Happy Friday, everyone!! While I LOVE sharing my favorite, tried and true recipes with you, I also love the idea of sharing where I go for my own cooking inspiration in the first place! There are so many wonderful cookbooks and websites at our fingertips and I know it can be intimidating knowing where to being to look. First, I have narrowed down the type of recipes and cookbooks I choose to use based on the stage of life I am in. While it would be so fun to spend an entire day making fresh pasta, meticulously poaching fish, etc., it is not realistic. As a result, I find myself attracted to chefs and authors that can create healthy, kid-friendly (who wants to be making two separate dinners?!) meals that are QUICK. :) I also appreciate it when the recipes have been developed and tried/true. Reviews and reader submissions are always a plus in my mind. Also, as a photog., I find myself attracted to cookbooks and sites that accompany their websites with beautiful and artful photography! Many of my books I have literally read from cover to cover before even making anything out of it! (Foodie nerd alert!!)

While some of her recipes can err on the side of time-consuming and pricey, Barefoot Contessa always comes through for me. I am a big fan of using good quality ingredients and few of them in a recipe! Ina does just that…and SO WELL. (I also find her show on Food Network the most relaxing one on cable television! Something about her voice just takes me down a notch. Ha! :))  Another recommendation is to create a scrap-book of recipes!! I love mine! (I started it with the help of my Momma when I graduated from college!) Take your fave recipes from family members, websites, magazines etc., write them in the pages, cut and paste (real scissors and glue, people!), or stick them in between pages. My scrapbook cookbook is my favorite resource of all time and it is also a special and meaningful one. For example, whenever I make my Mom’s meatball recipe, I smile, thinking of her as I see her handwriting suggesting a certain type of ground beef! (Love you, Momma! :))  Some of our most-loved meals are ones that I had first made by someone else! Never feel bad asking for a recipe you loved. I purchased my blank notebook at Barnes and Noble, and have loved filling it. Go for it! Never too late!

I also have a few other sites and books that I find myself going to time and again, which I will outline below. If you have any additional fave websites or chefs you follow, I would loveeee to hear about them!!! Have an amazing weekend and happy reading! xo

Favorite Cookbooks/Authors:

Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten), ANY and ALL of her books! (I started with “Family Style”, which is amazing!)

Super Natural Every Day,  Heidi Swanson (Amazing vegetarian resource, her photos are also gorgeous.)

Naples at Table, Arthur Schwartz.

Bon Appetit Magazine (I treat myself to this each Christmas!)

Giada De Laurentiis (Her pasta recipes are usually spot on.)

Any old-school cookbook by the Moosewood Restaurant.

Smitten Kitchen. (Amazing. All around fabulousness. :))

The Kinfolk Table Cookbook.

Cooks Illustrated.

* NOTE: Many of these authors/brands have their own websites with additional recipes and info.!*

Favorite Food Blogs/Websites:

Food 52. (LOVE!)

Lucid Food.

The Fountain Avenue Kitchen. (Anne was a sweet neighbor and friend in Lancaster! Love what she comes up with!)

Joy the Baker. 

Martha Stewart and Real Simple.

Food Network.

The Pioneer Woman.

Naturally Ella.

*Some of these also have books!*

I know that there is nothing to replace a good, quick internet search for a specific recipe!! (That is why my iPad is featured in the pile above, HA!) Never hesitate to look something up, I do often. I have best results when the recipe has been “vetted” and rated by other cooks! Read reviews and see if it still seems like what you had imagined!

Happy weekend, all!!!

xo,

Mary