Cuisine at Home has a new 101 recipe magazine/book hot of the press called Cuisine for Two. I love Cuisine at Home — great, simple recipes that can be made at a moment’s notice. This book is different, however, from all their others. Of course, this time the recipes are for two people, but they took a nod from the the typical New Year’s Resolutions and made these recipes much healthier than their traditional recipes. The tag-line on the cover is “Simple, Healthy and Delicious.” There is a great variety of dishes, with recipes for poultry, beef, lamb & pork, vegetarians and a handful of desserts. There is a photo to accompany each recipe along with a recommended side dish. Each recipe also includes a “total time” note. For only $9.95, it’s quite a steal (hint: try the pineapple rice on page 33).

Aren’t slow cookers great? I mean the idea of throwing in your beautiful roast, farmer’s market carrots and potatoes into a ceramic bowl, going to work, and coming home to… mush? Hasn’t that happened to everyone with a bad recipe for a slow cooker? That’s why I love Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes for Two, by Beth Hensperger. She has written a handful of slow cooker books for different occasions (including entertaining, and such) and all with great results are reviews. However, for the just-the-two-of-us-families, a large slow cooker meal seems out of reach… or it used to. The book covers some of the typical recipes, including meats and stews, but she also expounds into some global favorites, as well as casseroles and vegetarian dishes. If you’re a cook on the run, this is a great book for you (hint: try the Jerked Chicken Drumsticks on page 113).

If you’ve got some extra time, or if you just prefer more of the traditional home-cooked meal like your mom (or grandmother) used to make, I’d snag a copy of Betty Crocker’s Cooking for Two. This is a review of the 1994 version, which I have and love, but a newer version, called Just the Two of Us, has since come out (May 2007).  I personally like the older version better (different recipes which are more my style). As Cuisine for Two, the recipes are laid out with main dish and side dish pairings, but this book also includes dessert selections. I love that the book covers many occasions, not just dinner; it includes options for breakfast, brunches, special occasion dinners and picnics. Of course, there are also a handful of vegetarian-friendly meals as well. My favorite recipes from the book come from the breakfast and side dishes, including yummy favorites like Maple-Glazed Carrots and Apples or Creamy Peas and Corn (page 20) and Baked Egg Casserole (page 78) with Orange-Pecan Muffins (page 66).

If its desserts you’re after, I suggest Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans. I received this book as a gift when it was first hot of the presses and I turn to it constantly. The variety of recipes is shocking. The author did a great deal of research and testing to get such excellent recipes, including pies, tarts, cakes, muffins, crisps and crumbles, ice cream toppings, brownies and bar cookies, drop cookies… just about every dessert you find yourself craving. Best part? No leftovers taunting your waistline. I say skip the diet and eat small-batch desserts (hint: try the lemon meringue pies on page 130).

Last, but most definitely not least, if you are a bread-lover, I highly suggest Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as you mix up nearly 5 lbs of bread dough at once (or, as the authors suggest, you can easily double or halve the recipe) and leave in the fridge for up to 14 days. Any time you have five minutes, you simply pre-heat your oven, cut off a for-two-sized piece of dough and pop in the oven. And voila, you have fresh, easy bread for each meal. There are choices for simple sandwich breads, baguette-styles, along with global favorites, such as Naan. If you prefer dessert bread, instead of as a meal accompaniment, I suggest the Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls (page 187) or the Chocolate Bread (page 211). Of course, if you are a breadivore, then bread for breakfast is only natural, you will love the Oatmeal-Pumpkin Bread (page 100).

Over the past few years, I’ve fluctuated on and off making weekly bread. I don’t buy store-bread at all, which means I [sadly] just go without sometimes, depending on my weekly schedule. Until I found this book by Jeff Herzberg and Zoë François.

When the NY Times No Knead Bread premiered, I honestly think I’m the only walking person who didn’t make the recipe. Not that it didn’t seem fantastic, just too easy. I enjoy a bit of a challenge, something to make me work for my daily bread. However, when I heard that Zoë had collaborated with Jeff to put out a book, I had to get it! I had met Zoë at a cooking class which she taught a few years earlier, and was very impressed with her patience and passion. In fact, she is so well-liked, it’s near impossible to find an opening in her classes! Well, true to most seemingly-growing trends, the book is hard to find too. But, I soon realized, not because it is the next trend, but because it is an absolutely fabulous book. No hype, just honest-to-goodness fantastically, easy bread!

Due to my OCD, I scanned the book and read each page faithfully, searched for a video and any other tips I could find to help me, since I was so skeptical… really, only five minutes of hands-on labor? Oh, I ate my words, each and every last delicious word. Of course, my first task at hand was to contact Zoë to find out her weight for a cup of flour (5 oz per cup, all-purpose flour) before I could proceed. She was very kind and sweet, eager to help in any way, and even gave me the formula that the basic recipe (with which I began the Boule), is about 2 lb of flour (6.5 cups). So, knowing that I now had all the information I could have, I began with the Boule.

The main gist of the book is bread that can be made in large quantities (most recipes average around four pounds), stored in the fridge up to 14 days, with the kicker being that most loaves can go from fridge to table in under 90 minutes, with only about five minutes of hands-on time. I think the very best part of the book is that you don’t even need a large mixer. As far as basic needs, nothing more than a large-capacity (6 qt.) container, fresh yeast, kosher salt, pizza stone are all you need for the best bread ever!

Since I invested in the book (about two weeks ago), I’ve managed to make six different loaves, each better than the next. The idea of storing the bread in the fridge and only cutting off the amount you need is fantastic — it really does work, beautifully. Though the baked bread does last a few days, I wanted to give a few of the recipes a run in my Krups Toaster Oven. I bought a Toaster Oven Pizza Stone … it worked great! I give this book five stars, knowing that it solves the issues of time, loaf-size, creativity, and flavor! I love it.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day on Amazon.com.

…and I couldn’t agree more! I’m a total advocate for “the real thing.” I love what Christopher Kimball recently said on the taping of a live show for America’s Test Kitchen. Of course, this was said as he was adding 3 sticks of butter to a cake, “If you want a low-fat dessert, eat an apple.” Which only proves, yet again, the title of the book. Everything really is better with butter, aka The Real Thing.

When I received The Great Big Butter Cookbook, I eagerly tore through it, entirely expecting a book on lecture and facts of why butter is better than the hydrogenated oils, all-natural commentary, and more (which me and my geeky-self totally would have loved). Nope. Not even a little (well, other than the forward, written by James Robson, CEO Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board). It really is just a big book of recipes that use butter. And, after reading through every page, I wouldn’t have it any other way! I love it!!

I adore books that get down to the basics, a simple recipe that is meant to draw family and friends together. In all honesty, if either of my grandmothers still alive, I feel that this is a book they could have written themselves (of course, my maternal grandmother did spend her life on a cow farm, so it would have been a highly appropriate book for her), as the recipes are so simple, yet so nostalgic and inviting.

It seems as everything in the book is just that (the basics)… but, the very perfect, and very necessary basics. In fact, it almost seems as the Joy of Cooking, but for the simpler life (sorry, no squirrel recipes here). I can honestly say that it is a book I would turn to first in the moment of needing simple, fast recipes for appetizers or last-minute get-togethers.

Since I am an infamous dog-earer (if it wasn’t a word before, it is now!), here are a few of the recipes that I have dog-eared for future menus (ahem, or midnight munchies):

• Spiced Nuts & Candied Nuts (p. 9)
• Scone Sandwiches (p. 24)
• Open-Faced Apple Omelet (p. 74)
• Herbed Dinner Rolls (p. 104)
• Macaroni and Cheese Soup (p. 146)
• Grilled Havarti Sandwhich with Spiced Apples (p. 155)
• Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes (p. 172)
• Savory Stuffed New Potatoes (p. 175)
• Iced Cardamom Cutouts (p. 311) [an awesome Holiday cookie recipe)
• Orange Five-Spice Sugar Cookies (p. 318) [see my review here of this recipe]

Well, this is my “short list” of the many wonderful recipes of this 469-page recipe book. And to be honest, this book actually inspired a midnight phone call to my mother, to ask her about her years on the farm and all the recipes she used (oh, how I envy her memories of farm fresh dairy)! As my mother said, because I am the youngest, by the time I came along, “from scratch” recipes were a dream of hers, replaced by box cake mixes. Obviously, the passion still managed to work its way into my genes. It was still fun to hear about her family recipes, though, which drew me even closer to the book.

If you’re looking for a book to bond you to your local farmers, get in touch with your inner-grandmother, or simply have a basic “all-inclusive” cookbook, this book won’t fail!

I love, love, love to read, so when you put a book in my hands that also has to do with food, well, I generally call it a winner! One of my quirks is my love to study and read old cookbooks, and stories that include conversations of people and their recipes pre-modern day (before all of our conveniences). It fascinates me to see the changes that have been made in eating habits, food availability and more over history. The Christmas Pearl didn’t differ from this, as it talked about eating habits and having multiple foods and dishes to eat, but what struck me the most was the insistence that the “spirit of Christmas” has all but disappeared.

Though a fictional story, it poses the idea that many families have turned more to “ready-made” foods and less about the spirit and enjoyment of the holiday by preparing the meals themselves. Gone are the days of baking hundreds of cookies to take to neighbors, stopping by relatives for hours of conversation and time spent making hand-made Christmas Ornaments.

I don’t have a great deal of recollection of my Christmas habits as a child, other than the orange in the toe of my stocking and cold cereal for breakfast (the one that Santa put in my stocking, of course). There was the grand family dinner of brisket, with the china that was used for special occasions. Though I don’t remember the food much, I do remember the love in the home. But, I have to admit, as I find myself in a family of two now, hubby and I tend to drag our feet to put up the decorations and plan a large Christmas meal. At this time, both sets of parents live on separate continents than we do , so it seems easier to let the Spirit of the Holiday slide by…yet, this book had a way of whipping me right back into shape!

The book consists of four generations living under one roof, with the eldest, Theodora, wishing for her family to find the Christmas Spirit the way she had known it to be years earlier, when she was the youngest of the four generations living under the same roof. When Pearl (who had passed away years earlier) returns to help Theodora snap her family back into the Spirit, the Spirit jumps right off the page, spurring the reader to want to bake those dozens cookies for the neighbors and have holiday parties. Upon completion of the book, I began making a large Christmas Dinner list, pulling out decorations and preparing to rekindle the kind of home which my own Grandmother would be proud of.

I think one of my favorite lines from the book, which brings up the point how our own palates and expectations of food have changed, is said by Theodora, “Believe it or not, the fruitcakes of my youth were delicious. No one made jokes about substituting for bricks or footballs.”

For me, I will consider this book a Christmas tradition, to be read each year, to help me create the memories that I wish my own family to have.