Now that we’re all social distancing, working from home if we can, and self-quarantining, we’re cooking at home more. What a great excuse to invest in new cookbooks to tempt our palates and improve our skills in the kitchen. Let’s peek at the newest cookbooks being released in April 2020!
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The author of Big Night In couldn’t have picked a better time to publish this cookbook! Now that restaurants are closed (other than takeout) our date nights and evenings out are spent at home. The chapters are themed around parties and entertaining, though sadly we won’t be having any friends over for a while. Still, I’m willing to go to all the work to throw at Mexican Fiesta for just two; invite my boyfriend to join me in a Spanish Tapas & Sangria tasting; and sit down with just my boyfriend for a Cheese & Chutney Night. (I’ll skip the A Night In at the Movies chapter since we’ve been doing that every night during our social distancing staycation!) You might enjoy the Italian Spritz & Pizza Party chapter right now unless you’ve been ordering in lots of pizza.
I’m not sure I’ve ever looked through a Sardinian cookbook, come to think of it. Bitter Honey: Recipes from the Island of Sardinia shares how Sardinians cook slowly and enjoy life at a relaxed pace. Recipes include roasted veggies, fresh zesty salads, slow roasted chicken, and – ooh – sour cherry ice cream! I definitely want to check this cookbook out.
Boba is a really big thing around here where I live (Seattle). I don’t personally care for tapioca pearls, but a lot of my friends and their kids are just crazy about bubble tea drinks. The Boba Book gives you step-by-step guides to making milk tea, Strawberry Matcha Latte, Caramel Matcha Latte, Peaches and Cream Marmalade Drink, and even Dirty Horchata. There’s a chapter called Add-Ons and Toppings, and I’d probably head straight to the Boozy Boba chapter, myself!
I love ethnic cookbooks, especially Mediterranean and Eastern European ones. Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Romania will be published on my birthday (April 2!) I suspected it might have quite a few pickle recipes, and I was right! I’m most intrigued by the baked goods and street foods chapter. This cookbook features stews, dumplings and sauerkraut, just like the last Polish cookbook I looked through. It will be interesting to compare the two cuisines.
Here’s a cookbook I’m buying myself for my birthday – The Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea Cookbook! It’s the “official” cookbook, and promises recipes for scones, cakes, tarts, savories, toffee puddings and tea sandwiches. Along the way they’ll share tea party etiquette and tips on hosting afternoon tea for friends.
How on earth have I never heard of The Feast of Fiction YouTube channel? They specialize in recipes from books, movies, TV and video games. This is right up my alley! Where have I been? Their Feast of Fiction Kitchen cookbook comes out this month. The recipes inside are inspired by everything from Legend of Zelda and Spongebob Squarepants to Star Trek, The Hunger Games, Back to the Future, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So fun! I do need to own this cookbook.
As a lifelong vegetarian, I’m not usually very thrilled about barbecuing. (It would help if I liked the taste of grilled veggies, but they taste burnt to me!) Before I attend other people’s BBQ parties, I eat a simple meal so I’m not hungry at their party. But Fire, Smoke, Green might have to come home with me – it’s a vegetarian barbecuing, smoking and grilling recipe book! Perhaps I can learn to enjoy more barbecued foods. I’ll try them on myself before subjecting others to my experiments, and my boyfriend can grill meat for the meat-eaters at our parties.
Not only do I not own a house in the Hamptons, I’ve never been to the Hamptons at all. This cookbook is aimed at people who vacation in The Hamptons or own homes there. The Hamptons Kitchen: Seasonal Recipes Pairing Land and Sea arrives on shelves on April 7. The chapters are separated into seasons: Spring, Low Summer, High Summer, Fall and Winter. Peeking through, I see a recipe for Asparagus Soup with Parmesan Cream I’d like to try!
“How to Dress an Egg” posits “Learn to cook one thing exceptionally well and you open the door to a multitude of possibilities.” This cookbook’s tagline is “Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner.” Right now I’m not necessarily looking for simple ways to cook dinner – we’re spending more time at home, and more time in the kitchen. But when the coronavirus situation is (hopefully) resolved soon, I’ll be back to my busy work life and excited to learn more ways to cook simple, fast meals. Peeking inside, I’m not a fan of the quirky, clumsy illustrations, amateurish fonts and poor food photography. Take a look for yourself though – perhaps the recipes speak for themselves and are worthwhile.
Here’s the perfect cookbook for all of us staying at home during the coronavirus crisis: Kitchen Remix: 75 Recipes for Making the Most of Your Ingredients, by Charlotte Druckman. This cookbook specializes in teaching you how to combine ingredients – so handy for all of us staying home and cooking out of our fridge, freezer and pantry with few grocery trips in our immediate futures. Chapters include Vegetables; Beans & Grains; Seafood; Poultry & Meat; and Dairy. You can learn how to combine, for example, ground beef, eggplant and parsnip. Substitutions and complements are included for each ingredients, as well as tips for using them. I’m delighted to see labneh included in this cookbook!
For kids, someone has taken two very popular trends and mashed them up: Llamas and unicorns. The Llamacorn Cookbook will be published on April 7.
This insanely colorful kids cookbook features lots of sugary treats – cookies, cupcakes, lemonade – and some snack type things like pretzels. This cookbook is really pretty and fun to look through – I’m sure we all have some nieces and nephews who would love to get this as a gift.
A whole heck of a lot of people have been waiting excitedly for The Magnolia Table Cookbook Volume 2. Joanna Gaines shares a whopping 145 more recipes from her restaurant, home, and cafe.
I love pasta and could eat it every single night (though I shouldn’t!) I’m not sure the world needs yet another pasta cookbook though. Let’s take a peek at Pasta Perfect to see how it made it through the publishing company’s gatekeepers, shall we? The author, Laura Santini, focuses on the sauces that accompany pasta. She includes recipes for Wild Mushroom Ragu; Pepper Parmesan Lemon Artichoke Pesto; Salmon Carbonara; and a simple sauce made with lemon, mint & capers. She includes basics like how to make a classic tomato sauce, classic gnocchi, and Cacio e Pepe. The food photography is stunning and makes my mouth water to look at. Ok, you convinced me to make room for this on my cookbook shelves!
I love tarts, and really want to make them more often. I actually prefer savory tarts to sweet dessert tarts, believe it or not. I’m tempted to pick up a copy of Posh Tarts: Over 70 Recipes from Gorgeous Galettes to Perfect Pastries. Released on April 7, it will include chapters on pastry basics, breakfast tarts, meat tarts, vegetable tarts, seafood tarts, fruit tarts, and dessert tarts.
Come to think of it, I don’t know anything about consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s backstory or personal life. Come to find out, his cookbook, “Ralph Nader and Family Cookbook” comes out this month. Apparently his parents owned an American restaurant for years, but ate mostly Lebanese food at home. I love Lebanese cookbooks (and cuisine), so I’m excited to dig into this one.
When I was making lunchboxes for my boys, I never succumbed to the pressure of making cute little faces out of their meals. Still, I kept an eye on the bento craze via Pinterest. Now that my boys are grown and out of the house, I’m nostalgic for making lunches. I work at home and so just usually have a sandwich or soup for lunch. I’m intrigued by Real Bento, a Japanese lunchbox cookbook by a working mom. She’s organized her recipes into foods seasoned with Simple Salt & Pepper; Seasoned with Miso; Seasoned with Soy Sauce; Seasoned with Mayo; Seasoned with Tomato Ketchup; Seasoned with Pickled Plum; Seasoned with Curry; and follows up with salads and “sweet touches.” The book continues on to share time saving techniques, tips on making good looking bentos, and introduces fillings and toppings for rice. I’m sold! I’ll make myself cute lunches to take back to my “desk” (ie, couch).
Here’s a cookbook by Amanda Frederickson who popularized “Fridge Foraging” on Instagram. Simple, Beautiful Food features a photo for every recipe (I love that!) There’s a chapter on “Long, Lazy Brunches” (fabulous!) and one on Sunday Suppers, which I used to host before the novel coronavirus made that impossible for now. I’m intrigued by the chapter called “Flavor Gold.”
As in many cohabitating male/female households, I do all the indoor cooking and my boyfriend is in charge of all the outdoor cooking and grilling. I’m tempted to gift him Smoke & Spice, if it wouldn’t hurt his feelings about his cooking skills. I think he’d really enjoy learning more about using marinades, brines, butters, rubs and glazes to add flavor to the meats and veggies he’s cooking. This cookbook by Valerie Aikman-Smith comes out April 14, 2020.
I’ve never been a very big fan of slaw (I blame gooey, mayonnaisey-cole slaw, which I used to call “Cold slop” as a kid.) However, I need to eat healthier, so I might take a peek at Jill Greenwood’s Superfood Slaw: Vegetable Solutions for Busy People. It comes out April 7, and promises 60 base recipes for slaw, and 120 ways to customize them with toppings, turn them into complete meals, and incorporate them into soups, wraps, and baked items.
Hope you enjoyed this peek at some of the nicest cookbooks coming out in April 2020!
-Carrie
