Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Midwestern High End but how Representational Is it?

Dishing Up Minnesota by Teresa Marrone

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Imagine a regional cookbook that includes recipes from that region but also from farms/mills/markets/etc and from various cultures related to the region, with some background and history to help connect everything; that’s Dishing Up Minnesota. I may be biased, having been born and raised in that state, but it also means that I actually know something about the food culture of that part of the country. Some ingredient and recipes are obvious necessities, such as a wild rice soup, at least one or two walleye […]

More Cookbooks I’ve Been Perusing

Nadiya’s Kitchen: Over 100 Simple, Delicious Family Recipes by Nadiya Hussain

Easy Gourmet: Awesome Recipes Anyone Can Cook by Stephanie Le

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I’m grouping these two together because they both fulfill the Reading Women Challenge task 4: Cookbook by a woman of color. I own one and borrowed the other, I’ve cooked from both (although no pictures this time – sorry!) and I feel each is a three star book for me, for similar reasons. Without further ado… Nadiya’s Kitchen After having fallen in love with Nadiya and her outstanding bakes on the Great British Bake Off (Great British Baking Show in the U.S.) and placing her […]

Do not read this hungry

The Inspired Vegan by Bryant Terry

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Sometimes it’s hard to tell if The Inspired Vegan is a cookbook, a set of media recommendations, or a social justice manifesto. Bryant Terry is a recognized advocate for all 3 things though, so it makes sense he’d combine them. One of the more interesting things about this book is how it’s set up, seasonally but also by menu. Each menu has some noted inspirations, usually musical or literary but also sometimes a film gets in there too. Individual recipes also have their own soundtrack […]

Expect the Unexpected with the Manga Cookbook

Manga Cookbook by Annonymus

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It’s always a fun surprise with Book Exchange, but this year one of my books came with a second extra surprise. Manga Cookbook appears on the surface to be a cookbook based on manga as in Japanese graphic novels given both the title and the cover illustrations. However…… It turns out that “manga” is also an Indian word for “mango”, and it is this definition which is intended. Nearly all of the recipes feature some sort of mango. I say ‘some sort’ because I do […]

Pandemics Call for Comfort Food, Obviously

Modern Comfort Food: a Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

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One of the things I think about when I’m rating and reviewing cookbooks is: are they a good read? I am of course going to worry about the quality of the recipes, but if the writing is not good there is really no reason to pick up the book – these days the internet will generally be able to provide you with a variety of options for whatever it is you’re on the hunt for, but a well written cookbook will help you understand the […]

Cursing Cookbooks with some History

Bad Manners Brave New Meal by Bad Manners LLC

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I read a lot of cookbooks; if there’s one I like and the author has more, I get my hands on them. Once upon a time, I found a cookbook based on a blog/web-site I’d never heard of called Thug Kitchen; it was a vegan cookbook that used a lot of 4-letter curse words, and it had a lot of recipes that I enjoyed. Books 2 and 3 were ok, but I never liked the recipes as well as the original. Then there were no […]



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