipes.
Alton Brown’s Good Eats are as much fun to read as to cook from. THE BEST STEAK, EVER.
Rose Levy Berenbaum’s books are educational, but also full of scrumptious goodness. The cranberry chocolate chip cookies from her Christmas cookie collection is a holiday must have. No really, the bff’s younger daughter looked at me like I’d shot her through the heart when I pretended I hadn’t made them. The chocolate cream pie from her Pie and Pastry Bible is heaven on a plate.
Anything from America’s Test Kitchen is a winner. Easy to cook from and good to read.
And last but never least, Julia Child’s The Way to Cook. It is my why didn’t I just look here first? book. She taught me how to boil an egg perfectly EVERY TIME, how to truss a bird, how to fix a sauce and a hundred other things I didn’t know I needed to know, until I did.
I have Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern and it is my favorite reader’s cookbook. As a cook, I have to confess to a weakness for fundraiser cookbooks from civic organizations, including our Band Booster Cookbook. I love food with stories and memories tangled up in it, so both these appeal to me.
I have and love a lot of cookbooks, but my #1 is Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, which is pescatarian (i.e. mostly vegetarian and then some fish recipes). A friend randomly gave it to me as a gift when we were in college many, many years ago and I still make recipes from it regularly. 5-minute vegan chocolate cake? Yes, I have time to make that.
@ Julia – The Don’t Eat Your Heart Out Cookbook by by Joseph C. Piscatella is about 20 years old and was written by a cardiac patient. There are a lot of real life experience eating tips around some good recipe re-do’s. A sweet potato casserole has been a huge hit with DASH-eating family members who can turn any food into cholesterol.
@DonnaMarie
As much as I love Rose Levy Berenbaum (and I can see give of her books from where I’m sitting) I’ve found that sometimes there are way easier ways to do things.
FREX, I love her cranberry walnut bread, but it’s got about a million fussy steps that start with soaking the cranberries in hot water to folding in the soaked cranberries by hand. So I rarely made it.
Then I found a *very* similar recipe in America’s Test Kitchen Bread book, and it is WAY less fussy, and just as good, so I can make the bread every week, instead of saving it for an occasion when I feel up to all those steps.
I guess that’s a long way of saying her recipes are very good, but for some things there are MUCH easier ways that are just as good–I don’t think I would recommend her to someone who wasn’t *very* interested in baking, because they’d become frustrated and give up.
I have a ton of specialty cookbooks that I use for just two or three special recipes, but the ones I use most are the ones from Canadian Living – The CL Rush Hour Cookbook, their Entertaining cookbook, their Desserts cookbook, and their Country cookbook (which has excellent soup and bread recipes.) They have dozens more, and also have all the recipes collected on their website http://www.canadianliving.com/ They are easy, infallible,and oh so good. The more elaborate recipes often come with step-by-step photo demonstrations. Their recipe database is searchable by ingredient, meal type, cooking procedure, and occasion, and all of them feature itemized nutritional information. You can also search on recipes for special diets, including gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, diabetic, low carb, etc. They are, without a doubt, THE BOMB.
My other two faves are Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes by Martin Grief and Good Old Food by Irena Chalmers. Good Old Food is a huge collection of recipes donated by people all over the US from a wide assortment of backgrounds. They are all recipes that have been handed down in the family and includes the stories of the people who submitted them. It’s a huge nostalgia-fest of comfort foods. I’ve made their Kosher Dill Pickles many times to great acclaim and I also love the apple pie recipe. Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes were collected from a radio show that the Department of Agriculture broadcast daily during the Depression to teach people how to make nutritious meals with relatively few and fairly cheap ingredients. As a result the majority are easy and economical, although there are a few pretentious “entertaining” recipes included. I love it for the cake and cookie recipes, in particular the spice cake, but there are a ton of recipes in it for foods you don’t see much of anymore (like Election Cake!) I don’t think it is still in print but if you stumble across a copy, grab it!
@Redheadedgirl I have the Ball canning book and I love it. I learned SO MUCH and did a lot of preserving when I had my garden (and hopefully will again). They make it easy. And my jams are very popular thanks to them. đ
I forgot to mention my contact paper covered copy of Gourmet Magazine’s 50th anniversary issue. It is a treasure trove of 50 years of their most popular recipes. In fact, I just had the baked cheddar olives (pg 126) for “dinner” – don’t judge me.
My cookbook collection regularly toys with being out of control. And y’all have NOT helped that, dammit.
A few favorites, or, the ones that I would be willing to pay to move to another continent:
* This series(?) of cookbooks is great. I have one of the Slow Cooker ones and it’s FANTASTIC. How to use a slow cooker without condensed soup…check!
* – um, this one is held together with a rubber band. And the subtitle is Quick, Easy, Cheap, and Tasty Vegetarian Recipes. I mean, come on, OXFORD COMMA. Also, delicious simple recipes.
*. Recipes are scaled to serve 2 people (ahem, leftovers for lunch), BUT you can scale them up and they are just as tasty. I’ve used the section of Broiled Chicken Marinades so many times the book falls open to that page.
* It’s a CLASSIC and an excellent reference source for the basics. Especially if your edition is older…like it’s the 10th edition or older is best. ALL the classics. With lard. Mine is the 9th, c1981.
*Pretty much ANY book published by America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Illustrated folks. Clearly written recipes. Helpful tips. Substitution suggestions. They have it ALL. They’re essentially kitchen bibles.
Everything else is some books that I picked up while traveling (Argentina, Asia, etc.), and some random gift ones. And the dog treat cookbook, of course.
I have a few Donna Hay (Australian) ones that I use more than I thought I would, even having to convert from metric to US for measurements, although sometimes I have to look up an ingredient because we call it something different (Rocket (AUS) = Arugula (USA)).
Hello, my name is Shana and I have a cookbook addiction.
#bakingistherapy #cookingistherapy
@EC Spurlock – yes to Canadian Living – I learned to cook from them many many years ago and I still use their books. Best one was their Christmas cookbook now sadly out of print – many a classic family fave in that one.
I also use Bonnie Stern’s Hearsmart books to great success. A new fave is Gina Homolka’s skinny taste – her overnight Peanut Butter and Jam Oatmeal is a fantastic no work breakfast.
I finally broke down and ordered a fresh copy of The Vegetarian Epicure. I was spending more time collecting loose pages from all over the floor than the actual cooking…
But thatâs nothing. I am on my third copy of Madhur Jaffreyâs World-of-the-East Vegetarian cookbook–and the only reason it isnât the fourth is that by now Iâve got many of my favorites memorized. I also have many of her other cookbooks, mainly because I love the way she writes. As we speak, Iâm eating tandoori-style chicken from her recipe.
Definitely America’s Test Kitchen’s cookbooks for sure. We probably use The Best Recipe the most–the split pea soup is a favorite đ We also use Nina Simonds’s Classic Chinese Cuisine and Ken Hom’s Easy Family Recipes from a Chinese-American Childhood quite a bit. And also, I confess that we will often Google recipes for stuff, which I guess isn’t very cookbook-y at all đ
I am very strict about which cookbooks I keep, and most I’ve had for decades; it’s rare for a new one to make the cut. Like @Louise, I’ve got Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cookbook, and Sundays at Moosewood which is way better than the original Moosewood book. I’m not a vegetarian, but I like to have some meatless days. Then I’ve got Our Daily Bread by Stella Standard, my mother’s Settlement Cookbook, Fanny Farmer, the Larousse Treasury of Country Cooking(recipes from all over the world), Everyday Cooking With Jacques Pepin, and From the Lands of Figs and Olives(Middle Eastern food). I also swear by Martha Rose Shulman’s recipes in the New York Times, they never fail. Just about everything in these books is down home, frugal, earthy and not fussy cooking.
@LB That vegan 5 minute chocolate cake is so good. I sometimes tweak mine by swirling high quality raspberry jam through just before baking and often add a non vegan ganache. Always gets rave reviews and so easy!
I love Nigella’s writing style and borrow her books on overdrive when I need a fix of intelligent but ‘fluffy reading. The recipes are good too and generally low faff. I think Nigella express is my favourite. Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall’s (sp?) Vegetable book is good. Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals has some great salads/sides.
@LauraL Just wanted to say a very big Thank You for kindly responding to my question! I’ll hunt down the Donât Eat Your Heart Out Cookbook as soon as I can. (Your mention of the sweet potato casserole didn’t hurt đ
Re: other cookbooks, of course it’s possible to substitute some ingredients, or just eat a smaller portion, but there’s something tremendously freeing about opening a cookbook when you are at liberty to eat literally ANYTHING in it!
Smitten Kitchen Cookbook: it has fabulous photos, and delicious, easy recipes.
Anything by America’s Test Kitchen, esp. Baking Illustrated.
And because I make our ice cream from scratch (food allergies in my family): Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book.
The Joy of Cooking is one of my go-tos. The cookbook I’ve used the most over the last couple of years is Simply Sweet Dream Puffs by Barbara Schieving. The Sour-cream Lemon Eclairs are fabulous and something I make on a regular basis. Otherwise I use my Reflections of the Heart cookbook my mother gave me, it was printed by her quilt guild and she made sure to include the recipes we use most in it (mainly our pie crust and cookie recipes).