Home: Cooking Magazines and Recipe Cookbooks
Cooking Magazines and
Recipe Cookbooks
"The cooking magazines and cookbooks below are some of the best in the business. I refer to them regularly when planning theme parties."
All of these magazines and books are highly recommended by myself, a friend or a family member. If you are interested in getting a copy of any of these magazines or books for yourself, click on either the image or the link.
Quick Jump Links
Cooking Magazines
Recipe Cookbooks
General Reading
  Taste of Home Cooking Magazine can not be beaten for great seasonal recipes that are easy to make. I absolutely love getting it in the mail and read it cover to cover. I keep them all so have accumulated quite a nice little section of these cooking magazines on my cookbook shelf that I refer to regularly.
  Southern Living Magazine is one of those cooking magazines that makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over. It has the most beautiful layouts and pictures throughout the magazine and some of the best comfort food recipes around that your family is sure to love.
  Paula Deen is one of my favorite Food Network stars, so I was thrilled when she came out with"Cooking with Paula Deen." This cooking magazine is full of her down to Earth, homestyle recipes. If it's a Paula Deen recipe, I know it is a good one.
  When I first started watching The Food Network, I got hooked on Rachael Ray's "30 Minute Meals" show and from then on, I have been buying her cookbooks and most recently, her "Everyday with Rachael Ray" magazine. What's not to love?
  Gourmet editors review the best restaurants from around the world and provide expert travel advice for those in search of the ultimate epicurean experience. Each issue features refreshing, easy-to-prepare and delicious recipes that come complete with top recommended wines.
  Food and Wine Magazine is a very helpful resource because wine suggestions are given with the recipes. I am no wine expert so this magazine not only gives me easy-to-make recipes but helps me to choose the best complementary wines. It also has reviews on travel destinations, including great wineries to visit.
  All About Beer, which has been voted the "Best Beer Publication" 7 years in a row, entertains and educates beer lovers. Featuring the history and variety of beer. Including methods & traditions of beer making, and the political & social environment that affects the pursuit of beer pleasure.
If you haven't yet found "Taste of Home," you are in for a treat. I found this company in 2002 after my Aunt Betty died and I was going through her cookbooks. Among her collection, was a "Taste of Home" hardcover cookbook called "2001 Annual Recipes" and I immediately fell in love.
Every recipe is so simple and has a picture which every cook loves. In my opinion, these colorful, easy to read books are some of the best cookbooks ever! Here is a link to their most recent Annual Recipe Book.
I have been watching Ina Garten on The Food Network for years so when I found
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, I was so happy to have so many of her great recipes in one book. An added bonus is that Martha Stewart co-wrote this recipe cookbook with Ina. This one is going on my gift list for sure!
Rachael Ray's "Just in Time" is a keeper. Click on the link and watch the video clip of Rachael (mid screen) describing this book. She's a hoot!
I have given the The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook Set as a gift several times. Within these two books, you will find some of Paula Deen's best recipes.
Several of the recipes are accompanied by Paula's personal stories which make this cookbook especially interesting. From her "Barbecue Meatloaf" which I just made last weekend, to her "Lady and Sons Onion-Cheese Bread" you are sure to find several family favorites in these two recipe cookbooks.
If you have seen Sandra Lee on The Food Network, you know that her recipes are very easy to make and straight forward, usually made with ingredients that most people have in their own pantry. She has a whole series of cookbooks, but I chose
Semi-Homemade Cooking 3 to be on my recommended list. Check it out.
Written by Ben Reed, London's hippest, hottest mixologist,
Cool Cocktails offers a delicious range of recipes for almost 100 classic and contemporary cocktails (arranged by spirit), as well as practical advice on equipment and glasses.
I received To Serve With Love for Christmas from my daughter and I can't wait for you to see it. It's written by Carnie Wilson (daughter of Beach Boy Brian Wilson). I immediately found a bunch of new recipes I want to try.
Her writing style is catchy and fun and I enjoyed reading about her development as a young cook in her Grandmother's kitchen. From her "You Say Potato, I Say Frittata" to her "Fall to Your Knees Mac and Cheese" (which has five cheeses in it!), you are sure to find at least a dozen keepers in this great cookbook. Check it out.
To start out this section, I want to briefly mention a new wireless reading device I just found, called the Amazon Kindle. Since I like to read so much, I was immediately intrigued with this device. The Kindle is a revolutionary portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, newspapers, magazines and blogs to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight.
  Kindle customers, no matter where they are in the U.S., can wirelessly shop the Kindle Store and download new content all without a PC or a WiFi hot spot. Amazon pays for the Kindle wireless connectivity so there are no monthly wireless bills and no service commitments for customers.
The Kindle Store contains over 90,000 books that can be purchased and delivered wirelessly to Kindle, each in less than a minute. Customers can also choose from hundreds of top newspapers, magazines and blogs and have their subscriptions auto-delivered wirelessly. All New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases are $9.99, unless marked otherwise.
At 10.3 ounces, Kindle is lighter and thinner than a paperback book, carries two hundred books, and includes built-in access to The New Oxford American Dictionary and wireless access to the biggest encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org.
Check out the Amazon Kindle here.
Now, on to my book reviews.
Once in a great while, you come across a book that has a profound impact on your life. I have read many such books in my lifetime, but none have affected me quite the way
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne has.
We have all heard that positive thinking is better than negative thinking, but this book takes that concept to a whole new level. It describes the "Law of Attraction" in such great detail by such engaging experts, that you will not be able to put the book down.
It has changed the way I view the world and my role in it.
I loved it so much, that I bought both of my young adult children a copy. Two weeks after I bought the books, I also bought copies of the Secret DVD for myself and my children.
My son is 22 and he and his friends have watched this DVD repeatedly. What totally amazes me is that the concepts in The Secret span the generations and everybody seems to have the same reaction after reading the book or watching the DVD.
I have recommended this book and DVD to everyone that will listen. That says it all.
I first heard about The Wisdom of Menopause by Dr. Christiane Northrup on the Oprah show and immediately was interested in the concepts she presented. I bought the book and found it to be very easy to read and full of great information for women, not only those approaching menopause, but all women.
Dr. Northrup presents the medical side of women's issues as expected, but I think this book stands out because she also shares alot of her personal experience which I could relate to.
It is probably no surprise that I am also featuring A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose) by Eckhart Tolle, another book that I found out about on the Oprah show. The concepts that Eckhart discusses aren't new.
In fact, several scholars before him wrote about the ego and how it affects us all.
I learned a lot about the concepts in A New Earth when I was in college, but never before were they explained so succinctly, to the point where I got goose bumps when I read exact descriptions of how, and more importantly why, certain people in my life act the way they do.
And even more interesting, why I react to them in the way that I do.
It is all about gaining a better understanding of your fellow human beings and learning about yourself so that you can approach the world with a greater awareness and uncover your true destiny.
One of the best parts about this book is that Oprah and Eckhart taught a web-based class where they discussed in detail each chapter over a 10 week period. Last I heard, over a million people watched the webcasts.
It is a fascinating read. You can buy the book by clicking on the link above and if you want to view the webcasts, go to Oprah's site for more information.
Lastly, I decided to feature all 3 of Mitch Albom's books because they are so well loved by everyone who reads them. I've seen Mitch in interviews and he is always so interesting. His books are the kind that people talk about for years after reading them. I read "The Five People you Meet in Heaven" and have recommended it several times.
His most recent, "For One More Day," is about a guy whose mother died and suddenly re-appears in his life. After his initial shock wears off, they spend a full day together discussing all the things they didn't get to say before she died.
If you had one more day with someone who died, who would it be and what would you say?
As I find more interesting cooking magazines, cookbooks and general reading material, I will add them to this page so come back often and see what's new.
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