By Deborah Madison, copyright © 2017. Photography by Erin Scott. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

From one of the original authorities on vegetarian cooking, Deborah Madison presents a collection of her 100 simplest, pared down vegetarian recipes for easy home-cooked meals.  In My Kitchen contains the recipes Madison says she cooks in her home, reflecting how she cooks and eats today - with sophisticated and layered flavors from recipes that have been pared down and perfected.  Elevating simple flavors with unique - sometimes exotic ingredients, Madison captures the very best of what vegetarian eating can be.

What you need to know:

Get it:  In My Kitchen, A collection of New and Favorite Vegetarian Recipes by Deborah Madison, copyright © 2017.  Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, March 28, 2017, Hardcover $32.50 (Amazon $16.79; Kindle $16.99)

See it:  296 pages with beautiful full-color photos of ingredients or finished dishes for a majority of the recipes.  The table of contents is an alphabetical listing of recipe names, but an index helps you narrow in on what you are looking for.  25-pages of introductory and worthwhile reading on cooking vegetarian and ingredient knowledge.

Make it:  100 vegetarian recipes that span the universe from breakfasts to main courses to desserts.

Our Review:

At first glance, In My Kitchen appears rather simplistic: beans with tomatoes and basil, celery root with potato mash and truffle salt, mushrooms and whole tomato ragout with seared polenta.  And while Madison's approach is simplistic, the flavors coaxed out of the simplest of ingredients is nothing short of complex.  But Madison has been cooking and writing vegetarian recipes for decades.  She knows what to do.

It is in her headnotes that she shares most of her knowledge and instructs you in ways to take her carefully crafted recipe and make it endlessly adaptable.  If you like to improvise as you cook, the guidance Madison offers in In My Kitchen gives you what you need to be successful.  Scrambled Eggs Smothered with Crispy Bread Crumbs becomes less about the eggs and more about the bread crumbs offering about 5 different options before moving on to cheese as an optional topping.

Indeed, vegetarian to Madison means dairy and eggs, and other vegetarian staples such as tofu and grains.  In My Kitchen has recipes designed to help you cook lentils, buckwheat, and black rice, as well as Black-eyed Peas and Masa.  And though the order of the book at first appears a bit confusing - the recipes are in alphabetical order rather than by ingredient or section headings, you can easily land on what you're interested in by flipping through the pages and scanning the named ingredient in the page footer.

Beyond any of that, it's the first 25 pages of In My Kitchen that makes you want to cook from this book.  Madison sounds as if she'd talking only to you in her introduction and shares what she's learned that makes her a master.  You feel as if she's confiding in you about how foods and flavors work; how to compose a vegetarian menu, and how to make it all possible.  It's like cooking in your kitchen with an old friend.  Only this friend is here to make sure the very best of flavors find their way to your plate in the very simplest of ways.

Copyright © 2017 by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

If you've ever wondered how many people it takes to make Martha Stewart perfect, take a peek at the credit line for her new cookbook Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker.  No less than 35 of some of the best names in recipe developing took up the task of creating 110 unusual and ethnic one-pot meals you're not likely to think of as coming from your slow cooker.  And while creative and inventive in some of the applications - think poaching or baking - these recipes are not the "dump and go" standards that made weeknight meals easy.  There's genius in the way this book resets your thinking.  And, if you're willing to put the time, the effort (and the clean-up) before you "dump and go," you may find that slow means smart.  And delicious. 

What you need to know:

Get it:  Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker. Copyright © 2017 by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, August 29, 2017, Paperback $35.00 (Amazon $17.24; Kindle $13.99)

See It:  272 pages with full page color photos of each finished recipe.  Also included are 2 introductory sections (2 pages each) on Slow-Cooker Commandments and How to Use a Slow Cooker, which are essential reading for success with this cookbook.

Make it:  110 recipes heavy on ethnic and cultural cuisine, across 8 chapters such as Meat, Poultry, Seafood, Meatless, Breakfast and Sweets.

Our Review:

Throw out your ideas about what a slow cooker is or what it is capable of doing.  In Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker the "dump and go" approach to watered down flavor and one-dimensional meals is gone.  Instead, the recipe writers behind the famed Martha Stewart rethink what a slow cooker is capable of and offer up 110 truly unique and even exotic recipes that attempt to change the way you use your slow cooker.

And, change you just might.  Opening with Slow-Cooker Commandments, the authors instruct you to "forget about forgetting it."  You can't "just dump it in," and you should "be wary of too many shortcuts."  For most this obviates the very reason we invested in our slow cookers.  But, persevere and you are rewarded with dishes like Sausage Lasagna, Chawanmushi (a savory egg custard), Cauliflower with Cream Sauce, or Tom Kha Gai (a soup made of lemongrass, lime leaves, chicken stock, coconut milk and fish sauce with chicken thighs).

Indeed, there is a high percentage of ethnic and cultural cuisines represented throughout this book - from Mexican to Thai to Japanese to French.  For some, finding the ingredients will be as challenging as the prep-work before the slow cooker comes into play.  But then, there is also real genius in learning to use the slow cooker in unexpected ways - to perfect poaching or making perfect custards and cheesecakes. 

If you are interested in trying new-fangled ideas with an old counter-top stand by, Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker is worth a lingering look and perhaps testing a recipe or two.  You may find that the greatest thing about a slow cooker is that with time and effort up front, delicious flavor is worth the wait.  

By Patricia Wells. Copyright © 2017 by Patricia Wells. Photographs by David Japy.  Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Our Summary:

If there's anything that will make you a better cook, it's confidence.  And confidence, according to Patricia Wells, comes from knowing what you are doing in the kitchen and why.  In My Master Recipes, Wells organizes this learn-as-you-go cookbook around fundamental cooking techniques, providing master recipes for fundamentals such as steaming, or searing, or poaching.  Recipes - plural, because you don't poach eggs the same way you poach fish, poultry, and fruit.  This book will remind you of your mother's favorite cookbook, or maybe even her mother's favorite cookbook.  It feels instantly familiar.  No frills, no fuss:  just solid, reliable know-how and a handful of recipes that teach you what you need to know.

What you need to know:

Get it:  My Master Recipes: 165 Recipes to Inspire Confidence in the Kitchen by Patricia Wells. Copyright © 2017 by Patricia Wells. Photographs by David Japy.  Published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, March 7, 2017, Hardcover $35.00 (Amazon $23.04; Kindle $14.99)

See it:  496 pages with random, rather pedestrian, color photos peppered throughout. 

Make it:  165 recipes spread between 18 primary cooking and baking techniques such as Steam, Infuse, Emulsify, Fold and Bake.  A chapter on Extras provides recipes for staple stocks, condiments such as dipping sauces, powders and side dishes.

Our Review:

You won't see My Master Recipes, by Patricia Wells, setting out on a countertop, bookshelf, or table, and immediately reach for it.  You'd probably not even notice it among today's modern high gloss, perfectly-manicured-food-on-book-covers culture.  This book takes you back to the simplistic covers like Joy of Cooking or Mastering the Art of French Cooking that suggested nothing about the recipes contained between the covers but instead sold you on the knowledge waiting for you inside.  Given this author's track record, it would be a shame to pass this book by.

Written more like a learn-as-you-go textbook, My Master Recipes compiles the recipes Wells has taught for decades in her classes.  Recipes that create a blueprint for success because you are mastering a technique, not a recipe.  To keep you interested, though, Wells adds variations for each of the techniques, and a healthy dose of Asian flavors, which she admits a fondness for. 

The use of seasonal ingredients, the abundant use of fresh fruits and vegetables, the generous gratings of zests and sprinkling of herbs, substituting honey for sugar when possible, and olive oil for butter when it fits, are the signatures of My Master Recipes and Wells' style of cooking.  She's not afraid to provide advice on when to make easy ingredient substitutions or to tell you to stick to the original recipe.  She leaves little to chance.

You'll enjoy mastering a piquant aioli, plus learn how to make a Beurre Blanc in the Emulsify section.  In Grind you'll become a master sausage maker with her Pork and Fennel Sausage then use that technique for her Asian Chicken and Cilantro Meatballs.  Then, in Set, you'll master the technique of panna cotta with Lemon Panna Cotta with Candied Lemon Zest, then skillfully trade out the lemons for raspberries and perfect Raspberry Panna Cotta.  Along the way, Wells instructs clearly and precisely in her pleasant tone.  You feel like you're in a cooking class, and when you're wondering "why" the answer is waiting for you in the next sentence. 

While My Master Recipes won't win any awards on looks alone, it will win accolades from anyone that wants to take the time to read and digest the information that leads each section (no more than a page or two).  It is here that Wells shares her tips and explains how to achieve the perfect results for each technique.  When you're ready to apply what you've learned in your reading, step into your home kitchen and enjoy the confidence that comes from creating delicious results.

Copyright © 2017 by Erin French. Photographs copyright © 2017 by Nicole Franzen. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

The Lost Kitchen is more than a cookbook.  Its part memoir, part kitchen handbook, and part motivational yes-you-can-do attitude adjustment.  With 100 recipes that are easily made from common ingredients, restaurant chef Erin French manages to translate her spectacular food into recipes that anyone can make.  In an ocean of farm-to-table, chef-authored cookbooks, it's refreshing to find one that works as well in a kitchen in Maine, as it does in Idaho...or Oklahoma...and even California.   

What you need to know:

Buy it:  The Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine, Copyright © 2017 by Erin French.  Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, May 9, 2017.  Hardcover $32.50 (Amazon $19.44; Kindle $16.99)

See it:  256 pages with simple color photographs of some of the finished recipes, plus photos of the restaurant throughout the season and candids of the restaurant and chef in action.

Make it:  100 recipes divide through 4 chapters named after each season; each chapter is broken down into starters, mains, and sweets.  Chapters are peppered with informational essays on ingredients, crafting, foraging and managing your kitchen larder.

Our Review:

There are no surprises hidden between the covers of The Lost Kitchen.  Inside there are recipes segmented by season and then by course, and in between are primers and information on managing your kitchen, your ingredients and understanding seasonal produce.  The recipes are basic and easy to follow and produce delicious results.  What is surprising about Erin French's first book is that it's also a memoir of a well- and hard- lived life.  A story each one of us might have written had we a chance. 

Spectacularly warming, French's story unfolds in The Lost Kitchen through her recipes that are as approachable as a grandmother's handwritten collection.  They are written for the seasons, though we live in a season-less food culture.  Better still, she makes you want to wait for the right time to make dishes like Graham Cracker Pie (spring), or Maine Halibut Nicoise (summer), or Sweet and Sour Apple Cider Chicken Wings with Cilantro (fall) and Tea-brined Duck Breast with Fried Potato and Warm Lentil Salad.  She has you foraging roadside, or crafting in your kitchen.  She makes you believe that you too, had you taken to the road when all hope was lost, would be the dream you let drift away. 

The recipes in The Lost Kitchen resonate with ingredients you can find without the aid of temperate farmers markets or a spectacular big city purveyor.  You can easily make an entire menu in an afternoon or throughout a week, and find yourself happy with both results.  There are starters and mains and sweets for each season, with tips on how to cook them - be it on a grill or in a cast-iron skillet.  There's Maple & Candied Walnut Ice Cream Sundae and Fried Green Tomatoes. 

The Lost Kitchen is exactly what you want to find when you walk into your own home kitchen.  Ideas and recipes that let you cook like a chef, even though you are not.  Yet.  

By Jenn Louis, Copyright © 2017. Photography by Ed Anderson. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

For most, we limit our greens to a handful of grocery or market staples:  arugula, kale, spinach, and maybe cabbage.  But let your eyes fall across mustard greens or watercress, or spy some chard or dandelion greens, and what do you do?  If you're lucky, you know of a recipe.  If you don't, those greens may never get a chance in your kitchen.  Now, celebrated Portland, Oregon chef Jenn Louis can change that with her new cookbook, The Book of Greens.  Organized alphabetically by greens (agretti to wild and foraged greens), this reference book reads like an encyclopedia but works like a cookbook!  Whether you are choosing from fresh-from-the-farm or season-less staples, Chef Louis puts these greens on display in each recipe. 

What you need to know:

Buy it:  The Book of Greens, a Cook's Compendium by Jenn Louis, Copyright © 2017.  Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, April 11, 2017.  Hardcover $35.00 (Amazon $22.48; Kindle $18.99)

See it:  328 pages with full-color photographs of each green and the completed dish of at least one recipe for each green.  A comprehensive table of contents is followed by a recipe list with vegetarian dishes highlighted.  A very friendly index cross-references greens, names of dishes and other ingredients.

Make it:  Over 175 recipes for healthy vegetable-focused food from snacks to soups to mains, and even includes breakfast and dessert recipes.  Each chapter features information on history, seasonality, and nutrition; practical prep and storage tips; and advice to get the most flavor out of each green 

Our Review:

If you think greens and automatically go to the predictable salad you're in for a big surprise with The Book of Greens.  Chef Jenn Louis, in her second cookbook, introduces us to familiar and strange ingredients that she's learned to use from her travels and her successes as a restauranteur.  Louis tells you up front the greens from familiar vegetables like tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi and even sweet potatoes, have clean and refreshing vegetal flavors; they can balance richness and add texture and color to any dish.  And even though they're nutritious our culture isn't very good at adding them into our foods.

Trusting that you can find some of the odd sounding greens to buy like cardoon, chickweed, or spigarello is your biggest obstacle with The Book of Greens.  But if you are lucky enough to know a really good farm or farmer's market, or have a well-stocked ethnic grocer nearby, chances are you'll have access to most of the 40 greens Louis features in her book.  Even if some of the more exotic sounding greens elude your search, you'll make excellent use of the tools and recipes provided in here for the always-available greens such as arugula, broccoli rabe and Brussels sprouts.  Of course, you'll be happy to know that herbs, kale, lettuces, spinach, seaweed, and watercress have dedicated chapters in Louis' book, too.

When you buy the greens, your next hurdle is trying to decide which of the several recipes from that chapter to make.  Do you make the acorn-squash with kimchi butter, poached egg, and Brussels chips, or the Brussels sprouts and parsnips with lardo from the Brussels sprouts you just brought home?  You'll wonder if you should add the salt-roasted Yukon gold potatoes with radicchio and crème fraiche or the lettuce and carrot cake to your next holiday meal.  And, you'll be delighted to see beef, pork, rabbit and chicken recipes included that make excellent use of your vegetables and their greens.

There's a lot of information and options in The Book of Greens.  Louis has found the right mix of what you actually want to know and what you need to know to make your investment in both the book, the recipes, and these greens worthwhile.  You'll not easily bore either.  There are recipes from cultures that span our globe, and there are options for trying other greens in each recipe.  No chrysanthemum leaves available for the beef tenderloin, maitake mushroom, and chrysanthemum green miso soup? No worries.  Louis suggests trying nettles or spinach.  Suggestions are not offered for just a few recipes, rather for all of them. 

The Book of Greens helps you identify and get creative with a host of ingredients you're likely familiar with.  Perhaps you just never bought them because you didn't know what to do with them.  That you'll know what to do with them now lands this reference/recipe/idea book on your kitchen counter.  A modern book filled with current ideas and home-kitchen cooking techniques, The Book of Greens allows any home cook from beginner to seasoned veteran to find their way to flavor in the simplest and most exotic of greens.

Copyright © 2017 by Alexandra Stafford. Photographs by Eva Kolenko. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.

Our Summary:

Finally, there is an answer to your question, "what to do with that leftover bread?"  With Bread Toast Crumbs at your fingertips, the predictable answer "breadcrumbs" flies right out the window, and instead, you're thinking Bacon, Cheddar, and Onion Jam Panini or Mussels with Saffron, Crème Fraiche, and Grilled Olive Oil Toasts.  Or maybe that hunk is too small to wrap it into another dish so you settle for Green Gazpacho with Tomato Salsa or Zucchini Fries with Tzatziki.  Whatever the size or dimension, style or flavor, of your leftover bread you are headed for star-status with these recipes.  And if you actually want to make an easy no-knead bread, well, Bread Toast Crumbs has you covered there too.

What you need to know:

Buy it:  Bread Toast Crumbs: Recipes for No-Knead Loaves & Meals to Savor Every Slice. Copyright © 2017 by Alexandra Stafford. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC, April 4, 2017. Hardcover $30.00 (Amazon $15.59; Kindle $15.99)

See it:  256 pages with beautiful photos in a rustic setting of most finished recipes, but not all.

Make it: over 110 recipes including 40 no-knead breads built off of a master Peasant Bread recipe; chapters include ideas for using sliced bread or pieces that are transformed into cubes or crumbs.  A useful section on troubleshooting for bread-baking and 2 pages of informative FAQs.

Our Review:

When you open the pages of Bread Toast Crumbs and land on pictures of Broiled Stripe Bass or Rack of Lamb you might scratch your head thinking, "bread???"  That's the beauty of blogger Alexandra Stafford's book.  She treats bread as a pantry staple and manipulates it into delicious recipes either relying on slices or crumbs to complete the recipes.  And while using these pieces of bread in recipes is clever and appealing, Stafford shines here with what she knows best:  bread baking - but the easy, no-knead, comes together in 5 minutes, rises in an hour, and bakes in buttered bowls, kind of homestyle deliciousness. 

You'll be so excited by the options in Bread Toast Crumbs that you'll have trouble deciding whether to start with a recipe to use up what you have on your counter, or whether to try your hand at a Quinoa and Flax Bread, Kalamata Olive Bread or maybe just Buttermilk Pull-apart Rolls.  Stafford's mother's secret recipe is revealed in The Peasant Bread Master Recipe that will make you a bread-baker for life.

Broken down into Chapters Bread, then Toast, then Crumbs, each chapter is further broken down into subsections so you can easily land on a recipe that suits both your needs and the piece of bread you have.  Stafford says you can and should bake the breads in Bread Toast Crumbs so you always have some bread ready for whatever it is you want to cook.  And, cook you will!  Even a simple sandwich becomes a celebration of flavor in the easy-to-make Tarragon Chicken Salad or Crabmeat with Sauce Gribiche.  Mostly, though, you leave each chapter with confidence in both your cooking skills and the ability to transform a simple piece of bread into something more.

For those who are concerned about gluten, Stafford politely and quickly suggests an alternative flour mix (and includes her own recipe for a gluten-free master flour mix).  It's here, in the introductory notes of Bread Toast Crumbs, that you get the complete rundown on the simplicity of ingredients and your kitchen needs.  Stafford rounds out her book with frequently asked questions (which you'll be glad you read) and then a page of troubleshooting that'll have you thinking like a seasoned bread-baker.  That you happened to page through a handful of dessert recipes to land there and stumble across Goat's Milk Gelato with Salted Caramel Crumbs or Fried Custard Cream is just an added bonus.

You won't tire of Bread Toast Crumbs though the book's premise seems fairly pedestrian.  It's anything but as you'll discover when you catch yourself reaching for Stafford's book over and again trying to use up every last piece of the bread that you have!

By Leela Punyaratabandhu, Copyright © 2017. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Photography by David Loftus.

Our Summary:

Jaw-droppingly delicious food may just be waiting for you between the pages of Bangkok if you have the patience to seek out the authentic ingredients.  For this food your patience may be worth testing.  These are original recipes that hail from a nineteenth-century Thai kitche and have found their way up through three generations into this book.  The recipes are updated for the modern American -kitchen and -cook, but they are as complex and exciting as any contemporary cookbook you'll find penned by a Michelin-star chef.  This food also tells a story - a story of a culture and the memories of one Bangkokian, the author.  You'll eat and know this is what Bangkok is like.  You'll cook and be reminded that your kitchen is limited only by your willingness to try new ingredients and sometimes new, but manageable, techniques.

What you need to know:

Buy it:  Bangkok: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of Thailand by Leela Punyaratabandhu, Copyright © 2017. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, May 9, 2017.  Hardcover $35.00 (Amazon $20.82; Kindle $18.99)

See it:  368 pages with vivid color photos of most finished recipes; photos of Bangkok landmarks and landscapes as well as markets, people and ingredients are included.

Make it:  120 recipes, including 20 Basic Recipes that are used throughout the book and can be incorporated into your everyday cooking.  Table of Contents lists only chapter headings; each chapter page includes a table of contents for that chapter.  A useful index cross referencing recipe names and ingredients follows a thoughtful and sometimes necessary chapter Notes on Ingredients, including substitutions but no online resources.

Our Review:

With the growing popularity of Thai cuisine, it's not surprising to find recipes in most cookbooks that include Thai seasonings or evoke the idea of Thai food.  But that's not Thai cuisine.  Enter Bangkok, the second cookbook penned by author Leela Punyaratabandhu to chronicle the real food that Thai people eat every day.  And real means authentic, which means authentic ingredients.  Open the pages, put on your intrepid chef's toque, and get ready to discover a new world of food that may be surprisingly different from what you believed Thai cuisine to be.  Surprisingly different, yet deliciously so.

You are instantly drawn in with Bangkok by the photographs of familiar looking dishes and beautiful food photography.  Scan the recipes and you'll find, layered in between the familiar rice and noodle dishes (Rice Vermicelli with Fish Curry or Egg Noodles with Hakka Meatballs), iconic cultural dishes that are lesser known here in the States.  Instantly, you're intrigued with Egg Net Parcels with Pork-Peanut Filling and Stir-fried Lump Crabmeat with Long Beans and Hot Yellow Chiles.  And, in between all that you'll find street snacks, vibrant - if not different - curries, and even sweet dishes. 

If there is a challenge to Bangkok it's our Western-culture palate.  Unless you've traveled to Bangkok and indulged in the food, you don't have first-hand knowledge of the seasonings, flavors and results you're trying to achieve.  You need a steady diet of resourcefulness, too, as you search out ingredients.  They're available in most areas, still you're in for a search.  That doesn't mean you'll spend all of your time searching.  There are plenty of straightforward recipes you can cook the day you bring Bangkok home, such as Watermelon with fish dip or Fried rice with salted olives. 

Punyaratabandhu provides a serious and manageable chapter on Basic Recipes that are, in essence, the component recipes many of the dishes are built on.  These 20 pages are filled with 23 recipes that make Bangkok worth the price!  Between all of her recipes for relishes, pastes, oils, barbeque sauces and doughs, you can easily introduce Thai flavor into your everyday cooking.  If you choose to dive into the pure, authentic Thai cooking the most of these pages offer, you'll be gratified for the experience as you expand your cooking skills and challenge your ideas of what is possible in your kitchen.  With dishes like Egg-sausage soup that teaches you to stuff sausage casings with runny eggs through a funnel to produce sausage coins that look like a pulley, to Egg-wrapped glass noodle pad thai with shrimp that has a list of ingredients and components longer than the recipe, or Caramel-braised eggs with pork belly that tells a story within the recipe and gives you options as you're cooking, you'll enjoy the process as long as you accept you're in a process.

Ultimately, Bangkok won't be for everyone.  But it is for those that enjoy cooking, are adventurous enough to seek out ingredients for what they want to do, and elevate their mainstream Thai recipes into the realm of authentic.  Invest a little bit of time, a spot of money for a pantry that will continue to serve you, and soon you'll be enjoying the riches o

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, by Samin Nosrat and art by Wendy MacNaughton, copyright © 2017 by Samin Nosrat.  Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Wendy MacNaughton. Published by Simon & Schuster.

Our Summary:

There are books that are meant to help you learn to cook, and then there are books like Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat that make you a better cook.  This modern millennial approach to cooking is designed to make you think about what you're doing in the kitchen and provides a canon of 100 essential recipes that demonstrate the science and understanding behind each.  This is the textbook for every home-cook that is committed to mastering their craft of home-cooking.

Get it: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, by Samin Nosrat and art by Wendy MacNaughton.  Published by Simon & Schuster April 25, 2017 Hardcover $35.00 (Amazon $21.58; eBook $16.99)

See it:  480 pages with colorful, whimsical illustrations (no photos) of processes and info-graphics.

Make it:  100 essential recipes with variations that put Nosrat's ideas into practice. 

Our Review:

If modern cookbooks bore you with their classic format, well-staged photography and campy headnotes, then you'll be thrilled with Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking.  Fully illustrated (no photographs), millennials will rejoice in a fun, non-stressful approach to learning.  The learning is about how to do better what you already know how to do in the kitchen.  If you love to cook and want to learn something more than a new recipe, or can't get enough of the science behind cooking, then this book is an easy choice.

Written by a self-taught cook (though she learned coming up through some pretty impressive restaurant kitchens), Nosrat's approach is simple:  there are 4-basic elements to master in the kitchen, and by doing so you'll consistently turn out good food with or without a recipe.  The ideas in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat are certainly not new, but Nosrat has managed to condense the basics behind the seminal work of Kunz and Kaminsky in The Elements of Taste, the learn how-to-cook basics of Peterson's Essentials of Cooking, and the comprehensive repertoire of the Joy of Cooking, all into less than 500 pages.

If you expect a traditional cookbook you'll easily be frustrated.  This is not a pick-a-recipe-and-cook-it kind of book.  In Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat you pick a chapter - a concept.  You study.  You think.  You prepare a recipe and then think some more.  Then you tackle a variation and then, finally, you apply the ideas to your own weeknight repertoire and begin to see results.  If you do this, however, you are hugely rewarded not only in better tasting results, but also with a new way of thinking - about the ingredients you cull together every time you cook a meal, and how to best present them. 

When you are ready to read - really read and learn - from a cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is a must.  It will work in tandem with every other cookbook you own; you will have the tools to know how to make those other recipes taste even better.  You will become a better cook.  Period.

Joy the Baker Over Easy: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Leisurely Days, by Joy Wilson. Copyright © 2017 by Joy the Baker, Inc. Interior and cover photographs by Jon Melendez. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

If you were to imagine a cookbook filled with recipes for leisurely days, Joy the Baker Over Easy is probably what you'd come up with.  Chock full of deliciousness that doesn't stress you for time - or even talent - this book is the manual for brunch whether at home or vacationing.  It's there for you without much need for long grocery trips or planning.  For when long, lazy days alone or with friends let a solid, sturdy brunch become the reason to linger at the table, this book is your place to start.  With everything from sweet to savory, beverages (the kind we crave on those kinds of days) and coffee, this is your go-to book for people that you need only impress with your commitment to their comfort.

Get it:  Joy the Baker Over Easy: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Leisurely Days, by Joy Wilson. Copyright © 2017 by Joy the Baker, Inc. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, March 21, 2017, Hardcover $27.50 (Amazon $16.64; eBook $14.99)

See it:  256 pages of sweet and savory recipes (with finished photos of most but not all) intended to satisfy your brunch cravings - from juices and coffees to breads, eggs, pancakes, sandwiches, salads, and definitely bacon.  A brief topical table of contents (Eggs, Griddle, Sandwiches, and Salads, etc.) and a thorough index cross-referencing both ingredients and recipe names. 

Make it:  125 recipes centered around a brunch theme; more effort than you'd probably expend on a regular weekday morning, but not so intensive that you'll bemoan the thought of a little extra work on the weekend.

Our Review:

Brunch always seems to be celebratory, even if it's celebrating the simplicity of a relaxed day. And, in Joy the Baker Over Easy that celebration can take place in the comfort of your own home, without the need or added stress of waiting in line for a table at your favorite breakfast eatery or the formality of an elegant brunch buffet.

Over Easy opens, as should any celebration, with an array of beverages - boozy or juice, and certainly coffee.  This kick-starts everything that's to follow, including classic eggs and griddle recipes such as Breakfast BLT or the Sour Cream Waffles with Maple Glaze.  But Wilson's idea of brunch doesn't stop there.  You'll enjoy the full buffet-range of food offerings including salads such as her Muffaletta Brunch Salad or the Blueberry-Pistachio Tabbouleh, or the sweet treats you crave between the savory egg and griddle dishes, such as Baked Brown-Butter Banana Bead Doughnuts, or Hazelnut Coffee Cake. 

Wilson continues to emphasize simple, comfort-baked food in this, her third book, but Over Easy wraps, in the decadence, that brunch should be with a focus on the flavors of her new-found home in New Orleans while managing to keep the appealing freshness from her California past.  You'll find her comforting conversation-like tone as familiar as in her Joy the Baker Cookbook, and her recipes as relaxed and manageable in the home kitchen as in her Joy the Baker Homemade Decadence cookbook filled with sweet, salty, gooey crunchy baked goods.

When you crave a lazy wonderfully delicious day, Joy the Baker Over Easy is the place to start.  Whether you are one or many gathering at a table, the celebration is made only better with Wilson's food as your backdrop and her beverage list to keep the party going.

Sweeter Off the Vine: Fruit Desserts for Every Season, by Yossy Arefi copyright © 2016, published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Photographs copyright © 2016 by Yossy Arefi

Our Summary:

This book reflects the flavors of each season but balances each fruit ingredient with inventive ideas that range from easy, five-ingredient affairs to more complex and involved baking endeavors.  Regardless of what you choose to bake, Arefi's recipes are thorough and colorfully descriptive.  You'll find navigating the simple or complex to be a worthwhile effort, and the results no less than delicious.  Best of all, most of the recipes in Sweeter Off The Vine are rustic, home-style desserts, so you need not have the deft touch of a pastry chef.

Get it: Sweeter Off the Vine: Fruit Desserts for Every Season, by Yossy Arefi copyright © 2016, photographs copyright © 2016 by Yossy Arefi.  Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC Hardcover $23.00. (Amazon $13.06; eBook $1.99)  

See it: Photos of every finished recipe plus photos of fruits and other ingredients make this a visually stunning book broken into Sections that follow each season with a variety of recipes for each heading, including herbs, mixed berries, melons, stone fruits, pears, squash and pumpkins, citrus, cranberries, and dates.

Make it: 62 seasonal recipes with component recipes and seasonal variations, plus 9 recipes for "year-round essentials" and 5 recipes for your "seasonal larder."  A Sources guide helps with online sourcing, and a full index by both fruit and recipe name is especially useful.

Our Review:

In a world of nearly season-less fruits, it's hard to remember what tastes best when.  Now, thanks to popular blogger, food photographer and writer Yossy Arefi's Sweeter Off the Vine, you have a collection of recipes for peak-season fruit, and a handful of recipes that straddle each season.  

Perhaps the most surprising element to the classic and homey fruit desserts and sweet treats collection of recipes is the variety of whole grain flours Arefi uses.  In Sweeter Off the Vine flours that you want to use - and like - such as buckwheat flour are used over and again to make the purchase worth your money.  You'll try her Buckwheat Tart Shell and then delight in the ease of her buckwheat flour Cacao Nib Poppy Seed Wafers, which are a befitting sandwich for strawberry ice cream (and there's a recipe for that too!).  You'll indulge in spelt flour and be glad you did when you make Arefi's Spelt Quick Puff Pastry that almost guarantees you'll never buy the frozen stuff again.  And, then there's rye flour that Arefi likes to use when baking with berries and stone fruits, such as her Blackberry and Sage Cream Puffs.

Lest you think each recipe in Sweeter Off the Vine requires you to fire up the oven, rest assured that there are ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet recipes, crème fraîche and caramel recipes (the crème fraîche caramel sauce recipe alone is worth the price of the book!), as well as a few marmalades, jams and preserves thrown in for good measure. 

In the end, Sweeter Off the Vine is nothing less than a must have, must use, and must pass down to the next generation of home-bakers.  The recipes feel like treasures that will announce each season for years to come.  

Around the Fire: Recipes for Inspired Grilling and Seasonal Feasting from Ox Restaurant, by Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, with Stacy Adimando, copyright © 2016. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.  Photography credit: Evan Sung © 2016.

Our Summary:

A more current spin on the backyard barbecue than your traditional "big book" or "bibles," Around the Fire, is as captivating in its photographic images as it is with its innovative and flavorful year-round grilling recipes.  You need look no further than the pages of Around the Fire to find everything you need to cook for an outdoor party.  And, while there's a definite Latin/South American flair to the impressive flavor profiles, these are the recipes that encourage long relaxed meals shared around a table filled with friends and family.

Get it: Around the Fire: Recipes for Inspired Grilling and Seasonal Feasting from Ox Restaurant, by Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton, with Stacy Adimando. Photography credit: Evan Sung © 2016.  Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC March 29, 2016, Hardcover, $32.50 (Amazon $15.88; eBbook $18.99)

See it: 272 pages with 94 photos, which includes a photo of just about every completed recipe.  There are also a few step-by-step photos for breaking down a whole fish and making empanadas.  Chapters include Beginnings, From the Grill that includes chapters on grilled meats, seafood, and vegetables, From the Garden, and Sweets and Drinks.

Make it: 87 primary recipes with at least that many more component recipes to make the completed dish.

Our Review:

If you look forward to weekends and outdoor cooking - regardless of the season, you'll enjoy the restaurant-like inventive, flavorful, recipes offered up by chef/authors Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton of the celebrated Ox restaurant in Portland, Oregon.  While the first few color photographs of blazing fires and open outdoor grills big enough to hold a side of beef might be intimidating, a quick glance through the thorough table of contents or the pages of the book prove that even complex can be straightforward.  Whether you are cooking for wood-, charcoal-, and gas-fired home grills, Around the Fire provides a solid 15-page primer for your favored grilling method.

It's not hard to dive in and find something manageable for your first cooking endeavor with this book.  Grilled Maple-Brined Pork Chops or Grilled Side of Salmon get you comfortable and ready to dive into Grilled Foie Gras with caramelized onion-sherry broth, savoy cabbage, and gruyere toasts.  Or, stay simple: Grilled New Potato and Onion Skewers with bacon sherry cream, take your barbecue game to the next level. 

While you'll find a whole host of lesser known (but easily tracked down) cuts of meat and ingredients (oyster leaves anyone? No worries - opt for the suggested substitution of edible flowers), there are steaks, too.  And, a whole host of seasonal vegetables and seafood.  But unlike most grilling cookbooks, Around the Fire has enough sautéed side dishes, crisp salads, creamy soups, chilled ceviches, and roasted and toasted elements that accent and balance every meal.  Vegetarian?  No problem.  Plenty of options are here for most dietary parameters. 

For those beginning their foray into backyard cooking, Around the Fire includes a smart primer that condenses some 13-years of worldwide cooking experience down to 9 pages of grilling basics - from the styles of grill, to types of fuel, to essential tools.  And while it sounds a bit prosaic, the entire page dedicated to lighting the fire is worth a serious study.  Interested in turning your grill into a smoker?  They've got step-by-step instructions including notes on hot versus cold smoking, and the overrated crosshatched grill marks.

Many, but certainly not all, of the recipes in Around the Fire require a bit of effort, and you'll be glad for it: the results are worth it in exciting flavors and inspired grilled food.  Besides offering up a pleasant change in what a "grilling cookbook" should be, the gorgeous photography in Around the Fire of the food - the salads, seafood and grilled meats, the desserts and even cocktails, warrant serious consideration of this book.  It feels like the way grilling should be.  Intense and engaging without being overwhelming.  Its pages are inspiring and full of flavor that promises long delicious evenings in the backyard. 

The Palomar Cookbook: Modern Israeli Cuisine by Layo Paskin and Tomer Amedi. Text copyright © ZLC London Ltd 2016. Photography copyright © Helen Cathcart 2016. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

When you open a restaurant in a city like London and by year's end you've been named the best restaurant in that city by more than one source, the next step is to capture in recipes the colorful, inspired and flavorful food that you serve.  The Palomar Cookbook does just that with its melding of cultures in a fun expressive way.  But even better, the this book allows anyone cooking from its pages to serve up utterly delicious foods without stepping too far out of their cooking comfort zone.  That the food relies on popular and familiar Spanish, African and Middle Eastern spices and ingredients make the experience new without being difficult and invites you back to its pages to cook again and again.

What you need to know:

Get it:  The Palomar Cookbook, text copyright © ZLC London Ltd 2016. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.  March 21, 2017 Hardcover $35.00 (Amazon $22.44; Kindle $18.99)

See it:  256 pages over chapters such as What's in the pantry? And The Pastry Room. An insert of cocktails is included, as are chapters for starters, raw proteins, and main courses.  Almost every completed recipe is photographed; some process photos are included for the most difficult of preparations.  Candid photos of the restaurant and staff round are also included throughout.

Make it:  91 recipes plus the component recipes to complete each dish, and many of the main dishes do require several components to create the full recipe.

Our Review:

It's hard to pigeon-hole The Palomar Cookbook as middle-eastern Israeli food, though that is what its authors and chefs say it is.  Ingredients sound familiar and yet you're not sure that you've ever tasted them.  Recipes for dishes you know you've had, but they look nothing like the picture.  Things like Beet Carpaccio with Burnt Goat Cheese and Date Syrup or Pork Belly Tajine with Ras el Hanout and Israeli Couscous. There's something oddly familiar here that author and creative director of The Palomar Layo Paskin calls heritage with a twist; modernity with lasting style.  And while that doesn't sound much like food, it does sound like a hip, current restaurant that serves people as if they are family.  Big bowls to dip and scoop and eat from, with flavors that make you dive back in for more.

For a restaurant that's received an abundance of praise for its food, it is surprising that this collection of recipes are for family-styled dishes.  Dishes you want to eat with your hands or bread, and not worry about whether you've double dipped.  Mezze dishes like Chickpeas with Spinach & Yogurt, A Take on Piyaz (a white bean salad), or Salata Mashwiya (a salad/mezze made from spicy chiles, peppers, and tomato) open up the collection.  From there you're pouring over pages of raw fish preparations - from Scallop Carpaccio with "Thai-bouleh" to Cured Mackerel Fricassee, and more.  Of course raw isn't reserved just for fish.  Beef and vegetables get their due, which should suggest that The Palomar Cookbook is for everyone.

You'll stumble over some of the ingredients and scratch your head trying to figure out where to source the spice blends.  A local Indian, Mediterranean or Asian grocer should suffice after you first scour your grocer's ethnic section.  You'll be surprised that the odd sounding ingredients may be there.  The spices might be a task, though not a herculean one.  The Palomar Cookbook offers recipes for these exotic spice blends like Ras el hanout, Jerusalem, Hawaij, or Za'atar, though you might save yourself the effort and find a reputable spice purveyor online. 

What's most pleasing, though, is that you can cook from this book while you wait for those exotics to arrive.  Some of the recipes are easily handled like the Cod Chraymeh, a North African fish stew.  And others, like Eggplant & Feta Bourekas, need to be managed.  Do so and you are rewarded with a stunning plate of puffed pastry filled with cheese and an eggplant filling, topped with a swiss chard stew and surrounded by eggs, pickles, Harissa, and herbs.  Should you need a beverage break during your cooking, you'll find a small insert of the restaurants signature cocktails right in the middle of the book. 

The Palomar Cookbook stretches beyond any boundaries you want to wrap around it.  From vegetables to meats - of all types and kinds, to fish to pasta and finally to pastry, there are brilliant, new and inspired flavors here to try.  The reward is great - in both appearance and taste as you cook these innovative dishes time and time again.

Back Pocket Pasta: Inspired Dinners to Cook on the Fly, by Colu Henry. Copyright © 2017 by Colu Henry. Photographs copyright © 2017 by Peden + Munk. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

Like many modern cookbooks, Back Pocket Pasta promises to help every busy person get a satisfying meal on the table in a short amount of time from the ingredients you have on hand.  Back Pocket Pasta, however, has the unifying, undeniably pleasing, central ingredient of pasta.  And, it's not pasta you have to make.  Simply buy your favorite brand and style (though the author does suggest hers and a preferred style for each recipe) and you are on your way to a delicious pasta meal.

What you need to know:

Get it:  Back Pocket Pasta: Inspired Dinners to Cook on the Fly, by Colu Henry. Copyright © 2017 by Colu Henry. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.  February 28, 2017 Hardcover $28.00 (Amazon: $18.26; Kindle $14.99)

See it:  240 pages with color photographs of almost every finished recipe. 

Make it:  98 recipes from 4 primary chapters including Mama's, Powers Street, Brooklyn, Hudson & the Valley, and Travels Near & Far, which do nothing to help you find a recipe other than suggest (maybe) a theme for the recipes in that chapter; a Recipe Index is provided at the end of the book segmented by main ingredient, such as Meat or Vegetarian.  Also included are salad/side recipes and some cocktail recipes.

Our Review:

Have you ever wanted to make a restaurant-styled pasta dish?  Something full of flavor like Crab Fra Diavolo?  Or an inspired version of a pesto? Or even something fun like a play on a "BLT"?  The idea is great, but figuring out how to pull it off isn't.  Despite the seeming ease of cooking pasta and combining some obvious ingredients, a recipe to guide you gets the job done - easier, and probably faster.  In Colu Henry's Back Pocket Pasta, that's exactly what she's done!  Each recipe is familiar, and each recipe is likely to be met with an enthusiastic, "so that's how it's done!" as you wander over to your pantry to figure out what's for dinner.

Henry coined the phrase "back pocket pasta" while working in both food publishing and public relations.  Like all of us, at the end of a busy day, she wanted an easy meal that didn't require a trip to the grocers on the way home.  Pasta was her answer.  In the time it took her pasta water to boil, she had found a handful of ingredients in her refrigerator and pantry that when cobbled together managed to hit the mark every time.  The weariness of the day melted away in between satisfying bites.  From that the hashtag "back pocket pasta" was born, and so too was this book.

Much like other books reviewed and cooked from on the podcast site Now That's a Mouthful, simplicity isn't always easy.  Colu does require you to shop seasonally - not hard since we all probably visit the grocer at least weekly or have some kind of backyard garden, and keep a well-stocked pantry.  If not, she provides her ideas of what you need, and if you shop weekly, will take you little more than a few weeks to put together.  The result is Italian-style and home-cooked flavored pasta dishes like Tonno (tuna) & Tomato with Sweet Onion, Pasta Puttanesca, Summer Corn & Tomato Pasta.

But Back Pocket Pasta also stretches you.  Henry suggests each recipe is more of a guide, which is good because her recipe writing sometimes leaves you scratching your head.  She'll be talking about the boiling pasta water when she tells you to add the next ingredient, forgetting to mention that it's to be added to the sauce.  Or she mixes up the order of things.  And while they are little but obvious, mix-ups, it seems counter-intuitive that you should have to rethink what the author really wants you to do while you're cooking. 

Still, all may be forgiven when you arrive at creative recipes like Brown Buttered Squash Bake or Baked Ziti with Crème Fraiche & Spinach, or similar to Anna Jones' Kale, Tomato and Lemon Magic One Pot Spaghetti discussed on the podcast Now That's a Mouthful from A Modern Way to Cook, Henry offers Lemony Spaghetti making her lemony sauce with a cream base.  Just be sure to read everything first and make sure you're confident on how to proceed.

There are recipes that span the globe and keep you inspired regardless of the season.  And, though Back Pocket Pasta does rely on many fresh seasonal ingredients, including tomatoes, most recipes with a tomato-based sauce rely on the popular and ever-reliable canned San Marzano tomatoes.  Then again, this is about fast, quick pasta dinners, not spending a day making a homemade tomato sauce, or rolling fresh pasta.

Naturally Nourished: healthy, delicious meals made with everyday ingredients, by Sarah Britton Copyright © 2017 by Sarah Britton. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Our Summary:

It should be a given that healthy delicious food shouldn't be expensive, or complicated.  Life in the kitchen should be simple; it isn't.  Enter Sarah Britton and her new book Naturally Nourished intended to prove that we can eat well, even on a budget, and even during the hectic work-week.  In Naturally Nourished, Britton gets down to the nitty-gritty, basic home economics- kind-of-stuff that glamorous cooking competitions and coffee-table cookbooks forget to show you.  If you're up for rethinking the way you use your kitchen, your pantry, and your freezer, then you'll be interested in this new thoughtful and surprising approach to healthy (vegetarian, vegan, raw and grain-free) eating.

What you need to know:
Get it:  Naturally Nourished, Copyright © 2017 by Sarah Britton. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, February 14, 2017, Hardcover $29.99 (Amazon $15.59; Kindle $15.99)

See it:  240 pages with vivid home photography. All but about 2 of the completed recipes are pictured.  Cook from chapters on soups, salads, mains, sides and small plates and savory and sweet snacks. 

Make it:  88 recipes including some ideas for "rollovers" (leftovers).  Recipes are listed at the beginning of each chapter.

Our Review:

Forcing yourself to cook with what you have, or what you can afford, is no small task.  It takes ingenuity and creativity.  It takes some curiosity and a lot of courage.  So begins blogger Sarah Britton's foray into healthy affordable cooking with a lowly head of cabbage in her second book, Naturally Nourished.  The Copenhagen-based blogger (yes, Copenhagen) ultimately turned that head of cabbage into a sautéed brassica of smoky savory rich flavors that she quickly finished off with some chopped apple and parsley and a toasted walnut and garlic sauce.  In all fairness, presuming you have cabbage, apples, and parsley in your kitchen, along with a well-stocked refrigerator and pantry, that dish can be on your dinner table in about 35 to 40 minutes, maybe even a little less. 

It does seem that healthy cookbooks begin with the very large presumption that our pantries are well-stocked or, at least that we have access to a varied selection of produce and staples throughout the year.  But, Naturally Nourished doesn't require it for success.  Britton claims to balance the importance of eating nourishing food with the overwhelming task of shopping expensive, upscale grocers to do it.  She eliminates cooking techniques that make the end of a work day unmanageable and invites you to use leftovers as the building block of your next meal.  Only you can decide whether natural, organic and raw foods are within your personal budget.

Don't think you won't cook, though.  You will, and probably enjoy it.  Even if you're not eating a vegan, gluten-free, raw, or grain-free diet, you'll find the ideas in Naturally Nourished engaging.  Making your own Basic Sprouts is as easy as soaking seeds or beans, rinsing and draining a few times a day for a few days.  The, presto, sprouts! An ingredient Britton uses over and again, and often more than just as a little garnish.  Britton also uses sunflower seeds to mimic cheese in her Tomatoes with Basil and Sunflower Meta Feta and risotto in Surprising Sunflower Seed Risotto, and nuts to add a meatiness to just about anything, including the Toasted Walnut Sauce.  Each new ingredient or technique in handling it becomes part of the whole - a new ingredient you'll use in your next meal, or the building block for another dish.  And, with all that in place, cooking on a busy weeknight sounds manageable.

All in all Naturally Nourished is a very different kind of cookbook.  Delicious and easy for the most part, with enough recipes to keep you challenged and interested, and will require a bit of time to achieve results.  Results, though, that are worth working for.  And, while we can debate that "affordable" is a relative term given the amount of raw nuts, fresh produce and plant-based ingredients called for, if you already eat a vegan, gluten-free or grain-free diet you won't be surprised at the grocery store.  Still, this is a surprising collection of recipes.  Natural ingredients prepared and manipulated in surprising ways.  If you already eat within these parameters you'll be excited by Britton's new approach.  If you don't, be prepared to be engaged and curious enough to want to try these recipes.